Chapter Twenty-One
Raiel
Moonscale London
On the way back to the guesthouse we stopped at an inter-world mailbox and sent off some copies of the sonograms to Alvis’s sons and my parents back home.
We picked up a few pizzas for a late lunch and Mori for his first lesson in amulet making.
While the omegas ate and talked shop, I headed upstairs and searched some things up on my phone.
I found several forums and message boards where mates of vampires discussed their diets.
Though, I couldn’t be sure any of it was true.
I scrolled through for a bit before searching again and ending up on a page from a hospital in Spain that specialized in vampyric medicine.
It sort of felt like they were telling me to eat a wild diet, take a vitamin, and hydrate like I meant to cause rainy Moonscale London to sink into a drought.
They were still studying by the time I decided my diet was probably fine since I grew up with what some of them called ‘intuitive eating.’ I ate what I craved, and it was mostly fresh meat and things that could be foraged.
Sure, we had bread and the like back home, but it was more of a treat than the main meal.
Still, I liked pizza, and it hadn’t killed me or made my mate malnourished yet.
With more time on my hands, I started shopping for the baby or at least I started filling up the cart.
Alvis and I hadn’t decided where we’d live yet, and I wasn’t sure how long his friends were willing to let us stay here.
Also, how much stuff could we buy for the baby if we were traveling around?
I could carry just about anything but only had so many arms and so much back to put it on.
Once he set Mori to practice coming up with artistic ways to represent abstract ideas, I looked up to see Alvis leaning in the doorway.
“We can stay as long as we’d like. They built extra houses so that they could have their own little vampyric community and we’re part of that. I’m not against living with Nic and Beal but figure they have their hands full with the kitten and the baby and Annila taking off.”
“So, I can buy a nursery set?” I asked, arching a brow.
“Back home I’d have done all the work of making it but here other designers do it and count on people buying it so that they can survive.
It’s like some weird sort of hunting. Unless you have a preference.
You’ve done this before. Five times before. ”
“Something that isn’t going to fall down,” Alvis teased, sinking onto the bed with me. He reached out for my phone, and I passed it off to him. He spent a few minutes scrolling the cart. His grin spread wider every few seconds.
“Am I going overboard?” I asked him.
“No, this is a lot of good stuff. The carpenter is a vampire too,” he said.
“I know. I searched vampire baby furniture,” I shrugged. “I wasn’t sure if a crib and a bassinet were overkill, but we can afford it, and it has a five-hundred-year warranty. So, if something breaks with a future kid, he’ll fix it.”
“I think buying once and planning to use it for a long time is a good idea,” he nodded.
“The house does have a designated nursery. It was the only room we didn’t romp in and for good reason.
It would’ve been strange. Too strange for my blood.
That’s where the baby sleeps not where we make the baby. ”
We shared a quick kiss and he went downstairs to check on Mori.
Shopping for the baby and Mori would be a constant in our lives over the next few weeks.
The wolf stopped by nearly every day, bringing snacks and trinkets and sometimes magical books to share with Alvis.
Packages came in for Alvis too from his sons.
Part of me wondered if they had turned their near daily lessons into a book swap.
It was also strange for me to know that somewhere on Earthside Alvis had a whole house I had never seen.
He’d also never seen where I lived back home.
Our mating feast came and went. His sons and Beal had outdone themselves turning it into a mating feast/baby shower combo.
Thankfully, someone had given everyone a head’s up that I’d already bought all the furniture the kid would need for most of their life.
We still went home with more baby stuff than I figured one baby would ever use.
For me, the gifts weren’t the highlight of the party.
It was seeing my parents again and watching them chat with Alvis and Beal and the other friends we had on Earthside.
Their gifts had all been enrichment toys we used for cubs back home.
I didn’t bother to remind them that the baby might not be a cat at all because I could totally see a baby vampire biting into some of the toys too.
All kids teethed and I knew how sharp Alvis’s fangs were.
We all promised to get back together for a holiday as soon as we could make the arrangements.
I spent endless hours folding and organizing all the clothes the baby received from the party.
Others offered to help but I was content to listen to parenting podcasts and fold away while Alvis and Mori worked on magic downstairs.
Since most of our food came from the market, it was the least I could do to take care of my mate.
By the start of Alvis’s second trimester, Mori was unkidnappable.
At least to spirits. Another trip back to the bloody midwife told us that our baby was indeed a lion because a vampyric baby wouldn’t grow so rapidly.
I’d seen Ophelian nearly every two weeks since the first time, but I still wasn’t fond of him.
I was sure the doctor was a good guy, but Alvis grew so nervous before every appointment that I was certain one day my cat was going to eat him.
Knowing that our baby was indeed a kitten, I set up a carpeted wall for him or her to climb inside the nursery and set out all the toys too. Most were stuffies that were chewable and big leather balls to pounce or hide behind. A little barrel covered in soft, fluffy hides to play with.
We started having weekly get together with Beal and Nic and Crilus and Pierce.
Mori and his brother came most of the time too.
Sometimes Morvan and Rho came too but only if Mori wasn’t going to be there.
The wolf always had questions about how Rho had babies.
He kept them to a minimum but always acted butthurt any time something came up and Rho was vague about it.
He was curious but the whole world didn’t need to know how anyone’s pregnancy worked.
No one needed to know anyone else’s private information.
It was what Crilus and Preston argued with Mori about the most. He had a thirst for knowledge that often teetered on making him sound like a judgmental busybody.
“Mori means well,” Alvis said one evening while we were getting ready to go to sleep.
We were already in bed, and I was lotioning up his full moon of a belly.
“Does he?” I asked, mostly so that Alvis would give me his opinion on the matter.
“He wants to know everything and he wants to know Rho better. I think he’s searching for what he thought he had with Preston. Someone who confides everything in him.”
“Doesn’t he have that friend? That best friend? A little jaguar guy? Married to that big dragon dude?”
“Ni,” Alvis nodded. “I think they are best friends. They’re just in different stages of life.”
“So, you’re saying he’s going to feel like he’s missing something until he finds his mate?” I asked. “Because we tell each other everything, right?”
“Do we?” Alvis smiled.
“What secret would I have? I’ve even showed you where I keep the hidden stashes of snacks so that Mori or your sons don’t gobble them all up. I don’t mind running out in the middle of the night for you, but they aren’t pregnant. They can get their own snacks and leave yours alone.”
“Eh, you’ll see how kids are once ours grows up. It’s hard to tell them no. Sometimes I look at Arrick and the others and still see growing boys.”
“Okay, they can have them and I guess Mori too, but they need to understand you’re eating for two and I want you to have everything you want,” I said, massaging his belly softly.
“I do have everything I want, Raiel,” he said, and I paused waiting for the but.
“No but,” he shook his head, picking up on my thoughts over our mating link.
“I have everything I want. My older kids are grown and happy for the most part. Sure, they’d like to make me a grandfather at some point, but they’ll get there.
I have you and our baby. I have good friends here and, yes, Mori is counted in that.
I’m happy, Raiel, and well taken care of.
Maybe the best I’ve ever been taken care of but that’s because I’ve learned to let you take care of me.
There’s this fine line between my ego and wanting to be spoiled. ”
“I’m not spoiling you,” I chuckled and went back to massaging his belly.
My lion purred inside his inner sanctum as our hands drew lines on the lotion.
“Food and clean housing and baby stuff is not spoiling. Letting you rest because you are growing a whole person is going above and beyond. Not even all the massages I give you are spoiling you. You deserve good things – all the good things you want. If someone else’s mate is not giving them those things that is on them. ”
“What about you? Are you happy too?” he asked.
I stretched out beside him and carefully pushed a stray lock of hair behind his ear.
“Every day that I wake up to you, I’m over the moon. I am happy. I’m happier than I knew anyone could ever be, mate. Soon our kitten will be here, and I’ll be even happier. Some days I think I might explode from how happy you make me.”
“Even when I’m sharing my snacks with Mori?” he teased.
“Even then. I just worry that you’ll run out of your favorites and have to be sad while I run out to the store,” I said.
“The fact that I have someone to run out to the store for me makes it impossible to be sad,” he grinned and entwined my fingers with his.
“Tell that to your hormones. I remember the ice cream incident last week. I nearly knocked over a truck running to the store,” I said.
“You could’ve driven,” he chuckled and squeezed my hand.
“I panicked. I’ll probably try to carry you to the hospital that way when it’s time for you to give birth.”
“Raiel, I hope not. I don’t think you understand how wet having a baby is and I don’t want to have to shave your back.”
“For you, I would,” I said and stole a kiss.