CHAPTER TWENTY-SEVEN
Vallis
Nightshade Bear Territory
The day after building the nursery I was back to normal as I knew I’d be.
I probably should’ve spent more time preparing the others for what would happen.
I’d reminded Lero right before the others arrived but he knew from my memories that one room was a small task.
I slept longer than I’d normally have. I blamed that on the comfy rug and the nearby scent of my mate.
Every time I stirred in my floor sleep, I smelled his contentment and if he wasn’t upset I could stay asleep.
I watched Lero sleep, curled up on his side, his hands all folded into all angles and shoved up under his chin as if someone pinned them there.
Some nights I tried to straighten them out but he needed his rest. He’d had a late night and our cub’s due date was fast approaching.
Barry was showing up to do ultrasounds every other day now.
Lero wasn’t blood family but there was a cloud that hung over the family.
Xenos’s carrier had died giving birth to him.
Xenos suffered a similar complication with Mori and Preston and needed a c-section.
Sometimes complications were genetic and sometimes they were just a roll of the dice.
So I wasn’t sure whether or not to worry but figured with this many healers around a c-section would be hectic and terrifying but Lero would be okay.
“Don’t be scary, okay?” I whispered to Lero’s belly.
“I can’t help it. I’m a bear,” Lero laughed. “It’s my birthright to be scary. Rawr!”
“I was talking to Urso,” I grinned and kissed his belly before sliding back up the bed to give my mate a real good morning kiss. We lay there for a few minutes enjoying the quiet of midmorning before I helped him out of the bed.
“He’s trying to eat me now,” he yawned as he waddled to the bathroom.
There went my everything. Before Lero answered my knock I didn’t know it was possible to miss someone when they went into another room. I didn’t know that you could love someone so much that you ached deep inside to think about it. That you couldn’t stop thinking about them and you didn’t want to.
“That’s why we did all the magic in the Other World to be true-mates,” Lero chuckled, picking up my thoughts over the mating link as he walked back into the bedroom. “Leftover pie for breakfast?”
“If you want or you could start with that I can cook up something with protein.”
“Pecans have protein,” he shrugged, “but I won’t say no to a steak either.”
“Maybe some eggs? Some potatoes? Gravy?”
“If you want to wash dishes too,” Lero yawned and stretched.
Raising his arm above his head, showed off his big pregnant belly. Inside him, Urso kicked, visibly moving Lero’s flesh.
“Sheesh! Calm down, cub,” Lero laughed. “Just because you heard the word pie doesn’t mean you have to get so bossy.”
And that was our life that last month of Lero’s pregnancy. Good food, good company, and lots of getting kicked by our firstborn who was yet to gain his title by being born.