“We…weren’t.” Ember’s face grew red. “I wasn’t even tracking, not carefully anyway. It just happened.”
“How are you feeling about it?” Ann said.
“Um…shocked? Unprepared?” With a tiny smile she pressed her palm to her flat abdomen. “And so happy. Inside me right now, already growing—Aaron’s baby. I can’t believe it.”
“Anything else?” Ann said quietly.
Ember’s fingers curled against her shirt. “I don’t know what I’m doing.”
“You’ve got all of us to help you figure it out.”
She sat a few seconds, chin tucked in, hand pressing the place where her baby grew. She wasn’t a quiet person from what Willow had observed so far, but her voice barely reached above a whisper when she said, “How bad is it? Carrying a pup and—and labor, delivery?”
“Oh, Ember, have you been scared?” Lucy said.
“All day.”
“All right, listen to me. I’ve given birth to four of Jeremy’s pups, and it’s no different than being pregnant by a human. No different at all.”
“But Zane might not be a wolf. And it’s pretty safe to say your girls aren’t. And I’m—well, I’m small.”
Ann got up, walked around the circle to stand behind Ember’s chair, and set both hands on Ember’s shoulders. “Dear girl, it’s just the same no matter what the baby’s DNA looks like. You’ve got nothing to fear.”
“But Quinn’s birth was awful for my sister. Twenty hours of labor, and she bled a lot, and I’ve been thinking, what if it was because…?”
“It wasn’t,” Nicole said. “I had no trouble with Nathan. Textbook, every minute. Six hours from the first contraction to the last. Same for Ann with both her boys—standard pregnancy, standard labor, standard delivery.”
Ann nodded and patted Ember’s shoulder. “That’s right. I had the most trouble with Sydney; the midwife had to turn her. My two boys were easy after that. Trevor came so fast, his daddy delivered him.”
“Oh.” Ember poured out a long sigh. “Okay. I’ll try not to freak out.”
“There’s no added risks, Ember,” Ann said. “Our bodies carry a pup the same way they carry any other baby. Remember even if your pup grows up to be a wolf, his own body doesn’t know what he is until he’s thirteen. He grows within you just the same, he’s born just the same. Have yourself some peace now.”
Ember swiped a tear from her cheek. “Thanks, Ann. And all of you.”
Willow pressed her lips together. Not the time for questions. But she was fairly brimming over. Kelsey bumped her shoulder and said in a stage whisper, “Bet you’re curious about something.”
“It can wait,” Willow said.
“No, it’s fine,” Ember said. “Ask whatever you want. I’m okay now.”
“It’s just…” Willow looked around the circle. No one frowned at her. Lucy nodded her on. “So Aaron…smelled…the pregnancy. Is that because you’re his mate, Ember?”
“Ohh.” Ember grinned with a sliver of wickedness. “I get you. Yeah, no. Every wolf here knew I was pregnant before we made it up the driveway.”
“And pretended they didn’t know?”
“Out of respect for Ember,” Lucy said. “The wolves keep it to themselves until the mate has an opportunity to share her news with those of us who don’t have enhanced senses.”
Willow sank her fingers into her hair. “This is so weird.”
“It really is,” Ember said. “But if you think of it kind of like…well, the most extreme version would be…suppose our wolves were telepathic? If telepathy were real, there’d be etiquette to try to balance the lack of privacy. A wolf pack exists with less privacy for everyone than you’d have in a group of only humans, but it’s not because they’re creepy eavesdroppers or something. They can’t help what they hear, what they smell. So…” She spread her hands. “Etiquette. Trying to balance.”
The conversation trickled around her as Willow sat silently, ruminating. She needed a minute. It was one thing to learn the social norms of a new group of people in whom she felt unexpectedly invested. It was another thing to apply her new knowledge…to Ezra. All day he’d known Ember was pregnant. All day he’d worn a façade of ignorance, along with every other wolf. Etiquette in this instance felt rather like deception. She tucked her feet under her chair and tried not to fidget. She’d discuss this with him sometime soon, but it could wait.
Conversation wandered after that. A new company had contacted Kelsey to bid for ad space on her travel video blog. Ember’s quest to master the skill of bread-making was going dismally, but she wasn’t giving up. Rebecca described a plague of tomato worms and her battle against them with vivid detail and hilarity. Lucy cuddled Tori on her lap when the little girl began to cry for no reason anyone could decipher.
“She probably just needs her love tank filled,” Lucy said, then to Willow, “Gigi’s all kinds of independent compared to this little cuddle bug.”
