Chapter 5
Chapter
Five
Iwoke up late on Thursday. My internal clock was still out of whack. I kept waking up either too early or too late. My body was rejecting food more and more, even if I was the one who cooked it. Grabbing my phone, I smiled at the text message from Mike.
Mike
29 weeks - the size of a head of cauliflower.
Mike
Major symptoms: Constipation, heartburn, pregnancy brain, migraines, hemorrhoids, and nails growing faster than normal.
Mike
There is a chance of feeling Braxton Hicks?
Mike
Will research more into them later for you.
Chuckling, it felt so normal to get this message from him. Laila poked her head in the door. With an eyebrow raised, she pushed the door open further.
“Mike is sending me an update.”
“For?”
I held out the phone to her. “My pregnancy. Today I’m week twenty-nine.”
“You’re kidding. You look so much…” Her mouth shut as she looked down at my face. “…small. You look so small.”
“You’re such a liar.”
Laila barked out a laugh. “I’m sorry. You’re enormous. I’ve seen dragon pregnancies, but never on someone as small as you. It’s actually kind of hilarious.”
“I’m not making you anything today.” I pouted, my arms crossing over my chest.
“Look, you can be upset all you want, but if you can call my butt fat, then I get to call your bump huge.”
Grabbing the pillow next to me, I threw it at her. She tried to catch it, but wasn’t ready for the force I had thrown it with. It smacked into her face, and she stumbled back a step. Growling, I waited for her to throw the pillow back.
Laila was fighting the urge and crushed the pillow in her hands before throwing it onto the bed. “I hate that I can’t fight back! Ugh! You suck!”
I chuckled. “I’ll get up and make us a huge ass meal. It’s fine.”
She laughed as well. “How dare you.”
“Help me up if you’re going to stand there.”
Moving to the edge of the bed, I put my hand in hers as she lifted me up. I swayed for a moment, my head spinning, before I balanced myself. She raised her eyebrow at me again, and I slapped her arm.
“Not. A. Word.”
Laila cackled as I walked around and pulled clothes out of my bag. We really needed to go shopping. I had just been putting it off. None of this seemed real. I was still waiting to be called back. That the Alfords had stolen Marcus away.
“So, is this all the information you need? Or do we need to look up more information for you?”
She walked with me through the house. Even with her question, I could see her searching pregnancy sites and what it meant to be twenty-nine weeks. Laila shooed me to the stool, and I smiled as she put on the kettle first.
“Eva gave me some pointers. It was mostly for the third trimester. Not necessarily week by week.”
“Did you know you can’t have eggs?”
I rolled my eyes. “I can, but they need to be cooked through.”
Humming, she looked from the phone to the fridge and back down. “There are a few things you’re supposed to eat.”
“Don’t worry about that right now. I honestly just need to keep stuff down right now. I had this problem most of my pregnancy, but it’s ramping up again.”
“Probably from the stress?” She looked back at me. “Did I see you trying to go to school from the phone the other night?”
My lips pursed into a thin line. “I’m not done with the winter term. I submitted a leave of absence for a couple of weeks, but I’m still trying to keep up with everything.”
“Colt, seriously? I mean, why not just…?”
“Don’t even say it. Don’t even think it. Some of us actually care about our schooling. I want to get my degree, Lai. I already have to take a semester off. That puts my scholarship in jeopardy. If I miss another one…I might as well give up.”
She snorted. “You? Give up? Please. Even just from the week we’ve been together, I know you could never.”
I leaned forward, the stool moving back to make room between the counter and my stomach. “Has it really only been a week?”
Laila flashed me a smile. “A little over now. It seems kind of crazy.”
“It does.”
The ingredients she pulled out made me wrinkle my nose.
I waited a few minutes to watch what she was doing with them before I gave up.
Getting off the stool, I hip-checked her out of the way.
She growled, but I washed my hands and took over the prep.
Laila hovered, and then after I did something, I gave it back to her.
If anything, she was a quick learner. She started chopping the ingredients as I had, and I moved on to something else. I just didn’t trust her with the heat or mixing sauces. We made another ‘fancy sandwich’ as she called it before we sat outside to eat.
“Do you know what you are going to name her?” Laila looked at me as she took a bite.
I nodded. “Marcus already named her. It was a name he loved. I just…I don’t know. She’s still just our little girl. I think it would be weird to call her by a name before she is born.”
“I can see that. Don’t they start off looking like sea monkeys?”
Barking out a laugh, I shook my head. “I was calling her my little bean for a long time. That was what the pictures online looked like starting out. It just…was weird as soon as we found out the gender.”
“I bet. Don’t get me wrong, I love kids. Kind of. But pregnancy is crazy. Like…you’re growing an entire person in your body?” Laila shook her head. “Then that person will grow up, have their own personalities, own lives. Like…what?”
“Is that why you ran?”
She stared down at her sandwich for a moment. “Yeah. I get that Peter is ready to have a family. I just…like…”
“For what it’s worth, I’m with you on that.”
Her eyes widened as she looked at me. “You’ve given me several lectures…”
“…and never once did I say anything about you needing to start a family immediately.” I smirked. “I told you to be a family with your mate and not to push your family away. I said nothing about pregnancy.”
Laila growled at me. “It was implied.”
“No, it wasn’t. Just because Peter thinks a family means you need to have pups doesn’t mean everyone does. I think it took me a while to wrap my head around the fact that dragons can live to be four hundred years old.”
“Most have hatchlings fairly early into finding their mates, though.”
I shrugged. “If you find your mate early, though, what makes you think you’re mature enough to have pups? I told Marcus that he’s in the same life span as a dragon as I was when I was fifteen.”
Her look turned horrified, and I barked out a laugh.
“Yeah, that’s the same look he gave me. Think about it.
Society pushes wolf shifters to have children early because their biological clocks expire quickly.
We hit forty, and it’s pretty much high risk after that.
It happens, but any later and you’re putting yourself and your pup at risk. ”
“We don’t…I think dragons just stop having kids when they are done. I’ve seen grandparents have kids at the same time as their grandkids.”
“Exactly. It’s a completely different timeline for dragons because of how long you live.
” I rubbed my belly. “I can understand wanting a family. I do. For so long, I didn’t have one, and after coming to grips with being pregnant, I was happy to have someone else in my world.
Still, if I had a choice? I would have absolutely waited. ”
She snorted. “Can you please explain that to Peter? I mean, I’m only twenty-two.
Peter is twenty-five. We have still barely established ourselves.
I could have finished college by now, but then I’d just start pumping out hatchlings?
Where is enjoying my career? Or us being able to be mates together?
Sure, we met young, but I’d still like time with him. You know…hatching-less.”
“Did you guys ever discuss it?”
“Yes! Of course!”
I raised my eyebrow at her. “That didn’t start or end with you two yelling at each other?”
Her lips pursed, and I laughed again. “I don’t think either of us would say the right thing to each other.”
“Oh, I know. You don’t do it now either.”
“Hush. He’s just…angry.”
Shaking my head, I took a bite, chewing and swallowing before I spoke again. “He’s angry and you aren’t helping. At some point, I’ll just lock the two of you up in a room. You can yell at each other until you turn blue and then maybe actually have a proper conversation after that.”
“I’d rather just pass out.” Laila grumbled.
The sigh came out before I could stop it. She chuckled and shrugged. We finished eating our food, and I leaned back. Rubbing my stomach, Laila grabbed a mug and filled it with the forgotten boiled water from the kettle.
“So…what are we looking forward to for you?”
“What, like next week?”
She nodded.
I shrugged. “You look it up. Everything has to be taken with a grain of salt though, because it’s mostly for women. I’m an Omega, but there isn’t really much in the way of male Omegas. It’s been a long time since one has been around.”
Laila nodded absently. “Let’s see…thirty weeks? Um…it says they will be as big as a beet.”
“Aren’t beets small?” My brow furrowed.
She shrugged. “Apparently, they are around sixteen inches. Or three pounds.”
“I don’t think beets are three pounds, Lai.”
Her hand typed on the screen and turned it around. “I think we keep thinking they are radishes. It’s pretty big? I mean, the green part is huge.”
“You mean the stalk?”
“You need to stop fucking correcting me.”
I threw my head back and laughed. Laila huffed, going back to the phone. Her smile turned evil.
“According to this, you need to worry about stretch marks, tender breasts, fatigue, and heartburn.”
“Fatigue and tender breasts are already there. Thank you very much. I could see stretch marks coming.” My hands ran under my belly. “I’m getting to where I feel like my whole body feels stretched to capacity. Any more and I will have marks.”
Laila’s smirk dropped. “Swelling of the feet and ankles? Doesn’t that just mean you need to put your feet up?”
“Yeah, well. It’s not as easy as you think. Especially when you have someone who can’t cook.”
“You are so fucking sassy today. What side of the bed did you wake up on?”
Shrugging, I looked out over the water. Laila sat back with me before letting out an exasperated sigh. She got up before stripping off her clothes. My eyes widened for a moment before I slammed them shut and covered my face with my hands.
The next thing I felt was an enormous blast of air as she shifted and took off into the air.
Shaking my head, I pulling my hands away.
She had was already flying across the water.
Then, suddenly, she dove into the water.
I held my breath for a little while, but had to let it go.
What felt like much longer than I thought was possible, Laila burst out of the water, completely vertical, flying into the clouds above while creating a shower of rain.
Luckily, there were no boats nearby, or they could have gotten tipped by the waves she made. It felt nice. Peaceful even. I smiled, happy to have Laila with me with the umpteenth time this week.
You would have a cow right now. Laila is a mess, just like the rest of us. Sorry, I’m not keeping up with my diet. I’m trying. I promise. It’s just…a lot right now.
I closed my eyes, trying to reach out to the bond.
Come back to me, Mar. Please. I need you here with me. I need you to give me that face when you’re disappointed in me. I need you to kiss me on the forehead when you’re fed up with me. I just…need you. Come home. Come back. Please.