Mated for the Holidays: A Holiday Mpreg Romance in the Hemlock Mpreg Universe

by Maggie Hemlock

  “I’m pregnant,” I announced.

  Cheers went up all around. Gloria and Zera both leaned into hug me, but Alpha had already scooped me up off my feet in a bear hug. I wrapped my arms around his neck and leaned back as far as I could until I could reach my lips with his. We were going to be parents! Prophecy or not the day was looking up.

  When Luc finally stood me back on my own two feet Gloria pulled me into a tight hug. I returned her embrace trying to imagine what sort of auntie she’d be. Probably the one who acted all serious around the parents and hyped the kids up on sugar and chocolate the minute they turned their backs. Zera would definitely be the cool aunt. She’d show the baby little magic tricks and bring them seasonal treats. If the prophecy was correct, she could take our little baby to the beach and push them on the swing in the summer. When they were teens, she’d probably be responsible for the first hole they punched in their body and Luc would fly off the handle. Maybe. Maybe he wouldn’t care. In the bathroom surrounded by my family I wasn’t sure if I was seeing the future of my unborn baby (Baby Edgar. My firstborn was always a boy in my daydreams) or if I was just imagining a future where we were all happy.

  Next Barric gave me a quick one arm hug and I snatched Baby Max from him. Barric looked tired and hungry. After the ultrasound all of us needed to eat again. At least I did. I was starving.

  Gloria led the charge out of the bathroom and down the hall to the staircase. Where Luc’s family took their magic underground us Gilmores took it to the skies. Towers, attics, and rooftops when the weather was nice enough. We also hid our secrets off the ground, so our harpy ancestors guarded them for us. Luc and Barric looked all around as we made the march to the secret clinic mostly used in wartimes for patch up jobs. During peace times it was largely forgotten unless someone conceived and that happened less and less often these days in the Gilmore line.

  “Enchanted so only a Gilmore can unlock it,” Zera announced to the group.

  Gloria picked up a handful of dried sage from a wooden bowl set on a table next to the door. She smashed it into the door and wiped it across the wooden surface.

  “Damn it!” Barric swore under his breath. “Sage is the missing ingredient in all the Gilmore spells?”

  “It’s not missing. It’s obvious,” Gloria said as she dusted off her hands.

  The door opened to an old fashion infirmary. Time didn’t touch the secrets Grandma Rosa hid before her death. Not one speck of dust marked the white floors or light blue walls. The ultrasound machine set in the back of the room behind a black curtain.

  “Why didn’t you just tell me?” Barric asked Luc.

  “It should be obvious. Never mess with a spell without cleansing things first. If you add sage to the spell or potion it acts as a shortcut of sorts,” Luc said.

  “Can you guys talk about this later? We’re about to see our baby for the first time,” I said reaching out for Luc’s hand.

  I didn’t mind him working with his apprentice, but family needed to come first. In many ways Barric was family, but he wasn’t the one carrying around a baby wrapped in a blanket of fidgety butterflies. I wanted my ultrasound photos before the next bout of nausea hit me.

  Gloria pushed back the curtain revealing the cozy adjustable bed and the machine. I looked from her to Luc to Zera and then to Barric. I wasn’t getting naked but laying on my back with my shirt off was too intimate for everyone to watch.

  “I can take the baby downstairs. He’s out cold and he’ll be hungry when he wakes up,” Barric said.

  He looked a little sad at being left out.

  “Fine, stay,” I sighed.

  “Thanks, mate,” Luc whispered in my ear. “He’s still a little out of sorts from how his own family is acting.”

  Barric was lucky I loved Luc with all my heart. The only people I loved as much as him were Zera and Gloria in no particular order. The only person I loved more than them was the little one growing in my belly. Sure, they were already raising hell, but if they were trying to figure out how to sprout wings that wasn’t Baby Edgar’s fault.

  “It’s a little early to know the gender,” Luc said over our mate link.

  “I’ve always imagined my firstborn as a boy. My Baby Edgar,” I told him.

  Gloria turned on the machine and double checked all its parts still worked. I hopped on the bed and stretched out. Reaching down, I adjusted it so I could mostly sit up and watch what was going on. Barric hovered near the foot of the bed staying out of kicking distance.

  “He’s probably sad. He’s almost our age and hasn’t met his mate yet. You remember what it’s like to be that sort of lonely,” my wolf said.

  I blinked away tears. These stupid pregnancy hormones would be the death of me. As Gloria prepped the machine, I pulled my shirt up just under my nipples. Sure, I went around shirtless a lot, but never as the center of attention. Surrounded by people all watching me a sudden bout of shyness clenched my middle. I pushed my jeans down low enough to expose the bottom of my belly. It was the important part anyway. The place that held my womb and inside of it, my and Luc’s little bundle of joy.

  “Found it!” Gloria announced a second later holding up the tube of ultrasound jelly.

  “Is it cold?” I asked.

  Luc pulled a chair close to the side of the bed and took my hand in his.

  “Probably not,” Gloria shrugged and squirted it onto my belly.

  She was wrong. It was freezing. Goosebumps rose on my arms. Luc leaned over and rubbed them away.

  “Meanie,” I narrowed my eyes on Gloria.

  “It’s already warmed up.”

  “Trying to give your nephew frostbite already,” I teased her.

  “Or niece,” she said. “Gilmores have a lot of girls.”

  “Gender is decided by the sperm. His sperm to be exact,” I jerked my thumb in Luc’s direction. “Monteros have a lot of boys.”

  Luc didn’t say anything, but his sheepish grin said it all. I put him on the spot. The word sperm lingered in the air. Barric looked down at his feet and Zera stared at the black curtains with intense curiosity. Only Gloria seemed unabashed by what I said.

  “True, but spirit decides in the end.”

  “Baby Edgar,” I said pointing at my belly.

  “Maybe it’ll have to be baby Elenore,” Gloria smirked.

  “My baby my rules!” I laughed.

  “Can we see the baby my sperm helped make?” Luc interrupted our bickering match.

  “Sure,” Gloria said.

  She slid the wand across my stomach spreading the gel out. I couldn’t imagine laying back and allowing a complete stranger this close to my exposed midsection. It was a wolf thing. You only showed your belly to those you trusted. I trusted Gloria even if she was wrong about the sex of my unborn baby boy.

  Whooshing filled the room startling Barric and Zera from their staring off into space. Their eyes turned to the monitor as Gloria searched my womb for the baby growing inside. She didn’t have to look for very long before the jellybean came onto the screen. Only the baby wasn’t the small spec I saw in so many ultrasound photos over the years.

  “How long have you had morning sickness again?” Gloria looked up at me.

  “Just today,” I told her. “I woke up with it. I’ve been extra tired all week, though.”

  “It looks as if you’re a month pregnant, baby brother,” Gloria said.

  “That’s impossible we only met three weeks ago,” I sat up for a better look at the screen.

  The baby disappeared as my sudden movement jarred the wand from Gloria’s hand.

  “This is our baby,” I poked Luc over the mate link. “I haven’t been with anyone else in years. This is our baby no matter what she says.”

  “I know,” he squeezed my hand. “I think this has more to do with the prophecy than loyalty. We don’t know much about harpy gestation.”

  “Zera, do you know…”

  I stopped short and looked at Luc. Barric was still in the ro
om and he didn’t know about the prophecy. I shot Luc a look that said either he had to pull him all the way into the folds or kick him out of the clinic. Luc explained the situation to Barric. He blinked and nodded. With him caught up I was free to ask Zera about harpies in utero.

  “I’ve never seen a harpy get an ultrasound,” she shrugged.

  A loose feather fell from her wing and landed on the floor. She snatched it up when Barric started eyeing it.

  “I do know that you guys have really long pregnancies compared to us, though. You guys stay pregnant forever! We just have to deal with it four to eight weeks.”

  “Four to eight weeks?” I tightened my hold on Luc’s hand to a death grip. “Our baby could be here next week.”

  “Not by the look of the ultrasound. The baby’s a harpy, but you’re not. Well, not fully anyway,” Zera said. “It’ll probably be closer to eight for you. Right around Yule.”

  “We aren’t ready for that, Alpha,” I turned my attention to Luc.

  “We’ll find a doctor or midwife right away.”

  “Gloria studied with Grandma. She also took some classes.”

  “Are you certified?” Luc looked to Gloria.

  “I am.”

  “I don’t think we have many options, Alpha,” I squeezed his hands. “If you guys want to keep my pregnancy on the downlow the truth has to stay within the group.”

  “I can’t think of a midwife who’d be more dedicated to the safety and health of our baby,” Luc grinned.

  Chapter Thirty

  Luc

  The others cooked a feast, but our baby to be didn’t like the offerings. Aidan rushed into the bathroom as soon as the aroma of the roast wafted through the house. An hour and a shower later for Aidan, we cuddled in his bed. His stomach was okay as long as we kept the bedroom door shut and didn’t venture into the hallway.

  “I ate the burgers just fine, though,” he sighed rolling onto his back and looking up to the ceiling.

  “I think pregnancy by nature is unpredictable,” I squeezed his hand. “Isn’t there a saying that goes something like ‘no two pregnancies are the same’?”

  “I think that’s no two babies are the same,” he laughed.

  “Well, babies and pregnancies go hand-in-hand so it must apply to both.”

  As the sun set on the Gilmore House Aidan’s ceiling came alive. Someone had done the tedious job of painting a glow in the dark sky above his bed. My guess was that it was an artist hired by Rosa Gilmore, but I didn’t ask him. Aidan’s thoughts were a rush of pregnancy hormones and baby preparation.

  “Will it slow your head down if we make a list?” I asked him reaching over to turn on the bedside lamp.

  “Probably. That way we won’t forget anything,” he sat up too and grabbed a notebook and pen from his nightstand drawer. “Sorry, mine isn’t a minifridge.”

  “Do you want me to go down and get you something?” I asked him.

  “Not until the others are in bed. We haven’t had an evening alone since Barric turned up in our yard with Baby Max. This is nice. We won’t have many quiet evenings once Baby Edgar is here.”

  I didn’t tell him not to get his hopes up for a boy. You shouldn’t count your potions until they’re bottled. Believing the baby was a boy made Aidan happy and that was enough for me. Boy or girl, it wouldn’t matter in the end. We already loved a person we never met. I ran my hand over Aidan’s flat stomach. With the size of the baby in the sonogram he’d show a baby bump any day now. If Zera was right, we didn’t have long to wait before we met our baby in person for the first time.

  “You’re smiling like a fool,” Aidan grinned and bumped my shoulder with his.

  “How could I be anything except happy?”

  “I’m happy too. Nervous, though. Anxious about everything we still have to do. Excited and nervous about the prophecy. I keep sitting really still trying to feel little wings moving in my stomach. Logically, I know they’re not there. At least not yet.”

  “They’ll come when the time is right. What’s the first thing on our list?” I asked him.

  “Baby proofing both houses. I figure Gloria will take care of things here, but I’ll remind her anyway. I don’t want to take any chances. Then we’ll have to do ours. I figure Barric will be helpful, but I’ll have to double check all his work personally because I’ll never believe it’s done otherwise.”

  “Okay,” I nodded.

  “We need to get baby stuff. We have some heirloom stuff here, but I don’t know if the crib will hold up to wings. You probably have some stuff too. We need to go through everything and see what we really need. What are we going to do about clothes? Cut holes in all his shirts and onesies for his wings?”

  “Let’s cross that bridge when we come to it. We can ask Zera later. She wears clothes and has wings. Maybe there’s a shop or seamstress in the Other World,” I told him. “So, baby proof two ancient houses, go through approximately one million family heirlooms each, and figure out how to dress our child if he has wings.”

  “You called the baby a he,” Aidan smirked.

  I leaned forward and stole a kiss.

  “I think there’s something our list is missing.”

  “We just started it,” he laughed.

  “Well, I think this one is really important.”

  “What’s that?” He arched a brow.

  “Keep the baby’s carrier really happy and satisfied.”

  “The others are just downstairs,” he blushed, but reached between my legs and grabbed my dick.

  His warmth washed over me and I pulled him into my lap desperate to have him as close as possible.

  “Then you better put up some sound proofing charms.”

  “Me?” He feigned mock shock. “Why should the pregnant man have to do all the work?”

  “To keep his magic under control,” I whispered in his ear.

  “Fine!” He waved his hand and the room fell silent. No noise was coming in or going out.

  “Now, let’s get you out of these clothes,” I tugged at the hem of his shirt and claimed his lips for a long hard kiss.

  Chapter Thirty-One

  Aidan

  My stomach was awake before the sun the morning after Zera, Gloria, and Barric had a feast to celebrate my pregnancy. I didn’t eat a single bite of what they cooked, because the slightest whiff set off my all-day-come-whenever-it-liked sickness. Instead, we ordered Chinese takeout around midnight because I got a craving for fortune cookies. The squirrel shifter who brought our two orders of chicken fried rice, Luc’s beef lo mien, and my four dozen fortune cookies barely kept a straight face as Luc signed for the order.

  Stop. Stop. Not again. Stop it right now.

  I lectured the butterflies swarming in my stomach. They listened about as well as a brick wall. Halfway through my second bout of lectures I sprinted into the bathroom and gave into nature. When my stomach calmed down, I took a shower and headed downstairs to the office. Luc was still out cold, and I figured the others were too. Back behind my computer life felt normal again. This morning my program hadn’t changed itself at all. The hacking didn’t seem as scary since I technically hacked myself.

  “Next year is going to be a good one for a lot of our clients. Most of them have matches in the nineties now. It doesn’t look like we have any other true-mates, though. We need to expand our client base. Maybe Luc has single friends.”

  I frowned at the screen. Luc hadn’t mentioned any real friends. He had plenty of contacts and Barric. Not that I had much room to speak. Most of my friends were clients except for Zera. I wouldn’t have met her at all if she hadn’t stumbled into my attic all those years ago.

  “Relax. Our little groups are entwining and growing. Besides, I bet when the harpies can all come back, we’ll have more friends than we know what to do with,” my wolf said.

  How’s your stomach?

  “Better after the sick. It’s just the course nature runs. The more you resist it the worse it is.”
r />   Maybe, but I’m ready for this part of pregnancy to be over.

  “Soon. The baby bump is here.”

  What?

  I stood up and looked down at my stomach. The wolf was right, as usual. The slightest bump extended from my flat abs. I lifted my shirt and ran my hand over my stomach. No kicks came. I wasn’t that far along yet.

  “I can’t believe it took you so long to figure that out,” Zera laughed walking down the hall.

  “Who puts sage into every recipe, though? Seriously. Cleanse your space beforehand. Isn’t just tossing it into everything lazy?” Barric laughed back to her.

  Jealousy tinged my thoughts. My wolf squashed the feeling fast.

  “She like likes him at least I think she does. It’s hard to tell with harpies. It’s sad. They can’t even meet their true-mate if they’re born on this side of the Other World. Whatever self-banishment spell the harpies used when they left sure screwed over some of their descendants. The connection just can’t happen. It’s sad. So many harpies don’t meet their true-mates until after their other half dies.”

  I held my breath as they walked past the door. Zera was my best friend and I wanted her to be happy. We were never romantic and never would’ve been, because we both liked boys. If Gloria liked boys more, she and Zera may have gotten along. At least then they’d have something to talk about.

  “Oh, Aidan, you’re up,” Zera leaned her head into the office. “Everything okay in here?”

  “Nothing’s changed since yesterday when it matched Luc and I at one hundred percent.”

  “How’s the baby?” She asked.

  I pulled my shirt up to show off my baby bump. She grinned and Barric peeked in. He had Baby Max tucked in close to his chest.

  Zera reached out to touch my belly and stopped short.

  “May I?” She asked.

  Grinning I nodded my consent.

  She placed her hand against my stomach and waited for the same thing I did earlier.

  “He’s not moving around yet. I don’t think he’s old enough.”