Chapter 8
Vatten
Guardians of Glitter Bomb Territory
We took the steps up to Eran’s apartment because the idea of getting inside an elevator with all the tension in the air made me want to run away.
Eran didn’t even stop in front of them as if he picked up my mood by scent or perhaps how hard I was holding his hand.
Ghost or not, I wasn’t about to let anyone hurt my guy.
I might’ve been a duck toller but that just meant I knew how to take care of foul things.
Inside the house, I realized I had brought none of my stuff and was very bad at moving in with someone.
I’d have to go back to the farm later. Eran locked the door behind us and pulled the chain too.
I looked around and found an armchair that I considered sliding in front of the door but figured that might be overkill.
My nose twitched, picking up all the scents of the people who must’ve been here earlier to help Eran’s roommates move out. My whole body vibrated again.
“You can sniff around if you want,” Eran said. “Make yourself at home. It’s a bit of a mess in the hallway. That’s where I test products.”
“Products?” I asked.
“I run a small business making toys and enrichment items for domestic cat shifters,” he explained as I shifted down into my dog form.
I shook my whole body acclimating to the shorter form again.
I’d spent most of the trip down here as a dog because the world was more fun to navigate that way.
I ran around the house exploring all the scents the guests had left behind.
The empty bedroom smelled like a bird, a big cat, and danishes.
I double-checked the closet to ensure there were indeed no danishes in there.
Then I was back in the hallway, sniffing all the toys Eran had left there.
I picked up a feather-covered toy mouse and carried it with me.
He must’ve played with this one a lot because it smelled so much like him that I wanted to gobble him up.
I followed his scent into what must’ve been his bedroom.
All four corners of the room had climbing and scratching towers.
The scratchy part was dyed rainbow while the lounging and sitting parts were black.
I sniffed at each of them in turn before looking around some more.
The bed was big and piled with blankets and pillows.
I sniffed around, reveling in my mate’s scent and found a few more cat toys in the bed before climbing onto it and rolling around on my back to cover myself in his scent.
From the bed I saw his dresser and desk on the other side of the room.
Four doors led out of the bedroom. One was the door I entered through, one of them likely led to a bathroom, but I wasn’t sure about the other two.
“Bathroom,” Eran said from the door, and I looked in the direction he pointed. It was the furthest away door all tucked into the corner as if it was an architectural afterthought. “Closet.” He pointed at the closest one to it. “Balcony.” That was the one that had a whole wall to itself.
“Aren’t balcony doors in these places usually glass?” I asked, happy he could mostly speak dog.
“Eh, safety measures and all of that. We’re a friendly city but we’re prepared for attack and invasion too,” he shrugged pulling his shirt off over his head to reveal the muscles all his playing around got him.
My tongue lolled out of my mouth, breathing in his scent.
“Oh, the basement is where we go if the big alerts go off. This was a small one. If we ever have to go down there for an alert there are a couple passages to get to the farm. It’s a helluva walk but in a pinch it’s better than dying. ”
“Most things are better than dying,” I nodded, shifting back into my human form and stretching out on his bed.
Eran had already taken his socks and shoes off while I looked around.
He stripped out of his jeans revealing boxer briefs with what I first believed to be pot leaves printed on them.
I wasn’t a stranger to cannabis in most forms, but Eran didn’t strike me as a stoner and upon closer inspection I was proven correct.
They weren’t pot leaves. They were catnip plants.
He stretched out next to me, and I traced the edges of one on his hip.
He grinned and turned to his side, cupping my face in a gentle hand which I nuzzled.
A second later, his mouth was on mine and my thoughts fled again.
Eran was an excellent kisser. His tongue moved around mine, caressing it and driving me wild.
I ran my hand up and down his chest and abs.
Then retraced my steps by running my finger in the little indents between his muscles as if committing the map of his torso to muscle memory.
“We could have a litter,” I said, pulling away from the kiss as I realized how slick I already was.
It wasn’t the exact line I wanted to say but it got my point across.
“So, maybe we should use a condom or something? I know you said that you want kids but I’ll never forget the look on your face when I told you how many siblings I had. ”
“I was a bit surprised. That’s all,” Eran said, his big, warm hand still resting against my cheek.
“From the shifters I know and what I’ve read the numbers are usually closer to one to three but like you said – it’s different in some places.
I think at some point we’ll probably talk that in circles because that means research is vastly behind in some places. ”
“Uh… Your people’s research,” I laughed. “Go ask any doctor up North and see what they tell you.”
“I meant our research,” Eran grinned. “I don’t want to be uneducated about my mate’s family and our future kids’ health.
I’m not saying you have to spill all the beans, but I am saying…
I was going to say we’ll have to do a lot of informing about your pregnancy at the clinic if we conceive a litter, but no, we won’t.
” He shook his head. “I hate to admit it but our best bet is probably Evie. She’s technically a vet but she’s delivered human babies before. ”
“Alpha, what did you learn in Omega Studies here?” I asked, gently.
“About what in particular?” he shot the question back at me.
“About shifters giving birth to more than two or three multiples?” I said, choosing every word gently because I didn’t want to make Eran feel dumb. You weren’t dumb if you were never told or taught.
“I don’t recall that it was covered,” Eran said, the tips of his ears turning red.
“Don’t be embarrassed. This is the sort of stuff we need to talk about before we conceive,” I said.
“I know it’s hard to think straight right now.
The attack on the cuddling place doesn’t help that either, but we have to try.
If I were to say have five puppies, at some point during my pregnancy, I’d shift into dog form and not come out of it until the puppies were born.
Maybe even after they were weaned. I know we have four arms between us but five puppies eat a lot and make a lot of diapers.
If I don’t shift, it’s likely they’ll spend most of their time in puppy form.
I think the same would be true of a kitten too. ”
“That makes sense.”
“It’s why my Omega Studies class talked so much about the importance of birth control, condoms, but also picking a mate who is up for that mental load.
Like I can’t call and pay the light bill in that form.
It’ll all be very primal and very much in the moment.
I’ll still be me but my priorities will shift to the babies being the most important thing in the universe.
Also, I had a friend who left when he met his mate.
His mate was a vampire and everyone tried to pick up the newborn puppies and play with them like pets.
He bit a guy’s hand off. I’m not saying that you can’t pick up the puppies or that like your parents can’t come and see them but… ” I bit my lip.
“We’re not pets,” Eran nodded.
“And I don’t want you to leave like his vampire did.
He had to move all the way from Moonscale London back home with six nursing puppies by himself because his true-mate decided he was too much work.
So, if puppies are too much – if the possibility of all the puppies running around is too much – if any of it is too much, I need you to tell me so that we don’t conceive or we talk to the clinic and only conceive one or two or something. ”
Eran flashed me a sad look and for a moment I was a bajillion percent positive that he was going to tell me it was too much.
I couldn’t change who I was or what my genetics did.
I also couldn’t change the fact that I did long for a large family.
I wouldn’t push that on anyone but it’s what I always thought my life would look like.
“I’m sorry people have made you feel that way,” Eran said a second later. “I’m sorry your friend was treated that way. Is he okay now?”
“He’s married to a polar bear. The kids don’t even remember their deadbeat dad. He misses his mate, but what’s he supposed to do? Let people manhandle his kids?”
“No,” Eran shook his head.
“I’ve killed the mood, huh?” I frowned.
Eran glanced down at his crotch. He was still hard as hell.