Quite a few of our regulars were there as well, and others I knew in town. When you lived in a town as tiny as this one, even a baby shower was a big event. I caught up with friends, ate lots of pie—because who wanted cake when there was pie—played the silliest baby shower games known to man, and laughed and laughed and laughed until it wasn’t only my mate who saw my exhaustion and said it was time to go. It was everyone. Nodding off midsentence tended to give people the hint. Still, I didn’t want to go. I was having too much fun.
“Come back in the morning,” Gary said. “I’ll make you a good breakfast. It’s good to see you so happy, son.” It wasn’t the first time he’d called me that, but each time he did, it hit me in the feels.
“I can’t wait.” I turned to Layla. “Maybe tomorrow, you can hold off on making the decaf until I get here?”
Decaf was known to be the dregs of the diner. It sat there from dawn until somebody ordered it, if anyone ever did. I’d taken to drinking it, not wanting to give up my coffee but also not wanting to caffeine-up the baby. The fresher, the better because no matter how good it was, it wasn’t the same as high-test.
“Got you. See you in the morning.”
I was asleep before we even got back to the motel, my mate carrying me to bed. I snuggled close when he joined me.
“This room is so much better,” I mumbled against his chest.
“So much,” he said and kissed my head.
That was the last I remember before I fell into a deep slumber, filled with wild pregnancy dreams filled with baby diapers to the ceiling, a flying baby stroller, and a pot-roast sandwich. Because of course they were.
Chapter Seventeen
Gabe
How had it gone so fast? It seemed as if we’d just gotten the news that the baby was on the way, and now, they were due any day. The exhaustion and sickness had faded right at the end of his first trimester, thank goodness, and he’d launched into his pack duties as well as preparing for the new arrival. Sometimes, I worried that he never slowed down, but he felt well and shrugged away my concerns. His big worry was that the baby was growing so fast, he’d end up giving birth to a sixth grader. It had started as a toddler joke, but as he gained weight, so did the size of the child we were expecting. “Are you sure you’re not half elephant and not just wolf?” he growled at me one day when he was feeling especially large.
“No, just wolf.” I kept my tone cheerful and light. “Would you like some soup?”
“No, I don’t want any soup.”
Last week, he’d had soup for every meal in an effort not to gain any more weight. “That’s fine. What can I get you?”
“A cheeseburger.”
I started to remind him that the last time he ate a cheeseburger, he had heartburn that nothing would touch for the whole night. But when he was in this mood, he was not going to listen, so I went downstairs to ask Dad for advice.
He suggested a turkey burger, and I agreed, pretty sure it would not go well. But before we even got the ground turkey out of the refrigerator, a shout had me, Dad, Father, and a few stray pack members racing up the stairs. I got there first and found my mate standing in the middle of our bedroom. In a puddle. For a moment, I couldn’t think why, but then it penetrated my thick skull.
“Your water broke.”
“I know.” All the grumpiness of the past little while was gone, replaced by a beaming smile. “The baby is coming.”
In our pack, there was always someone around to help, but we needed the midwife today, so Dad sent a teenager who was standing in the hallway trying to see what was going on in the room. He clattered own the stairs, and I heard the door slam behind him. Dad jumped.
“We need to clear out the mob scene around here,” Father announced. He almost never bossed people around anymore, but I needed to focus on my mate for the moment, and he sensed that. “I don’t want to see anyone who is not a parent or grandparent of this child in the room.”
“Except the midwife,” Dad reminded him.
“Right, except him.”
Fortunately he arrived in about ten minutes and examined Temple. “Well, this is fast. How long have you been having pains?”
“Real ones? Just an hour or so. I had those fake kind going pretty strong the last day, though.”
“I have news for you. You are just about ready to give birth. Those pains were not fake.”
And that mood had been the result of pain. I felt so bad for my mate. “So, what do we do now?” I asked.
“First, you get undressed, put on that nightshirt you bought, and we’ll get the bed made up for you with the special sheets.” From that moment, things sped up even faster. Father was sent out, but Dad was allowed to stay. He’d helped so many members of the pack give birth, Temple wanted him here.
The midwife had discussed a lot of positions and ideas earlier in the pregnancy, and Temple had it all his birth plan. While I stood there, watching and worrying, they workedthrough the positions, finally settling on the birthing stool. Once there, Temple said, “I need to push.”
