20. Reg
20
REG
The second I woke up, I sensed it—a subtle but undeniable change in my mate. As I snuggled against him, my head against his chest, I listened carefully. Faint as it was, I could hear it: a second heartbeat. My mate was pregnant.
It was all I could do not to wake him up right then and share the good news. But my mate deserved more than being yanked from sleep to hear, “By the way, your mate’s wolfy pregnancy detector went off. Congratulations!” No, this moment deserved celebration, not just a rushed proclamation.
Instead, when we woke up, I pretended everything was the same. I made breakfast, we chatted about our plans for the day, and he went to work. As soon as he was out the door, though, I got to work myself, only not for my job—I went into full-on baby announcement mode.
The first thing I did was try to figure out the best way to do this. Wolves always knew right away. We didn’t have any announcements like humans did.
My first step was looking online to see what humans did for pregnancy announcements, hoping for inspiration. Most of what I found was either overly dramatic or so cringeworthy it gave me secondhand embarrassment. Those ideas were definitely out. But one trend caught my attention—many people didn’t believe they were pregnant until they took three, four, or even five tests. It made sense. They couldn’t hear and scent things the way we could, but also, that meant that my mate might feel similarly.
I went to the store and bought a bunch of pregnancy tests and a stuffed wolf. If my mate needed extra confirmation, I was going to make sure he had it. And the wolf? That was for our baby, because as much as I hated to admit it, the squishy toy looked very much like me.
Next, I visited the bakery we used for special occasions at the restaurant. While we could whip up some amazing cupcakes, elaborate cakes weren’t exactly our specialty. When the owner came out to greet me, I asked for a favor: something custom, something celebratory, something today. The baker immediately agreed, telling me he had the perfect idea in mind. I trusted him.
My next step was the grocery store, where I picked up ingredients for tonight’s dinner. Despite mocking the cheesy, cringeworthy online pregnancy announcements earlier, I was falling right into that same trap. I was pairing our filet with every baby vegetable I could find. I couldn’t help but smile at my own ridiculousness—it was worth it for him.
When I got home, I set the bread dough to rise for the mini rolls I planned to bake and began prepping everything else. Not long after, the bakery called to let me know the cake was ready. When I picked it up, it was perfection. Banks was going to love it. The baker refused to take any money, insisting it was his gift to us.
Moving away from the pack had been a bigger deal than I’d let myself admit at the time. I told myself it wouldn’t matter if I lived with a community like the kind I grew up in, but the truth was, it did. The adjustment hadn’t been easy, not until I started my restaurant.
Over the course of that first year, the people I worked with had become my new family—a pack of our own, in a way. That was the thing about restaurant life—it wasn’t just a job. We were a team, a community. And that extended to people like the baker, who wasn’t full-time with us but still played a vital role in keeping things running.
By the time my mate came home, my surprise was ready and waiting for him.
“What smells so good?” he asked, stepping into the kitchen.
“I made a special dinner,” I replied casually, hoping not to give too much away before the reveal.
“I thought you had work tonight.”
“I let the new manager take over because we have something to celebrate.” We didn’t have many people on the books, and it was easy enough to do.
“And what’s that?”
“Go look on our bed.”
He laughed. “Should I be expecting sexy briefs?”
I didn’t pretend to hide the fact that I loved him in his tight briefs, and I’d since given him a few pairs in some fun colors.
I grinned. “I wish I’d thought of that. Go check.”
He walked into the bedroom, and I followed behind, standing in the doorway as he approached the box on the bed. He opened the lid and pulled out the pregnancy tests and the stuffed toy, staring for a moment before I heard an audible gasp.
“You don’t think?—?”
“No, I don’t think,” I stepped closer to him. “I know. I scented it this morning, and I can hear their little heartbeat.” I rested my hand gently on his belly. “But I thought you might need proof.”
He dropped the sticks and threw his arms around me while he still clutched the wolf. “I don’t need proof. If you can hear and scent them, they are there. I’m pregnant.”
“You are.” I held him closer. “I love you, mate.”
“I love you too, and I love them already, so very much.”
We held each other for what felt like forever, savoring the moment. Later, we enjoyed our special dinner, shared the beautiful cake, and ended the night making love.
We were going to be fathers, and I couldn’t have been more thrilled.