Epilogue
Being pregnant had been such a wild ride. I thought my moods swung fast with my heat, but it was nothing like the hormones of pregnancy. My first few months, it was questionable whether I could keep anything down or if I needed to just eat more. And the exhaustion—oh, all I could do was sleep.
Then came the second trimester, when I had energy like no one would believe.
I made so many miniatures in that time. Justice even hunted down special glues to make sure that the baby wasn’t exposed to anything that might be harmful.
I worked and worked and worked because I was motivated and energized, and with all the orders coming in, why not?
But then the third trimester hit, and I was either horny or tired. Those were my two speeds. The guys helped me with the horny part, and my mom tried to help with the tiredness by tweaking my diet, which worked a little bit.
After much discussion with my mates, we decided that she could be our midwife. Despite our relationship still not being perfect, she had proved that she would do anything to save a baby when I was born, and that was exactly who we wanted in our corner when my little one came into this world.
This morning, I woke up in my nest alone.
The past few nights, I hadn’t been able to have my mates with me.
I was tossing and turning, nothing was comfortable, and even the slightest movement in the bed kept waking me up.
I felt bad because, emotionally, I wanted them there, but, physically, I could not handle it.
This time, when I woke up, something had changed.
The baby was lower. Not like when she dropped—I remembered that day.
It was like night and day. I hadn’t expected that.
My mom had talked about when babies dropped, and I thought, sure, it’s just a term .
But no. One moment, my stomach was up high, and then it wasn’t.
Like, boom ! It scared poor Justice half to death. He’d been sure something was wrong.
All three of them had been so attentive to me this entire pregnancy, and I suspected this would be the last day of it.
I felt pressure down there, new pressure that my mom had prepared me for.
When I got out of bed, everything ached, especially my lower back, another sign it was nearly go-time, according to Mom.
I took a shower, trying to ease my muscles. The contractions hadn’t started yet, or if they had, they weren’t noticeable enough, the discomfort covered by the normal aches and pains I’d been feeling the past two weeks.
Thanks to Mom, I knew what signs to look for, and I knew when to call her.
When I came out for breakfast, we were having an oatmeal bar, which was my new craving.
Oatmeal with all sorts of toppings, including the occasional ice cream, which defeated the purpose of oatmeal.
But I wasn’t eating for a special diet. I was eating for my cravings, and sometimes that meant ice cream on oatmeal.
It was kind of uncomfortable still that she couldn’t teach me about heat growing up, but when it came to my own baby, I knew every detail, including ones I wished I did not.
“So, I don’t want to set off any alarm bells,” I said, “but maybe…could you three help me get the nest ready? I’m pretty sure today is gonna be the day.”
I’d been a little too blunt because those three sprang into action, not even wanting to eat, sure the baby was just going to fall out of me any second.
This despite them being very knowledgeable about what was happening.
We’d gone through the courses, and I’d been explaining every step of the way.
I had to call them back to eat breakfast.
Afterward, they sent Archer to take care of the animals and chores, while the other two completely redid my nest according to my birth plan. I had been ridiculously specific, including which pillows I wanted, but they didn’t care. They were happy to go along with it.
Shortly after that, the contractions started to come in a real way, where I could feel them, but still not close together enough that I needed to call my mom.
We spent the day together, my mates and I, with them keeping such a close eye on me that I nearly sent them away.
Around dinnertime, the contractions started progressing, and it was time to call Mom.
She came and told me that I’d called at the perfect time.
Thankfully, she was able to provide some pain relief as they started moving from uncomfortable to sheer torture.
If there hadn’t been a special surprise at the end, in the form of our baby, I wasn’t sure I’d have been able to handle it.
My mates held my hand, rubbed my back, put cool cloths on my brow, and gave me drinks, making me as comfortable as possible through the process. And then Mom called it. It was time to push.
I wanted to have our baby at home, not in a hospital, and with Mom, that was possible. She had gone over every option with us, including water births, but being in my nest with my mates like this was what I wanted.
Archer sat behind me, my back against him, and my other mates held my hands. I wasn’t sitting up completely but was at a slight incline, allowing me to see Mom through the entire thing. Three more contractions ran through me before she told me it was time to push.
But she didn’t need to tell me. I could feel it. The burn. Oh, the burn.
I pushed, pushed, and pushed. My mates were telling me how proud they were of me, but I felt like I wasn’t doing enough.
I pushed for what felt like forever, and then the push changed.
The burning was unbearable, followed by the sound of our daughter coming into this world, letting us know with her cries that she was here.
She was absolutely beautiful.
Mom cleaned her up enough to set her on my chest for her first meal.
We had decided to delay cord cutting until she’d eaten.
After she was done, Archer held her as Justice tied the cord, and Dallas cut it, all three of them taking part.
After making sure that everything was right with the baby and me, Mom said she would visit when I was up for it, giving me control.
I appreciated that and thanked her very much for her help.
And then it was just my mates and me in bed together, watching our sweet daughter sleep.
“Lavender Fern?” Dallas asked, using the name on the top of our list.
It suited her beautifully.
“Yes, Lavender Fern,” I whispered. They all agreed.
I looked around, seeing our little family, happier than I’d ever been. I looked forward to spending the rest of my life watching her grow and growing my relationship with my alphas. My three bears.