142. It’s only a bit of fur
142
IT’S ONLY A BIT OF FUR
Nate
Of all the things I thought might happen at the lake house, dealing with a fainting Anthony was not one of them. Being a shifter, I couldn’t imagine what a shock that had been for him. I mean, I guess I could since he lost consciousness, but not on a real level.
He seemed to be handling it alright. But part of me wondered if he thought it was all a dream he would soon wake up from. He’d discover soon enough that wasn’t the case.
“Burgers are done,” Micah called from the grill. He’d taken to the distract by full belly method of crisis management and I respected that. We had already eaten not an hour earlier, but he was cooking again.
I imagined that it also gave people a thing to do while Anthony digested what he’d learned. He was stuffing his face which was probably a reaction to the life-altering situation he’d just experienced.
Daire and Ivor gathered plates and condiments. Martin and Ryder made sure the little ones were all happy and entertained, I moved the seating around more to have something to do than out of necessity, and Archer sat with Neil talking about how done they liked burgers.
From the outside looking in, everything would look boringly normal. Except it wasn’t. We just had a huge secret revealed, one that could potentially be dangerous for us. I liked Anthony. We all did. But a scared human might blurt out something that they never would’ve done otherwise.
It was just their way .
“How are you doing?” I sat across from Anthony. “I know it’s a lot to take in.”
“Do you? Do you really?” He pinched the bridge of his nose. “Because I’m thinking none of you understand what it’s like to discover that movies are closer to reality than the reality you thought you’d been living. Just a guess.”
He was right. We didn’t. But that didn’t mean that being in on the secret because we were part of it was all sunshine and roses either. One little slip up and we put the entire shifter community in danger. The pressure was real.
“You’re right,” I conceded.
Neil came over and sat beside me, his plate filled with crackers and cheese. “Want some?” He held it out first to Anthony and then to me.
I shook my head but Anthony was apparently eating his fear away. Neil set the plate in front of him and grabbed some of each.
“So the thing is,” Anthony noted, “This is freaky as fuck cause my friends turn into furry animals.” He side-eyed our resident unicorn, “One of us turns into something that isn’t even supposed to fucking exist. AmIrite?”
Anthony just stared at Neil as he popped one cracker with cheese into his mouth followed by another.
“I’m not right?”
That seemed to break the silence enough for a, “No. You’re right,” from Neil with his mouth full.
Neil grabbed some more crackers. At least he was able to eat. I wasn’t even pregnant and my stomach was in knots.
“And you Nate—and the others for that matter, you’re all here feeling guilty because you’ve had to basically lie and avoid any true friendship from someone you like and care about. You had to hold this huge secret for not only you, but for all shifters in the world ‘cause humans suck and they’ll turn you into either lab experiments or second class citizens. Or maybe just try and destroy the entire population of shifter kind. AmIrite?”
Anthony gasped as I nodded my head.
“So it seems to me you were all in a really crappy place and now is the time you can move on to a better one. But what do I know? I’m just a human stuck in the middle of all of this. It’s not like I know what I’m talking about.”
Neil pushed the plate towards Anthony and Anthony took more crackers and cheese. These two humans sure had healthy appetites.
“Thanks.” He nibbled on one. “And not for the food. But for helping me see it in a different light. I’d felt left out but I always thought it was because you all had this tight knit group and I just didn’t fit in. And then… seeing what I saw did shake my world. But I only looked at it from my side. I didn’t realize that it could be rough on them too.”
“Yeah, it sucks all around, but you know, it also doesn’t suck.” Neil grabbed more food. Goodness he was hungry—or nervous. Maybe he didn’t need me there as part of this conversation. He and Anthony had being human in common. It was probably best to let them chat it out .
“I’m going to go get my mate a burger.”
The relief that flooded Anthony’s face told me I’d made the right decision. I felt bad for him. Being on the outside of a close group of friends was rough, I knew that first hand. Figuring out it was because of something so big like being a different species, that had to be an entirely different level of ugg.
Martin
The weekend at the lake house had not been exactly fun—I guess interesting was a better descriptor, but it all seemed to work out well in the end. It was a relief to not have to hide things from Anthony any more. He seemed to think so too and honestly, he took it a lot better than I probably would’ve in his shoes.
We arrived home and Neil crashed hard. He got on the bed for just a couple of minutes and when I came back in from putting away the milk we bought on our way home, he was snoring. I took his shoes off and managed to get a blanket on him.
It was nice to see him so comfy. The trip to the lake house hadn’t been as relaxing as I had hoped it would be. But then again, who could’ve seen the whole Anthony thing blowing up like that? No one.
And who helped make it better? My mate. My sweet, sexy, human mate. Gods, I loved him so much it almost hurt.
I spent a few hours taking care of the kids, doing laundry, and catching up on my favorite television show before heading to bed myself.
Neil tossed and turned, kicking me more than a few times. I felt so bad for him, whatever dream he was having was awful, so awful he woke up crying.
“I got you.” I wrapped my arms around him, my heart breaking for whatever had his subconscious so upset. “It was only a dream.”
“Dream?” He curled up, letting out a moan. “No dream. It hurts. It hurts so badly.”
“What hurts?” I was so confused and a feeling of helplessness flooded into me.
“My… I think something’s wrong with the baby. I need to go to the hospital. Now.” He broke into a sob.
I grabbed my phone, called Nate and asked him to come over. Thank fuck he was one of those people who kept his phone on at night. I had Neil’s shoes on and made it to the door just as Nate arrived. I filled him in on what was happening and he promised to stay with Toby and Charlie while they slept.
Never in my life had I felt as scared as when I drove my mate, my pregnant mate, to the hospital. He was in so much pain. All of the kicking and tossing and turning had been his body's way of trying to control it.
The ER was packed and when they asked why we were there, Neil told them, “I think I’m having a miscarriage.” When the nurse asked how far along he was and he told her, the nurse told us to fill out a form and take a seat in the waiting room and we would be called when a doctor was available.
I managed to get my mate to a seat, his pain worse than before. I filled out the paperwork the best I could, not wanting to ask Neil about stupid history from each side of the family. He had enough on his plate without trying to remember all that crap.
“Here are his papers. Do you have a guess how long it will be?”
She took the clipboard from me and looked up with empathy in her eyes. “If he’s miscarrying, there’s nothing that can be done at this stage so he won’t be rushed in.”
“And if he’s not?”
“Then he will wait as the heart attacks and head injuries are seen first.”
I understood that there were protocols, but when it was my own family, I hated them.
A blood curdling scream came from my mate and I rushed to his side. “It’s so bad,” he whimpered when he was finally able to speak again. “Please make it better.”
If only I could.
It was another hour before we were seen and after blood tests, some poking and prodding, and more questions than should be legal, the doctor came back in with news.
“The good news is you're not miscarrying. The bad news is you have a case of appendicitis. Emergency surgery is not optional. We need to prep you now.”
“My baby,” Neil sobbed.
“Will be in danger right along with you if we don’t do this now.”
They wheeled him away within minutes and I made the mistake of looking things up on the internet. Story after story of similar situations not going well filled my screen. I couldn’t bear to think of anything happening to Neil or our baby.
After what felt like eons, the doctor came out to let me know the good news. The surgery had gone remarkably well and both Neil and our little one were going to be okay.