Chapter Eighteen
Raiel
Pierce’s Family Estate
Alvis came upstairs and took a nap after Mori left.
I hated to admit that I eavesdropped on them, but I had and the thought of Sharon Claudis laying in wait until her grandson was old enough to sacrifice left a sour taste in my mouth.
Also, Annila had left without telling me.
I hadn’t known her for long, but she’d become a part of my life even if that was mostly ensuring she hadn’t rolled off the bed in her sleep.
“She has her own path to walk,” my lion said inside my thoughts. “Perhaps her mate will find her before she completely goes off the rails.”
I hoped the maned guy was right, but I wasn’t holding my breath.
I would have never been in the right place had a fortune teller not pointed me in the right direction.
As I watched Alvis sleep, I couldn’t help but to think how lucky we had been.
The stars don’t line up for everyone. Now, we were together, planning to travel Earthside and probably my home world too.
We were probably pregnant. He smelled pregnant and his heat had receded.
The idea of him leaving the house made me want to rip, tear, and shred whatever lured him out.
The safest place for him and our unborn baby was by my side. Together we were stronger.
Eventually I dozed off too. Our sleep schedule was ‘sleep when you’re tired’ and it was going to take some adjusting before we ever had a sleep schedule that was actually a schedule again. I dreamt that I was flying with Alvis on my back and woke up to the beeping of a timer.
“Babe?” I called out because his warm, familiar weight wasn’t pressed against me.
“Just in the loo,” he called back.
“Uh… Are you doing what I think you’re doing?”
“What do you think I’m doing?”
I was too drowsy and unfocused for our normal game of back and forth.
I yawned and poked around on our mating link.
It took a few tries because Alvis was trying to be sneaky but a moment later, he laughed as phantom fur tickled him.
Then through his eyes I caught the split-second glimpse of the pixelated baby wrapped up in a purple blanket.
All the colors meant a certain type of test – some were faster, detected pregnancy sooner, told you if you were ovulating.
Some were even getting half-ass decent at predicting eggs vs live births if Nic was to be believed.
“Why didn’t you wake me up?” I sprinted to the cracked open bathroom door.
“Because you and Mori could’ve been wrong,” he grinned.
“It was unlikely but stranger things had happened and I don’t feel like I’ve felt before.
Normally, I’d be all ‘give me all the blood and all the sugar.’ I spent most of my last pregnancy dipping doughnut holes and chocolate-covered pretzels into blood, mate. ”
“Well,” I said, leaning on the door frame with both hands. “Were you eating the sire as often as you eat me?”
“Uh… What does—Oh! No, they weren’t donating blood,” Alvis said, blushing. “You did that on purpose!” he said and playfully slapped my chest. I caught him in one arm and pulled him close to me.
“How do you feel about it?” I asked him, pressing my forehead against his.
“Happy,” he said and then dropped his voice to a whisper. “Is it wrong that I’m a little relieved that Annila decided to do her own dirty work?”
“Nah,” I shook my head and kissed him. “She needs to figure out what her shit is and we need to focus on our family. Wait! Do you have another job lined up?”
“I try not to book out more than one or two jobs,” Alvis explained. “Otherwise, I risk one taking waaaay longer than I thought it would and being late for the rest of my life.”
“And you’re taking time off to grow our cubs?”
“Cubs?” Alvis arched a playful brow.
“Possibly. My older brothers are twins and so is my sire.”
“Well, cubs then, maybe,” Alvis laughed and stole a kiss.
I slid my hands down to his ass and deepened the kiss.
We were no strangers to romping with him up against a door or a wall but now we had to shield our baby.
Sure, I knew I wouldn’t drop him, but anything could happen.
Alvis didn’t argue when I spun us around and walked him backwards out of the bathroom and towards the bed.
I kissed him long and slow, lowering him onto the bed.
“Arrick is calling. Arrick is calling,” his phone said from the other side of the room.
“I’d ignore it, but it’s my kid,” he said, pressing himself upright and I wondered how long until he needed my help to get up.
“I’m never going to tell you to ignore the kids,” I said. “One day it’s going to be our firstborn calling.”
It turned out that Arrick had worked out the details of our mating feast. He’d done a lot of back and forth with his brothers and with Beal as a go-between for the cats back home.
Not everyone was coming of course but my parents would be there and all of Alvis’s kids too.
It would take place this weekend and yes, he remembered to have the sort of food non-vamps ate.
When he got off the phone with Arrick, Alvis was one-hundred percent in parent mode and started pondering aloud where was the best place to get an ultrasound.
“Almost anyone perform one can these days,” I said.
“Yes, but we don’t want just whoever for our baby,” Alvis said.
“Hmmm…. Someone I don’t want to eat, though,” I said, rolling over onto my stomach at the foot of the bed to watch him pace.
“And who would that be?”
“I don’t know. This is my first time doing this. It just feels like everything, and everyone, is a danger to you and the baby.”
“Even Arrick and Beal?”
“Is Arrick a doctor?” I asked, hopefully.
“No,” Alvis shook his head.
“Then, I don’t know,” I said and bit my tongue.
Some of the wolf shifters I knew from the bar used alcohol to keep their wolves calmer but that felt like a slippery slope. I loved a good drink as much as the next guy, but I wanted to use alcohol to have fun, not to cope.
“Well,” he walked to the edge of the bed and looked down at me. “I have news for you, Mister Lion-Pants. There will be a midwife. There will be nurses and labs and all that stuff happening and you’re going to have to not eat people.”
“Or what?” I teased him, trying to lure him out of his serious mood. Sure, we definitely had to find a way to reassure my lion that Alvis wasn’t in danger every time he stepped out of the house, but that could wait. Alvis was safe here in the bedroom with me.
My mate thought about it for a minute and crossed his arms.
“Most of what I want to say I’ll do, you’d just think was kinky. That rules out spanking, muzzles, ball-gags, and probably even bending you over the bed to show you who’s boss.”
“Is that a punishment list or a playdate idea?” I teased him, rising up to my knees on the end of the bed to kiss him.
“I’m serious, Raiel,” he said but let me kiss him anyway. “You can’t go around biting these medical people. Your teeth are way too big and way too sharp. I think you could bite through dragon scales if you were determined enough.”
“I love it when you talk dirty to me about how strong I am,” I said in between kisses.
“I’m not taking off my pants until we talk about this,” he laughed.
“I can fondle you through them,” I teased but fell back on my ass and looked up at him.
“Alvis, I’m not going to let him eat someone on purpose.
Will he do it on purpose? Yeah, probably.
He doesn’t like most people. It takes him a long time to warm up to people.
But will I let him do it on purpose? No!
” I shook my head. “Of course, I’m going to try to keep my lion within my control.
Protecting you only works if I’m in charge of my strength.
Why is he so worked up about you seeing a doctor or a midwife?
You smell about as thrilled as if this midwife is going to pickle your dick and turn you into egg salad. ”
“Huh?”
“Never mind,” I shook my head. “A saying from back home. You don’t smell thrilled about the appointments and all of that.”
“I’m not. No one is thrilled about going to the doctor. Even people with doctor fetishes probably don’t like going to real doctors,” he laughed, trying to seem less tense.
“What can I do to make it easier? I mean, besides not eating them,” I winked at him, and he turned crimson. “If you keep that up, you’re going to have to drink again.”
“My first baby was born during the time that you had to find a vampyric doctor or you were going to be treated like shit,” Alvis whispered and I tugged him onto the bed with me.
“If anyone treats you poorly, I’m going to rearrange their internal organs,” I said.
“I’m sorry it was like that for you but this time no one gets to be like that.
If it makes you feel better maybe one of the midwives from back home could come over.
To all of them you’re basically an honorary cat.
Or we could find a vampyric doctor or whatever.
Literally, whatever you want. If I can arrange it, buy it, steal it, or kill it, it’s yours.
If I had time I’d go to school to learn it all but I think our baby will be here before that happens. ”
“And you’ll go with me to all those goofy birthing classes?”
“I’ll demand that they are the goofiest in London,” I nodded. “In case you haven’t noticed, I don’t care what most people think. I work at a bar where anything can and has happened and if someone says you can’t be there because you’re a vampire—”
“You’ll eat them?” he asked, looking up at me through his long, thick lashes.
“No, I’ll report them to Medwin Moonscale and say they made you cry, even if you didn’t,” I said. “I learned that trick from Crilus. You can’t go around making pregnant men cry and let the First Mate of the Moonscale Dragons find out.”
“Good to know,” he laughed.
“But yes, to the classes. Yes, to going with you to every appointment. I’ll even drive you around. I want to be part of this – your pregnancy, our baby coming into the world, the baby – everything because it’s my baby too.”
He kissed me. Soft at first and then long and hard with plenty of tongue.
His scent relaxed and I made a mental note to ensure we took bloodshakes everywhere for the duration of his pregnancy.
Hell, if he only wanted to drink straight from me, I’d drink the damned things.
Most of them tasted pretty good anyway. Alvis grabbed my dick and my train of thoughts derailed and didn’t straighten itself out until we were both a vibrating ball of post-coital pleasure.
“I love you, Alvis,” I whispered in his ear.
“I love you too.”