Page 49 of Frederick
Chapter 20
Dominic
“Do you have everything ready?” Drew asked.
I nodded in response. “We finished the nursery a couple of weeks ago, and that was really the last thing that we needed to finalize. It’s like Frederick says; it isn’t as if we can’t just use magic if we discover we are missing something.”
“Let me tell you, that is the best thing. When you’re doing middle of the night when you are trying to feed the baby and all of a sudden she decides she needs to burp and ends up puking everywhere. I probably would have screamed more than once, if not for Sebastian. He came to the rescue more than once. I can’t imagine how much of a struggle it would be if he didn’t have magic.” Drew shook his head. “Don’t get me wrong. I know there are a lot of paranormal that don’t have magic. I’m just incredibly spoiled now that I’m mated.”
I threw my head back and laughed. After I finally calm down, I shook my head at the cheetah shifter. “I have no doubt that Sebastian very much enjoys spoiling you at every opportunity.” We were probably what most would consider an unlikely pairing when it came to friends. But I certainly considered Drew my friend. He was incredibly sweet, and I knew that he absolutelyhad a side to him that you did not mess with. I had seen him with his father-in-law on a couple of occasions, and the older warlock most certainly respected Drew.
“I tried to spoil him back. I can’t do it in the same way, but he seems as if he is not too terribly upset about it.”
“One does not have to have magical powers in order to be able to spoil someone. It certainly helps, but is not a requirement.”
“I know, I just feel like no matter how hard I try sometimes, I can’t do it nearly as well as he can.”
I shook my head. “Do not feel as if you are less than, simply because you do not have the same abilities. You are putting in the effort, I am Sebastian knows that. That means a lot to him. sometime, it is the effort more than the end result. You do nice things for him?”
Drew nodded his head.
“Has Sebastian complained?”
“No.”
“Then why are you feeling as if you are lacking when it comes to being able to spoil your mate?”
Drew let out a deep sigh. “I don’t. Well, for the most part, I don’t. Every so often, old insecurities pop back up, and that’s one of them. Always feeling inadequate. Feeling as if I’m not enough, or not doing enough. Look at his family.” Drew looked at me with wide eyes. “Frederick has the same family. How did you integrate yourself in with them with so much ease?”
“What makes you think it was easy? True, it was. But that is because the only person that I really cared about, was Frederick. Sure, I wanted his parents to like me. In the end though, even if they didn’t care for me, it wasn’t going to change the fact that we were fated to be together. It is just you and Sebastian in your relationship. Having his parents and his brothers in your extended circle is a bonus.”
“I never thought of it that way. I know that Sebastian has been saying the exact same thing to me since the beginning.” Drew shook his head. “Why is it that it seems to be so much clearer coming from you?”
I smiled. “Most likely because on some level, your subconscious is telling you that Sebastian is only saying those things because he is mated to you, and you feel as if he has no other choice. Nothing could be further from the truth, but that does not stop your brain from telling you that is how things are.” It took me some time to get over the fact that Frederick’s family was such more prominent than mine was. There was nothing I could do about that. One could not change who their family was. I was of course, not going to let Drew know that, because that would only cause issues with what I was trying to get him to understand.
“Speaking of family,” I said. “Have you heard from Eli?”
Drew started shaking his head. “No. I know that he has wanted another baby for some time now, and he stopped taking suppressors a couple of months ago. I fully expected him to go into heat then, but I guess it takes a little bit of time for them to come out of your system. The last I heard, Rainier had the twins, and they were, checking in on Benjamin and Eli every day or so."
The family was certainly going to be growing. I had finally met Caspian, and I absolutely felt for the warlock. His pregnancy had been wretched, whereas mine had been nothing but easy. Not only that, but Caspian was mated to a dragon. Dragons had one of the longest gestations, and although he had been pregnant for longer than I had known Frederick, he wasn’t going to deliver until around the same time I did. And if Eli caught during his heat cycle, he would most likely give birth before both of us. It was frustrating as well as fascinating.
“Do you think they’ll have more?” Drew asked me.
I shrugged my shoulders because I honestly had no clue. Personally, I would love at least two. But I would be absolutely over the moon with the one and only I was carrying.
“Have you and Eli not talked about how many children do you want?”
“No. I try to hang out with him when I can, but Maverick and Spencer are so hyper. Eli never gets much of a chance to talk with me because he’s too busy running after the boys. I know he loves it, and honestly, I can’t wait until Flora is mobile. But I also know that I see that now, and when she’s surfing, the furniture and getting into everything, I’m going to wish that she wasn’t walking yet. That’s just how things are.”
“Don’t rush things. They grow up fast enough as it is.” I looked at little Flora as she lay in Drew’s arms, fast asleep.
“What about you?” I asked “Are you and Sebastian planning on having more?” I was sure I already knew the answer to that question. Drew adored his daughter, and he absolutely was a natural when it came to being a parent.
“Yes. If we can, we are hoping to have more. You?”
“I am knocking on three-hundred quite hard. I’m not sure I will be able to have more. We were quite surprised that I ended up pregnant this time.”
“That doesn’t make sense. Sure, if you had been with Frederick for a century or two, I could understand and accept that. But you just met him. That means you get lots of fertile years.”
