Chapter Fourteen
Damon
Hemlock Mountain
I ate all the chips in the pantry and ordered more on Treg’s phone.
Then and only then did I entertain the idea of Kirk playing Wand Man again.
Now that my body had adjusted to the stretch of skin and the new life form inside me, I was sort of achy like I’d done a bunch of crunches or sit ups.
The pain wasn’t anything to write home about but I was a bit curious if my baby was as fully formed as they felt.
It would be another three or four days before they were born but I figured one more time with the Wand Man couldn’t hurt anything.
This time I was hungry and not taking any chances.
The pizza place needed ninety minutes for our ‘large’ order.
So, I had time to kill and was in the mood to eat.
That made me grouchy. So I made sure Treg sat behind me on the sofa before I lifted up the once too-big t-shirt to reveal the swell of my belly.
I marveled at it for a moment. Only hours ago, it was flat and muscular.
Now, it was still muscular. Muscles didn’t disappear during pregnancy.
That would be a horrible thing to happen.
You needed to be strong all over to push out a baby.
“Don’t make me honk you,” I said to Treg as Kirk got everything ready.
Treg ran their hands over my belly, and I let them get away with it.
It was sweet and gave them something to do even if my skin was sore.
Their touch soothed away a bit of the pain and allowed my wolf to settle down for some rest. He’d have his turn in a few days if our baby was a wolf pup.
He’d have to shift out and keep them fed for the first bit of their life.
When Kirk was ready to play Wand Man, I took Treg’s hands in mine and squeezed them.
They growled a bit, but it was nothing like last time.
They smelled almost as tired as I felt but our baby’s health was the most important thing in the world and no one was getting any sleep until I ate.
I’d be up with a rumbly stomach, and they’d be up because it was becoming clear we each had trouble falling asleep without the other.
Kirk slid his wand over the zenith of my belly and his mouth dropped open slowly.
I craned my neck to see the little screen of his handheld device.
He slid over the same spot again and my baby’s little nose came into view.
Behind me, Treg teared up and I kissed their hand without taking my eyes off the screen.
All the theories that it was magic that grew up our babies so quickly, were probably right.
“Magic fueled by food. You can’t get something out of nothing,” my wolf yawned.
He was right and I’d be this hungry for months after the baby was born.
That was probably another reason our mating season was so slim and why we didn’t have kids as often as the people shifters.
I marveled at the screen as it showed all the little parts of our baby, revealing they were indeed a fully-formed little girl.
“Festival,” I whispered the name, trying it out on my tongue while looking at her. “I think it fits her.”
Treg kissed the top of my head, and I leaned back against them.
We cuddled until the pizzas came. I made sure the alphas tipped the delivery person well and sent two home with Kirk because Chasten shouldn’t be left out of pizza just because he had to stay home with the sleeping kids.
It was too bad they didn’t live next door.
If we were on the mountain, it would be so easy to share pizza with them.
“Are you homesick?” Treg asked, picking up on my thoughts over the mating link while we ate our pizza.
I picked off a mushroom and ate it before answering.
“Not in the way you mean. I don’t want to move back home. This is home now. Well, one of my homes. I enjoy living here with you. I miss having so many people who I could count on close. I know you’re here and Kirk and Chasten and even Grina and Abby. It’s just… I don’t know. It’s an adjustment.”
“We could potentially buy the house across the street for your sisters,” they offered. “I mean, if they’d like to live together and close by.”
I almost asked them with what money but then remembered that unlike me they hadn’t needed to be sneaky to get money their whole life. I wasn’t sure if my sisters wanted to live away from the snowy mountain top but maybe someday one of them would. Maybe both.
After we ate, we cuddled up back in the sleeping bag.
“Are you sure you want to sleep on the floor?” Treg asked as I wiggled around getting my big, pregnant belly comfortable while they spooned in behind me. We stretched the sleeping bag to its limit, but it was our own little cozy cocoon.
“It’s better to sleep on something sort of hard,” I said.
“I never understood it before. I watched a lot of carriers do it and always thought to myself that I’d curl up in my bed, pregnant or not, but this feels better on my back.
Plus, this way, you’re hugging my belly and holding it up a bit too. ”
“Anything for you,” they said and kissed the back of my neck.
I fell asleep early that morning thinking about all the happy days that were ahead of us in this very nursery.
How many babies would we rock to sleep within these walls?
I hoped the answer was many. I couldn’t wait to meet Baby Festival and hold her in my arms. Couldn’t wait to show her around the nursery and to show her off to our family and friends.
I couldn’t wait for…. Sleep ate my thoughts.
It was as hungry as I had been before the pizza.
***
By the time I woke up the sun was almost to its midpoint.
I could tell by the way it shined into the nursery and made sunny splotches all over the floor.
My back was sun-warmed but not Treg-warmed.
Where had my mate gotten off to? I patted the spot behind me but the sunshine coming in through the window made it impossible to tell when they’d left the sleeping bag.
I poked around on our mating link and instantly slammed my side shut.
Chasten was talking to Treg about the baby shower.
They were downstairs in the kitchen right now decorating and frosting tiny little cupcakes that I planned to eat at least three of because they were so freaking cute.
Grina and Abby were down there and Kirk, of course.
Treg kept shushing everyone so that they didn’t wake me up.
I pretended to be asleep as not to ruin the surprise.
Sure, I knew there would be a baby shower but now it was a secret.
I wasn’t sure when it became a secret, but it made Treg happy and laying around for a bit longer wasn’t much work at all.
Eventually, I needed to pee, but they were almost finished anyway.
Then from the sounds of it Treg was coming up with my breakfast because there was still a few hours before everyone else would be here.
I glanced down at my belly. It’d grown another inch or two overnight, and I prayed that it wasn’t too big for me to get downstairs.
If it was, I wouldn’t see the decorations firsthand but figured the party could still be fun.
When I couldn’t wrangle my curiosity anymore, I pushed myself upright.
Okay, I could stand up, even if I felt like a heavy hand inside of me smushed down my knee and ankle joints.
“It’s only for a few days,” I whispered to the empty room and immediately made for the rocking chair. “No more standing than necessary, though.”
My wolf nodded his agreement and stretched out inside of his inner sanctum. His belly was big like mine and I had a feeling he wasn’t going to be moving around much over the next few days either. Poor wolf. Poor Damon.
A few minutes after I settled down in the rocking chair, Treg wheeled the breakfast cart into the room.
My pain fled at the sight of food as if carbs were enough to banish the evil sensations from my joints and muscles.
Carbs were a miracle food after all. They powered brains but also magic. At least, they powered my magic.
“Good morning,” Treg said.
Their secret was written all over their scent, but I didn’t point that out.
Sometimes you let other people ‘surprise’ you because it made them happy.
Plus, gravy and biscuits, bacon, eggs, and fried potatoes made me really happy.
They’d even brought up orange juice and chocolate milk.
Sometimes I had tea or coffee with breakfast but heard someone talking on the bus years ago that caffeine wasn’t great for babies.
So, I decided to hold off until after the baby was born for those little treats.
Besides, chocolate was good and I couldn’t find literature anywhere that it was bad for wolf shifter babies.
Though, nothing on the yeti or bigfoot sights.
Though most of them told me I didn’t exist. Not existing while existing was a strange thing.
After breakfast, Treg ran me a hot bubble bath and I soaked in it while the others scurried around downstairs.
They had left the phone downstairs, so I had their full attention on me.
It was sweet that even though our house was full of their friends that they sat and listened to me ramble on about everything I remembered about pregnancies I’d seen before.
“Most of them are similar,” I said. “A lot of sitting and a lot of eating. Some take a lot of baths and some don’t get out of bed. One guy kept climbing up and down the mountain because he couldn’t sit still. He had triplets! I remember that one because it’s all anyone talked about for months.”
“Uh… Aren’t you a triplet?”
“Yeah, but that’s just two sets!” I laughed. “I know how often it happens with people shifters! If your wild counterparts can have multiples, so can you!”
“Aren’t you a wolf too?” Treg teased.
“Yeah, but I’m a yeti or something too,” I shrugged.