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I shake my head. “It’s okay. I need the bathroom.”

“I’ll get you, Aerin.”

He heads for the shed with the mower and I head for the bathroom, passing the stairs, which I still view as the devil. I disliked stairs when I was six months pregnant. At eight months, I wish for elevators on a daily basis.

I’m feet from the bathroom when there’s a sudden pressure inside me. As I stand in the hallway with one hand braced on the wall, I think I understand what’s happening.

No. I’m almost certain I know what’s happening.

Excitement and fear surge inside me.

“Mack!” I yell.

Two seconds later, Mack yells back. “Are you okay? Do you need help getting up from the toilet?”

Yes, I’m at that stage and it is no longer embarrassing as it is frustrating to sometimes sit and not be able to stand up again since there’s no wall to push myself up.

“Um. Not exactly,” I call back.

He jogs up the stairs, his expression concerned until he sees my face. “What is it? What’s wrong?”

Another hard pressure makes me wince and press a hand against my belly. “I think she’s coming.”

His hand tightens around the balustrade as something resembling terror passes across his face. “Now?”

“You’re going to be a good dad, Mack,” I reassure him.

He told me that because his dad walked out of his life that he wouldn’t know how to be a good one, but I think the opposite. I know he is going to be a better one because he knows what it is to lose a dad.

That seems to snap him out of his fear laced frozen moment because he moves, scooping me into my arms and carrying me to our room. “I’m supposed to be doing the reassuring, love. Especially right now. Are you in pain?”

“It’s not that bad yet,” I tell him as he helps me into bed.

He kisses the top of my head. “I’ll call Adela and your grandparents, okay?”

“Okay.”

I tell myself this can’t hurt as much as I’ve heard it does. I’m a shifter. Childbirth can’t be that bad, can it?

By the time Adela and my grandparents are walking into the room to help deliver my baby, I’m ready to forget about having another baby again in my life.

Hours later, when Adela places a screaming, red-faced baby with blonde hair and blue-gray eyes into my arms, every single second of pain was worth it.

Adela and my grandparents quickly clean up and leave Mack and me alone to enjoy our daughter before we introduce her to the rest of the pack.

Mack is sitting on the bed with me as everyone waits downstairs to meet the newest member of the Winter Lake Pack.

I’m exhausted. Everything hurts, but I can’t stop grinning.

Mack kisses the top of my hair. “She looks like a Janie to me.”

I lean against his chest. “She does, doesn’t she?”

On the sleepless nights when my back hurt too much to sleep, we talked about names and for some reason, Janie was one that seemed to stick in both our heads.

It just felt right.

And now, looking at the beautiful little girl in my arms, I know why.

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