Chapter 447: Eight Weeks

Arik had been staring at Liam since the physician said the words almost eight weeks.

Liam noticed immediately.

He sat on the edge of the examination bed with the paper beneath him faintly creasing whenever he shifted, one hand resting beside his thigh while the other remained over the lower part of his abdomen as if his body had become unfamiliar territory in the last twenty minutes.

Nothing looked different.

His dark trousers still fit normally. The loose cream shirt he had worn to the medical wing fell straight over his waist, and there was no visible curve beneath the fabric to explain why the scan displayed a tiny developing life that had apparently been there for nearly two months.

The room itself was quiet, warmed by late-spring sunlight pouring through the tall eastern windows. Beyond the glass, the palace gardens were bright with new leaves and flowering shrubs, almost offensively normal considering Liam had just discovered that his own body had been keeping important information from him.

Arik remained standing beside the bed.

He had not removed his jacket after arriving from council, and the dark fabric still sat perfectly across his shoulders despite the fact that one hand had been clenched at his side for several minutes.

Eventually Liam looked at him.

“You are making that face.”

Arik’s golden eyes narrowed slightly. “I should have known.”

The physician glanced up from the tablet in her hands.

Liam already knew what was bothering him.

Arik stepped closer and lowered one hand to Liam’s knee, fingers spreading over the fabric.

“I sleep beside you. I touch you constantly. I know your scent better than anyone alive.”

“That last part sounds less medical than you think.”

Arik ignored him and looked toward the physician.

“How did I not scent it?”

She set the tablet down on the counter beside the examination bed.

“Because there was nothing significant for you to scent.”

Arik’s attention sharpened.

Liam frowned. “What does that mean?”

“Your pheromone profile has barely changed since your preconception baseline. We compared today’s reading with the samples already in your medical record.”

The physician crossed the room and brought the relevant graph onto the wall display.

Two lines appeared almost directly over one another.

“Some omegas develop a noticeable pregnancy scent very early. Others do not. In your case, the hormonal changes are progressing normally, but your pheromones have not developed a distinct pregnancy signature.”

Liam stared at the graph.

“My body forgot to mention the pregnancy.”

The physician smiled faintly. “Your body is doing exactly what it needs to do.”

“It hid this from me for eight weeks.”

Arik’s mouth moved.

Liam pointed at him without looking away from the screen.

“Do not laugh.”

“I am not laughing.”

“You were considering it.”

Arik came closer until his thigh touched Liam’s knee.

His expression had changed already. The irritation remained, but the tension beneath it had eased now that he understood he had not somehow missed an obvious change in Liam’s scent.

“So if his pheromones had changed, I would have noticed?”

“Almost certainly.”

That answer satisfied him far more than Liam considered reasonable.

He looked down at himself again.

“This explains nothing about the strawberries.”

“That is much easier,” the physician said. “Food aversion is common, particularly in the first trimester.”

Liam grimaced at the memory.

Sophia had needed almost five full minutes to stop laughing after he finally admitted that perhaps the strawberries were not defective.

“What else have I missed?”

The physician picked up the tablet again.

“Very little, actually. You reported some fatigue over the past month, occasional mild nausea in the morning, and a few changes in appetite. None of those were severe enough to make pregnancy obvious without the missed cycle.”

Liam rubbed his thumb slowly across the side of his abdomen.

“I thought I was tired because we had too much work.”

“You did have too much work.”

Arik gave him a pointed look.

Liam ignored that as well.

The physician moved beside the monitor and brought the scan back onto the display.

The small shape appeared against the dark field again.

Liam’s attention shifted immediately.

The humor disappeared.

Arik’s hand left his knee and settled beside Liam’s on the edge of the bed.

“The child is fine?” Liam asked.

“Everything looks reassuring.”

The physician enlarged the image slightly.

“Growth is appropriate for the gestational age. Implantation is good, the heartbeat is strong, and I am not seeing anything that concerns me.”

Arik’s fingers closed around Liam’s hand.

Liam watched the screen.

The image still looked too small to belong to the future they had been talking about for months.

He had spent three months wondering why nothing had happened, had finally forced himself to stop thinking about it every day, returned to engineering work, social duties, imperial projects, and preparations for Arik’s birthday.

Meanwhile, the child had already been there.

The realization made something warm and unsteady settle beneath his ribs.

“And me?” Liam asked.

“You are healthy. Your bloodwork looks good, and your symptoms are mild.”

“No restrictions?”

“Nothing unusual. Continue working if you feel well enough, keep your meals regular, stay hydrated, and rest when you are tired rather than pretending fatigue is a scheduling inconvenience.”

Arik looked at him again.

Liam sighed.

“She is right,” Arik said.

Liam turned his head.

“You have known about this pregnancy for less than an hour and already joined the opposition.”

“I have always been opposed to you forgetting meals.”

“That is completely unrelated.”

“It is never unrelated.”

Liam looked back at the screen before Arik could expand that argument into a historical review of every lunch he had ever missed.

His hand tightened around Arik’s.

“Almost eight weeks.”

Arik followed his gaze.

For a moment, all the teasing left his face.

Liam tilted his head slightly.

“You really didn’t scent anything?”

Arik bent closer, pressing his nose briefly near Liam’s temple, an instinctive gesture so familiar that Liam barely moved.

“Saint’s breath,” Arik murmured. “Exactly the same.”

Liam’s eyes narrowed.

“My body is conspiring against me.”

“It appears selective.”

“It waits until I am sitting with five women who understand pregnancy better than I do and makes me gag at fruit.”

Arik laughed under his breath.

Liam allowed it this time.

The physician handed him the tablet with the scan saved to his private medical file.

“We will repeat imaging at the usual interval. If the nausea becomes difficult, if you develop pain, bleeding, fever, or anything that feels significantly different, contact me immediately. Otherwise, you can continue normally.”

Arik’s expression sharpened at the list.

Liam squeezed his hand.

“I’m fine.”

Arik looked at him.

The concern in his face was quieter now, stripped of the first shock.

Liam knew that look.

Arik could accept danger to himself with ridiculous ease. Anything involving Liam required more effort.

“The child is safe,” Liam said.

The physician nodded from beside them. “At present, everything is developing exactly as expected.”

Arik exhaled slowly.

Only then did his shoulders finally relax.

Liam slid off the examination bed.

Arik’s hand moved to his waist automatically.

Liam glanced down at it.

“I can still walk.”

“I am aware.”

“You are holding me like I might disappear.”

Arik’s thumb moved once against his side.

“That possibility has never appealed to me.”

Liam’s expression softened despite himself.

They left the medical wing together a few minutes later, walking more slowly than usual through the sunlit corridor.

Halfway toward the private apartments, Liam stopped.

Arik turned with him.

Liam looked down at his stomach, the cream shirt still smooth beneath his palm.

“We spent months thinking it wasn’t happening.”

Arik watched him quietly.

“And it already had.”

A smile slowly appeared on Liam’s face.

Arik’s answering expression was immediate, warm enough that Liam felt it before Arik reached for him.

He drew Liam close and kissed his forehead.