Page 7 of Claimed for Eternity

My wolf leaned in to listen too, lending me his ears. It didn’t take long to locate the little thrumming heartbeat. Yep. That’swhat was up with my Xenos. He was pregnant again. We weren’t actively trying but we also weren’t trying not to try either.

I left him asleep and made the rounds of bedrooms before heading into the kitchen to make breakfast. All the kids and teens had made it home last night after their dinner in the square. I left them asleep while I cooked and started the coffee pot. Xenos still did a lot of the cooking but on mornings like this one I liked to let him sleep in. The clinic could survive the first few hours of its day without me. Why in the name of Frost’s balls did I hire help, if it couldn’t?

Besides, any day now, Xenos would know that a little bear or wolf grew in his belly. His morning sickness would give it away. All his favorite foods would set him off. He loved a good pot roast like his dad. Well, he did as long as I made sure the animal we ate didn’t show to ask him why he ate it during the meal. Spirit food or not, Xenos couldn’t handle the scent of most cooked meats for the first few months of his pregnancy.

“Months,”my wolf pondered inside his inner sanctum.“So, you’re thinking bear cub, huh?”

“Maybe. Months just seemed like the correct way to put it.”

I shrugged off his question. Wolf or bear we’d manage. We always did. Bears cubs just took their time growing for nine months.

“Morning, my sexy elf who knows how to make coffee,” Xenos teased me sleepily from the kitchen doorway.

“I know just how you like it,” I said, pointing at the mug waiting for him on the counter.

“I had a strange dream,” he said, padding over to the counter.

“What about?” I asked.

I never knew what sort of ‘weird’ Xenos meant. Sometimes it was spiritually weird and sometimes it was that a butterfly got into the house and drank all the apple juice.

“That you tried to give a rim job to my navel,” he smirked.

“Oh, yeah. That sort of happened, I think,” I laughed.

“What were you doing. You were too high for… Well, going lower.”

“Just wanted to smell your belly.”

Xenos sat down his coffee mug and let out a long, slow sigh. His scent said it all. Xenos wasn’t the sort of bear you had to hit over the head with the obvious before he caught on.

“You can still have your coffee. One cup a day is more than safe,” I reminded him. “Shit! Are you not okay with it?”

“I’m okay with it,” he said. “I was sighing at the fact that you figured it out before I did. The crying spell should’ve tipped me off.”

“Hey, when people move on, it’s okay to cry,” I said.

“I know that. I say that more than anyone else I know, I bet. Maybe more than anyone else who ever lived on Earthside and I’m not even a therapist. I just…”

“What’s up?” I asked, putting a plate filled with bacon and eggs in his hands. The toast and fruit were already on the table. “And that pig wasn’t from around here. So he should’ve found his door by now. Give my baby some protein.”

“Pushy,” Xenos laughed as he sank into his chair at the kitchen table. “You cooking should’ve told me I was pregnant.”

“You’re lucky I didn’t drag a whole deer into the house for you. You know how my wolf gets.”

“Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.”

“But quit dodging the question.”

“I feel like I should’ve known. Am I that out of touch with everything?”

“You’re not out of touch,” I sighed. “You’re a bit distracted. You’re dealing with a lot right now. We’re dealing with a lot. We have the kids and the bears and…. Well, shit. Xenos, I think we need a vacation.”

“But who would watch the kids? Mori can’t do it. He’s going to be off laying dragon eggs,” Xenos said, trying to play off his worry with humor. I laughed but it didn’t sound authentic coming from me either.

“We do have other kids and friends, you know. We could pack them all up and send them to stay with Rune and Sky for a week.”

“Where would we even go?” Xenos asked.

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