Chapter Thirty-Four
True
The second Hazel said we needed to talk, my mind raced to her father. Based on the way Lindon and Shiloh stiffened, they were having similar thoughts. It was hard not to. The man existing was the equivalent of a ticking time bomb.
“Has something happened with your father?” I asked
“It’s nothing bad, and it’s nothing about him.” She was nervous. It was rolling off her to the point where her scent changed.
It was always hard to get a full scent from her when she came back from work. She was surrounded by so many products and interacted with so many people there, her scent was often masked.
Today, she was a little sweeter and warmer than normal.
It was yummy, and I wanted to ask her what she did differently, but also, I didn’t want to be rude or make her think that she needed to use products to smell good.
She smelled amazing all on her own, especially since she’d stopped using blockers. Still, it caught my attention.
“So, the thing is, I was at work, and I was overheated.”
“Oh, no. Are you sick?” Lindon was at her side, feeling her forehead.
“Screw it,” she said. “I’m just gonna say it. I’m going into heat.”
All three of us, as her alphas, should’ve seen that coming before she did. Yet all three of us stood there with our mouths hanging open.
“What do you need from us?” Shiloh offered.
“Do I need to run out and buy things?” I asked.
“Want me to draw you a bath?” Lindon went full-on caregiver mode, too.
She looked at the three of us and just shook her head. “I’m not in heat now. It’s just coming. And, no, I don’t need all of that. The thing is, we need to discuss something beforehand.”
I was expecting her to talk about consent or boundaries, what she wanted to do or not do during that time, and that kind of thing, but she surprised me when she asked, “Do you want kids?”
The human sides of us didn’t answer. We stood there, waiting for the first person to speak. My wolf, on the other hand, was a very enthusiastic yes. And I was seeing through his eyes now, something she couldn’t have missed.
“You asked the wrong question, Hazel,” I said.
“What was the right one?”
“You need to ask yourself if you want kids.”
“See, that’s the thing,” she said. “I never thought about them before. Like, my life was hell. I wasn’t going to bring children into it, and I didn’t have anybody I wanted to do the things that gave us babies in the first place.
But I’m not living that life anymore. I’m living a good life with the three of you, and I couldn’t think of anyone who would make better fathers for my baby than you. ”
It was sounding like a yes, and I wanted to hug her and tell I was on board, but not until I heard her words saying she did too. I wouldn’t risk being the reason she said yes if she didn’t truly want them.
“I don’t know if I’m gonna be good at it,” she admitted. “I didn’t grow up with two loving parents and a picket fence and all that jazz. But I know you’ll be good dads, and I think… I think if you’re okay with it, and you want it too, I want to be a mom.”
“You’ll be an amazing mom,” Lindon answered first. “I’d already been thinking about kids and how this property is perfect for them.”
“I have, too,” Shiloh added. “The tree diagonally behind the greenhouse to the left would be perfect for a swing.”
Hazel’s eyes widened. “You really have been thinking about it?”
“Of course,” Shiloh said. “I wouldn’t tease about anything that serious.
” His eyes weren’t his either. His wolf was just like mine in that.
“I’d be honored to have a family with you, Hazel.
We could have cubs running around. And who knows?
Maybe we’ll be lucky, and they’ll look like you instead of one of our sorry asses. ”
Shiloh turned to us, and the mood had shifted. For the good.
“We don’t have to make the decision today. We can wait,” Hazel said. “But then if we do, we should worry about protection because my heat is almost here.”
Again, Lindon brought it back to her. “What do you want?”
“I think we let nature do what nature does,” she said. “And if I’m pregnant, I am. And if I’m not, I’m not.”
There were ways that we, as wolves, could make it more certain to have a baby.
And she wasn’t suggesting those, but she also wasn’t suggesting preventing it, which was probably a better way to guarantee a pregnancy.
The more you stressed about getting pregnant, the lower your chances of having a positive test that month—at least based on the people I knew who’d opened up about that kind of thing with me, which, to be fair, wasn’t many.
We were all in agreement. And that was it.
“So, while we are discussing big changes” I started, “the three of us have been talking about work and some changes.”
“Wait. Did I accidentally call a pack meeting?” she teased, though she wasn’t far from accurate.
“I guess so. But seriously, we don’t want to keep working the way we were working,” I told her. “None of us want to be away from you for weeks at a time, especially not now that we’re building a family.”
“And there’s only so much firewood I can cut, and that’s really what I’m best at.”
I told her about our conversation and all the things we were good at, what we liked about our jobs, and what we weren’t willing to do for them anymore.
“We don’t know exactly what any of this is going look like, but we know what it won’t look like.
For now, there’s a lot of work around here, and we can pick up more in town while we figure it out.
Lindon and Shiloh had already talked about some labor and odd jobs, and I could always pick up work online.
“We do have money, more than enough. But we want to be up front with you.” I added, “If something comes through some of our contacts that tells us somebody needs help, we want to do it.”
“And that right there just made me fall in love with you all over again. Tell the truth. That was the plan all along.”
“Did it work, though?” Shiloh winked.
“It totally did.”
“Please don’t feel like your job needs to carry us,” I said. “It doesn’t. Don’t put that burden on yourself.”
We left that conversation not knowing what we were going to do next, not exactly. But we didn’t need to. Because when the time came, we’d figure it out together.