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Eight months later …
Toeing the loose board of the front porch, I frown and keep on with my rocking. The creak of the rocking chair keeps time with the shells we gathered from the beach a few months ago, where they dangle from strings like a windchime. Dusk has begun to settle over the back of the house, creating an orange-pink sky against a silhouette of palm trees. Beside me, Cali cradles the baby, smiling down at her where she sits on a cushioned swing.
“God, she’s so beautiful, Wren. Baby Sarai. I love it.” I named her after my sister, who didn’t get much time in this world. With golden locks that curl at the end, she looks like she could’ve been a triplet to her and my brother, Abel.
The baby shifts in her arms, hands balled into fists that she swipes at her mouth--the telltale sign of needing to be fed soon. Sure enough, her face scrunches up, and when she releases her tiny fingers, realizing they contain no milk, a nasally cry signals her frustration.
I gather Sarai up into my arms, exposing Cali’s bulging belly beneath.
“How are you feeling?” I take my seat again and pull my tank down for the too-swollen breast that leaks with the need to be emptied.
“Pretty good. Ready to pop.” Cali sets her hands on either side of her belly and smiles. “Is it weird that I’m looking forward to labor?”
“No, not at all. I think that’s God’s way of lessening our fears. Making us so miserable in the last month that we don’t give a damn how painful it is to get this kid out of our body.” A chuckle escapes me as I run my fingers over the top of Sarai’s head. “Got any names picked out?”
“If it’s a girl? Bryani, after my sister. And if it’s a boy …” She lowers her gaze, her expression solemn. “Cadmus. After his father.”
“You’re certain it’s his baby?”
“It was the last time I was in estrus. From what I understand, it stops with pregnancy, just like a menstrual cycle.” She’s told me a bit about estrus and how it worked. How much pain she would be forced to suffer, if not given relief by an Alpha, and that in Valdys’s absence, it was Cadmus who provided her some comfort. It isn’t fair, the way Calico used her body as a vessel, made her a guinea pig for their twisted experiments.
“How does Valdys feel about it?” In the last eight months, I’ve grown closer to Cali, who’s become like the younger sister I didn’t get a chance to grow up with.
Her lips stretch into a genuinely happy smile at the sound of her Alpha’s name. “I honestly don’t think I deserve Valdys sometimes, you know? He told me …” Eyes filling with tears, she chuckles as she wipes them away. “Sorry. Not used to these hormones.” Clearing her throat, she pushes the hair behind her ears. “He told me it would be an honor to raise his Alpha brother’s child as his own. If I thought my excitement was anything to go by, he can hardly keep his hands off me, or my belly, lately.”
“Six was the same way.” Staring down at my little girl, I smile, recalling the many nights he lay talking to her in the womb, obsessed with the idea of becoming a father. “I always felt self-conscious about my big belly, but the way he looked at me … it was like he saw something I didn’t.”
“Valdys is the same. He’s been somewhat … ravenous lately.” Her cheeks blush as she says this, while her hands fidget in her lap. Even with a belly, she remains small, considerably so when she’s standing beside her massive Alpha. He seems like he could easily turn rough with her, but she’s told me a number of times what a gentle lover he is.
“I think it’s an Alpha thing. They get worked up seeing us with enormous boobs and bellies.”
“Ugh. Speaking of enormous boobs.” Rubbing her arm against the side of one, she winces. “Are they supposed to be so tender?”
“Wait until the milk comes in. Rock city.”
“Guess that’s the only thing I’m not looking forward to.”
“It’s all worth it, though. The first time you hear them cry, it’s like … the whole world just doesn’t matter anymore.”
Smiling, she nods. “I look forward to that.”
Three figures emerge from the woods ahead. None of them wear a shirt, which shows off the sweat glistening across their skin from a long day’s work framing another house in the community. Tripp pats Six on the back and waves, as he heads off in the opposite direction, toward the house he shares with one of the women he met a few months back, and his daughter, Trinity.
Six and Valdys stride toward us, laughing and sipping their waters, as if they’ve known each other for years.
Feels that way. In fact, sometimes I look around this place and wonder if I’m trapped in an impossible dream. Perhaps that bite all those months back killed me and this is Heaven. Here, with people I love and care about, and those who’ve become family.
It won’t always be this way, of course. Someday, I’ll yearn for the world beyond, and the safety of these walls won’t hold the animal that breathes inside of me, clawing for its freedom. By then, perhaps my children will be old enough to teach the ways of the land, like Papa taught me. How to survive and respect that, at any moment, everything can be swiped by something bigger. Stronger.
For now, though, this is my home. My reality and my world.
When Valdys catches sight of Cali, his eyes light up, and suddenly she seems to be the only thing that exists for him as he makes his way toward her.
A presence before me draws my attention toward Six, who leans forward to kiss his daughter’s forehead as she feeds, half covered by small blanket draped over my shoulder. “How’s my baby girl?”
“Hungry, it seems.”
“So is daddy.”
