Epilogue #6
Before anyone can freak out fully, I reach out to Troy. I gesture at him to lie next to Carter. Sebastian takes the other side, while I settle on top of Carter’s chest, then draw everyone closer until we’re one big, tired tangle of limbs.
“There.” I sigh happily, surrounded by my mates. My husbands. “We’ll talk about all of this. I promise, I’m here for all of you, just as much as you’re here for me. Do you trust me to be a good mom?”
A chorus of “Yeahs” rumbles around me, with zero hesitation from any of them.
I smile through the happy tears. “Well, that’s exactly how I feel about you.
And we’ll have lots of time to get used to the idea.
We won’t even know if this was successful until a few weeks have passed.
” I brace myself on my hands and peer down at the three of them.
“I’m sure they have pregnancy tests in…Mexico?
” I try, fishing for information about our honeymoon. “Hawaii?”
Carter snorts out a laugh. “Nice try, sweetheart. And yeah, I’m sure they have tests wherever we’re going. Or we can grab them on the way to the airport tomorrow if you’d like, but chances are, the three of us will know before those tests do.”
I stare at him. “How?”
“Your scent.” Sebastian yawns and nuzzles into Carter’s side. “It’ll change as soon as you’re preggo.”
A grin forms on my lips. “Of course. I should have thought of that.” I settle on Carter’s furry chest and let out a sigh. “Tell me the moment you know, okay?”
“Deal,” Troy rumbles, patting my ass. “Now get some rest, Emma. We’ll have a long day tomorrow.”
CARTER
Two hours later
“Be careful,” Sebastian hisses. He draws back a tree branch that threatens to brush the top of Emma’s head. “Don’t wake her.”
I maneuver past a maple tree and tuck Emma more securely in my arms. “I’ve got this. You could run ahead and make sure there aren’t any mosquitos in the bedroom.”
But I know he won’t leave us even before he shakes his head. No, I wouldn’t want to leave Emma either, not with the knowledge all three of us now have.
We felt the change so soon after it happened—I didn’t know the reaction would be this immediate.
It was the single most incredible thing to witness, the subtle, barely there shift in Emma’s scent.
If we’d been asleep, we would have missed it, but none of us wanted to fall asleep when we could stay awake next to a drowsing Emma, protecting her and talking quietly about our plans for the following weeks.
Troy had been the first to notice, his nostrils flaring wide.
Then I’d scented it, too, a sweet undertone to her floral scent that had every protective instinct in me roaring to life.
I know it’s too soon to truly know yet, what with human pregnancies being so delicate, and Emma for sure won’t want to tell anyone else until much later.
But hope grows in my chest, a beautiful warmth that has me squeezing her closer to my chest.
“You think we should wake her?” Troy asks quietly. He trudges next to me, his arms full of blankets. “She asked us to.”
I smile down at our sleeping mate. “The moment she wakes, we’ll tell her. But she’ll need her sleep. She’ll need us more now than ever before.”
Troy nods thoughtfully. “When she said we were going to be great fathers… I didn’t think about that before. But now I know I’d kill anyone who tried to hurt Emma or our kids.”
I step in front of him to stop him, then kiss him gently. “I hope you never will. But knowing that she has you by her side will make my life infinitely easier, too.”
“Right?” Sebastian bounces on the balls of his feet, excitement radiating from him. “I feel like I have to do something. Maybe paint the nursery? I was thinking we could do a forest scene. Or a beach?”
Troy bumps Sebastian’s hip with his. “Not in the middle of the night, babe. But I’ll help you with whatever you choose. After we return from the honeymoon.”
Sebastian smiles sheepishly. “Oh. Right. Yeah, I guess all of that can wait.” Then his eyes go wide, and he stops on the track. “Hey, is it safe for humans to fly while pregnant?”
A spike of worry shoots through me, and judging by Troy’s expression, he hasn’t thought of this either. We take off toward the cabin at a near run and burst through the front door.
“Google it,” I bark at Troy, who’s already searching for his phone. “I’m taking her to bed.”
While Sebastian picks up Emma’s wedding gown and sets in on top of the dresser, I lay Emma down on the pillows and cover her lightly with a sheet.
I debate waking her for a shower, since we’re all still sticky from before, but we need to let her rest. Even if it is safe for her to fly out to Italy tomorrow, she’ll be tired from the trip and jetlagged and…
Troy bursts in, human-shaped and naked, a phone in one hand.
His other hand is buried in his hair, and he’s tugging on the blond strands in exasperation.
“It says here she can fly until the last trimester, which is fine, but did you know humans can’t eat seafood when pregnant?
I mean, it says some fish might be okay, but clams are a definitive no-no.
And raw-milk cheese is bad for them, as is prosciutto! ”
“Hey.” I step over to him and grab him by the shoulders to refocus his attention. “Calm down. When have you ever seen Emma eat raw-milk cheese? And I don’t even think she likes clams.”
“But we’re going to Italy,” he groans, his blue eyes wide. “Aren’t they, like, known for eating raw things?”
“I think that’s the French,” Sebastian counters, walking over to peer at Troy’s phone. “I had steak Tartare at a French restaurant once, it was amazing. But we should be fine in Italy, she can eat all the pizza and pasta she wants.”
“We’re going to Italy?”
At Emma’s excited question, we all turn to the bed, and I curse inwardly for ruining the surprise for her. She’s sitting, the sheet pooled around her waist, her brown eyes shining.
I give Sebastian and Troy my most fearsome glare, then sit on the bed next to Emma and brush back her messy hair. “Yeah, we’re going to Italy.”
Emma lets out a little squeak, then throws her arms around my neck. “That’s amazing! Thank you!”
Troy sets down the phone and joins us in bed, nuzzling his cheek against hers. Then Sebastian lands on the pillows next to her and tackles her back, lying on top of her and wrapping her in a big hug.
“Careful!”
I bark the order without thinking, grab Sebastian, and haul him off Emma. He falls on his back and stares up at me, eyes wide, horror clear in his expression. Then he scrambles to his knees and runs his palms over her, frantic.
“Did I hurt you? Emma, talk to me!”
It takes me a moment to realize that Emma is staring at both of us like we’ve lost our heads, and then at Troy, who hauls her into his lap and wraps his thick arms around her.
“What is going on?” she demands and bats away Troy who is trying to get her to lie down. “I thought we had this conversation already. Two hours ago, was it?”
I exchange a look with Sebastian, who shrugs, then grins at Emma.
“You’re pregnant, baby,” he tells her, just like that. “So, ah, we Googled some stuff online, and it turns out humans are really fragile when pregnant, so we…”
“What?” Emma’s eyes go wide as saucers, her cheeks draining of color. “How do you know?”
“Your scent. We sensed it the moment it happened,” Troy rumbles. He leans in and kisses her forehead softly. “The most incredible moment of my life.”
“Yeah.” Sebastian curls himself around them, lying on his side. “I won’t say I’m not freaking out, but we did check, and you can fly to Italy tomorrow.”
Emma bursts into tears. She leans forward and buries her face in her hands, her shoulders shaking, her breaths coming out as huge sobs.
I shuffle closer to her and join the tangle of limbs on the bed, needing to be there for her.
“Hey.” I take her hand and squeeze her fingers. “Are these tears happy or sad?”
Emma lowers her other hand and peers up at me, her face splotchy and red. “Can you be happy and terrified at the same time?”
“For sure.” Sebastian puts a possessive hand on her still-soft belly. “I can’t wait to meet our kid, but at the same time, I’m already thinking of all the things that can go wrong. Brains are assholes like that.”
Emma laughs through her tears. “True. That’s how I feel, too. I just wasn’t expecting…” She trails off and shakes her head in clear disbelief.
“That we’d get you pregnant the moment you took off your charm necklace?” Troy unearths the pendant and chain from between the sheets, where it must have gotten lost earlier when I’d put Emma to bed. “We had a lot of practice, so we knew exactly what to do.”
Emma takes the necklace and holds it thoughtfully in her palm.
“This must be a hell of a charm. If it kept me from getting pregnant for more than a year, I mean.” Then she sticks out her hand again, offering the pendant back to Troy.
“It’s such a pretty piece, and I loved wearing it, but I won’t need it now. ”
I make a mental note to replace the pendant with a similar one, only without the charm. If she thinks it’s beautiful, I’ll make sure she has something equally nice to wear every day.
Troy takes it from her, then stands and puts it in a drawer. “You might need it again someday.”
“Yeah, when we’re done making babies.” Sebastian stretches out, his eyes closed. “How many do you think you’ll want to have?”
“At least three,” Emma muses, curling up next to him. “Maybe more if you guys are up for it. I want a big family.”
Troy spoons Sebastian and reaches for Emma, one hand resting on her hip. “I want as many as possible. I’ll start drawing up plans to build an extension to the house as soon as we return from Italy. We can add four rooms to start with, maybe an additional one just to be sure?”
I set the alarm—we don’t want to miss our plane tomorrow—and lie down behind Emma, completing the pack huddle. It hits me that soon, we’ll have a baby right here with us, and whether it’ll be born human or wolf, I’ll love it the same, with all my heart.
“We’ll plan everything when the time is right,” I tell them. “But right now, Emma needs rest because she’s carrying our first baby. We’ll start with one, and everything else will fall into place.”
I put my hand over Troy’s, and for a long moment, our rings all pulse in sync, our heartbeats overlapping perfectly.
And I know we’ll be okay, no matter the challenges life throws at us. We’ve got each other, after all.
The End.
Thank you so much for reading this cozy story! I hope you enjoyed Emma and her guys, I certainly loved writing them.