Page 49 of Call Don't Fall

Eventually Doctor Dreala did make her way into the bedroom earning growls from Chasten. She didn’t get too close. Instead, she lingered against the far wall near the bathroom door. As the minutes ticked into hours she came and went refreshing a hot basin of water over and over as if she couldn’t figure out what else to do with herself. She knew not to come too close unless something went wrong. I was pretty damn sure Chasten was all wolf now and he’d take off a finger to protect himself and the pup making its journey from his body into the big, scary world.

“We’ll see the leaves and we’ll take so many photos to show Delanie when she’s older,” I said, whispering to Chasten about our upcoming trip in between contractions. He panted hard and if I hadn’t worked in the hospital to see the occasional laboring carrier come through, I might’ve worried. I hated seeing him in pain. Hated the fear that dribbled all over our mating link when all I could do was stay by his side as he followed his wolf’s natural instincts and gave birth to a beautiful grey wolf pup.

Doctor Dreala tried to take a step forward when the first whimpering yip-whine broke free from our pup but Chasten growled and moved her closer to him until she found a teat. Her big appetite made me grin as Chasten licked her clean.

“She gets that appetite from you,”Chasten teased me over our mating link.

“I’ll happily take credit for that”I said, running my hand gently over his head again.

More than an hour passed before Chasten calmed down enough to let Doctor Dreala get a look at Delanie. She declared her healthy if in need of a real bath and gave her all the baby shots that would protect her against the big wide world that she was yet to meet. She lingered but we fell asleep with me half under the bed with Chasten and our pup. Later, I’d wake up with a sore neck, but for the moment, I was the happiest wolf in the world and had the best sleep of my life with my mate and pup close by.

Epilogue

Chasten

Something fell on my nose, and I startled awake. Delanie Hope let out a long yip that sounded almost like a swear. A leafhad landed on her too and she was not having all this nonsense of trees spitting their dead skin all over her – no matter how many pretty colors they came in.

“It’s a leaf, Del,” Kirk yawned, scooping her up under her belly and pulling her up to the top of the truck bed with us. She let out a protesting bark and squirmed this way and that until she saw he held her morning bottle of formula all mixed up with deer broth we brought from home. Her eyes grew into saucers and a second later she shifted back into our not quite one year old baby.

“She’s always hungry,” I teased.

“Had to feed before she tries to eat another squirrel,” he shrugged.

“I miss coffee.”

“We’ll drive and get coffee after she eats,” Kirk laughed. “And our breakfast too. Too many leaf peepers to go hunting right now.”

“We’re leaf peepers,” I screwed up my face pretending to be mad.

“Yeah, and we didn’t buy hunting tickets either. Probably were sold out by the time we knew we needed them.”

“I still say no one would’ve missed that squirrel she tried to eat.”

“I don’t think so either. I would’ve let her have it, but it was faster than she was, and Del has to learn to be faster if she wants to eat them.”

“Meanie,” I rolled my eyes at him, but he was right.

“We’ll take her hunting when we get back home. I’ll catch a squirrel and turn it loose in the backyard or something.”

“Isn’t that cheating?”

“Not really. That one might be faster than her too and smarter than me and get out of the backyard with its life,” he shrugged and glanced at my belly.

“I’m not,” I shook my head.

It was a debate we’d had over the last few days. I had a nasty bout of motion sickness on the road and Kirk was ten thousand percent sure I was pregnant. I wasn’t so sure. I thought it was all the curvy roads he took with a medium lead foot to keep up with the flow of traffic.

“I got the stick for you to P-E-E on,” he said.

“I don’t think that’s a cuss word.”

“I don’t want our daughter to think she should run around and P-E-E on S-T-I-C-K-S like her daddy,” he smirked at me.

“What here? In the trees?”

“The test is in the glove box with a specimen cup from work,” Kirk nodded.

“Will you give it up if I go do this?” I laughed.

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