AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“And who says the perfect mate doesn’t exist?”
“Not me.” I ran a finger on his mating mark. “I have you. I already knew they did.”
Epilogue
Corey
Being pregnant was an emotional roller coaster. There were days when I felt invisible and like I was about to master this parent thing and others when I was scared. And sure, some of that was fear had to do with taking the huge teen-size cub growing inside of me out, but Rissa assured me that our baby was a normal size. They lied. At least my huge-ass belly that reached the house five minutes before the rest of me suggested they did.
Corey swore I wasn’t that big, that I was sexiness personified. I’d have thought he was just being nice had he been able to keep his hands off me. Not once did I look the hot mess I felt like.
I overdid it the day before, and I was feeling it. The whole “nesting” thing I’d heard about, I’d always half assumed was a way of convincing omegas that they needed to be sure and have everything clean and ready for the baby. Not once did I think it was real, that I would wake up one morning and decide out of the blue that our very clean and tidy nursery needed to be scrubbed from top to bottom. But yesterday, I did.
I had a bucket of hot water and the furniture moved to one side when my mate came in after his Beta meeting. He took one look at me and shook his head before taking it from me and calling all the Betas.
“You can’t be doing this now,” he insisted as he asked me for a list of things that needed doing.
Five minutes later, my brother and the other Betas were scrubbing the nursery for me. My mate’s intention was to do it so I could relax, and I did, if relaxing meant reorganizing the pantry. Because of course newborn cubs were all about organized canned goods. And from there I found a project in every single room. I was an organizational boss.
And today? Today I was paying for it. Even walking around took more energy than I had. Lesson learned.
I was ready, yet I wasn’t for this baby. Some days I was willing to do anything and everything to meet our little one, and others when I was happy that they were nestled inside, completely protected from the world.
According to my calculations, I was several days past my due date. According to Rissa, due dates were omegas trying to quantify what only our bodies could now or something cryptic and unhelpful along those lines. But did it matter? Not really, because it seemed that our little cub was fully content to wait around in my belly until his graduation day.
Each day felt like I dragged a little bit more, if you didn’t count what I deemed, “superpower” days like yesterday. Sleep was not happening. I felt bad for my mate. I tossed and turned my huge self all night long chasing sleep and waking him far too often. I offered to sleep in the recliner, but he refused, saying he wasn’t going to be able to get any sleep if he wasn’t by my side. He was sweet, but also sleep-deprived.
I was too. Not that I expected to sleep a whole ton once my baby arrived. At least that was what all the baby websites said. I couldn’t figure out why the first-time parents didn’t just sleep when the baby did, figuring I’d be able to sleep a little easier without a beach ball attached to my middle and could play catch-up. Given I’d never found one person saying they did, there had to be a reason, one I’d find out soon enough.
“It’s time. We should get going.” I held out my hand, and Zane grabbed it, helping me out of the recliner that I had been relaxing in for the past few hours. It would’ve been longer than that if it weren’t for our little one’s newest pillow—my bladder. Two, three hours max was the longest amount of time that I could sit without having to go to the bathroom.
I stood up, and the urgency to go slammed into me. “I’ve gotta pee real quickly,” Was on my way down the hall as quickly as I could waddle.
In theory, we weren’t in any sort of hurry. It wasn’t as if Rissa had several clients waiting, and the baby wasn’t going to just fall out because I was a little late. Rissa had said pregnant people had preggo time, a close friend of ish time, and not to worry about it if we were late or early to our visits. But technically, we did have an appointment that was five minutes ago, and I didn’t want to keep them waiting if we didn’t have to.
Once I used the facilities and washed my hands, I waddled my way back out to Zane, this time less hurriedly. He smiled brightly when he saw me.
“What?” I said.
“You’re gorgeous like this.”
“I’m bigger than I am in my bear form.” And I wasn’t small in my fur.
He chuckled. “Not quite. But close.”
I shot him a glare.
“Seriously, you’re glowing with pregnancy. I know that you’re uncomfortable, but you’re beautiful like this, carrying my child. You’ve done wonderfully.”
“Thank you, mate. I do appreciate it. You’ve been pretty great yourself.” The best, really.
Once we were inside the healer clinic, Rissa had me set up on a bed-like thing. “Drink this tea,” they said and handed me one of the most foul-smelling things I’ve ever come across.
“What is it?” I asked.
“It’ll induce your labor. Just trust me.” I did trust them. I didn’t, however, trust myself not to gag.”
“Can’t you use what they use on humans?” my mate asked. He’d been spending too much time on the human pregnancy sites.
