Chapter Eleven
Treg
Hemlock Mountain
Chasten was right. Two weeks wasn’t very long at all when it came to preparing for a baby and enjoying the newness of our response.
“Damon is our mate. We have forever to spend with him. Sure, we need to rearrange the den and hunt some stuff down, but what else have we saved up all our money for? It’s time to spend some of that rainy day emergency money.”
My wolf was right too. We did have the money stashed away. Living on my own meant that I didn’t have very many expenses. Most of what I spent was on food, clothes, and of course art supplies. The latter of which kept everything else going.
Of course, there was one little mystery that we had to prepare for all possibilities of. We didn’t know for certain whether the baby would stay in wolf form for months or shift into a baby.
“Just prepare for both,” my wolf said. “I’ll den under the bed with a pup, if I have to. What use is all that storage under there if we don’t use it?”
The storage space under the bed was in use. That’s where I shoved all my out of season clothes until their time to shine rolled around again. There were other places to put it, if push came to shove. My brain reeled as I tried to fall asleep that night.
“Oh my snowflakes, Treg!” Damon said, twisting in my arms to face me.
“If you were a yeti too, we’d raise our baby on a mountain in a cave!
The house will be fine. Will we have to play some things by ear?
Absolutely! But that’s parenting. And life.
Sort of. We’ll do our best and that will be enough.
I’m growing a baby not a stick a of dynamite! ”
“Sorry to keep you awake, mate,” I said, trying to smile for him.
“I know it’s your job to worry about all of this, but I’m here too and believe it or not, I’ve been around little ones of my kind before.
If the baby stays a pup everything will be easy.
Well, sort of. I’ll be a wolf a lot because I’ll have to feed them but that’s okay.
I don’t mind being a wolf. We’ll have to make sure they don’t chew anything up when they start to teeth but it would’ve been the same way in the cave. ”
Yep. A million things could kill the little life we were charged with protecting.
“Mate, the baby is fine. We’ll start shopping tomorrow. What we can’t buy, we’ll build or whatever. I’ll go as a yeti and steal it,” he teased me. “When they call the guards no one will believe them!”
I laughed despite my anxiety. Damon cocked his head to the side and sighed.
“We left the fan above the stove on and it’s agitating you,” he slid his legs out of the bed.
“I know it growls a lot but it’s not growling at you.
It’s just a fan. I hate that sound, though.
I didn’t really pay it any mind until I was trying to figure out what was annoying you but now --- I want to strangle it! ”
“Don’t strangle the hood!” I called out after him.
A second later the world fell quiet, and anxiety fled my shoulders. A few minutes after that, Damon came back into the room with the tube of cookie dough we got earlier, and the gallon of milk tucked under his arm.
“Don’t even start about raw eggs in dough,” he said. “Kirk thought about telling me what I could and couldn’t eat too. I heard it over the people shifter pack link. I eat raw bird eggs where I come from. I’ll eat them straight from the chickens too!”
“Uhhh…. I wasn’t going to say anything. If you’re hungry, eat. Wolves eat raw eggs too sometimes,” I said, rolling over onto my side to watch him eat. We’d need to order more milk soon if his cravings stayed the same.
“Can I ask a gender question?” Damon asked me in between bites of cookie dough.
“About me, the baby, or in general?” I asked.
“Uh…. Sort of all of it,” he shrugged. “I don’t think it’s bad and I promise it’s not about what’s in your pants. I like what’s in your pants. It doesn’t need a gender. It’s just Treg.”
“Okay,” I nodded.
“Okay about that or the question?” Damon asked.
“All of it,” I grinned and broke off a piece of the cookie dough.
“What should our baby call you?” he asked and I let out a silent sigh of relief. That was an easy question and I thought about it a lot before.
“Sire,” I said as soon as I swallowed the cookie dough.
“I know it sounds more official, but I like it because it’s not gendered at all.
I mean, if the kid ends up calling me daddy when they’re little because that’s what they learn from other people I’ll deal.
It’s our kid but if they call you dad or something like that and me sire, at least we’ll know who they’re yelling for. ”
“I like it,” Damon said, breaking off another chunk of cookie dough. “I like it a lot.”
After the cookie dough and milk were gone, I shoved the trash in the bedside can and we cuddled back up.
With the fan no longer bothering me and my mate’s belly full, we dozed off into dreamland all wrapped up together.
That night I dreamt that our baby was indeed a wolf pup but every time that the baby barked or opened their mouth snowflakes came out creating a mini-blizzard wherever they were.
I startled awake around two in the morning and rested a hand on Damon’s belly. Our baby was safe and even if they ended up with some super special and super-secret snowflake abilities, I already loved them.
***
The next morning, I woke up before Damon again.
In general, omegas needed more sleep than alphas and I figured that was doubled or quadrupled while they were pregnant.
By the sound of it, our baby would grow almost all at once inside of Damon.
I figured that meant that he needed as much rest and fuel as I could give him to store up energy for that big moment.
Part of me wondered if I should go hunt down a deer for him but didn’t want him to wake up alone and think I took off for good.
Besides, being away from him for too long left me feeling antsy.
So, I tucked him in all cozy and headed downstairs.
Normally, I got some art and social media work done before breakfast but since I no longer lived alone, I started peeling potatoes for breakfast. I figured fried eggs, potatoes, with bacon and toast was a good way to start off the day.
In between prepping, I started a list on my phone of all the things I thought we needed to get for the baby.
I scrolled through texts from Chasten and Grina about what they wished they bought earlier and what was a waste of money too.
Of course, Grina knew that we were expecting now. Chasten must’ve told her.
When breakfast was finished, I added a glass of orange juice and a chunk from the second tube of cookie dough to the side of the plate, just in case, before carrying it upstairs.
Damon was laying in bed half-awake. His nose twitched as I carried the tray into the room.
He pushed himself upright and flashed me a sleepy grin.
Frost and Juda above me! He was gorgeous first thing in the morning.
He was gorgeous all the time but half asleep and excited about breakfast in bed was perfection on him.
We ate together, not saying much as Damon slowly came to life. As he became more alive, I gave him a quick rundown of all the stuff I wanted to get for the nursery and asked about where we’d den down if the wolf pup needed a den.
“Den’s to protect the baby from the elements and predators. The elements can’t get in here. The raccoons who live in your tree outside don’t want to eat the baby. The house is warm. Sometimes too warm. We’ll bring down a fan or two from the attic. I remember it being….”
“You know because I know,” I reminded him.
“It’s a bit strange, huh?” he laughed and took another bite of bacon.
“I think we’ll get used to it. It’s nice to know that if something were to happen to me---” I tried to finish my sentence, but his big hand went over my mouth.
“Nope. Not jinxing me that way. I’m pregnant and here with you and I will literally eat whatever tries to hurt you. So, just nope,” Damon said before starting to eat again.
After breakfast we stretched out on the floor with my laptop and put together a cart on several popular baby brands sites. Remembering that Chasten wanted to help and he and Abby would most likely want to throw Damon a baby shower, we put together a gift registry too after placing our orders.
“We’re already on the floor,” Damon said once we finished putting the register together. “It’s not quite lunch time. I think we should make sure I’m pregnant.”
He didn’t have to ask me twice. I kissed him softly at first. Then harder with more tongue until we were pulling off each other’s clothes and coming together again.
I loved the sound of his moans and heavy breathing filling up my head and blocking out all the little sounds everything made that usually drove me crazy.
It was like sex was its own form of a stim toy that kept me from getting caught up in the little threatless parts of our environment.
I would’ve made love to him forever but eventually we both came and he was ready for his first lunch of the day.
We devoured sandwiches, chips, and apple slices only to order in Chinese food an hour later because he was craving fried rice.
Kirk dropped off a basket of finger foods, the traditional matingmoon fare, and a few bags of stuff Chasten had sent over for the baby.
We’d all bought his babies so much clothing that a large part of them went unworn.
Even now, his youngest had already outgrown the smallest of the outfits.
I wasn’t sure our baby would need newborn clothes if they stayed a pup but I thanked Kirk and apologized for how bitable he looked the day before. He shrugged it off.
“Being different even on Hemlock Mountain is hard. Someone gives Damon a hard time, bite them. Hell, tell me and I’ll send an army of nurses to bite them too,” he laughed and we shared a quick hug before getting everything inside.