I groaned and rolled over, moving closer to Maxwell’s side. “I’m not sure,” I said. “I’m torn between two very different ones, and I just don’t know what I want.”
“There’s time. We have a month or so before he’s even born. And after that, he’s going to be with us in our room for some time.”
“How long?”
“As long as you wish. It might be that you want him with us for months. Maybe you’ll be settled enough with only a few weeks. It depends on the baby and the parents.”
I grinned. “Me? What about you? I know you deliver a lot of babies, but what if you are the one who doesn’t want him going to the nursery?” I teased.
“All possibilities,” Maxwell said. “Did you want to see the baby more?”
“I’m good,” I said as I snuggled more into Maxwell’s side. He rolled to his side, and I suddenly found myself wrapped up in his embrace. It was warm and cozy and would be so incredibly easy to fall back asleep. “Do you have plans for the day?” I asked quietly.
“Whatever you wish,” Maxwell said. I felt him moving my hair, and it took a moment for me to register that it was his fingers as he was running them through it. “Did you wish to go for a walk? Or maybe we could go shopping? We haven’t been to the store in some time.”
That caught my interest, and I moved back enough to look at my mate. “I could go shopping. I need to get some stretchy pants anyway. All that fit now are my sweats, and they don’t really work well for work.”
“Why didn’t you say something? I can provide you with elastic-waist slacks if that’s what you’re after.”
“I know you can, but I wanted to go shopping and see what they have. I’m planning on having more children, so it’s not like I won’t wear them again.”
“All right. We can do that if you’d like. I’m not sure how much the council store carries. They have talked about putting in a clothing store that was geared more towards pregnancy, both in terms of clothing as well as baby and nursery things, but nothing has been done yet. I think before long, there’s going to be a complete little town up here on the mountain.”
“Is that a bad thing? There are so many that can’t do certain things because they don’t have magic like you do. Yeah, there’s the transport building, but having to bring all of your purchases into the cabin and then out of the transport building up here, I can see how it would get to be a lot over time.”
“I wasn’t here with the council when it was first formed. I know that the dragons that settled this mountain a long time ago were happy to have it for the council, but they wanted it to remain as natural-looking as possible.”
I sat up and started laughing. There was nothing natural-looking about the council building. It was full of windows and looked so out of place. In fact, it would look the same even if it were down off the mountain. It simply didn’t blend in this area.
“I know,” Maxwell said. He pushed up onto his elbow and smiled at me. “The council building is certainly not natural to the area. Most of the other buildings are quite natural-looking in some way though.”
I had to agree with that. Maxwell’s house was made from stone and logs, as was the one I’d lived in for all of two days. The omega clinic was logs, and the bakery and store were stone. The childcare center was both. But the council building? Yeah, that thing was glass and most likely metal. It was…well, ugly.
“Did you want breakfast before we go shopping? Or did you want to go out for breakfast? It’s early enough still.”
I looked down at my stomach. It was quite rounded this morning, but it was always more pronounced when I was sitting. “Do you think I can get away with going out without questions?”
“That’s a valid point. I’m not sure, my love. You’re looking quite pregnant at this point.”
I nodded in agreement. “Breakfast here sounds wonderful. Can I have some of those sandwiches and some hash browns?”
“You can have anything you want,” Maxwell said seconds before he rolled from the bed. When he was standing upright,he was now fully dressed, and I wanted to growl in frustration. It was really neat that he could do that, but it didn’t allow me to stare at my mate’s amazing body. It wasn’t like I hadn’t seen it before, or wouldn’t again, but when you were a pregnant omega and you had a sexy and sinful warlock for your mate, you stared at him every chance you got.
“Did you wish for tea or coffee? Or perhaps juice?” Maxwell asked. I blinked up at him, my brain finally computing what he’d asked me a few seconds later.
“Uh…juice if we have it,” I said.
Maxwell held out his hands, and I let him pull me across the bed and to my feet. I felt my clothing change when he did, and I looked down to see myself wearing a pair of comfortable khakis and a long-sleeved thermal shirt. It was on the baggier side, and I couldn’t stop my smile. It wasn’t going to hide my bump, but it also wasn’t going to showcase it either.
“When you say hash browns, do you mean the patty type or the ones that are loose and have to be cooked and flipped?”
I shook my head. “Either. They taste the same to me, and I’m happy with either. I’m just really hungry this morning again. I’m seeing a trend lately that I’m super hungry in the mornings but not overly so in the evenings.”
Maxwell looked thoughtful before he nodded slowly. “We can try a few things and see if they help. It’s possible that you need to eat a little later in the evening or have a bigger snack before bed.”
I was willing to try just about anything, but I was almost positive that I was waking up so hungry or became famished so early in the mornings because Maxwell and I had a tendency to burn a lot of energy in the evenings and the middle of the night.
We left the bedroom with my hand in Maxwell’s, and as we carefully made our way down the stairs, my mind wandered to various things. One of them being my parents.
