Chapter Nine
Treg
Hemlock Mountain
I’ve never been able to go long without drawing.
Even as a kid it was already in my blood.
So when I woke up before Damon the next morning, I had to draw him.
Outside was still a frozen landscape with more snow falling every second.
Soon Damon would be the only one able to get around except for the guys with the plows.
Okay, sure. Plenty of people would still get around and the world wouldn’t stop spinning but I planned to spend every second of winter that I could locked inside with Damon.
He slept hard as the cold, early morning sunshine danced through the blinds, making crisp lines across his naked body.
We’d made love more than a few times the night before.
We marked almost every room in between snack sessions.
I’d put in a grocery order before we hit the hay last night but all the orders were running behind due to the weather.
One of the delivery drones had been caught in a gust and battered around someone’s chimney.
So they were a drone down and running behind.
We wouldn’t starve but we’d probably have to cook.
I nearly held my breath as I sketched out my naked, sleeping mate.
I didn’t want to wake him up before I encapsulated his image on my sketch pad forever.
Later today, I’d dig the tree out of the attic, and we could put it up.
Yule was important for the yetis. It marked the official start of their season even if the snows came earlier every year now and something about having Damon inside my head made me feel more festive than I had in a long time.
I hadn’t decorated the house since Del, Chasten and Kirk’s eldest, was born.
Usually, they hosted Yule and we’d all just help them decorate the house.
Grina and Abby decorated for their baby, but I figured decorating my house just for me was overkill.
“S’not,” Damon shook his head, still half asleep.
His wild, white hair fell in a messy cascade over his handsome face and he yawned, not bothering to push it away. I drew it like that in quick, light lines before he moved again.
“Snot what?” I tried not to chuckle.
“It’s not overkill to decorate for yourself.
Sure, Yule is a getting together holiday, but everyone deserves to be happy.
If decorating makes a lone person happy, they should do it,” Damon yawned again and pushed his hair out of his face.
“Everyone should do what makes them happy as long as it’s not hurting anyone.
Are you done drawing me yet? I need to pee. ”
“Yeah, I’ll touch it up later,” I said, putting the sketchpad aside.
“Are you going to do that when I’m pregnant too?” he yawned, pushing himself up out of bed. “I won’t be able to lay still for so long. I’ll have to pee right away. I’ve seen pregnant yetis have to run to the bathroom.”
“I’ll help you to it when you need me too,” Treg promised. “I won’t make you sit still for sketches. You could’ve gotten up whenever you wanted to.”
“I know but maybe I want to be your muse,” he grinned and sprinted off to the bathroom.
After breakfast, we spent most of the day decorating the house.
I’d collected plenty of décor over the years and he ordered some more via drone delivery.
The lights meant for the exterior of the house arrived before our grocery delivery did.
While I bundled up, Damon went out to get started but by the time I made it outside he was up on the roof with no ladder in sight.
He’d scaled up the house to the roof and had most of the lights strung across all ready.
“What do you think, mate?” he shouted down, grinning wide.
Something inside me lit up too. It wasn’t just the holiday décor. Soon the whole street would be festive. As would most of the streets around town. No, it was Damon who lit me up.
We went back and forth, from the inside to the outside, decorating here and there until we ran out of decorations and steam.
We ordered a few pizzas for dinner and our grocery order arrived via drone while Damon was taking the boxes out to the can.
I watched from the window as he snatched the heavy thing midair before it crashed into a naked, sleeping tree in the front yard.
He freed our bags and patted the thing as if it was a lost kid he patted on the head and set it free.
Whoever was operating it said, ‘thank you!’ and Damon scurried back inside leaving the groceries out in the snow.
Laughing, I met him at the door and kissed him on the forehead.
“The claiming vows didn’t tell me the tech birds spoke,” he whispered as if he discovered some big deep, dark secret.
“That was just the operator,” I explained and ducked out into the snow to grab the groceries.
We put them away, working in quiet tandem not needing to speak because of our new mating link.
We settled down on the sofa together with some snacks and drinks.
Chasten called to check in on us and I asked about the kids.
We chatted for a little bit to reassure each other everything was fine despite the snow and my hectic meeting with Damon the day before.
Right before I hung up Damon mouthed, “ask him about the wand man!”
“Oh! Do you think Kirk could swing by in the next few days and do an ultrasound?” I asked Chasten.
“Huh? I know you’re excited but it’s too soon. You wouldn’t know this soon, Treg. I don’t even think the baby would show up and…” Chasten started and Damon reached out for the phone.
“Let me tell him,” Damon said, motioning again.
“I’ll let Damon explain it,” I said into the phone before handing it off to my mate.
A few minutes later, I was back on the phone with a flabbergasted Chasten.
“Two weeks? How does a wolf even grow in two weeks? I believe him. It’s not that… It’s just…. I feel like I need to start shopping now for you. Like the whole nursery and a billion other things…” his voice trailed off and he whispered something, most likely to Kirk.
“You know that you didn’t get me pregnant, right?” I teased him, trying to break the tension.
“I know you’re not pregnant and I’m not the sire, but Treg, kids are sooo much work.
It doesn’t matter how prepared you are. Something is always forgotten.
Kirk is getting his shoes on. Since yetis don’t usually get ultrasounds, we don’t know how long it’ll take to show up but he’s already trying to figure out prenatal vitamin doses and… .”
“Chas!” I said, stopping his ramblings before he got too carried away.
“You’ve got to remember the ultrasound is more for the memory and to make me feel better.
Yetis are having babies up there every winter, I think.
They’ve done it without our tech for this long.
Tell Kirk to take a chill pill too and he better not be on the phone with Bane Hemlock. ”
“He’s not,” Chasten said. “He is coming over right now, though.” Their front door shut. “Treg, this is really quick. Are you okay? Like emotionally?”
“I’m good,” I nodded even though Chasten couldn’t see me. “I really am. It’s all a bit surreal. Not the baby part. I mean, I know how that happened.” I smirked and Damon poked me with his toe. “But just that it’s happening at all. I… Well, you remember what we were talking about in the car.”
“I know,” Chasten said, his voice softening. “I’m happy for you, if you’re happy. I remember how overwhelming it was in the beginning. I couldn’t imagine having a baby two weeks later and…”
“I can, though,” I said, pulling Damon’s foot up into my lap and rubbing it with my free hand. “Because it’s probably gonna happen. You’re going to be an uncle again.”
“A godfather,” he corrected.
“That too,” I chuckled. “Chas, we’re okay. Really, we are.”
“Del is trying to feed the baby noodles. I’ve got to go. Call me, though. For anything. For everything. I can’t imagine having your matingmoon and then a baby too… Right after.”
“Chas, go get the kids and don’t worry about us, okay?”
“Love you guys,” Chasten said and ended the call.
“Sorry about that,” I said and bit my lip. “I didn’t expect everyone to jump into action so quickly.”
“They have zero chill between them, huh?” Damon laughed.
“Kirk can be chill but if something gets Chasten worked up, he likes to take care of it as quickly as possible,” I said, tugging on his arm until he was turned around and cuddled against my side. “You can still say no when he gets here if you don’t want to do it right now.”
“Nah,” Damon shook his head. “I want to see how he gets the wand into my belly button.”
I laughed and stole a quick kiss. We didn’t have long before the headlights of Kirk’s truck shined through the window.
I answered the door after making sure any partially naked drawings were covered up.
Kirk wasn’t a prude. Chasten drew more erotic stuff than I did and all of my stuff was available on the internet, but still.
It felt weird leaving them out half-completed for Kirk to see.
Kirk’s eyes were full of questions when I opened the door to let him in. I expected him to launch into questions about yeti reproduction and was ready to shut him down. Only that wasn’t the first question out of his mouth.
“How did you guys decorate so quickly?” Kirk asked instead.
“That would be him. He was all over it,” I said, nodding to Damon who had already stretched out on the sofa.
“Damn. It looks good. I never thought I’d see your house this decorated,” he said and winced.
“Chasten’s telling you off over your mating link for that one, huh?” I laughed.
“Yeah. You know what I meant, though, right?” he asked.
“We’re cool,” I nodded. “I got bigger things to worry about than whether or not you thought I was going to be alone forever. Let’s get the belly button probing over with.”