by Jena Wade
“Cactus,” Thorne repeated, this time with a sternness to his voice.
My eyes focused on his. “Cactus?”
“Cactus, cactus, cactus.” His hand clutched my arm. “Cactus.”
“Well, it’s been nice to see you.” I got up and helped Thorne from his seat.
“Lissy.” Thorne gave her a death glare. “Cactus.”
She looked at him like he had two heads until I gave her a nod and a tilt of the head in the direction of our home.
“Mia, would you watch my food? I just need to get a cactus?”
Mia’s eyes went wide with understanding. “I’m so eating your cupcake,” she teased.
We waddled back to the house—or rather Thorne waddled, refusing to say anything at all but cactus, his hands holding his lower belly and going faster than I thought possible for him.
As we reached the house, he rushed in, not stopping until he reached the bed.
“Thorne, please talk to me.” I’d never seen him like this and it had both my wolf and I on high alert. “Tell us how to help you.”
“Well, you remember that night when I birthed the babes.”
“Yeah.” I walked over and helped take his shoes off, a task I had recently added to my day, and helped him get them up and on the bed. “It wasn’t a day one could forget.”
“Remember how you were worried?”
“That they would drown? Yeah, I was silly.” Of course they didn’t drown. Wombat, kangaroo, and wallaby shifters existed and they had babies all the time. But that fear had been so real that night. “I also thought they’d fall out.” I laughed at past me as his face lost color. “What? Did they almost fall out?”
He lifted his shirt, Lissy giggling in the doorway, a little hand sticking out of his lower belly as if waving hello. “He almost fell out. I almost dropped our baby!”
I leaned in closer. Yes, there was a hand, but nothing else, the skin still sealed. “Lissy, is this supposed to do this?” I tried to keep an even tone, not wanting to cause any more stress on my already panicking omega.
She came up beside me. “Pretty much, yes. And trust me, they won’t fall out. That is just one of the first signs of baby time. It’s going to be another hour or two before we see much more happen.” She squinted as she leaned in. “Maybe an hour. Hard to tell.” That wasn’t as helpful as I wanted it to be, but I was grateful she didn’t say twenty hours like the poor human on the rom com Thorne and I had nestled up to the night before.
We helped Thorne get more comfortable, as comfortable as we could. A pouch birth had all the pain of any other birth, but instead of pushing, it was ripping, ripping his pouch open. One hand became two, became a little head, and Lissy guided our first baby out, a sweet girl who was beyond hungry, instantly latching on as if it were her job.
Our son? He was a different story, taking his sweet time coming out, waiting until the pouch had completely opened, and even then he was a bit shy, kind of like his dad. “Come on, sweet baby,” I coaxed. “Your dads are so excited to meet you.”
He rolled around in the pouch and I figured out the wave actions I’d seen on my mate’s belly earlier at the picnic.
“Don’t make me come in there,” Lissy teased or threatened, I couldn’t tell which, but I had a feeling she meant it. Fortunately we didn’t have to find out, his body squirming out only minutes later, Lissy allowing me to be the one to first bring him into the world.
“Welcome to the world, little man. I hate to tell you this, but your sister might have eaten your first meal,” I teased as I brought him to Thorne’s chest, his sister already asleep.
“They call that a milk coma.” Lissy picked her up as our son settled in. “Let me get her cleaned up a little. Do you have a name picked out?”
“I was thinking, if it’s okay with you, we’d like to name her Felicity and maybe call her Lissy?” Thorne answered. “But if you want to save the name, we understand.”
It had been Thorne’s idea and I loved it. She was the reason he was whole, the reason our pack was safe, the reason no others would come to harm under the dark healer’s hand.
“I—it would be—Hello Lissy. It’s nice to meet you. I’m Lissy too.” She took her to the other room to clean her up a bit, singsonging her every move as she did.
“What about him?” I sat on the edge of the bed beside my mate and our son. We had picked a name for a girl easy peasy. But a boy’s name? There we faltered, eventually figuring that when we saw him we would know.
I, for one, didn’t know. He was adorable and perfect and a bit shy, or maybe that was him being warm and cozy and not wanting to leave. In any case, I couldn’t think of a name.
“What about… I was thinking what about Bruno?”
I tasted the name in my mouth and then on my tongue. “Bruno. Strong, powerful name. It sort of sounds like a bear shift—oh, I love it.” A bear shifter. Charming. He too was the reason we were here. “I love it. Bruno.”
“I love you.” Gio looked to me, his eyes filled with so much love.
“Here’s your little Lissy.” Lissy handed our daughter back to me, all swaddled, Bruno still going to town on his first meal. “Let me know when he’s done eating and I’ll clean him up while you shift and get your pouch less… open. How’s that sound?”
We agreed and she stepped out, giving us some privacy as a family.
A family.
When I walked up to that cabin all those months ago, never once did it cross my mind that it would be the best thing that ever happened to me. But it was. I found my mate—my heart—and in a way, I even found myself.
“You are so amazing.” I kissed my mate’s cheek. “You are strong and brave and—”
“And I grow beautiful babies?”
“And you grow beautiful babies,” I agreed, reclining beside him. “Life doesn’t get much better than this, does it?”
“It really doesn’t, alpha mine. It really doesn’t.”
COMING SOON
Northbay Pack Series
Mpreg Titles by Jena Wade
Greycoast Pack
Finding His Purpose (with Lorelei M. Hart)
Finding His Pack (with Lorelei M. Hart)
Finding His Potential (with Lorelei M. Hart)
Finding His Passion (with Lorelei M. Hart)
Northbay Pack
Claiming His Pack - with Lorelei M. Hart - coming 2021
Lights Of Fate
Blue
Purple
Bake Sale Bachlors
Sugar Cookie Kiss (Jena Wade)
SnickerDoodle Sweetie (Lorelei M. Hart)
Gingerbread Greetings (Leyla Hunt)
Apple Pie Pair (Jena Wade)
Meat Pie Match
(Lorelei M. Hart)
Cherry Pie Charm (Leyla Hunt)
Lemon Meringue Love (Summer Chase)
Tall Tails
Unexpected Packages
Rochdale Security
The Bodyguard’s Charge
The Bodyguard’s Relationship
The Bodyguard’s Professor (with Lorelei M. Hart)
The Bodyguard’s Assistant
The Bodyguard’s Technician
The Bodyguard’s Christmas Surprise
Millerstown Moments
Dashboard Lights
All Revved Up
Crying Out Loud (with Lorelei M. Hart)
Anything For Love
Life is a Lemon (with Lorelei M. Hart)
Box Set with Heaven Can Wait short story
Vale Valley
Picture Purrfect
The Cat & The Hound
Dragons Series
Dragon’s Fire
Dragon’s Ice
Dragon’s Stone
Dragon’s Jewel
Dragon’s Spark
Directions Series
Up to Code
Down to Earth
Back to You
Boxset
Shorts
Alpha Student
Alpha
Doctor
Jena Wade
Jena lives in Michigan with her husband, two dogs, and three children. By day she works as a web developer and at night she writes. She was born and raised on a farm and spends most of her free time outdoors, playing in the garden or tending to her landscaping.
Find out more about the author at http://www.thejenawade.com/.
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