10. Chapter 10
Ewan
I came awake slowly, knowing that I was probably in bed.
The past few days I’d been falling asleep all the time.
I’d be watching TV or reading a book or sitting on the porch and then off to sleep land.
There were very few places I hadn’t fallen asleep.
We hadn’t confirmed my pregnancy yet, but this exhaustion had been my first hint that we were going to be dads.
Blinking my eyes to clear them, I tried to remember where I was and how I’d gotten here and why I was sleeping in the middle of the day. I was still half asleep, which wasn’t helping very much. I pushed myself to sit and my sleepy fog cleared.
Graham had carried me in here because I passed out while working in the garden.
Had I not already been fairly confident I was pregnant, that would’ve worried me a lot more than it had.
Passing out was far from my norm. But I remembered my grandfather talking about my father passing out when he was pregnant and breaking his favorite mug in the process.
You’d have thought my father had committed the crime of the century the way my grandfather brought up that broken mug nearly every time he had coffee. But now that I was in this situation, I was glad that he had. It helped me avoid freaking out over what had happened when working with my mate.
The past two days my stomach hadn’t been right, and I brushed it off as possibly eating something that hadn’t settled well.
Then there was the fact that I was beyond tired.
Again, I brushed it off as overdoing it.
But adding passing out to the mix—I was confident that I was carrying my mate’s child and I couldn’t be happier about it.
There were some shifters who could scent their pregnancy from conception and others who could hear their heartbeat before a doppler could. Highland bulls were not able to do either. We traded enhanced senses for fabulous hair.
My mate had jumped into action the second I started to drop to the ground. If it hadn’t been for him, I’d have landed with a thud. No doubt my mate would be overprotective throughout the course of my pregnancy. It was the way of things for alphas, and he showed me he was no exception already.
I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t going to soak up every second of it. I loved nothing more than to have my mate’s attention focused on me.
The sound of the door opening and closing told me my mate was back inside. Normally, we let it shut with a thwack. Not this time. It closed so gently, I barely heard it latch. My mate was trying not to wake me up.
I smiled. Graham was incredibly considerate. A true gentleman… except in bed. Exactly how I liked my alpha.
He tiptoed into the room. His shoulders relaxed when he saw I was awake and sitting up.
“How are you feeling?” he asked.
“Fine,” I said and he side-eyed me. “Really, I am.”
He watched my face and must’ve liked what he saw because his face relaxed.
“Micah just got here with the test if you want to take it. He also brought us dinner. I think he’s more excited for you to pee on that stick than we are.”
That sounded like my cousin.
I perked up at the thought of food. I was starving. “What time is it?”
“Just after five.”
That explained my hunger.
“I slept the whole day?”
Graham shrugged. “Kind of. But clearly you needed rest.”
“I can’t just not do any work around here, though. That isn’t fair to you.” Poor Graham had so much on today’s to-do list, the one that was designed for the two of us.
“You’re potentially growing a little human. Er… shifter. Wait, can you still shift? How does this work?” My mate was both excited and curious. It was adorable. Not that I’d call my big strong alpha adorable in front of others. That side of him was only for me.
I wasn’t ready to actually get up yet, despite the long nap. I was still very tired, so instead, I patted the bed beside me for my mate to come sit with me. If we were going to have an important conversation, we might as well both be comfortable.
“I can still shift, and in fact it’s recommended that I spend several hours a week grazing as the pregnancy progresses.
” That was something I was looking forward to.
I did love me some good pasture time. “I’ll give birth as a human though, and the baby won’t shift until they are older… around puberty.”
“Oh, thank goodness. I don’t know how to be a father to a baby, much less a baby that has two forms. Like would they have to take naps in the barn?
Would they be huge? Would they want hay?
” He kept mumbling question after question, none of which were valid any longer.
Once again, he was being the most adorable alpha ever.
If I were to guess, he’d spent the entire afternoon thinking about all of this while I slept.
“Will they for sure be a shifter? They’ll be half human, after all. What if they are sad they aren’t like their daddy and uncles. We’d call your cousins uncles, right?”
A hundred percent he spent the entire afternoon overthinking. Why did I have to be so tired?
“Yes, they will be shifters. It’s a dominant trait. As far as what they call my cousins, we should probably ask them that. Technically, they are a cousin once removed, but uncle does have a nice ring to it.”
“Knock, knock!” My cousin Micah’s voice rang out through the house. He came inside without waiting for us to answer. Knowing him, waiting outside as long as he had had been rough. He carried a paper bag with him. “You look like shit.”
I rolled my eyes. “Gee, thanks. I knew I could count on you to keep my self-esteem in check.”
He stuck out his tongue, and my mate giggled.
“Sorry. You’re probably tired from growing the next generation and all that.
Remember when Sue Ellen was preggo? She slept the whole month of August. She missed the best hay season.
” Sue Ellen had been our grandfather’s neighbor and about ten years older than us.
So not quite a friend and not quite an elder.
“Yeah, and what was your excuse when you slept through Christmas dinner and made us all have to wait for cake?” I snickered.
I knew damn well that he had been hungover.
Micah had been far more wild in his youth than the rest of us cousins.
He was also the most grounded of us now, at least careerwise.
He stuck his tongue out at me again. So annoying. “You should be nice to me. I brought you a present.”
“You should be nice to me. I’m pregnant.”
“Fair enough.” He handed me the bag. It was heavier than I expected, considering I only asked him to bring me a pregnancy test.
“What’s this?” I asked.
“A test. And do you remember when Uncle Nick was pregnant and they were paranoid about everything, so they bought that heartbeat thing?”
“A Doppler?” Graham said.
“Yeah, that thing. Anyway, they had it stowed away, so I grabbed it. I figured you’d like to use one.”
I hadn’t considered doing so, but now that he mentioned it, I loved the idea. And was also terrified by it. What if I couldn’t find a heartbeat? I was hardly a medical expert.
“That’s… awesome. Thanks, Micah. But I don’t know how to use one.” If I couldn’t find a heartbeat, would it be because I wasn’t pregnant or I just didn’t know how to use the tool?
“I used to have one when I was raising sheep. I’d forgotten about those.” Graham reached for it.
“It’s too early for an ultrasound, and none of us have our hands on one of them anyways, but I figure the Doppler might be fun until you get a hold of Cora.” Micah sat on the edge of the bed. He was never one to wait to be asked.
“Who’s Cora?” Graham asked.
“She’s the family midwife,” I said. “Generally, we try not to give birth at the hospital. We have ways of keeping our shifter nature secret, but we like to give birth at home where it’s quiet.
” And there was always a risk of our beast forcing a shift after birth to help us heal despite our location, but my mate was already worrying about all sorts of hypotheticals.
He didn’t need me to add more to that list.
“In a house, though, right? Not in the barn.” Graham’s mind did love to wander. Although, this was all new to him. It was easy to forget that with the way he adjusted to all that had happened since the auction.
I patted his hand. “Yes, in a house. Not in a barn.” Not unless I got stuck in bull form first. That wasn’t going to happen, though.
My beast was good about letting me take charge.
He wouldn’t do that. Please don’t let him do that.
Cora had a wide range of experience in her field and had dealt with that situation before, but it was never pretty.
“Sue Ellen had her second baby in a barn on a bed of straw, remember? Zero out of ten, do not recommend, for sure.” Micah needed to shut up.
I shuddered at the thought.
Graham swallowed, his face going even more pale. I squeezed his hand.
“I promise it’s totally safe, and if there are any complications, we will go to a hospital.”
“Okay.” He swallowed thickly.
“All right, I’ll leave you to it. If Graham knows how to work the Doppler, then you don’t need me,” Micah said. He was already tearing off his shirt and heading toward the back door. He was as food-motivated as I was, and the pasture was calling him.
“Thank you,” I called after him.
“Don’t mention it. I’m just going to raid your fridge a lot and also gorge myself with the fabulous yums growing outside.”
Oh, he was definitely going to raid the fridge, too. He literally brought us dinner but didn’t get himself anything. My cousin was weird.
It was great to have my family be able to visit, and I knew they all appreciated having a safe place to shift… but we might have a discussion on boundaries soon… after my mate figured out if I was expecting.
I lay on my back and pulled my shirt up and pushed my shorts down a little. I wanted to hear the baby first. I knew the pee stick was accurate, but hearing my baby would feel more real.
Graham kneeled at my side. He pulled a pad off and the little bottle of gel.
“Are you sure we want to do this right now?” he asked.
I nodded. “Totally sure.”
“This is going to be cold,” he said.
“I don’t care. I’m excited to hear a heartbeat, aren’t you?” Besides, it couldn’t be that cold, could it?
“Yes, but we haven’t even taken the test yet. Maybe we should start there.”
“If we don’t hear anything, then that’s okay,” I assured him. “I’ll take the test, but I just want to try this right now. Please?”
Graham sighed, and I knew he would give in. My mate was a sucker for my puppy-dog eyes… er… Highland-bull eyes. “All right. This might take a minute, I haven’t ever done this on a human.”
It took thirty seconds, and then we heard the thump, thump, thump of our baby’s heartbeat.
I gasped when the noise first hit my ears.
“Holy shit,” he said, and his hand slipped.
It took him a little bit to get the heartbeat a second time. He squeaked when he found it and held perfectly still.
“That’s it,” he said. “We’re going to have a baby.”
“We are,” I said.
“I love you so much,” he said. “This is… amazing.”
“I love you, too. I bet you never thought you’d get yourself a family when you went to that livestock auction.”
“No, definitely not. But I’m very glad I did. It was the bargain of the day.”
“I’m glad you think so, because they have a no-refund policy.” I pulled him down for a long kiss.