RIVALS | MxM MPreg

Chapter 14: Part 1

A cold shower in the early morning always did the trick, yet it didn't do a blasted thing this morning.

The sun began to peak, casting an orange glow through the bathroom window as Landon stepped out of the shower, water droplets clinging to his skin and leaking from his hair. He wrapped a towel around his waist before moving across the cool tiles to the cabinet mirror. Once there, he simply stared at himself for a hot minute.

He'd gotten a shade darker thanks to the Texas sun. But something else felt off, although he couldn't quite put a finger to it. Had he gotten fatter? In two weeks? Impossible. He straightened his shoulders and tightened his abs... no, he had not gotten fatter. Then why did it feel like a weight was on his shoulders? Why did it feel like his eyelids were always heavy with sleep? And why in God's good grace was he always hungry?

He sighed before his eyes fell on his phone sitting on top of the cabinet as the screen flashed:

5:57 a.m | REMINDER: Make an appointment with Dr. Lauran Dawson when you're back in Cali.

"Appointment?" he muttered, couldn't quite remember why he jotted—

Ohhh.

That was when it clicked. He had only recently recovered from a horrible case of food poisoning. It would've been earlier if he hadn't listened to Jackson and gone to the bloody hospital, though.

It had been a little over a week since he arrived at his ranch in Texas with Jackson tagging along as company. A lot had happened, but not much at the same time.

For one, since he had eaten at Stonehouse, he'd been throwing up every morning. He had gotten sick—puked his stomach so much, he thought he was dying. When day four passed and nothing changed, he had started his red jeep to get to the hospital only to have Jackson throwing himself on the driver's door, begging him not to go. "It'll pass," Jackson had said. "Stop being such a pussy, McCoy." If one thing Landon wasn't, it was a pussy, so he didn't go. Thankfully the horrendous puking happened only in the mornings, and it stopped the day before yesterday so he was back to normal. Well... not a hundred percent, so that was why he needed an appointment. After all, old age was catching up to him; better safe than sorry.

What else happened?

He had gotten to know Jackson a whole lot more.

He had shown Jackson around Fredericksburg. They strolled the streets every evening and checked out the local shops, and the bars—he even took the youngster to the museum. He had got Jackson a nice pair of cowboy boots, too. He wanted to convince himself it was because he planned on taking the youngster out to horseriding since they didn't get any chance to earlier, but the truth was that he felt bad for what happened that night they went to dinner.

Jackson wasn't complaining much either, and although he commented that the town was 'boring af' and screamed of 'old people', he took a lot of pictures wherever they went, like a lot. He even got Landon to take pictures of him... in abnormal poses... by the town's historical sites. They took pictures together, too, though Jackson never posted any because Landon didn't want the public to know.

Surprisingly, Jackson was a lot calmer than Landon had expected—with just the two of them—and he reckoned he was starting to like the younger man... like really like him.

He knew sometime back this would've happened; he dreaded it. To be honest, he didn't know how to feel when he realized this. They obviously couldn't be together. The young Alpha was in it for the power trip—everything about whatever they were doing was not genuine despite how Jackson claimed to like him. This was simply a show of 'who was better' to Jackson. Besides, they were rivals; it wouldn't cut. Whatever...