16. Braylon
SIXTEEN
brAYLON
“Night, night,” I crooned as Adan and I stood beside Alora’s crib.
“She’s asleep,” he mouthed, and we tiptoed toward the nursery door, leaving the nightlight on.
Our little girl was going through a stage of not sleeping. She’d been a trouper since birth, but the past week, we’d been up countless times, and both Adan and I trudged through our days with dark circles under our eyes while mainlining caffeine.
We crept outside and closed the door. I hardly dared to breathe, thinking she’d wake. We were convinced she was a shifter because the tiniest noise disturbed her.
“Tea?” Adan yawned and headed toward the kitchen.
“Too tired, babe.” I trudged into the bathroom, brushed my teeth and washed my face, before tumbling headfirst into bed. Ahhh, the soft pillow, firm mattress, and the clean sheets I’d put on the bed earlier, one of the only things I’d accomplished today other than looking after, playing with, and loving our daughter.
But as I drifted off, Alora’s cry rang out from the baby monitor. Stuffing the pillow over my head, I counted the seconds, hoping she’d put herself back to sleep.
“I’ll get her.” Adan stuck his head in the door before disappearing to the nursery.
I should have drifted off, but he was singing to our little girl and pacing the floor. Since being mated to a shifter, my hearing had improved, and I picked up voices and sounds I hadn’t been able to before Adan and I moved in together.
Alora continued to cry, and I heaved myself up and stumbled into the nursery.
“Let me try.” Cuddling our little girl, I swayed and hummed while begging the universe to soothe her to sleep.
But she continued to howl with her eyes open. Adan reached over and stroked her cheek.
“Let me try something.”
While he didn’t give his wolf his fur, he allowed him to manifest in his gaze.
Alora’s cries quietened, though her chest shuddered with the occasional sob, while she studied the wolf in her alpha father’s eyes.
“She likes my beast.”
I put our baby in my mate’s arms and she lay, her eyes open wide as he held her close. But though Adan wandered around the room, singing a lullaby, and Alora was no longer crying, she also wasn’t going to sleep. And she showed no sign of being tired.
“I have a suggestion.” I asked Adan if I held the baby while he shifted and his beast could lie on the rug. I’d put Alora beside him and maybe the warmth of his body, his breath, and scent would help her to sleep.
He agreed and told me his wolf was honored to help with the baby. I hoped it would work because even Adan’s beast was lacking sleep after listening to Alora cry every night.
I nestled the baby beside the wolf and covered her with a blanket before I got on the beanbag beside them. No way was I getting on the hard floor.
With a hand resting on my mate’s beast and Alora, their breathing in tandem, I was alert, anticipating our baby’s cry. Not wanting to disturb her by moving and having the beanbag heave and crumble, I counted backward from a hundred, but never made it.
When I opened my eyes, the sun was streaming in the window and I had a quilt over me. Adan wasn’t in sight, and both the wolf and Alora were gone.
Flinging the quilt off me, I tore into the living room to find Alora in her high chair and Adan feeding our daughter rice cereal.
“Was she okay?” If the baby had been awake all night and Adan had let me sleep, I owed him big time.
“Yes.” His wide grin assured me he wasn’t peeved I’d left him on all-night duty.
“And you?”
“Both my wolf and I caught up on much-needed rest.”
I kissed the top of Alora’s head and fell into Adan’s arms. “Thank you.”
“It was your idea.” We smooched, and Alora gurgled.
After pouring coffee, I asked, “Are you as well rested when you’re in wolf form as in human?”
“Absolutely. Better because I don’t have to think about whether I need a drink of water, if the alarm is on, or if the phone buzzes. Those distractions are not present when my beast has his fur.”
His reasoning didn’t reassure me that he was in touch with what our daughter was doing. I formed a sentence in my head, needing an answer, but not wanting to upset my mate because he was the best dad and partner.
“But—”
Adan cut me off. “My wolf would have alerted me if the baby needed a diaper change or was crying. He would have woken the second she was distressed.”
I patted his chest, feeling guilty that I’d doubted him. “Sorry.”
“No need to apologize. Your first priority is Alora, as is mine.”
Despite being mated to a shifter, there was still a lot I had to learn about their world.
“I can shift again tonight if she won’t settle.”
And that brought up another question. “What if sleeping with your wolf becomes a crutch and she expects to do that every night?”
Adan shrugged. “I don’t see the problem.” He peppered kisses on my lips. “You can sleep in our bed.” He chortled. “We all can.”
“We’d need a bigger bed,” I deadpanned.
But our daughter would need to put herself to sleep as she grew older. Also, she’d have human friends and might have sleepovers. She’d go to college and have a boyfriend or find a mate if she was a shifter.
“Alora can’t rely on your wolf forever.”
“He says it’s no problem.”
Yikes. Thinking of our baby growing up and leaving home brought tears to my eyes, and my chest constricted, making it hard to breathe. But how did I explain to a shifter wolf, nestled inside my mate that the little one he adored would grow up and leave home.
“Tell him thank you.”
But regarding Alora’s sleeping patterns, we’d have to decide if we were willing to have a short-term gain in return for long-term pain. I didn’t have an answer, and it was something my mate and I would have to agree on.
Adan interrupted my thoughts. “What if my wolf played with Alora before bedtime, maybe tiring her out, and she might be willing to go to sleep by herself.”
Hmmm, the hour before bedtime should be about winding down, not overstimulating a child. And Alora was only just sitting up. She couldn’t walk or crawl, so I wasn’t sure how much playing she’d do. Observing? Yes. Squealing? Okay. But making her sleepy? I wasn’t certain.
A yawn crept up on me because one good night’s rest didn’t make up for the week of no sleep.
As Alora’s bedtime drew near, we bathed her and dressed her in her wolfie sleep suit. Adan disappeared into our room to shift while I settled into the beanbag with our daughter on my lap.
“Who’s that, Alora?” I whispered as the beast padded into the room.
She shook her hands and giggled while raising her tiny fists in the air. The wolf picked up a ball in his mouth and rolled it over the floor. It hit the beanbag and Alora kicked her legs against me.
I placed the ball on my daughter’s palm and covering her hand with mine, we tossed the ball to the wolf.
When Alora got bored with the ball game, the wolf hid behind the door. Our daughter sat still, something she rarely did, and when the beast pounced out, she shrieked. Worried she was scared, I cuddled her, but she craned her neck toward Adan’s beast.
Ten minutes later after the wolf hid a number of times, our daughter yawned. Taking the hint and hoping she wouldn’t complain, I placed her in the crib, and Adan shifted. We wished her good night and crept out of the room.
Not taking her sleepiness for granted, I stood outside the door, braced for her to cry, and when I checked the monitor, she was asleep.
“I was wrong,” I told my mate as I slid under the comforter.
“How so? Seemed as though it went pretty well.”
“One size doesn’t fit all.” Just because some babies needed a bedtime story and a calm environment didn’t mean our child did. And Alora had shifter blood in her veins, whether she was a shifter or not. I couldn’t compare our child with the human baby across the street.
“So what’s the verdict?” Adan put his arm around me, and I rested my head on his chest. “I vote for letting my wolf help with bedtime, and we can wean her off that routine as she gets older.”
“Yes.” It might not be right for other shifters, but my mate and I needed to function in the real world. We couldn’t do that if we were zombie-like. I opened my mouth to continue, but Adan put a finger to my lips.
“I love you, but no more talking, babe. Let’s sleep.”
“I like the way you think.”