Chapter 12 #2
I shook my head. “I meant about you getting thrown here and your magic being taken away. I’m sure that was incredibly difficult for you.”
Dante nodded. “It was an adjustment. Times were drastically different back then too. I landed in what I am sure is somewhere in South America. I didn’t ever travel too far from where I found you. Some, but nothing like what the others said they roamed. But I made do.”
I’d seen his memories. Sadly, very few had been what I would call happy memories. Those seemed to have come from his time here, but he still seemed lonely.
“When are we going to the clinic?” I asked.
Dante patted my hip. “Whenever we get dressed and get there. Dr. King didn’t have anything going on until this afternoon. It is not baby season, apparently.”
“Oh. So they’re waiting on me?”
“Not necessarily. They are expecting us sometime this morning. But they know it’s first thing, we haven’t been up long, you aren’t feeling well, and we are still within our first month of claiming one another.”
I sighed. “I wonder just how many omegas Dr. King sees within that first month of their mating.”
Dante chuckled. “Probably quite a few.” Dante took a quick breath. “There is something I think you and I should discuss.”
“Yeah, I know. We need to decide on a house because we can’t stay here, and my place is too small.”
Dante’s phone started ringing, and he glared at it. I snorted before I got up off his lap with my tea. “I’ll get dressed while you answer that. I’m sure Dr. King has already shared that you are about to be a daddy. Not as if that should surprise anyone.”
I took my tea to the bathroom and set it down on the counter after taking a deeper drink. I wet my fingers, trying to finger comb my wild hair, but honestly, I just didn’t care too much anymore. I wanted to get dressed and to the clinic.
I picked up the mug on my way out and found clothes waiting for me on the bed and smiled.
Every day, there had been something waiting for me.
Most days, it was a clean pair of flannel pants and a shirt, but today, it was a familiar pair of jeans and a sweater.
I didn’t see Dante but could hear him in the closet.
I had just tucked things into the jeans when he came out of the closet dressed and ready to go.
I grinned before pulling on my sweater. “Is it all right if I grab some crackers before we go? I’m not feeling the best still, and I think crackers might be a good thing.”
Dante held out his hand, and in it was a bag of crackers.
Yeah, I guess that would work. I took it, and as we left the bedroom and went down the stairs, I somehow managed to eat a few crackers while carrying my mug of tea.
I took a large drink of it to get the crackers down, but Dante didn’t seem to realize that I was only half-dressed because he opened the door and stepped outside into the cold.
“Umm…Dante?” His head reappeared.
“Yeah?”
I looked down at my bare feet. “I have to put on socks and shoes first. And probably a coat?”
Dante pointed at me, and then I felt the items suddenly on my body and sighed. Yeah. Magic. That really was going to take some time getting used to. It was nice though. “That works,” I said as I stepped outside and joined my mate. “Do you know what day it is?”
“Wednesday. Everyone is already at work.”
“Do you think that since we’re already out, we can swing by the bakery? I really should let them know what’s happening.”
“Baby, they already know,” Dante said. “But we can stop by. Did you want something from there? We can get you a treat or something.” He wrapped his arm around my shoulders and pulled me closer.
“I’m in this weird place, Dante, and I’m not sure I like it.”
“Weird how?” Dante stared down at me.
I chewed another cracker before I answered.
“I’m mated. And it’s amazing,” I told him.
I looked up at my mate. “You’re amazing.
But I don’t know what I’m supposed to do now.
I thought I would keep working, but you mentioned I could go back to college.
Or I could not work at all. And now I’m pregnant, and we’re going to have a baby in probably mid-May.
” I sighed. “I could probably go to college online. I’d really like to be a teacher and not finish medical school.
But Dr. King could use help. But I just…
” I felt myself becoming overwhelmed, and Dante stopped me where we were.
The clinic was about fifteen feet from us, but I needed my mate, and he seemed to know that.
Dante pulled me into his arms and just held me close.
“You do not have to decide anything right now,” Dante whispered.
“We have two weeks left where we can be in our little bubble, and even after that, you can just hang out at the house and decide what you want to do.” Dante moved back and looked down at me, offering a smile.
“I love the idea of you going back to college and becoming a teacher. I know it’s what you truly wish to do in your heart, and I think you would make an amazing teacher for the others at the shifter school. ”
I smiled up at Dante. “Yeah?”
“I do. You are strong, and you have the patience that is required to be the teacher and mentor of shifter children. I did not go to college, nor did I ever have any sort of formal education. I simply knew things. It’s odd, but it’s just how hellhounds are.
There are things, lots of things, that I’ve learned since being in this realm, but I know there are many more I need to study. ”
“We can go to college together, then,” I said. I was joking, but Dante seemed as if he was seriously considering it.
“I might do that. It wouldn’t hurt me to learn more about places here in this realm. Or if nothing else, maybe I should take some history or geography classes. They have those, I’m sure.”
I smiled at my mate. “They do.”
Dante nodded at me. “Good. We’ll look into it together. But we don’t have to make any decisions right now. We have time.”
I nodded as I put another cracker in my mouth because they were sort of helping, but not really. My stomach was starting to protest a bit, and I didn’t know if it was because it was empty or because it was pregnancy sickness. Most likely, it was a combination of both.
“Come on. We’ll get you in to see Dr. King, and he’ll hopefully make things better with his pregnancy tea. I know Cecil drank a lot of that when he was pregnant.”
“Cecil was pregnant with twins,” I said around a mouthful of cracker.
Dante raised his eyebrows, and I felt the blood drain from my face. “No. I’m not carrying twins, am I?”
“I don’t know. We can ask Dr. King. He can tell such things, but I’m unsure.”
Not that I was against having twins. A lot of bear omegas had multiples. But I guess I’d never thought that I would have more than one at a time. But then again…Cecil had twins. The only hellhound babies. And they were identical. Was that a thing? I needed to ask Dr. King, I guessed.
“Maybe we should go in?” I said before I put another cracker in my mouth. I was quickly running out, but I knew Dante could provide more if I wanted them.
“It might be best.” Dante escorted me into the front door of the clinic, and we were met by Dr. King himself.
“Good morning,” he said. “And congratulations.”
“Thank you,” I said after quickly swallowing the cracker I’d been chewing.
“Did you tell him?” Dr. King asked.
I looked up at Dante, confused. “Was I supposed to tell you something?”
Dante winced. “No, that was the thing we needed to talk about.” Dante looked over at Dr. King. “He’s not feeling well, and we got dressed and came here. I haven’t been able to tell him anything yet.”
“Tell me what?” I asked, looking back and forth between the two.
Dante winced again, but Dr. King spoke up. “Cecil’s pregnancy was only six weeks long, and we’re unsure if that’s changed or not, so it’s possible you will be giving birth in just over a month.”
I looked up at Dante in disbelief. I tried to say something, anything, but suddenly, my breath felt like it wasn’t coming quite fast enough, and then everything went dark.