Chapter 27 #2
It didn’t take Philip long to come back inside.
He smelled annoyed and while logically I knew it wasn’t about me I still wasn’t thrilled at the idea of rolling over for him.
The bear shifter sat down in front of me and adjusted his hat.
He stared at me for a long moment, waiting for me to bare my belly.
After I didn’t move, he glanced at Eran.
It was totally his ‘give me a hand here, huh?’ look, but Eran didn’t budge.
“You’re making him nervous, Philip,” Eran said a second later.
“Do you want to sniff the wand?” he asked, holding it out.
I sniffed it out of instinct, but it didn’t smell nervous. Its aroma was distinctively of disinfectant. I coughed and tried not to throw up but I lost that battle.
“Well, maybe no more sniffin’ stuff,” Philip said, producing a package of baby wipes from the cargo pocket of his pants. “Thought it might help. Sorry about that. We use really good cleaners on everything to stop the spread of germs.”
“Your scent is making him nervous,” I said.
“I’m aware of that. I’m just a little irr—” Philip started but Eran pounced him.
The handheld machine flew out of his hand and into the filing cabinet across the room before ricocheting onto the floor.
Crouched over the bear shifter, still in his human form, Eran hissed at Philip.
I hopped up despite the churning in my belly because I was sure we’d have to fight the bear.
Philip’s hat tumbled off his head, revealing a full head of hair.
“Are you done catting around, Eran?” he sighed. “If you think I’m going to eat your mate, maybe we should use the handheld on your brain.”
Eran hissed again.
“Well, Vatten, I can’t perform your ultrasound at this moment, but congratulations.
If his behavior is anything to judge by you’re pregnant.
I’d like to find out how far along you are and you might want to know the size of the litter but I don’t think Eran’s down for that right now,” Philip said and then looked at Eran.
“If you weren’t one of the kids,” he shook his head.
“Actually, if your inner beast weighed more than twenty pounds, I might still whoop your ass. Though, I’m sort of impressed with the moxie.
Seriously. I’ve taken heads for less than this. ”
“No, you haven’t,” Eran said, narrowing his eyes on the bear.
“You knocked off my hat,” Philip pointed to it.
“Well, stop smelling like that,” he said, still crouched over him.
“Kiddo, you’re way too old for this game. You’re a therapist. What’s that line you all use? Something like use your words?” Philip arched a brow. “Seriously, next time you can ask a healer to leave or step back.”
Eran hissed again and Philip stuck his finger into his mouth. For a moment, his eyes crossed and he sat down on Philip’s stomach, a bemused expression contorting his features. Philip chuckled, no longer smelling irritated.
“I needed that laugh,” Philip said, rolling over, taking Eran with him. He got up and helped my mate to his feet. “But this is why I normally let Evie deal with the domestics. You are all unpredictable. Hiss at me. What will Evie think? Your sister is going to kick you.”
“Uh….” Evie said from the doorway. “Grandpa, stop volunteering me for jobs that include kicking people. I was down at the club about to start a daiquiri when Zevna ran in. I thought you hung another intruder out the window by his ankles.”
“Eh, Eran would like that too much,” Philip chuckled. “Do you want to handle the ultrasound or the phone calls?”
“The ultrasound. I told you the next time someone threatens me over the phone I’m going to hunt them down and drag them home to feed to my children. I’m done holding back my instincts,” Evie shrugged.
“Well, shit. Maybe that was my plan,” Philip laughed, scooping up the tossed machine and handing it to Evie. “If you feed them to your children they can’t be asshats anymore. They’re shitty anyway.”
When Philip left, Evie closed the door. Then she walked over to stand in front of Eran so close that their noses touched. Evie was definitely the bigger cat and in lion society lionesses ruled the roost, but Eran wasn’t afraid of her.
“No eating Philip,” she said and licked his chin.
“Ugh! I’ve been slimed,” he wiped his chin off as Evie motioned for me to move onto the sofa.
With Philip’s irritated scent gone, I shifted back into human form and stretched out.
Sure, a lot of the newer ultrasound machines didn’t need bare skin, but I wasn’t risking Evie wanting to shave my belly.
“His nipples are swollen,” Eran said and I shot him a ‘what the fuck?’ look.
“That’s rude,” Evie said. “I mean, I expect them to be, but why are you the one telling me? He has a mouth. I’ve heard the toller screams.”
I vibrated, shaking the whole sofa. She waited until the shaking stopped before asking me how I felt.
“A little shocked. I didn’t show any noticeable signs until today,” I said.
“He’s been really hungry too,” Eran said.
“He’s sort of right, but er… matingmoon and all,” I said, not wanting to give my sister-in-law any unwanted mental images.
“Sometimes it happens like that. I’ve had people call me because they’re sure they have food poisoning and then I’m delivering a baby,” she shrugged. “You okay to lift your shirt up?”
“Is he going to pounce you?” I asked, glancing at Eran.
“Not unless he wants me to shift and give him a bath. Dad-Mom used to have to put his little bed up where I couldn’t get to him easily because that was my favorite hobby for a while.
Then he started jumping out of it and gave everyone a heart attack,” Evie said, as I lifted my shirt.
“Eran, do you want to sit down. You’re waiting around like a madman is going to come through that door any second now and –”
The door swung open and another bear shifter walked in. This one was wearing a long red dress and had fake boobies popping out of it. Eran swung but the man caught his fist.
“Bitch, please,” he said, not losing his drag voice. “Is Philip in here?” he looked around.
“Sorry, Ruben,” Eran said. “I—”
“Kitten, you’ve got to chill out. No one on this block wants dog for dinner.
Go sit down over there. Hold his hand. I promise, it gets easier.
We have enough on our hands with Philip threatening to bash teeth out of people’s mouths.
Don’t you start too. You were always a good kid.
Never got into trouble,” Ruben said. “Now, I have to go find my mate before he makes good on his threats to find these fuckers. Feral is going to string them up for fucking with a show.”
“I would say things aren’t usually this hectic around here, but that would be a lie,” Evie said.
Eran walked over and sat down on the floor next to the sofa. He took my hand and entwined our fingers together.
“That’s better. I know the triple homicide has everyone on edge, but Pami’s been quiet.
Apparently, she’s going to help us lock the other one up.
I don’t know all the details but Xenos’s son is making all sorts of crazy demands.
Like he doesn’t want anyone from the Cuddle Club around and he won’t tell us why.
Canton asked a bunch of times and he says it’s for their own safety.
So, I’m like who dares fuck with Jeran? Let me have a go at them and if it’s a ghost, they’ll learn how to be twice dead,” Evie said, turning on the machine.
“Just lay low until the full moon and we’ll have this squared away.
Apparently, I’m being grouped in with the Cuddle Club people though, because that picky wolf isn’t being very specific about who can be around. ”
“If you might die, maybe you should stay home,” I said.
“Now you sound like Philip,” she rolled her eyes.
“We miss anything else besides the fact that people might get some free tooth extractions from Philip?” Eran asked and I couldn’t help but to chuckle.
“Nah. Nothing too important. Three colts born. Gooseberry has gotten even bigger. He’s staying right on Tarabell’s heels. Even going to preschool with her. Oh and the whole territory is going on lockdown on the full moon, but you probably saw that on the alerts.”
“I haven’t gone through all of them yet,” Eran admitted, his scent turning sheepish.
“Fair enough. I swear I wasn’t myself for three years after my true-mate response.
I mean there was the war and all that and—” Evie stopped and cocked her head to the side.
She shook her head like a fly was in her ear and then she smiled at me.
“Enough about all that. Let’s get these puppies looked at.
From what I remember, tollers often have larger litters and up north that still holds true. What are you hoping for?”
“Well, I only have eight nipples,” I sighed. “So less than that would be preferable.”
Evie laughed as she placed the wand against my bare belly.
Her face retained that professional smile, and I wondered ever so quietly if she was okay or if the war had left more scars than she let on.
We’d heard about the war against the hate group in London.
Everyone had. A witch from the west coast had invited us to join in the night where they blasted those fuckers into oblivion.
Our strongest magic users did, of course.
“Gestation is between sixty to seventy days give or take a day, correct?” Evie double-checked with me.
“Yes,” I nodded.
“And you started your mating moon?”
“The night of the murders,” Eran said.
“But Eran had a rut after that, and we were locked inside for like two weeks because it sort of just bled into our matingmoon,” I added on.
“So about… Hmm…” she said, not giving us any real information.
“Everything okay, Evie?” Eran asked.
“Mathing,” she said without looking up.
“How long did his rut last?” Evie asked me.
“It’s hard to guess because he kept following me around and stuff. Is everything okay?”
“Yeah. Just… The babies are a bit bigger than I expected. I’m wondering if you got it right the first time.”
“I wasn’t pregnant when I got here!” I said automatically.
“I know. Remember I saw you that day. If you were pregnant then, I’d have smelled it.
Even now, you smell pregnant. Maybe if I apply housecat gestation and call sixty days full term it makes more sense.
I think you probably got it right the first time,” she said.
“And… Hmmm… That’s it! They’re not all puppies!
” Her eyes lit up. “I’ve only ever read about pregnancies like this!
I mean it happens a lot in mixed species couples but we usually don’t know until the children are born, but I think you’re having kittens and puppies and they’re in their little forms.” Evie’s eyes glistened.
Whether because she was going to be an aunt or because she’d never seen kittens and puppies share a womb before.
“Are we going to get to see our babies?” Eran asked.
“Hold on. I’m doing measurements. There’s more to an ultrasound than just looking,” she said, her voice losing the professional edge when she talked to her little brother.
I squeezed Eran’s hand. I had enough patience to share but couldn’t resist a funny line.
“So, tell me, doc, do I have enough nipples?” I quipped and she giggled.
“I think so,” she nodded and I could almost see the measurements dancing through her pupils. “You might even be able to rotate them unless they pick favorite nipples.”
“How many, Evie?” Eran asked.
“Four,” she said, turning the little monitor screen around to face us.
Four was very manageable. We had four hands between us. In an emergency, if I was stuck in dog form, Eran could carry me and four of them. It wouldn’t even be that difficult for him. I mean, I could run on my own if I had to.
“One, two, three, four,” Eran counted them off checking his sister’s math.
“The ones I’ve circled are kittens,” she said as I took the monitor from her for a closer look. I’d seen plenty of Nova Scotia Duck Tolling Retriever ultrasounds in my life. I turned the screen upside down and motioned for the wand.
“Okay,” Evie blinked. “You have to go back to the scanning program. That’s just a snapshot—”
I already had it back on the appropriate screen and pressed the wand to my belly. I easily found the two kittens and two puppies she located but after wiggling around for a bit I got the fifth one that I barely spotted before onto the screen.
“Another puppy,” Evie said, peering over the top of the little monitor.
I nodded but I wasn’t finished. I hadn’t spotted anyone else in her snapshot, but I wasn’t taking any chances.
So, I poked and prodded around for another few minutes until I was sure there were only five.
One was smaller than the others. The runt of the litter wasn’t just a myth.
There wasn’t always one but when there was, they required special attention.
I’d need to make sure Eran knew how to bottle feed a newborn puppy if he couldn’t latch or the rest of our babies were milk bullies.
I might have to pick someone else to know how to do it as well.
Probably Evie since she likely already acquired the skill in her training.
“Are you guys going to hire a beta aide?” Evie asked.
“Probably not,” I shook my head. “I mean we might need help, but it’ll be contingent on who my dog will put up with. Might be nobody except Eran.”
“Then I guess I’ll have to make sure he knows how to vaccinate the babies and give the vitamin shots,” Evie said, making a note on her phone. “It’s really easy. It’s routine in most places.”
“Even we do that. I could do it myself just not in dog form,” I said.
Yep. Soon I had to have the conversation with Eran about getting the apartment ready for puppies.
In a month or so, I’d be stuck in dog form until our babies came into the world and I didn’t want to not be prepared for them.
Fortunately, most of what they needed those first few months of their life I made myself.