“Yeah, you did.” He reached up behind my head, pulled my face close, and kissed me senseless. “Now, let’s get a move on. I want to be around your beast today.”
I wasn’t going to deny him that, and maybe if he had led with that, I would’ve been less pushy. Probably not, but the odds would’ve been better.
I grabbed the ice packs from the freezer and started packing everything into the cooler. He had made enough food for about a week, but I learned early on in his pregnancy not to comment on food. There were days in the beginning when he couldn’t keep anything down, and other days when he couldn’t put enough inhis mouth. He didn’t want my commentary on any of it, and I respected that.
A half an hour later, we were in the car, looking more like we were going on vacation than to a picnic in a clearing in the woods.
It was a beautiful day, so at least there was that. When we arrived, I laid out the blankets and the throw pillows in the picnic area. Under the blankets, I had laid egg crate foam to give some extra support. Heston swore he was fine getting up and down, and he was, but I didn’t want him to be uncomfortable. He was carrying a whole-ass human being inside him. He deserved the extra layer.
“What would you like to do first?” I asked. This was his day, and one of the last few we were going to have before our lives changed forever.
“Honestly, I’m exhausted. I’m thinking... a nap.”
“Yeah, we can do that.” I took off my shoes, then knelt on the blanket to help him get his off.
“Would you take your fur?” he asked hesitantly.
There was no need to be shy and he usually wasn’t. But for whatever reason, today he was.
“Absolutely.” He curled up on his side, pillows between his legs and under his head. He watched as I got undressed. Once I took my fur, he patted the blanket beside him. I walked over to him. He wrapped his arm around me and said, “That’s better,” hugging me close, his breaths evening out. Soon enough he fell sound asleep.
At first, my wolf was vigilant, making sure my mate was safe, but soon he realized that this was our spot, where we liked to be, and we were fine. So he allowed himself to fall asleep as well.
When my beast woke up, the sun was high in the sky. It was already lunchtime. My mate was no longer fully asleep, but not quite awake yet either. His fingers absent-mindedly ran through my fur, but his breathing still held slow and steady.
A kick in my back said our little one was not only awake, but active. I wouldn’t get over the wonder of feeling our child like that.
My mate wasn’t going to be even semi-asleep for long at the rate our pup was moving. Sure enough, a few minutes later, he mumbled against me, “Five more minutes.”
I wanted to answer and tell him that he could have as many minutes as he wanted, but I wasn’t able to as a wolf. So instead, I just lay there until he woke fully a handful of minutes later.
“Thank you. I needed that.” He pushed himself to sit and cried out.
My wolf bounded back, and I grabbed my skin, throwing myself in front of Heston, asking, “What’s wrong?”
“I don’t know. I don’t know.” He held his belly. “Something... something.”
“Well, we best get you home.” I threw on my clothes and went to help him stand, but as I reached him, he shook his head.
“No, no, look,” and he patted the blanket beside him. “My water... it broke.”
“So it’s hospital time.” The hospital was close. I was more than happy to drive him straight there.
“No.” He held his hand out. “I think that’s why I wanted to be here. My body knew what my brain didn’t, and this is where we need to have our baby.”
“But the hospital…”
He shook his head.
“The midwife?”
More head shaking.
“The doula… anyone?”
“I just need you, Devyn. I just need you.”
I was woefully unprepared for any of this, despite having gone to all of the father-to-be classes. It took some doing, but I was able to convince him to at least allow me to call the midwife, who said that it was fine and that they would be on call if needed. We’d only been working with her the past month or so. She was nice enough. She was also extremely good at what she did, having delivered over 1,000 babies in her career. That gave me some comfort, even though I’d much prefer not to be doing this without medical assistance.
