He laughed and shook his head. “I didn’t think so. At least, drink more water. I haven’t seen you with any.”
I was really, really bad about hydration. He was right about that.
My belly was huge, and I should drink more. Eat better. Find more shirts that fit. There was too much sometimes and, on hot days like today, I wished labor would come sooner rather than later, but this little person inside me still had time to cook.
The day went better than I ever dreamed.
Andrew wasn’t the only one who qualified. My whole team did. All ten of them.
The parents swarmed us after the event was over. The coaches clapped me on the back for a job well done, but it was all the kids. They overcame obstacles and challenges that I never had to, and they never gave up.
The next event was months down the road, but they acted as though they had won all the medals and awards today.
As they should.
“Omega, look behind you,” Wulf whispered in my ear.
I turned around and saw the parents and kids all standing in front of something. I didn’t know what but they all had smiles on their faces.
“What is going on?” I asked. The pup in my belly was kicking up a storm as well, trying to qualify too.
One of the parents, Brock, stepped forward. “We wanted to show you how much we appreciate all the hard work you’ve done for our kids. Andrew had an idea to get you something, and we all pitched in.”
“What?” I gasped. “You didn’t have to get me anything.”
“We wanted to.”
The crowd parted. They had bought Wulf and I a crib for the baby, and not just any crib. It was hand-carved and had a howling wolf carved into the headboard. Stunning. Wulf and I hadn’t had much of a chance to baby shop with everything else going on.
“You’re kidding me!” I yelled. “This is too much.”
“It’s not enough as far as we’re concerned. We’ve never seen a more dedicated coach. This is the least we can do.”
I gave them all a big hug, and we joked about how in the world we were going to get the crib home. Turned out, they’dalready planned to put it in one of their trucks and bring it to our place. Wulf had been in on the surprise.
That rascal.
We celebrated with a trip to the local burger joint, and all the kids were excited to get to work on the next stage.
Skin to Fur was no joke, and the closer we got to the big event, the harder I was going to train them, but I left that part out. They were too cute celebrating.
By the time we got home, I was beyond excited. We had a whole team of kids ready to get to work, and I was about to pop.
“What’s going to happen when I have the pup?” I asked, starting a stress spiral. “What if they fail because I’m not there? I’m too busy. I don’t have the energy to help them. They’re going to blame me, and I won’t be their coach anymore, and…”
“Hey, hey, hey, omega.” Wulf poured alpha power into his voice. He cupped my face and waited until I made eye contact. “Let’s breathe, baby. Breathe with me.”
I did. Reluctantly. We breathed together until the room no longer closed in. Damn it. I thought my days of overthinking and catastrophizing were over. Stress waited for the time when I thought everything was okay and then, bam, it hit me out of nowhere.
“Let’s think this through, Striker. Meet that stress with facts.”
“Okay. Facts.”Facts schmacts.But I played along. Damn, my mate was good at this.
“There is a chance those kids won’t make it past regionals, but there is no one at fault. Not you. Not the parents. Not the kids. Sometimes things don’t work out. But certainly not our pup.”
I shook my head. How silly. “You’re right.”
“And when we have the baby, we’ll work out anything that needs to be worked out. Our schedule. Bringing the baby with us.Working. Coaching. We will figure things out as they come along and not a minute before.”
