Page 28 of Two Wrong Turns

I pulled back to look him in the eye. While I knew he could smell the truth of my words, I needed him to see my earnest gaze as well.

“This is one of the happiest days of my life. I want you and this baby more than anything. I’m losing my cool a bit though realizing we’re going to have a baby shifter. Like, I don’t even know what to do about parenting a baby bear. Will he shift as a toddler? Is he going to be stronger than me from the start? How do I even discipline him? He won’t take me seriously.”

My wail of despair came out as a cough and hiccup combo. Which, of course, only sent me reeling further into my frustration.

“Shhhhh. It’s ok, mate. There’s no reason to fret. You have me here with you. And a town full of shifters. We all work together to raise the young ones. Like one big family. They will be overjoyed to hear our news of an upcoming cub.”

The pride in his voice eased some of my worry. That and the confident way he spoke of people being happy for us.

“You really think so? You don’t think I’ll fail at this?”

“Of course you won’t fail. I’m going to be there with you the whole time. Our cub is going to be loved more than you can imagine. And discipline is something that will build with time. They will learn to respect and love you, just like all shifter youth do. We value families here. There is a sacred order to things. Our child will be raised with that knowledge.”

“So no angsty teen phase is headed my way?” I joked.

He laughed, shaking his head. “Oh, no. You’re still going to get an angsty teen. They’re just more respectful about their frustrations. At their worst, a shifter teen will decide to live as their animal for a few hours to cool off.”

My eyes widened. “I have so much to learn. I don’t think the fan fics covered everything.”

“I doubt they did, mate. But I’ll be around to fill in the blanks. You don't need to worry. We’ve got five months to prepare you.”

“Five months?! That’s really fast.”

He shrugged. “Yes, but shifters are different. Bears used to gestate around seven months, but that changed somewhere along the way. We believe it’s because of population issues. Less time to make babies means more babies can be made. At least that’s how my parents described it to me.”

I dramatically fell back onto the couch, which only left my lower body spread out across Nolan. “Five months,” I murmured.

In five months, I’d be a parent. I’d be responsible for another life.

“I think we need to go over a few things. Let me get a notebook. I want to write this all down.”

Nolan’s laughter followed me down the hall. I smiled, knowing he was amused by my eagerness to get it all down. I hoped that excitement continued as we began to prepare for this baby. I had a feeling it was going to be the longest five months of our lives.

Chapter 12

Nolan

My mate was miserable.

Not because of anything I’d done specifically. Moreover, he couldn’t seem to figure out what to eat because everything made him sick. Even just a whiff of food could throw him into a vomiting fit.

I hated watching him hurt this way. The bear side of me felt guilty for breeding him when his human body didn’t seem to handle pregnancy well. At the same time, he reveled in the knowledge that our mate was so properly claimed.

We were only a month into the full five and so far, I could tell my mate was going to avoid the possibility of having another cub in the future. I could only hope the delivery would change his mind.If it didn’t, I had no doubt seeing our child would encourage him to want more.

I wanted to fill our home, our den, with all the cubs he’d let me. But it was important that he was comfortable too. There would be no happily ever after if my mate wasn’t happy.

“Are you sure there isn’t anything I can do?” I asked for the millionth time as I rubbed his back.

He shook his head, sinking deeper into the pillow on my lap. “I promise this helps. You’ve already started eating everything away from the house, so I don’t have to smell it. The doctor said there isn’t anything else we can do right now.”

I sighed, unhappy with the verdict of his last visit. We’d gone over all the different things we could do to alleviate some of my mate’s discomfort. Given he’d only seen a few other human pregnancies, Dr. Hepbuck was sure this phase would pass. He also assured us that there were many different ways for pregnancy to unfold.

Just because Barrett was sick right now didn’t mean he would continue to be sick the entire time. In fact, he assured me the aversion to food would likely be gone in the next week or two. I only had to hold out until then.

I ran my hand around his side on the next pass until my palm rested against his small bump. The protrusion looked more like a food baby than an actual pregnancy, yet I was still just as obsessed. Any shifter around could sense the change in my mate’s scent, though we’d only been out twice in the last month. Both times had to be cut short when a whiff of something threw him into the throes of nausea.

“You love touching my belly now,” he teased.

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