Building Haven (Her Vicious Pack #5)
1. Mathew
1
Mathew
The morning breeze feels good on my face, but it doesn’t relieve the discomfort of my stomach trying to empty itself out against my will.
I’ve gotten pretty familiar with the bucket standing between my feet in the last few days, to the point where I know each discolouration in the plastic and every crack in the loops that hold the metal handle... Though, this morning was the first time that my stomach deposited anything in it, before now, it only threatened to do so.
“Would you like some water?” Vera steps onto the balcony, wearing a thin night dress that billows around her, accentuating her every curve, and fluffy socks, holding out a bottle. Then she sits next to me, making sure to stay upwind. Not that it matters too much, Caleb already cleaned out the bucket, so the only thing in it are some water droplets.
I nod, closing my eyes for a moment because the simple movement seems to upset my stomach again. I had no idea morning sickness could hit like this.
Eli said that you can’t predict ahead of time how bad things might get and that every pregnancy is different. His first pregnancy was like a dream, he was all glow-y and he didn’t seem to be in any discomfort, none at all.
But I also remember that with his second, he couldn’t stand to be near eggs, boiled or fried, for months, so he would make other things for breakfast. Lots of fruits and veggies and he got really into making bread at that time. And later pregnancies seemed to be easier again. It’s been all over the place for him.
Vera has an aversion to strong smells right now, especially fatty or oily ones, but she doesn’t seem to have any morning sickness. Hopefully, she won’t have to deal with it at all in the coming months, because feeling miserable while hanging over a bucket isn’t something I would wish on anyone.
Vera holds the cool bottle against my neck and, with a content sigh, I take it, rinsing my mouth before I take a sip.
I hope this goes away as soon as possible because I really dislike feeling sick. Even when I’ve been drunk off my face, I’ve only puked from alcohol twice. The other times I puked out my guts were all from people trying to poison me, and my body instinctively remembers those times, so not only am I feeling queasy, but I’m also on edge.
Luckily, none of those poisonings led to anything more than a few hours of upset stomach and hanging over a bucket, but the sensation still makes me nervous. Bad memories and all of that.
“Eli made you some plain toast and he said that he’ll make you anything you want once you feel up to it.” She rubs my back carefully. “We’ll ask the doctor about it when we see him tomorrow, but from what Eli said, this seems to be pretty normal.”
I nod. “Yeah. From what I’ve seen from his pregnancies, this is typical.” I take her hand and rub my face against her fingers. Her pheromones settle me, even though they’re food related and I can’t even think of food without having to take a closer look at the bucket, they still soothe me. “When will the contractors arrive?”
“In about half an hour.” She wraps her arms around me, pulling me into her ample chest. “You’ve got time to take a shower if you want to.”
“Maybe.” I take another sip of water. “They’re doing the office today, right?”
Since we want to get everything done in as short of a time as possible, we waited with some of the simpler things, like the office, until everything else was ready to go too. That way, we’ll be able to get back to normal as quickly as possible and won’t have to deal with noise and things like that for weeks on end.
“Yes, they’ll be starting in the office today. The new floor planks arrived yesterday and look very pretty. They’re also going to place the doors to the balcony for the new nest, and begin replacing the flooring in the other upstairs rooms.” Her voice is so soft and I like how excited she is about it all.
When I took over the organisation and moved into the house, I didn’t do much in the way of redecorating, apart from new carpet in the bedroom and giving the bathroom a makeover, since the bathroom was much too ‘modern’ for my tastes. But I didn’t have the time or energy to focus on the rest of the house, so all the other rooms still have the same flooring and walls that they had when I first got here.
We took the furniture out of all of the unused upstairs rooms, so we didn’t have to bother with cleaning them, but that was later, initially, I simply ignored their existence. I had enough going on that I didn’t have the energy for anything but the bare minimum, making sure I had a place to sleep, a place to work and a place to wash off the blood after a mission.
I love how excited everyone is about redoing the house. It also seems to bring us together as a pack more, being able to shape the place we live in in a way that works for us.
Vera and Caleb have been on the run for years, so this is the first time they get to decide what their house looks like. And, at least for Vera, it’s the first time she gets to design her nest the way she likes it and doesn’t have to make-do with whatever temporary solution is available.
Jorge never really bothered with making modifications to his apartment, since he was barely there anyway. It looked fine, but mostly utilitarian, nothing really personal. I preferred to meet up with him here or at some hotel if we wanted to fuck, because his apartment felt too impersonal, it was clear someone lived there, but it was never a home .
And what I understood from Riley, she’s always rented, and while she had some say over how her places looked, it was never a lot. She’s got free reign now, which she’s using to her advantage. She’s already claimed one room as her bedroom/place to retreat to and another room as a crafting room.
I’ve seen the to-scale drawings of the layouts for both rooms and her skill in spacial awareness is amazing. I now understand how she’s able to pull off some of the feats that ‘Whisper’ the famous —though not as famous as me— ‘mover for hire’ has been able to pull off.
But, with all the demolishing going on in the house today, we’ll probably want to stay away as far as possible… Because that noise is going to get really old, really fast.
I slowly take another sip of the water, my stomach finally starting to settle. “Would you like to go shopping? Get out of the house, maybe find something we didn’t see online?”
Vera kneels behind me on the chair, running her fingers through my hair, rubbing my scalp, making me nearly moan at her firm touch. “While that sounds fun, I’m not up for having lots of people around today. But you can go with Riley or one of the others, I’m sure they’d love the chance to shop on your card.”
I glance up at her, trying to read her mood, but she nudges my face forward again as she skilfully splits my hair into three strands and starts braiding. “What would you like to do instead? Do you have any ideas?”
Her hands move rhythmically, going down my back slowly as the braid grows and grows. It’s almost magical how nimble her fingers are when she’s braiding. “Not really. Just that... I’d like a quiet day. Tomorrow will be busy enough as it is.”
“I can rent out a spa, if you’d like?” I joke, but if that’s what she wants, I’ll do it. I’ll do anything for her.
She laughs, sliding my braid over my shoulder forward, a dark red bow at the bottom. Where did she get that from? “Tempting, but I feel sticky enough as it is, I don’t need any more stickiness.” She sits behind me on the chair, her arms around my waist, her head against my back as she breathes slowly. “If we’re fleeing the house to get away from the noise, I’d like to go somewhere quiet.”
“Makes sense.” I put my hand over hers. “Maybe one of the others has an idea.” I think for a moment. “I can also rent a place in the middle of nowhere for a few days, until the renovations are done?”
“No, thanks. I’d like to sleep at home, feels better. Also, I don’t think Derrick will appreciate having to take care of security for a place like that, not when he’s in the middle of so many other things.” She laughs, relaxing against me more.
“Fair. I’d prefer to not push him away by overloading him with work. It’s hard to find good security.” I turn around slightly, pulling Vera into my lap, before I stand up, lifting her with me. “You said something about breakfast?”
She quickly wraps her arms around my neck. “Yes. Eli made you toast. I put it in the bedroom, in case it made you queasy.”
“Thank you.” She’s really considerate.
As I step into the bedroom, I spot the plate with toast on the table near the window and my stomach growls. Yes, I should really eat something. I kiss the side of her head as I sit down, keeping her in my lap.
I break a piece off the toast, putting it in my mouth. It’s dry, but it’s crispy and doesn’t make my stomach swirl, which is good.
“Oh!” Vera’s eyes fall on Riley’s suitcase, which is spilling out against Vera’s boxes with clothes. We really, really need more space for everyone’s clothes. “Can we go to a craft store? I’d like some crafting supplies and we can make things for our nest ourselves, make it extra special.”
I smile at her excitement, kissing her shoulder. “Sounds like a good idea, as long as it doesn’t contain glitter. Glitter is the herpes of the craft world. I don’t want any of that in my nest.”
That makes Vera laugh so hard that she nearly slides off my lap and I quickly wrap my arm around her to keep her in place. She can’t seem to stop laughing, and it’s hard not to laugh at her feeble attempts to stop.
I like her sweet smiles and quiet laughs a lot, but she doesn’t do these full-body laughs very often and they make me fall for her hard each time. It’s adorable and makes me feel like she trusts me a lot, to be this defenceless around me without paying attention to anything else.
Going to a craft store might not be such a bad idea.
Riley has been knitting on and off since she came here, and it looks like she’s nearly done with all the projects she brought with her. So she’ll probably also appreciate a trip to a craft store. I’m curious what other hobbies she’s into.
And maybe I should learn a craft or two. That way, I’ll have something to do when I’m too big to focus on much or when I’m awake in the middle of the night with the little ones.
That actually sounds like a good idea. I could probably get some reading done in that time, but I also know that I’m not that good at sitting still.
Doing something creative, just for the fun of it, isn’t something I’ve been able to do for such a long time, probably not since I was a little kid, before my parents were killed.
I guess it’s time for me to see if I’ve got any creativity, or if I’m better off watching the others do their thing and simply encourage from the sidelines.
Not that that would be so bad either…