A girl’s gotta have her secrets…
Epilogue
“You’re doing so great, baby,”Brock cooed in my ear.
Another contraction racked my body and I screamed. “Fuck this. I feeleverything!”
“Can’t you give her anything to help with the pain?” Brock was up in Sabine’s face, his wolf close to the surface.
Sabine shook her head. “It’s too late for an epidural. She went into labor so fast. She’s already dilated to ten centimeters and the baby is crowning. Come on, Evie! One more big push.”
This fucking child had better treat me like a queen. She’d better never back talk, better eat all her vegetables without a fuss, and never forget a single Mother’s Day.
“It feels like I’m shooting fireballs out of my vagina!” I roared as I started to push again.
Cass had fought with Brock to be in the delivery room and was now staring in obvious shock at my crotch. All blood drained from his face so that his skin was a pale, pasty gray around his hot pink fur.
“That’s it! Keep pushing!” Sabine screamed as pressure and pain sliced open my pelvis unrelentingly. When I thought I couldn’t bear a second more of it, the worst of the pain receded … and Sabine held up a tiny little … baby.
Holy shit. Tears blurred my vision as I instantly fell in love with this little bald screaming ball of skin.
My little crotch goblin was beautiful.
Sabine’s hand was covering its sex organs. In the end, we’d decided to wait and be surprised.
I couldn’t speak. Tears streamed down my face as I opened my arms, and Sabine wordlessly lay the baby on my chest. I looked down between the baby’s legs and smiled.
“It’s a boy,” I told Brock, who bent over my shoulder, squeezing my arm in gentle support.
Tears lined his eyes, but now they spilled over his cheeks. “Told ya so.” He winked and leaned forward to kiss my cheek.
I laughed. “That’s exactly what I wanted to hear after giving birth to our child: I told you so.”
Brock nuzzled his forehead into the baby’s chest and my neck, rubbing his alpha scent all over us. When he looked up, he was beaming. “Let’s have another.”
I grinned. “Um, you gotta let a girl forget the pain of labor before you suggest another one.”
My little family was now three, and it was the best damn day of my life.
A sob pulled my attention to my left, where Cass stood, tears rolling down his cheeks, spilling into his pink fur. “I’m an uncle. That little fucker is so cute. I’m a fucking uncle!” he shouted.
The entire room laughed at that.
I knew that there would be good days and there would be bad days, but they would be mostly good. I was still the guardian of all these gates to the underworld, but with family and friends like these, the good would always outweigh the bad.
* * *
~ One year later ~
With the support of our family and pack, Brock and I survived the first year of Caleb’s life. After all the monsters I’d faced down, I figured raising a baby would be easy as pie in comparison. Well, I’d been dead wrong.
For much of the year I was too sleep deprived to remember I was a badass supernatural bounty hunter and kitsune-witch hybrid who’d managed to seal the gate to the underworld. The first year was a blur of sleepless nights, foul diapers, and leaky breasts, but enough warm-and-fuzzies to make up for all the discomforts.
But now that I’d weaned Caleb, and my body was back to being my own, and looking and feeling much as it used to, I was finally ready.
I rolled over in bed, staring at Brock as he slept, the soft light of morning filtering through cracks in the blinds. He peeked an eye open and pulled me against him, wrapping warm, strong arms around me.
“It’s not time to wake up yet.”
