Page 52 of Warwick

He was right. We couldn’t change when the twins would arrive. I looked at Dr. King. “All right. What do we do, then?” I had two weeks. Two. Weeks. That wasn’t very long. I was expecting months still. Almost four, to be exact. That was long gone. “Does anyone else have such short gestational periods?”

“Foxes are the closest, but they aren’t quite as short,” Dr. King said.

Of course not. Even foxes had longer gestations than I did.

“How is it even possible?” Warwick asked. “How does a baby develop in such a short amount of time?”

“The goddess did answer that one for me,” Master Edison said. “She said that she wanted the mates of hellhounds to have a positive pregnancy experience. Since there is no previous anything with regards to pregnancies for hellhounds, she decided that she would make the pregnancies short. The babies use their own magic to develop quickly. Once they’re born, their magic will become inaccessible to them again until puberty.”

“All right. Thank you for the information. It’s a lot and quite overwhelming.” I looked up at Warwick, who was still sitting with his arm looped around my shoulders. He looked like I felt: terrified. “Are you all right?” I asked.

“I will be.”

“It’s a lot to spring on you both,” Master Edison said. “But we needed to let you know before you went into labor and didn’t realize that it wasn’t premature labor.”

“I appreciate it. I do,” I told him. That would have really flipped me out.

“Yes,” Warwick said. “Thank you for sharing the news.”

“We have so much to do. How will we ever be ready in time? We only have two or so weeks left with just the two of us.” That wasn’t enough time. I had just gotten Warwick, and now we were going to be thrown into parenthood. I sighed.

“Wait,” I said suddenly. “If we have another baby later and it’s a polar bear shifter, will I have the expected five-month gestation?” I asked.

“That was the implication, yes,” Master Edison said. “The only time you will have a shorter gestational period is when you are carrying a hellhound baby.”

“And what if he becomes pregnant with one of each?” Warwick asked.

Master Edison suddenly looked like a deer caught in headlights. “I cannot answer that question. I’ll try to reach out to the goddess again and ask her. I apologize. I did not think to ask her if you were to have multiples of different species. That is a good question to ask though.”

“Cecil?”

I looked toward my grandparents and tried to offer them a smile. They’d done nothing wrong during all of this. In fact, they’d been amazing. “It’s a lot, Grandpa. I’ve always wanted babies but thought I wouldn’t have them. Now, I’m suddenly going to be responsible for two in just a week or two.” It was sinking in. “I’m not sure I’m going to be ready.”

Grandpa Lev smiled. “If you want, I can be here to help you with anything you need.” Grandpa Lev glanced at Warwick. “But I think your mate will be able to handle a lot of things quicker than I could.”

I looked up at Warwick. “You might be on laundry duty,” I told him. Warwick grinned, and others in the room chuckled.

“I don’t mind laundry duty. Or bottle duty.”

My eyes widened. Oh yeah. We were going to need bottles. I was suddenly freaking out again.

“We need bottles. And clothes. And diapers. We don’t have anything.” I looked over at Dr. King. “Is there a checklist of everything we need in that book?”

It was Constantine who answered. “There is a list of recommended items, as well as a list of must needs. There are also some highly recommended stores with websites for online purchases.”

I could only nod. It was a lot. Too much, actually.

“Cecil, if you don’t mind, could Constantine and I do another exam? We can do it up in your bedroom if you would like privacy for it. But it would be helpful to check out the twins and see how they are developing.”

I nodded again. I simply couldn’t do more. I was having babies. Soon. I truly expected to have more time for everything. I was pulled to my feet, and when I looked up, I saw Warwick’s worried face. I shook my head. It was just too much to process all at once.

Warwick swept me up into his arms, and I heard him talking to someone. When I was placed on our bed, I looked up at my mate and smiled.

“How are we going to do this?” I asked. “Why would she make it so short?”

“We do this one day at a time,” Warwick told me. “As for why such a short gestation, I’m not sure. I would think having it similar to that of a wolf shifter would have made more sense. Or why not simply keep it the same as the carrier’s species?” Warwick sat on the side of the bed beside me. “But no matter if the twins come in a couple of weeks, or a few months from now, we’ll take it one day at a time.”

“As a parent of triplets, I can say with experience that one day at a time is truly all you can do when you are dealing with children, no matter how old they are.”

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