Chapter Twenty-Five
Bram
Pregnancy cravings were weird. I knew that going in.
I’d known pregnant wolves and I’d seen TV shows with pregnant omegas.
Heck, I had a pregnant professor in college one semester who was constantly eating pickled beets while teaching online.
So, when I wanted ice cream on my oatmeal, I just did it and didn’t think much of it.
When there were three days where all I wanted was peanut butter toast, I went with it.
I even caved to my need for olives—oh, so many olives.
But when I started wanting fries—specifically fries from Animals—I pushed it down. None of the local places would do, and without a real, decent fryer and the exact potatoes they used, nothing I created at home would come close.
I was seven months pregnant, and we were settled into our new life.
The last thing we should be doing was traveling for french fries.
Unlike a bread product or even something that could be reheated, there was no way to ship them to us where they would still be edible.
It was best to give it up until my body moved on to the next thing, which it would, just like it had done with every other craving I had.
My mates surprised me this morning with my suitcase by the door. “What’s going on?” I asked.
Seth was drying his hair with a towel, at the end of our bed. “What’s going on is we’re going to take care of your fry craving.”
“What?” I was pretty sure I hadn’t told him about it.
I learned early on that if I so much as hinted about a craving, they would make it happen, no matter what time of day or night it was and what they needed to be doing instead.
If I told them about Animals, we’d have been there already and they didn’t have time for that.
“That’s ridiculous. We can’t road trip just to get fries from Animals.” Although as I said that, I was sad, about it. Going to Animals was exactly what I wanted to be doing.
“I knew it,” Indy said, coming into the room.
“Knew what?”
“Knew it had to be Animals.”
“Explain.”
“For the past three nights, you have talked about nothing but french fries in your sleep.” Seth hung his towel on the hook.
Since when did I talk in my sleep and, more importantly, what else did I say when I did?
My face burned. “Oh. I didn’t realize that. Sorry.”
“Don’t be sorry. Why didn’t you tell us?” Indy sat beside me.
“Because they’re so far away, obviously.”
Now it made sense why they kept trying to get me to go to the burger shack down the road for the first couple of days. They thought it was any fries, and those were good, but they weren’t Animal fries. They weren’t even in the same category.
“Last night, you kept mumbling about how no place made them like this, but you never said the name,” he explained.
It was news to me that I talked in my sleep at all, so it didn’t surprise me that I was leaving out what they felt were important details. “So, you just packed a bag and decided we were gonna go on a trip? What if it was only a few miles away?”
Seth rolled his eyes. I deserved that one.
“Yes. We packed a bag and hoped you’d tell us where we needed to go.” Indy really did know me well. “If not, we were going to go from diner to diner across the state until you caved and told us.”
“And you didn’t think of asking me?”
“Oh, we thought of it, but figured you might try and say you didn’t need us to go.”
Which I had.
“Take a shower and get dressed.” Indy grabbed the handle of the suitcase. “We’ll be leaving in an hour.”
“Um, okay.” I wasn’t really going to argue. The sound of exactly what my body wanted had my wolf prancing with joy.
I took a quick shower, and, just like he said, we were on our way.
It was the longest trip ever to get greasy, salty goodness. But, as we walked inside Animals for the first time in months, it was like coming home. They might not have ever been my real pack, but tell that to my beast.
In so many ways, they were more a pack than my birth pack ever would be.
This was only highlighted by the last few phone calls I’d had with my father.
He claimed to be happy about the baby and the mating, but didn’t once ask about either when I called, instead going on about the transition plan he had for taking over.
I’d been so hopeful when we did the big family video call, but to him, life was all about becoming alpha.
I was happy for him, but equally happy I wasn’t there to witness it firsthand.
Everyone at Animals rushed over, asking how the baby was doing and wanting hugs and conversation. I was having none of it. Fries first. All else could and would wait.
“Hold that thought,” I said, and waddled my way to the kitchen. I dropped a huge basket of fries, letting them cook just a tad longer than we would for customers, keeping them crispy exactly the way I like them. I salted them up and then brought them out to join everyone. “Okay, now you can talk.”
I ate that entire basket and made two more before I no longer wanted any more fries.
As I sat there talking to my old friends and coworkers, I realized this craving probably hadn’t been about the fries at all.
My wolf was going through the same hormonal fun that I was with us being pregnant, and he was missing his people.
It said a lot that it was this place and these people over my birth pack he was missing.
We had a great time and were sad to leave a couple of days later. Driving back, Seth, Indy, and I all agreed that we’d come back to Animals every few months for the fries and to be surrounded by the people who gave me the new start in life I needed.