“You’re pregnant.”
His words threw her off balance. “Yes.”
He hovered over her, gently stroking her abdomen. “How are you feeling? I feel like a selfish ass, I woke and was so consumed by the heat I didn’t ask.”
Her grin beamed up at him. “I feel great. Only sixty four days until we meet our kittens.”
“Oh, wow, I didn’t realize…kittens. Do you know they’ll be kittens versus wolves? A wolf’s gestation period is usually sixty days, give or take.”
Smiling she nudged his shoulder. “Nah, not yet, we’ll know soon enough. Their scents will show themselves.” Uncertain she asked, “Does it matter? Will you not raise kittens?”
Offended he pulled back and tickled her. “I’ll love whatever we make, even if it’s a wolf-lynx hybrid.”
“Holy moly, Justin, can that happen?” She giggled as she pictured a wolf’s body with black tufts on its ears and shorter fur. “I think Mr. Nunn, you’re in trouble. The way your mother talks, you were quite the wild bunch.”
“Don’t listen to my mother. It was Blake and Paul that were the trouble makers; I was merely along for the ride.”
The next day her heat ended long enough for them to emerge from their den and enjoy the company of their family. Blake and Delilah had been closed off as well as Paul and his mate Bailey.
Poor Kenneth had the patience of a Greek god as he waited until his children emerged to sate his lust on his wife of thirty-five years. When Justin and Dee came into the living room, Carter was playing a board game with his grandparents. Seeing the couple, Kenneth stood up, let out a deep sigh of relief and hauled his wife over his shoulder, saying, “Do not disturb us, no food, clothes, calls, nothing. I need my wife.”
Carter jumped up and shouted, “It must be sexy time, huh Grandma and Grandpa?”
Dee teetered as Justin placed a hand over his son’s mouth and smiled. “Understood Da, have a good time and thanks for accommodating us.”
Dee watched as tears came to Kenneth’s eyes, “I love you, Son. My boys are the best boys ever.” He smacked his wife’s ass and continued, “But it’s time for mama and papa to play.”
His very proper wife responded, “Yee haw, Daddy.”
*****
Immediately after the wedding Dee was swept to the reception. Her motherin-law and sisters-in-law were planning goddesses. It was the most perfect day and she couldn’t have asked for anything more.
Her motherin-law pulled her to the side. “Darling, I don’t mean to panic you but you have no toilet paper at your house. You had an entire package and now…nothing.”
Not giving it a second thought she said. “I’m sure someone took it. I’ll buy more when I go to the store.”
“You obviously don’t have a naughty boy like I had. If toilet paper went missing, we would worry that the triplets were toilet papering a neighbor, or a teacher, or the alpha. That was not one of my best moments as a parent.”
Giggling, Dee smiled up at her wonderful new motherin-law. “I really do enjoy these stories.”
“Believe me child, you won’t enjoy them when you’re living them and constantly having to come up with excuses for your too-smart-for-their-own-good kids.”
Epilogue
Sixty two days later
At three in the morning Dee woke with a start as a rush of fluid coated her bottom half. Laughing at herself for peeing the bed, she went to the bathroom to change her pajama bottoms. Ironically, they were Justin’s and she was lying on his side of the bed when she peed.
Justin was out on a medical call. He often worked with the medical team in the wee hours of the morning to comfort various members of the pack who were in need of pain control or minor medical assistance. Picking up the phone she waddled back to bed, leaving bottoms off this time, and called her new husband. She kept it brief and when he picked up she said, “Hey babe, hope all is going well. I just peed the bed on your side and I was wearing your jammies. Can’t wait until you get home.” She hung up on him while giggling.
At five in the morning she was fairly sure she was in the early stages of labor and that it wasn’t pee that wet the bed, but her amniotic fluid. She wasn’t panicking though because Justin was home and he’d get her to the hospital.
As he entered the room he growled, “How could you think its pee? It smells like you’re birthing.” He picked her up to take her to the car when she began to fight him in the living room.
“Have we decided if I’m having kittens or pups? I think it’s time to drop this litter.”
Justin’s panic was bitter on her tongue.
“Don’t you dare start to freak out Mr. Nunn; you knew what you were getting into. If you-“
Her words were cut off by a tightening of her uterus, letting her know the babies were on their way. She watched as Justin placed his hands over her stomach to relieve the ache. “Back off, Nunn, let me have a normal delivery without your pain stealing mojo.”
When he released her the pain was so severe her knees buckled and she was pressed up against the wall. For some odd reason the wall caved in. She was met with an enormous hole in the spot where the sheetrock should be. Looking up at her husband she played with the material that lined the wall. She couldn’t help but laugh hysterically, “Toilet paper.”
Justin simply watched her like she’d gone nuts.
Yelling for Carter in between giggling she looked at Justin, “Please call your mother. She said she’d watch Carter while we delivered. I know she wants to be there, so maybe you can call Hunter and his wife while your crazy ass family paces the hospital driving us crazy.”
Nodding, he turned to do her bidding.
Carter ran into the room with the phone pressed to his ear. “Mama, Trevor called and you should go to the doctor. He says,” There was a pause as he listened to his friend, “Yeah, eew, I’m not sayin’ that to Mama.”
Pulling the phone out of his hand she looked into his eyes, “Why the toilet paper wall, Son?”
She watched as his feet shuffled from side to side. He finally admitted, “I was bowling and I know you says not to do that in the house but the ball just got away from me, but I made all the pins go down.” He did a small fist pump before becoming serious again, “the ball went in the wall and I saw that the wall was just like the toilet paper when it gets wet so I mades you a wall. Why did you break it? Mama, it took me a long long long time to fix it.”
Now Dee knew what her motherin-law was talking about. She almost wished her son would have toilet papered Blake and Delilah’s home instead of packing toilet paper in the wall. How had she not noticed this?
“It’s okay mama, I wet the paper and make it look like the wall, it dries all wall like. I made sure it was clean and there is no pee on it.”
Dee knew she should punish him for his actions, but she really didn’t have the heart to do it as he puffed up his chest being proud. He was so happy that he broke something and then took responsibility by fixing it. Oddly enough, she was proud of him, even though she had a hole in her wall the size of a bowling ball. The good news was, if she had enough toilet paper it would probably be fixed by the time she birthed her babies.
Justin came running into the room holding the phone to his ear, “Mom is on her way and she’ll bring everyone to take us to the hospital. Your contractions are still ten minutes apart so we have time,” he covered the receiver with his hand before he said, “Although I’m sure she’ll be here in a few minutes since Trevor called her before calling our Carter.”
Standing up seemed like the biggest chore to Dee since she was soo heavy. “I’ll take some steaks out and then hop in the shower.”
“I’ll take the steaks out while you shower. Please hurry, I’m nervous as it is, holding on to my wolf by a thread.”
Smacking his cheek lightly, she replied, “Yeah, yeah, Wolf man, I’ll hurry.”
Her contractions were still every ten minutes apart when she finally gave up shaving her legs and hopped out of t
he shower. Her motherin-law came barreling into the room, “Time to go, Dee, you’re no spring chicken.” She clapped her hands, “I’m so excited.”
Dee tried to cover her naughty bits but Eva was having none of it. Patting Dee with the towel to dry her off Eva continued, “I just love my grandbabies and I can’t wait to meet your children-”
Justin’s voice was firm as he directed his mother out of the room, “For crying out loud, go help Carter with breakfast, he wants steak and eggs. I’ll get my wife cleaned up and ready.”
“It’s not like I haven’t seen it all before, son, I have all that stuff. It may be a little saggier, but…”
“Mom, go, please, merciful saint Jude.”
Not able to hold in her chuckle, she was brought low by a contraction. Panting seemed like the only thing she was capable of. Her wonderful hubby took control of the situation by helping her get dressed. She did have to hiss at him when he kept trying to take her pain away.
Walking into the kitchen she noticed half the pack was smashed into every corner hoping to help in some way as her son stood on a chair directing them. All eyes were on Carter as he scrambled eggs and prepped the steaks.
His little voice rose above the others as he requested, “Grandma, will you pass me the dildo?”
The room went silent and alert. God bless her mother in law who kept it cool under pressure. “Uhh, do you mean dill seed Carter? Do you want a spice?”
He put a small hand on his hip, “Duh, Grandma. I’m gonna cook the steaks and I need spices.”
The room erupted in laughter. Dee held her stomach as she blanched and then laughed. All eyes going from Dee to Carter and back.
Justin stood in the doorway with bright red cheeks. “Time to go, kitten.” Without saying anything more, her husband scooped her into his arms and shoved her into the front seat of their car before speeding away to the hospital.
Meanwhile in another pack…
His wolf was pacing inside him and trying to force him to walk away from the enormous metallic flying death trap that humans called an airplane. Who, in their right mind, would get in one of these? Him apparently, but he wasn’t given a choice. After going through airport security his wolf was already shaken because what did they think they’d find in his shoes? If he was a wolf he could just run, but to New York? Nah, it’d take too long and he was on a schedule.
That was another annoyance, an itinerary…really? His alpha planned everything including directions to all locations. He wasn’t getting a rental car though so why did he need directions? Apparently, all city folk rode in a cab, driven by someone else because they didn’t want to park. Were they all too lazy to walk? Tinker did not enjoy the fact that he was confused about their way of life.
Walking down the plank leading to the airplane he allowed his wolf one last yip of protest before he locked him away in the furthest region of his brain. He took a seat near the emergency exit, letting his head fall back while he closed his eyes. He’d have to make a stop in Denver and change planes so he prepared himself for a long day.
This drama always happened to Mae. Why couldn’t she keep a job where her employer kept his hands to himself? Even better why couldn’t people mind their own business? Not one time did she allow that old nasty man to lay a finger on her, even though he suggested it, more than once. She’d climbed the ladder in her law firm because she won cases. She was a winner.
Although she denied a few clients based on the fact that, well…they were guilty and her conscience couldn’t take it. She should be rewarded. There was no way she could win a case if she truly didn’t believe in the innocence of the client. Now, she had a bad reputation because of her disgusting old boss and she wouldn’t get another job in this area again.
She never thought her jealous co-workers would call human resources and complain that she got preferential treatment. They even went so far as to band together and say they saw her smooching with the boss. Even when they both denied it she was the one who had to clean out her desk and be escorted out by security. This day was the shits.
Well…fine. Mae didn’t need these snooty people with their lies and deceit, she didn’t need anyone.
At the exact moment she thought that she didn’t need anyone her tire popped on her new beamer. She lost control of her vehicle, her brand new gift to herself for the awesome job she did getting her last promotion before she was fired. Ending up on the side of the road where people drove past her, occasionally, honking in her direction because her car was still slightly in the lane. If she opened her door someone would probably hit it and tear it off. Sighing loudly after hitting her palm on the wheel she climbed over the shifter and into the passenger seat, tricky in a pencil skirt and her favorite three inch pumps.
Getting out of the vehicle was actually the easy part, finding the energy to haul out the spare tire and jack turned out to be too much for her emotionally fragile state. Yes, she knew how to change a tire but she just wasn’t prepared for the emotional upheaval today. Instead of changing the tire like she should be doing she began to sob.
Twenty minutes was all it took for her to release her negativity. She’d pull herself together, change her tire and find another job. Move forward with her life because she was a survivor and that’s what they did.
She got down on the ground, knowing her bottom was on display in the air she began to work the jack.
What happens when these two meet? City girl versus country man-round one.
About Shannon Duane
Shannon Duane lives in sunny California near Napa Valley with her husband and three beautiful children, all who seem to keep her on her toes. She wouldn’t forget to mention the two dogs, two cats and Mr. Turtle. She’s an avid reader, as well as a full time nurse in a busy emergency room. She has won no awards, but doesn’t feel bad because she’s never entered, or participated, in any competitions. She hopes that you enjoyed reading her book as much as she enjoyed writing it.
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