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They brought me up, and sure enough, everybody was waiting for me. It was one of the benefits of working in the hospital—you knew everyone. They had me in a room, hooked up to monitors, talking about whether I needed any sort of tests to see if I hurt my back or not, as if I wasn’t there. That’s when I found out my Braxton Hicks weren’t Braxton Hicks—they were full-on contractions.
The doctor wasn’t loving how weak the contractions were, and being a fox shifter himself, he knew what to give me to kick the labor into a far more productive state. I was already pacing the room in my hospital gown, staving off new contractions, when my mate came in.
“I’m so sorry I let you go to the grocery store,” he said.
I stopped dead in my tracks. “You let me?”
“I didn’t mean it like that. I just meant I wish I was with you.”
“Well, you are now, when it counts.” I had a monitor on, which limited where I could go. There’d be no hall walking for me. Not that anything in my birth plan had worked out so far.
A few minutes later, the doctor came in to look at the readings from the monitor and talk about whether I needed to get any kind of scans. He wasn’t liking what he was seeing. I could tell before he even said one word.
“You’re not going to want to hear this,” he said.
“Is my baby okay?” That was all that mattered.
“Yes, your baby is fine. But I think he needs more help getting out than just what you’ve already had.” He started to point out different things on the printout to me. Paternity wasn’t my strong suit, but even I could see the concerning increases and decreases in our child’s heartbeat during contractions.
“Okay, yes. But we need to get him out, and quickly.”
“By quickly you mean C-section?”
He nodded. And my birth plan was officially trash. There had been a time when I thought that would matter to me. But now that I was here, facing the decision, the only thing I cared about was the safety of our baby.
My mate stayed by my side like a boss, keeping his beast at bay even when they curtained off part of my body so he couldn’t see what they were doing. That might have bugged him, but it was for the best—no one wanted to see their mate sliced open and a human being pulled out of them.
The doctors were swift and cautious, and soon, our son Andri was placed on my chest, having his first snuggle. I still wasn’t completely sewn up yet, my arms were still pinned down, but he was there—my mate, holding him to me. He was perfect.
They did sutures and used glue to close me up, not realizing that all I was going to do was shift when I got home to take care of it. Then they wheeled me to recovery, where it was just my small family and a nurse who did her best to stay out of our way. Paternity nurses were a special breed—able to help protect your most precious cargo while being like wallflowers, so you could enjoy those first few days of bonding.
“He’s beautiful,” I said, relieved to finally be able to wrap him in my arms.
“He really is,” Anders said, kissing the top of my head. “And he’s beautiful because he looks just like you, Papa Bear.”
“That’s funny. I was thinking he looked just like you.”
Chapter 24
Anders
“Are you excited, Choccie?”
Our dog looked up at me with his melty brown eyes and wagged his tail while standing in front of the door.
Brett had Andri in a carrier nestled on his chest. Getting both a baby and puppy out the door with all their stuff and going to a dog park just for an hour was a major undertaking.
My mate sat in the back seat with our son and Choccie. During the short ride, the baby cried, and the dog howled. I caught Brett’s eye in the rearview mirror, and we laughed.
Life was messy, and I was loving every minute of it.
We were a little apprehensive about the dog park. Though Choccie had been around our friends’ dogs, he hadn’t mixed with a group of unknown dogs. And while he responded to the come command, we decided to keep him on the leash, at least initially.
When we arrived, Choccie wagged his tail. We stood outside for a few minutes, checking the number and types of dogs. Though it was Sunday when we expected the park to be full, it was early and there were only a handful of dogs and owners here.
I gripped the leash and gave Choccie a pep talk, explaining I’d be with him the whole time. He was still a puppy and small enough that I could pick him up if necessary.
Brett stayed outside the enclosure with Andri, and I led Choccie in. One small yippy, happy dog ran up to us, and Choccie froze, but the little guy gave him a sniff and took off.
