Chapter 12
Chapter
Twelve
River had cake. Two different kinds: yellow with chocolate frosting, and red velvet with cream cheese frosting.
He had balloons and presents and punch and little sandwiches and pastries and dips with crudités.
He’d invited Bohdi’s family to come up for the weekend, and he was providing hotel rooms for all of them.
He’d arranged for a couple of Bohdi’s old coworkers to come up — his best friend from his old job, Jane, and one of the guys that had encouraged Bodhi to go to the lodge for Christmas where they met.
And he had a theme. Bohdi had chosen the theme for the baby’s room, and so that was the same stuff he’d used for the party. Turtles. Bohdi had chosen turtles in purple, green, and yellow. They were so cute too.
Bohdi was still asleep, piled up on body pillows in their bed, trying to relieve his pressure points. River figured if they didn’t do the baby shower this weekend, they never would. Bohdi was going to have that baby or babies in a matter of days, he thought.
So he made sure everything was ready. His mom and Bohdi’s both helped him out — setting up things like the prizes for the games and the table full of gifts and piling pillows on the couch so Bohdi could preside over the whole thing in extreme comfort.
What do you think, m?e?
Meu filho. I think you’ve done a wonderful job.
His mom nodded happily. “I think this is amazing,”
“Thanks. You guys have been a really big help. I appreciate it.”
“Don’t forget your dads have been sitting around drinking wine. That helps.”
And because Bohdi’s dad had thrown himself wholeheartedly into his own dad’s wine obsession, they were really enjoying trying out all sorts of vintages together.
He thought they were going to be besties for the rest of their lives.
He glanced at the dads, who were sitting over a chessboard, a glass of red in front of Bohdi’s dad, a glass of white in front of his.
His mom rolled her eyes. “As long as it keeps them out of our way, I don’t care.”
The doorbell rang, and he knew it was the first of their guests showing up, so River went to open it up.
“Jane! Hey! Good to see you.” He recognized her from Zoom meetings even though he hadn’t met her in person, and he held out his arms. She tucked the gift she was carrying to one side and came to give him a kiss on the cheek as he hugged her.
“Hey, River, so glad to see you too. I’m so excited for this.”
A lot of both of their co-workers wouldn’t be allowed to come to this because they were humans and didn’t really know about shifters and alphas and omegas and pregnancy and that sort of thing. But Jane was a badger shifter, and she got it.
“Me too, and I know Bohdi is excited to see you. He’s napping right now, but he does that a lot. Don’t be offended if he drifts off while he’s talking to you.”
“Oh my god, the last three weeks of my first pregnancy, I fell asleep every five seconds.”
She made her way inside to go put her gift on the table, and before he could close the door, Bohdi’s other old co-worker Rick came trundling in. The man was a deer shifter, and he was tall and lanky with great big dark eyes.
“Hey, River, thanks for inviting me.”
Such a cute omega. He shook hands, then took the gift. “It’s good to see you, Rick. We really appreciate you coming.”
He closed the door so all the cold air in the house didn’t escape and headed back inside with the two of them.
River made all the introductions to the family and then went back to get Bohdi. It was time for him to take his pride of place. There were still some siblings who would straggle in, but it was good to start now before it got too late in the day and Bohdi’s feet swelled up any more.
He put a hand on Bohdi’s back once he got to the bedroom. His lover was laying on his side, his belly propped up with a body pillow.
Those dark, bright eyes blinked open, and Bohdi smiled at him. “Hi, babe. Is it time?”
“It is. Come on and let’s get you settled on the couch.” He opened his arms, and Bohdi got up on his hands and knees to crawl into them so River could carry him. He was just that much bigger than Bohdi that he could accomplish such a thing easily.
“Oh,” Bohdi moaned a little bit. “Go easy on me today. I feel very heavy.”
“I promise I’ll be gentle. Do you need to hit the bathroom before we go out and see the fam? Oh, Jane and Rick are here, too.”
“Please, that way I don’t have to hop up and run to the bathroom as soon as I sit down.”
So he took Bodhi to the bathroom and then out to greet his adoring public.
He settled Bodhi on the couch, and his mom and Bodhi’s mom fluttered around making sure he had a footstool with pillows on it as well as a drink and maybe a little bowl of pretzels.
And more people showed up—brothers and sisters, a couple of their neighbors who were also shifters.
It just turned into a really neat thing.
Bohdi was yawning again by the time he opened presents, which were mostly little onesies and socks and washcloths.
He had a feeling they would need a ton of them.
There were also bottles and nipples, a diaper service for the first month, and a bunch of other fun stuff like toys for both baby otters and baby humans.
And then they all played the most ridiculous games.
River didn’t blame Bohdi at all when he refused to try the baby food flavor guessing game. That was totally gross.
“You ready for cake, babe?” He asked, coming to stroke Bohdi’s hair off his face. Those poor eyes had big, dark bags under them. But Bohdi was smiling, and everyone was just looking happy with life.
Sometimes River couldn’t believe this was his to have, that he got this, that this omega loved him and wanted to stay with him and have his babies. It made him feel like thumping his chest like his dad always did and saying, “I’m the luckiest of otters.”
“I would love some. Can I have a little bit of both?”
“Of course you can, son.” Bohdi’s mom bustled over to cut cake, and River squeezed in on the couch next to Bohdi, just wanting to hold his lover close.
They each got a plate with two small pieces of cake on it. River could have eaten three or four times that, but he wasn’t going to make a big deal out of it. He went to have more later.
Bodhi picked at his cake a little bit, his eyebrows knitting together as his lips pursing.
“What’s the matter, baby?” River reached over to tilt Bodhi’s head around, so they were looking right at each other.
Bodhi raised his eyebrows. “What are you doing?”
He squeezed Bodhi’s cheeks in right at the base where they met his mouth. “Loving on you. Now, what’s wrong?”
“Mydummyawittle’set.” Bodhi couldn’t quite move his lips like he was supposed to, so the words came out in a jumble.
“Your stomach’s upset? You haven’t had tummy troubles since…” he trailed off, thinking about it. Well, Bodhi hadn’t had any nausea or anything for quite a while. His morning sickness had been pretty short-lived, but he’d had a lot of heartburn and stuff lately. Been pretty acidy.
Bodhi shook his hand off. “It’s not quite the same thing. Like I don’t feel heartburn; I just feel kind of like if I eat too much, it’s gonna make me sick.”
“Hmm, maybe we should ask the moms. They might have an idea on how to make it better.”
“Would you rub my back a little bit?” Bodhi gave him a pleading look. “It’s really bothering me right now, too, even with all the pillows.”
Oh shit. He pondered that because his mom had told him what to look for once Bodhi went into labor, and it was a feeling of fullness in his tummy and cramps in his lower back. General discomfort all over.
He knew Bohdi’s water hadn’t broken, but maybe he was in the early stages of—
Bodhi gasped because a rush of fluid came out of his body and flowed down onto the floor.
Looked like maybe he’d spoken too soon about the water breaking.
“What do we do?” Bodhi stared at him, eyes wide, his face pale.
“Hey.” He grabbed Bodhi’s hand. “We’ve been over this with the midwife, and the moms are here. We got this, baby. Let me get everybody mobilized to clean up, and we’ll get you changed. And then you can have your cake, okay?”
Bodhi nodded vigorously. “Uh-huh, sure, I can do this. I just freaked out for a sec.”
“Good man.” He leaned over to kiss Bodhi’s cheek and then got up to find the moms, trying to hide the fact that his heart was racing and he was freaking out. But it was his job to make Bodhi understand that everything was going to be just fine.
As soon as River got the moms’s attention, there was a flurry of activity - everybody rushing around to get towels and stuff to clean the floor. He got Bodhi up and got him to the bedroom so they could redress him in some nice, loose clothing. Somebody, he thought, called the midwife.
By the time Bodhi was ensconced on the newly dry couch with a blanket over top of everything and eating his cake, they had all calmed down some because it was going to be a while before this baby or babies showed up.
Bodhi licked cream cheese icing off his fork. “Is it all right that I’m a little freaked out, babe?”
“God, yes. This is the first time for both of us. I mean, look at the moms. They look calm as fuck, but you and me, we can be running around like chickens in our brains.”
That made Bohdi laugh, his eyes lighting up, and River felt ten feet tall because he had calmed his lover down just enough to smile and actually have it be real and happy and good.
“Right. First time for both of us.” Bodhi nodded firmly, squeezing his hand. Like we could totally do this. We’ve got this.
River sure hoped they did, but he had no idea how they were going to get through this. He was just going to have to wing it.
Bodhi was going to kill something. Most likely, it was going to be River.
He was sweaty. He was hurting. He was crying. His birth line was splitting down the middle, and he really wanted these babies out of him right now.
“Nnnnghnn.” He needed to push, but he didn’t think he was allowed yet. The midwife hadn’t told him to. She kept murmuring about how his birthline wasn’t quite ready.
“Can he push yet?” River was right there with him, holding him.
River had started supporting his back and rubbing it about an hour ago.
They had walked so much, letting gravity pull at him, and they had soaked in the tub, now they were just waiting for it to be time to apply some pressure to these babies.
The midwife might not be sure whether there was one or two, but Bodhi knew. He was ready.
Peering at his birth line, the midwife smiled and nodded. “It’s right, Bodhi. It’s time. You can push.”
“Thank the gods.” River kissed the top of his head. “You can push now, baby.”
So push he did. He strained and he sweated and he panted and he cussed River a lot and he pushed. River held him and then held his hands when he had to have something to squeeze down on.
“It’s okay, baby, you can do it.”
It passed in a haze of cramping and contractions and pushing and begging for it to be over. And all along, River encouraged him. Held onto him, loved him, and he felt it deep in his chest.
The first baby arrived a couple hours later. Her little face was red as a beet, and her silky hair was as black as night. She cried with a lusty power, which told him she had a perfectly good set of lungs on her.
Her brother came after another half an hour of hard labor, appearing in a much less dramatic fashion. He still had a good, hard cry when he came out, protesting the entire experience.
“Look at them, baby. Look what you did. You did this amazing thing.”
Totally exhausted, Bodhi laid back and looked at his babies, a boy and a girl.
They were so small but perfectly formed.
The midwife pronounced them utterly healthy after she cleaned and swaddled them.
River held the babies while I got cleaned up, and then he was able to put one in each arm and look at them, really look at them.
He smiled out at them, then looked up at River. “We did it.”
River stroked his sweaty hair off his forehead. “We did it, love. You did it. I can’t believe how amazing you are.”
“So are they.” Bodhi felt the weight of his exhaustion dragging him down. “Will you feed them?”
“Baby, we have an entire family out there that will help me do that. You rest. You’ve earned it.”
He blinked, trying to keep his eyes open just long enough to smile at River. “That was one hell of a baby shower, huh?”
“You know it. We never do anything in half measures.”
“True enough.” They’d gotten pregnant the first time they’d been together, but it didn’t matter. They had this life now and these babies, and Bodhi could teach them how to shift and be otters. And he figured that was the most perfect thing ever, as long as he had River there to love them all.