Chapter 34
August
Wow.
Just…wow.
Three boys and two girls.
That was just…amazing.
Peering down into those five sweet faces was a dream come true.
Our little hedgehogs snuffled and rooted along their larger wolverine siblings’ sides, while Gregor locked eyes with me, his ears sticking up, eyes widening when our wolverine daughter nuzzled against him searching for a teat.
She was so dammed adorable, and determined, resisting every gentle effort he made to turn her around that I couldn’t help but squeak happy giggles as I watched her try to climb on his nose when it got in her way.
That one was going to keep us on our toes.
Mom picked me up and I thought she was going to move me closer, only she lifted me and carefully stood, removing me from my nest, at which point, I angrily started squeaking in protest.
“It’s just for a moment, dear,”
Mom soothed. “So you can shift and clean up in case one of the little one’s shifts. We talked about this part, remember? Let me carry you down, so you don’t have to manage the steps just yet. Your Gregor already showed me where the master bathroom was in preparation for today.
It’s okay, sweetheart, I’ll be right here with the whelplets and when you come back, we can share their names.
I ached, I was exhausted, and I really just wanted to hold them, but Mom was right. Shifting would not only help my body heal, but it would allow me to ask all the questions I had, something I wouldn’t be able to do easily if I had to translate hedgehog for my mate. I doubted I’d be able to manage well enough to be clear in the state I was in, and that hot water was sure to feel good, once I was under it. Softly, in my little squeaky chatter, I accepted her offer, with my thanks, and gratefully nestled in the crook of her arm as she carried me downstairs.
“I’m so proud of you,”
she murmured. “And thrilled at the way our family has just grown. If you’d like, I’ll make a few phone calls to start letting people know, starting with Gregor’s folks. I think he could do with having his dad here, now that the excitement is over.”
I wholeheartedly agreed and let her know that, especially after the way he’d handled our daughter’s rushed birth while he’d been in fur and completely out of his element. Where I’d been on the verge of panic several times in those early moments, my mate had remained steady and reassuring, barely allowing hints of his own anxiety to filter through the mind link we’d shared. I wondered, for a moment, if someone had schooled him on how to do that, but with the next exhausted thought it didn’t matter. Our whelplets were here and I couldn’t wait to hold them.
Inside the bathroom, she took a towel from the stack on the counter, and placed it in the middle of the floor on the rug, one of several additions Gregor had added when the air conditioner had left the stone floor a little colder than my liking. I was just glad he’d opted for stone and not tile, because I was notorious for slipping on it and hurting myself when I hit the ground. That’s why the floor in my kitchen was stone, too. Same risk of breakage when you dropped something fragile, but a lot less risk of slipping.
“I’ll be outside if you need me,”
Mom said before kissing me on the snout and straightening up, leaving me with a little wave before she closed the door behind her.
Alone, I took a moment to breathe and let my thoughts stop whirling so I could focus on shifting back to my human form. The aches that accompanied the shift were far less intense than what I’d just been through and thus easy to ignore as my body stretched and reformed. The room spun when I was done, and I needed a minute with my hand braced against the wall, before I could straighten up fully.
Okay. Things were only a little off kilter now, so I took a moment more, steadied myself, and took the four short steps to the shower stall. Hot water had never felt so nice, and that overhead nozzle position was absolutely perfect for cleaning up head to toe, including my hair, but I didn’t want to be in here too long. I wanted to get back upstairs to my whelplets so I could hold them and hug my mate.
Mom was right, though. I did feel better by the time I’d finished.
I stepped out in sleep pants, still towel drying my hair, grateful for the shelves he’d built into the corner, where we’d taken to keeping a few pairs in addition to all of the extra towels. She was a little ways down the hall, phone pressed to her ear, bright smile on her face as she held out a cold bottle of pineapple juice, my absolute favorite.
“Thanks, Mom.”
“You’re welcome, honey, ready to go see your babies?”
“You know it.”
I could hear Aunty Eunice softly singing an old folk song I’d always loved as a child and still loved to listen to whenever it came on the radio. Even after all these years her voice was still as smooth and soothing as it had always been. She was seated on the opposite side of the blankets containing four of our five whelplets, while the fifth, our persistent daughter, had fallen asleep against her papa’s side. At least she’d given up on trying to nurse from him, while he stared at her with a look of awe on his fuzzy face.
“She’s beautiful,”
I murmured as I stepped over the edge of the nest, Mom right by my side the entire time in case I lost my balance.
After the pineapple juice the last of my dizziness had faded, but I was grateful that she remained vigilant knowing how new all of this was to me.
They all are.
I was careful not to jostle anything as I crossed the nest to sit beside the little bundle of blankets and wrinkly hedgehog faces, with their furrowed little brows covering their eyes. Wait, one, two, three, I looked up at Aunty Eunice, but she wasn’t holding our other wolverine, so where….
Carefully I peeled back the blanket, to see that my wolverine son was lying across his siblings like an extra blanket to keep them, with their sparce, soft prickles, warm. Choked up, I could just sit there and stare down at him, while soft clicking in the background told me that Mom was making certain to capture this moment for me. I’d hug her for that later and so much more. Both of them. I knew, when Gregor had asked if I was ready for him to call them, that I’d already waited too long to let him know what was going on. Stubborn hedgehogs were get into trouble hedgehogs, Gram-Gram always said. She’d nearly been right in this instance, too.
“Wow, we really did this,”
I said, leaning to kiss Gregor on the snout.
He licked me and nuzzled against the side of my cheek, then immediately glanced down at his side to check on our daughter and make sure he hadn’t disturbed her in any way.
We sure did, he said.
Is it okay if I tell them the names, or do you want to wait until you’re able to shift, too?
I have no intention or desire to shift anytime soon. Even if she moves. I keep hoping one of the others will wander over, too.
Would you like me to adjust the blankets so it’s easier for them to get to you?
Not until they’re awake.
Mom called your folks; they’re probably on the way already.
Oh good, they can let everyone else on my side know.
You doing okay, now that the adrenaline has worn off? I asked. Those were some tense few minutes there.
I’m just glad I didn’t let you down.
Never, not for one single moment, you were magnificent. You took care of everything so I didn’t even have to think. You were so calm, and you made sure I stayed calm, got our playlist going, and got Mom and Aunty Eunice here, which I still don’t understand how you managed without leaving the nest to let them in.
Family supper, I showed them where the spare key was out front and where the bathroom was and asked your mom if there was anything I needed to stock or place somewhere. She’s the one who told me about the pineapple juice and that it would be the best one to have on hand for you after the delivery. Aunty Eunice told me to keep my phone in the pocket of my jeans so I wouldn’t lose it in the nest or anywhere else and have to hunt for it when I needed it. And she’s also the one who reminded me not to panic if I scented blood, because that was to be expected during a delivery. I can’t wait to hug her for that or I would have freaked the fuck out and been absolutely no use to you.
We don’t have to worry about any of that anymore, they’re here and they’re perfect.
They kinda are, aren’t they?
Hell yeah.
Okay, I’ll tell them the names now.
Go for it.
Aunty Eunice had shifted from one old favorite to the next, while Mom bundled up the bedding Aunty Eunice had already removed from the nest and moved it over beside the stairs to carry down to the laundry room.
“How’s he doing?”
Aunty Eunice asked.
“Wonderfully in awe of our little ones.”
“Well, the next time we find ourselves in a situation where one of us is in fur, I will be able to communicate with him better,”
Aunty Eunice said. “Your mom, Aunty Clara and I have signed up to take lessons in speaking wolverine and I’m sure others in the family will follow. We’ll all want to be able to communicate during our romps, and we can’t do that if we don’t speak each other’s languages.”
A series of soft snorts came from my mate, then chuckles burst through our mind link.
My parents, several of my siblings, Uncle Curtis and Uncle Atlas have all signed up to learn hedgehog, after Olly found a class. He’s already several lessons ahead of them, but yeah, everything Aunty Eunice said. I had him sign me up, too.
My face started to ache, I started grinning so hard.
“What’s so funny, August?”
Mom asked. “You might want to start thinking about taking them, too.”
“I didn’t even know anyone offered any,”
I admitted. “And I will. I was laughing because my mate just informed me that several of his family members are doing the same thing and learning hedgehog and that he’s already beaten me to the punch by signing up for classes.”
“Oh, that’s wonderful,”
Mom said as she smiled over at him.
“He also gave me the go ahead to tell you the names we picked out, though I might need him to help decide who is who,”
I replied as I reached for the driftwood box he’d made that held the tiny, knitted bands I’d made for each one.
We’d decided to color code until we could determine distinguishing features, that way there would be less of a chance of mixing them up. Well, at least until they figured out how to kick their bands off, then we might find ourselves with a situation and a story to tell them later, along with all the other memories we’d collect over the years.
I lifted the first, sky blue band, so small it rested on the tip of my finger. “Blue is for True,”
I explained. “Gregor and I decided on gender natural names for all of them, so no matter who they grew up to be, they’d have a name that fit.”
“True,”
Aunty Eunice said, “that’s beautiful.”
The moment I’d said the name, Gregor swung his head to look at the little girl along his side before he gently nuzzled her. I got it without needing the words he spoke in my head.
“Yeah, definitely,”
I said and slipped the little crocheted band on her little paw.
“Welcome to the family, True,”
Mom said, having come to kneel on the outside of the nest, near Gregor, where she’d have a clear view of them as they were being named, and take pictures for me.
“Grey is for Echo,”
I said next, peeling the blanket back so Gregor and I could study our little ones.
I think Echo is True’s twin, or at least, our little wolverine son, I said.
He cocked his head, laid his ears back and flashed me a fanged grin before nodding his fuzzy head.
I think you’re right, he replied.
“Echo is our other little wolverine,”
I told them before slipping the gray band on his paw while Mom took more pictures.
“Another precious little addition,”
Aunty Eunice said. “Welcome, Echo.”
Of course it was just a case of perfect timing, nothing else could explain the way our little son decided to nuzzle one of his siblings when she said it, and kick one of this little feet.
“Next is orange, for Halo, and now that our little wolverines have been named, we know Halo is a hedgehog, but which of our little whelplets is Halo, hmmm, let’s see.”
I bent close, as did Gregor, studying them, bumping noses, then rubbing them as we struggled to decide. Then the middle baby squeaked and squirmed beneath Echo, one foot sticking straight up to make the decision for us.
Hi, Halo.
Hi, Halo, indeed, I replied to Gregor’s voice in my head.
“I think little Halo just named themselves,”
Aunty Eunice said. “It’s lovely to meet you, Halo, welcome to our family.”
The little one squeaked again, but with their sibling on top of them I couldn’t tell if that was our son or one of our little daughters. Either way, they’d definitely proclaimed themselves Halo.
That just left two little bands. The lime green one and the lavender one.
“Izzy will wear the lavender band,”
I explained, while Halo let out a few more tiny squeaks.
I wondered if they were trying to encourage Izzy to introduce themselves, but neither of the two sleeping hedgehogs on either side of them moved. Something did catch my eye, though, despite the wrinkled brows on each of them, there was a gray spot on one tiny hedgehog face.
“I think I’ve found Izzy,”
I declared as I moved the band toward the hedgehog farthest away from me, then glanced up into my mate’s eyes, just to see him nod. “Yup, Izzy it is.”
“Welcome, little Izzy,”
Mom cooed. “I love these names.”
“As do I,”
Aunty Eunice said, a notepad and pen in her hands. “And I cannot wait to enter them all in the family history book when I get home.”
That book went back generations and a sense of pride made my heart swell a little more than it already was at the realization that I’d just added to our family legacy. Though I’d probably never admit it out loud, I was a little choked up when I lifted the last band from the box, that lime green one that made me think of failed sour candy and so many other amazing memories Gregor and I had already shared. It was a no brainer who the band would belong to, the only thing left now was to announce the name.
“Green is for Nyx,”
I declared as I slipped the little one’s band on without even a twitch from them. “And it seems like they are going to be the soundest sleeper in the bunch, now that Izzy’s squeaking, too.”
“They might be getting hungry now, Papa,”
Aunty Eunice declared, “and it might just be time for your mama and I to give you guys a little privacy and tend to supper, which I know someone is going to want once he gets done tending to their needs.”
“Thanks, Aunty,”
I said, unable to look away from my little ones as she and Mom slipped away from the nesting area.
Gregor’s eyes met mine as their footsteps faded away, and I smooshed his furry face between my hands a planted a kiss on his nose.
“I love you,”
I told him before kissing him again. “Today, tomorrow, and forever.”
I love you to infinity and back again.
“You know there’s no coming back from infinity,”
I told him, giggling a little.
My point exactly.
End
Thank you for following Gregor and August on their journey.