Chapter 36
Ten weeks later
I was in a garden chair in the shade of the trees, close to the vegetable garden where I could watch Dom fiddle with the outdoor lights.
I had my daily cup of oolong sitting on the armrest next to me.
One cup was totally okay, Ell had said. That was probably a good thing.
I’d have lost it if I’d had to go cold turkey on the oolong.
I still had to do my PT arm exercises for the day.
The cast had come off last week—and not a day too soon.
The skin on my left arm was almost pure white, downright immaculate, and I was still reeling from the shock of seeing the slightly sun-browned skin on my right as the evidence that I had spent more time in nature. What had the world come to.
Ell had booked me for the ultrasound to get my prostate checked only yesterday.
At least, that was what it said on the chart.
The technician had known what was going on, although apparently no one really knew the ins and outs of my condition on account of “my type of human” not really being a thing for a few generations now.
I looked at the print from the ultrasound. I had no idea why people kept these, because honestly, it was just a blob.
I put a hand on my belly. That still felt strange. I’d gained a little bit of weight, but my clothes still fit. Maybe it would stay that way. Apparently, an omega’s kids were pretty small. Yeah, there was some more roundness there than before, but you really couldn’t tell.
I knew though.
“Should I call you Blob? Little Blob? Blob-blob? Blobitty-blob?”
Dom stopped his cable and hammer wrangling and came over, grinning wildly.
“Are you telling the baby nonsense already?”
I put the photo in my lap and picked up my tea. The trick was to really enjoy that one cup I got each day. “I was just spitballing ideas.”
He brushed his locks out of his face. “I’ve been thinking about names. Can I just float some by you? To get an idea of what you like.”
I sipped my tea, letting it linger on my tongue like the richest wine. “Okay, but I’m not committing to anything.”
“Understood. Oscar?”
“Nah.”
“Thought so. How about Elias?”
I nearly chortled into my oolong. “That sounds like an insufferable brat.”
“Whoa, judgy today, are we? Some Eliases are probably just…like a strong cup of oolong, you know? Not for everyone, but just the thing for the right kind of snob. But okay. Blaine.”
I wrinkled my nose. “Not that either. I’m going to stick with Blob now.”
“Wow, that’s cruel, but okay. You good here? I have to run inside to grab my crimping pliers.”
“Is that a real thing people ply with?”
He pursed his lips. “You know, you’re the writer, but I don’t think that’s the right word.”
I leaned back. “Prove me wrong, then.”
“Hmm. Some other time. I’m leaving the door open. You just shout if you need anything, and I’ll come running.”
I sighed. “Yeah, yeah. Get your pliers, Dom.”
He brushed a quick kiss to my cheek. “Love you, Little Red.”
He jogged inside. With the broken arm, one of them looking after me all the damn time had been a bit of a nuisance at times, not dissimilar to how itchy the cast had gotten. I’d reassert my independence any day now, but there was still the issue of me wanting naps and being tired a lot.
I put a hand on my belly again. “The napping is your doing, isn’t it, Blob?
I suggest you keep up with that and don’t do what I have heard the straight people talk about when it comes to babies not sleeping all damn night.
” I picked up the sonogram again. “Great. Now I’m talking to a blob as if it can actually hear me. ”
I savored another sip of my tea, but turned when I heard some rustling leaves from the direction of the forest.
That spiked my adrenaline right away. The pack people had set me up with an online therapist, like, that fast, but things just were scary these days. Less so when Linc, Dom, and Ell were around.
For a second, I thought Ell was out there to surprise me, but then my eyes adjusted to the darkness underneath the trees, and I realized it wasn’t him at all.
The werewolf or wolf was a lot smaller. That made them either a kid who was trespassing on my alphas’ territory—an out-of-towner interested in my omeganess had done that, and it hadn’t ended great for him—or it was one of the wolves. Both were low-grade suspicious.
“Are you a person? A person wolf? I mean, yeah, the word is werewolf. You know what I mean.”
The wolf’s eyes were bright and intelligent, but not in the way my alphas’ were. Also not in the way that captured werewolf’s had been. I couldn’t be sure, but I had a feeling this one was a real wolf.
He turned his head to look deeper into the forest, then back at me again.
“I should nope out right the fuck now. You know, you’re making me curse in front of Blob. I don’t think Blob even has ears yet, but I think you should still feel guilty.”
The wolf didn’t move, but he made the smallest wolf sound. I got the sense that he wanted me to come with him.
I looked at my tea. “If the oolong goes cold I’ll be so mad.” I stood, left the image on the chair, and walked into the cover of trees.
There was a bit of a path here, and I could easily see the house. I’d absolutely not go anywhere out of sight, but I wasn’t scared. The wolf just seemed to want to show me something.
As it turned out, I was right about that, wrong about the wolf being a him.
Just a few steps from where the trees ended, there were three tiny wolves hiding in the woodsy greenery.
They were fluffy, with big eyes, and rushed right up to their mom when she walked up to lick them.
She was still feeding them, it looked like.
Which reminded me that omegas were supposed to be able to nurse their own kids. I still wasn’t sure how I felt about that particular nugget of information. Ell had tried to talk about pumping, but I wasn’t ready for that conversation, not at all.
I didn’t get too close. If they were real wolves, then I didn’t want to do anything wrong by touching them. One of the babies had spotted me though and decided that a human warranted some exploration. The little guy walked right up to me on clumsy little paws.
I went to my knees. “Are you going to eat me, you big bad wolf?”
The mom wolf was watching me. I had no idea what she was thinking, but it looked like she didn’t see me as a threat, at least. The little wolf walked right up to my knees, sniffed, then rubbed against me.
Behind me, leaves rustled, and the mom wolf’s ears went right up, her entire posture changing.
“Little Red, what the—oh.” Dom froze several strides behind me. “You again?”
“Huh?”
The little wolf stood still and stared at Dom, sniffing the air.
Dom pointed his chin. “Her. That’s the wolf I saw. Uh, the night we found you. The one whose mate was…you know.”
I nodded and brushed my fingers through the baby wolf’s fur. So soft. They looked at me, startled. Fair. It was their first time understanding what hands were for.
“When my ex’s buddies shot her mate.”
“Yeah, I guess. Listen, Ell is going to be so very mad when he hears you touched a wild wolf.”
The little one had decided licking my hand was a better use of their time though. “In my defense, she came up to me.”
“Hmm. She can probably smell you. I mean, your scent isn’t subtle at all.”
I hoped I was aiming a properly searing look at him. “I shower.” Alone this morning, since my cast was off.
“Yeah, and it would be a lot nicer of you if you’d continue to let us shower with you.
That’s not what I mean though, Little Red.
You think like a human. What I mean is that your scent has changed, and it’s like nothing I’ve ever smelled.
Still you, but more of it. What’s that story with the sexy Greek dude who turns into a flower? ”
“You mean Narcissus?”
“Hmm, the other one. The smelly one.”
The baby wolf had had enough of my fingers and was turning their attention back to my knees. I was equally unimpressed with Dom’s knowledge of classical mythology as they were with my thumb.
“Smelly, huh? You’re not making it better. Hyacinthus?”
He snapped his fingers, which made the mama wolf’s ears twitch.
“Sorry. Yeah, that’s the one. So many sexy Greek dudes turning into flowers. You smell like yourself, but it’s overpowering, like plunging your nose into a field of hyacinths. Your scent is lovely, but that’s a given. I guess this one thought so too.”
The little wolf went back to the mom, and she gave them a lick of greeting as they huddled behind her legs. The mom wolf was still looking at me with big, searching eyes.
“Didn’t you say she has a pack, Dom?”
I heard him shift his weight from one leg to the other. “I thought she did. There is a pack here. You’ve heard them howl too.”
“Yeah, but you guys said their territory is on the other side of the river.”
“It is.” He paused, taking another step closer. “It’s shallow enough to cross in a few spots. We’d have noticed her if she’d been on this side all along.”
“Do you think she’s looking for a pack?”
He chuckled. “Like you were when you stumbled into the woods?”
I got to my feet. “I was trying not to be murdered by a serial killer.” I sighed. “I had no idea I was running away from one.”
We were both silent for a while after that, and Dom came closer to me and put his hand on my back. The mom wolf didn’t run, but her body language changed, her ears flattening, her head lowering.
“We’re not going to chase her away. If she wants to stay here, that’s fine. The area is safe again.”
I nodded. “Is there any way to tell her?”
“We’ll just leave her in peace, maybe put out some water. When the pups grow up, they might leave, but until then…”
“Until then, they’re all safe.”
My hand went to my belly, and I only realized I’d done it after the fact. Such an odd habit.