Looking at him now, lying with his head beside hers, his eyes fluttering somewhere between wakefulness and sleep, she knew that she had made the right choice in staying with him rather than trying to strike out on her own. She belonged there with him. They belonged together, now and forever.CHAPTER THIRTY-TWOMalcolm-1
The pack had come around slowly, but they had come around, and that was what was important. There was a bit of hesitation to accept a bear among them, but as they had gotten to know Autumn, she had won them over with her down-to-earth ways and concern for others. He had not expected them to embrace her quite like this, but they had, and he was grateful for it.
With the idea that he needed to find a mate and have a litter to become the new Alpha behind him, he let go of his resistance to her and began making other plans. His house was decent but small. He could afford a better place, and she deserved someplace nicer to raise their family.
“What do you want to do after the babies are born?” he asked.
“I think I’ll be pretty busy, so not much,” she said.
She was studying a book the doctor had recommended on raising multiples, tips and tricks for managing it both physically and emotionally. He watched for a moment, admiring how her dark hair fell forward across her face so that only the tip of her nose and full lips were visible unless she tilted her head toward him.
“I was thinking we’d get you some help with that. I mean, I’ll help too, but I have work during the daytime and I don’t want you just stuck here with a mountain of diapers and a shirt coated in spit-up.”
“I don’t know why. You make it sound so glamorous.”
“Are you scared?” he asked.
Autumn looked up at him, seeming to study his face for a moment before she answered.
“A little. Are you scared?”
“More than a little.”
“We’ll be okay. We’re not the first parents of a litter, and we have a lot of people in your pack that are willing to help.”
“It’s your pack too, Autumn.”
“I don’t know that they will ever see me as one of them, Malcolm. I’m not the same, and I never will be.”
“It doesn’t matter. You aren’t the only non-wolf here. There are humans, and we’ve had other species before. I’ve even heard that we once had a dragon in our midst. Can you imagine that?”
Autumn laughed and stood to walk over to him, standing in front of him and running her fingers through her hair, and he placed both his hands on her sizable belly, then lay his head on it, listening to it as if their litter would whisper sweet hellos to him if he paid close attention.
“I’m sure there are people out there who can’t imagine seeing a person turn into a wolf or a bear, much less a dragon. It’s funny to think that we might be just as fascinated by a different creature as humans would be if they saw us change.”
He lifted his head back up toward her and smiled. She was gorgeous like this. He’d never realized just how beautiful women were while they were pregnant. She had already been stunning, but now there was just this glow about her that gave off an undeniable radiance.
“It won’t be long now,” he said.
“Nope. It won’t be.”
“I want to build a new house for us.”
“I don’t think you have time to build a house,” she said with a smile.
“I don’t mean in the next few days, but once we get through this and see how many we need to accommodate. I don’t want them to grow up packed on top of one another like so many shifters do. I mean, it’s fine to start with, when they are little, but I’d like them each to have their own rooms before they are bigger.”
“It sounds nice, but I don’t want you working around the clock to pay for something we can manage without. I mean, I’ll work too, but who knows how long it will be before I can do that with so many on my hands.”
“I don’t need you to do that, but I also want you to do what makes you happy. I want you to go to school and study whatever you’d like. If that leads you to a courtroom to prosecute felons or to our kitchen table to write a book, I don’t care. I just want you to finally be able to do what you want without people telling you how it has to be for you.”
“Thank you for that. I have no idea what I want to do, but I guess I have time to figure it out.”
“You certainly do. Alright, I have to go finish putting together the baby beds.”