CHAPTER SEVENTEEN
CHAPTER SIXTEEN
Wess
Nightshade Bear Territory
The next morning, I beat Preston up and found Baby Andy awake between us, sucking his thumb.
He grinned when he realized I was awake and wiggled his way onto my chest. He rested his head there and drifted back off for a bit.
When I really concentrated, I could pick him up on our family link.
He was only sort of hungry but needed a diaper change.
I was cozy and didn’t particularly want to get out of bed, but the alternative was waking up Preston to do it and that was out of the question.
I hadn’t changed a diaper before but had enough knowledge from our claiming vows that I could figure it out.
Besides, we were going to have a second baby soon and that meant twice as many diapers.
No way was I leaving my mate to change all of those on his own.
That would just be evil not to mention lazy.
After getting him all cleaned up and changed into a cute little footsy one-piece outfit thingy with a white and blue snowflake pattern we headed into the kitchen.
I thought about seeing if Colton was in the Nightshade Directory that Preston downloaded on my phone but decided against it because Preston probably wanted to tell his family about the pregnancy himself.
So, I couldn’t get the ball rolling on that and we still had a few hours before the drone delivery would arrive with all my stuff from the mountain.
So, I made breakfast while Baby Andy sat on the floor under the table chewing on a pillow.
He wasn’t hungry just yet but his urge to chew was through the roof.
So I let him get on with it. I could always sew the pillow up again.
While the bacon fried I peeked in on Venal who was still an ice sculpture in the closet just the way we left him.
He wasn’t having himself a merry little Yuletide season this year.
I chuckled at my own joke as Mori walked into the kitchen with his eyes half shut and headed straight for the coffee pot. Then he put the kettle on too.
“Morning and all that stuff,” Mori grumbled and slid under the table with the baby once he had his coffee in hand.
Baby Andy shifted into his bear cub form and climbed on top of Mori’s lap.
Mori smoothed down his fur while he drank his coffee.
A few minutes later, Preston joined us, yawning and heading straight for the fridge.
Mori’s eyes followed him and his brain lit up, remembering how much his twin ate when he was pregnant before.
“Eat you if you don’t stop remembering it wrong,” Preston grumbled, taking a bite of peanut butter fudge. “I was not that fat!”
“Yeah, you were but look at this big head you grew,” he said, nodding at the baby.
Thankfully, breakfast was done. So, I was able to stop the bickering match that was about to go down.
More than ever my one job in the whole universe was keeping my mate calm.
Pregnant people needed to relax and stay calm and not stress out or be pissed off.
He could eat peanut butter fudge for every meal and weigh more than an alpha elephant for all I cared as long as he was relaxed and happy.
“Are you going to bite Colton?” Mori asked while we ate.
Baby Andy sat on Preston’s lap but I’d made him his own egg to experiment with. He dipped his fist into the yoke and then tried to pinch the edge of the egg. He managed to get a bite into his mouth and I couldn’t help but to grin. If it were later in the day I might’ve cheered.
“He’s talking to you,” Preston grunted.
“Me? Why would I bite Colton?” I blinked.
“You might not be pregnant. Might be stress eating. He doesn’t want to bite the midwife,” Mori said.
“Huh? Is this some tradition I don’t know? Is Colton going to come here expecting me to bite him?” I asked.
“Well, he’ll probably expect you to bite him,” Mori nodded. “Sires are usually bitey. Especially the first time.”
“Uh….” I thought about it for a moment. “If I was going to bite him for anything it would be scaring everyone yesterday and then not realizing some stranger put a bag on the table but that’s not going to solve any of our problems.”
“It’s the bare belly up position of the ultrasound,” Preston explained.
I took a second to breathe in his scent.
He wasn’t nervous about it. Colton was his brother after all.
His twice mated brother who had delivered who knew how many babies.
Some of the babies he delivered were during a war too.
So, I didn’t really feel like biting him would be appropriate. Was I a bad sire already?
“No,” Preston said. “Colton’s family and you’re pretty chill except for the whole freeze your enemies thing. I think it’s admirable. You don’t stress out about b-u-l-l-s-h-i-t. You just take care of business. Hey! Wait! You don’t want to turn Colton to ice do you?”
“No,” I shook my head. “I think it would be sort of rude to turn him to ice after we ask him to come here and be a midwife.”
“It would be,” Mori nodded.
“It’s not a lack of instinct,” Preston said, shooting daggers at Mori with his eyes. “It’s a confidence in his own abilities and self-control is sexy.”
“Well, after Venal…. Eh, at least your taste in men is improving.”
“Are you two fighting?” I asked.
“Not really,” Preston said. “He’s hurt that I didn’t want to protect Annila.”
“She’s on my ice cube list,” I shrugged. “Wait! My ice!”
“Huh?” Preston and Mori grunted at the same time.
I sprinted into the living room where my trunk of ice had been when we left for the Yuletide party. It was still there and when I drew blood to open it the ice was still there too. I pressed my face against it breathing in its cold. It still smelled like my old home.
“I don’t think anyone wants to steal your ice, dude!” Mori called from the kitchen.
“Leave him alone, Mori,” Preston said and I heard him roll his eyes. “This is why Roh wouldn’t tell you how his pregnancies worked.”
“He’s just shy.”
“No, it’s because you never quite get past what you see as normal. You will one day,” Preston said.
“And you do?” Mori shot the question back.
I swallowed a groan and closed my ice trunk. It was time to ensure Preston stayed relaxed again.
“More than you! I remember how you lost your s-h-i-t because I didn’t tell you I was pregnant right away last time.
I remember how you bemoaned the not knowing about Roh’s pregnancies and how you look at Crilus whenever bar stories come up.
It’s okay. You can be more reserved. You can be that way but people are living.
Roh has babies however gargoyles have babies.
I got pregnant because I was in an era of enjoying casual sex and as for my man and that trunk of ice you can back right off and---”
“Should we check the house for bad mood curses?” I asked from the doorway.
“He’s like this when he’s pregnant,” Mori sighed.
“Just so you know my ice is worth a lot. I’ve had strange mages and the like climb all the way up my mountain and make it through the wolf pack below me just to ask me to make some.
It can do a lot. I have an ancestor who made up so much for a pack of wolves who lived in a desert that he slept for a century, but they survived the changing climate and were able to stay cool enough and hydrated enough with it.
So, yes, someone might want to steal it. ”
“Uh… Besides being friends with Annila and not knowing about the price of magical ice did I do something to you two?” Mori asked, looking back and forth between me and Preston.
A spirit squirrel peeked through the window, and I did my best to avoid looking at the poor little guy so that Baby Andy wouldn’t notice it.
“No,” Preston sighed. “I’m not angry, Mori. I’m just tired. Tired of Sharon and everything that comes with her. I love you. We love you. Just leave the ice issue alone. I don’t have the energy to explain everything. You’ll get it when you get it.”
“Okay, Dern,” Mori rolled his eyes. “Being curious is not a crime.”
“Never said it was,” Preston said.
“Okay, I’m missing something here, but I can live with that. What can we do to relax everyone before Colton shows up?” I asked.
“Tell your mate to stop picking at me,” Mori said.
“I don’t think we’re going to solve longstanding arguments or personality traits before he gets here,” I said, trying to kill some of the tension. “I could make snow ice cream.”
“Yes!” Preston said, his eyes lighting up.
Mori didn’t look as pleased but he wasn’t the one carrying my baby. So, outside I went.