“I’m not sad,” Charlie reassured him with a smile, wiping the tears away. “Just a little overwhelmed isall.”
“This’ll fix that,” Jericho said, pushing the gift playfully towardshim.
“Go ahead and open them,” I said gently to Charlie, putting my hand around hisshoulder.
“Well… if you guys went through all this effort.” Charlie ripped off the packaging from Jericho’s gift. Inside the simple brown box was a hand-quilted baby blanket. Charlie gasped and picked it up delicately. It was intricately detailed, made of soft pastel colors, with tiny wolf pups and moons embroidered on its surface. “Jericho, this is amazing… Did youmakethis?”
He grinned shyly. “I suredid.”
“Thank you so much.Really.”
Even I didn’t know Jericho was capable of such a thing. I learned something new about my packmates thatday.
Tyson’s gift was next. It was a low, rectangular box wrapped in festive red paper. Charlie ripped it off to reveal a beautiful box of expensivechocolates.
“Oh my Moon,” he said. “This is exactly what I was in the mood for right now. How did youknow?”
Tyson shrugged with a smile. “Who doesn’t likechocolate?”
Ken’s gift followed. It was the biggest package of all, and took Charlie a good thirty-seconds to unwrap the whole thing. He burst out laughing when he saw what was inside - a giant, fluffy teddybear.
“For you, and the pup,” Kensaid.
“I love it,” Charlie said,smiling.
We all turned to David, who had been quiet the whole time. I wasn’t sure if Charlie expected a gift from him, given their not-so-warm meeting the first time. But I knew David had gotten himsomething, even just out of politeness - I just didn’t know what itwas.
“Here.” David held out a tiny, unassuming brown bag with a twine handle. Charlie took it carefully and held it on his lap. “It’s nothing special,” David mumbled as Charlie peeked inside. Then Charlie gasped. He pulled out something small, holding it gingerly in his fingers like it wouldcrumble.
It was a tiny wooden carving of a wolf and its pup, standing on a circularbase.
“Did you make this?” Charlie asked, glancing up at the gruffalpha.
David grunted andnodded.
“This is… beautiful,” Charliesaid.
“It’s a good luck totem,” David said. “For you and the baby. And an apology for the way I treated you when you first arrived here at the pack.” He eyes flitted down. “I’m sorry. I’m glad you and your pup joined the pack. You’ve made Flint a happyguy.”
I blushed and hoped nobody was paying attention tome.
Charlie smiled at him. “It’s okay. Thank you so much for this. I’ll treasureit.”
“Well, now my gift looks bad in comparison,” I mutteredplayfully.
Charlie kissed me on the cheek. “Never, my love. What isit?”
There was no physical gift on my lap. “Well… I decided to add a room to the house. We’re going to need more space for our growing family, afterall.”
Charlie gasped. “Oh, Flint! That would be amazing!” He threw his arms around my neck and hugged me. “You’reamazing. Thank you somuch.”
“Anything for you, my dear,” I murmured into hisear.
After we hugged, Jericho announced, “Alright, I’mstarving.Where’s this dinner you promised us,Flint?”
I rolled my eyes. “Get your ass to the table and you’ll get it,Jericho.”
After carefully putting the gifts away, we all gathered around the table. Charlie sat on his pillow-padded chair, although that still wasn’t enough to ease the discomfort of his massive belly. We set the table and I gave Charlie his special duck-chicken fingers he askedfor.
“Thanks for all this, everybody,” Charlie said, looking around at everyone after we’d sat down. “Really. This is more than I could ever askfor.”
“You deserve it,” I told him, placing my hand on top ofhis.
As we began to eat, Charlie suddenly stopped. His fork clattered to his plate. I looked at him, and his eyes had gone wide. Everyone stopped what they were doing to stare at him insurprise.
“What’s wrong?” Idemanded.
He slowly turned to me. “Um. I think the baby’scoming.”
