Chapter 20
PAX
Moving when pregnant can suck it. It’s hot. It’s humid. And I’m cranky. I’m six months pregnant and it shows. Every step is a waddle and I hate it.
“I’m never going to get my abs back.” I rub my back as Aaron nuzzles my neck.
“You’re perfect whether you have abs or not. Just imagine these pecs filled with milk. Mmmm.” He squeezes them and makes a honking noise at the same time, making me laugh.
“Stop fondling your Omega and help me with this big ass box,” Buckle says as he struggles with a box they should have broken down into smaller ones to make it easier. But the Alphas wanted to show off. I roll my eyes. Gotta love these two.
“Don’t hurt yourselves,” I say as I fold a few dishtowels into a box. I’m grumpy that we had to dismantle my nest. I worked so hard on it, but we had to do it so I can recreate it bigger and better at Aaron’s house. Our house.
Neither of them wants me doing much and I know all the tasks they give me are ridiculous.
But I’ll let them take care of me. It’s okay to want to be taken care of.
When dad left, he did that whole… “You’re the man of the house and you need to take care of your mother and sisters.
” As if that doesn’t fuck someone up. I lived that life for so long, but I don’t have to anymore and it’s so refreshing.
“We should have this place cleared out by dinnertime,” Aaron says as he looks around.
Then it’s another long haul and we’ll be home.
My chest aches that I won’t have my sisters around, but we’ve always been pretty independent.
Mom has been less pushy since I have Aaron.
We still haven’t told any of them he’s a mink shifter.
I’m not quite ready and I’m not sure they need to know unless our baby is a shifter.
I hope they are. But if not, that’s fine, too.
“I can’t wait to meet you, little one,” I whisper to my stomach.
“Me, either,” Aaron says as he walks back in. My Alpha is covered in sweat and grime, and I don’t care. He’s still so damn sexy.
“Same. Do you have names picked out?” Buckle asks.
We shake our heads and Aaron answers, “We narrowed it down to a few, but we want to see the vibes the baby’s putting out when they’re topside.”
I snort and go back to packing the kitchen. “The vibes are going to be calm because I’m going to have an amazingly easy birth. That’s the vibes we’re all putting out, right?” I glare at the two.
They put their hands up and back away.
“Exactly, darlin’ easy, gentle, pain-free vibes.”
“All the good vibes,” Buckle says as he dashes from the room.
As predicted, we are on the road by dinner time. Well, after dinner because we were all so hungry. We ate so much pizza before getting into the moving truck, which was a mistake.
“You okay, darlin’?”
“Heartburn. Bad.” I grip the oh shit bar and will the bile to stay down.
“Gonna vom? I can pull—”
I grab a shopping bag from the backseat and hurl. Aaron gags, breaks hard, and follows suit.
Aaron gasps into his bag of gross as I do the same.
“Sympathy barfs. I’m so sorry,” Aaron says. He takes my bag and leaves the moving truck to empty them. Barfing a few more times over the guardrail, all the while Buckle laughs from the van behind us.
“You okay in there?” He hollers from the window.
I wave back. “The joys of pregnancy.” I hand Aaron a few bottles of water to rinse out the bags and he continues getting sick. It’s a little comical and I can’t stop laughing.
Once I get a bottle of antacid in me, I’m better and offer to drive so Aaron can recover from throwing up so much.
“Really, I can still drive.”
“Babe, you need to rest after that. And thank you for taking care of the grossness.”
Aaron presses a hand to his mouth. “Don’t remind me.”
I pass him a fresh water bottle. “Drink. And relax. I’m fine driving a few hours.”
We drive through the night and end up driving halfway before Buckle calls and asks if we want to hit up a hotel. We all need the sleep and agree.
When we’re on the road again, I’m anxious to get to Aaron’s. Anxious to feel at home. Anxious to rebuild my nest.