A second later, Philip held his wand up for Beryl to see before he pressed it against my belly. I held my breath unsure of what to actually do while being on the receiving end of an ultrasound wand.
“You can breathe regularly,” Philip said as soon as he noticed and I let out a long, slow breath. “Why are you so nervous?”
“It’s a big change,” I said. “Being pregnant and running a business and everything.”
“Eh, the pregnancy is a big change. Everything else stays the same. Just takes more effort and you have to ask for more help. This might make you laugh. The other day Ruben did an interview with some relationship magazine. One of those newones who are trying to be like Happy Omega and they asked him why polyamory and he said so we had more help with the kids. Interviewer didn’t know what to say. Didn’t know if he was joking or not. He’s not going to make it far in journalism. They’re going to send him out to cover the opening of that art school too. Bet that magazine flops on its tail. Looky, there. There the baby is.”
We both looked at the little monitor on his portable. There in what looked like the corner of my womb was a tiny little jellybean.
“Most likely a lion unless some other mammalian shifter if hiding in either of your genetics,” Philip grinned. “Congratulations you two. Do you want to text your parents or should I because you two are going to slink off and celebrate making a baby by doing exactly what made the baby?”
“I’ll text them,” I said.
“And you should tell your mum. No one’s told her yet and that’s a miracle,” Philip glanced at Beryl. “Believe me, she’s going to want to hear it from you. Hell, you can go and swing by there now, if you want.”
“Are you going to stay with Jade while I do?” he asked, still staring at the monitor on the portable device.
“Not that he needs me too, but I’m going to sit on my haunches and talk for a bit,” he nodded.
When Beryl was gone I waited for Philip to drop bad news. Someone was hurt. Something happened at Flight School. Something was wrong with my baby and he didn’t think Beryl could handle it without his mum around.
“Don’t smell so nervous. It’s nothing as bad as you’re probably thinking, kid,” Philip said and held out his hand to help me sit up. “Zevna’s been kind enough to humor me while you’ve been gone, but I made a tiny change to the employee schedule and I hope you’ll stick to it. I didn’t want to say anything in front of Beryl because I knew he’d insist on it and you’d say no just to prove it’s your business and your mate isn’t coming and running it. I did it because I want that playroom to stay open and I want you and all your people who work there to be safe.”
“What did you do? Hire an army?” I asked.
“Nothing that outrageous,” he shook his head like I had lost my mind. “I just made it a rule that no one works alone anymore. Even when security is there. At least two employees there at all times. For opening, closing, during lunch breaks. At least two people there and actively aware.”
“That makes sense,” I nodded. “I can do that.”
“And you’re opening an hour later,” Philip said quickly as if he could squeeze it in there. “Just so more people are out and about when you open your doors.”
“Philip! Some of those kids can only come to the playroom before school!”
“It ain’t forever,” he said quickly. “And it’s almost summer vacation. Most of the kids won’t have school.”
“I guess,” I frowned.
“Sometimes you gotta do what you gotta do for safety,” he said. “It sucks but keeping the kids safe is the most important things. None of those assholes are winning and we’re doingeverything to ensure those kids get to keep going to Flight School.”
It sucked but the old bear was right.
***
I slept like shit that night. I tossed and turned and couldn’t get comfortable. I wasn’t even pregnant enough to blame it on my belly or anything like that. Next to me, Beryl slept like a rock all stretched out on his back with not a care in the world. I envied him. Then again it wasn’t his business being modified because of jackasses.
Unable to sleep, I got up and checked on Jondi. He was out cold and buried in otter form under all his blankets. Then I stood in front of my closet contemplating getting dressed. I could get started on catching up on everything that I missed at Flight School while we were gone.
“We told Philip we wouldn’t go alone,”my lion reminded me.
I swore under my breath. If I couldn’t even drive to my own business and work in the middle of the night what was the point? The fuckers sending threats had already won. Why did assholes ruin everything?
I ended up in the kitchen where I polished off a box of those fruity gummy snacks and had to drive to the store to get more so they would be there for when Jondi wanted them. I drove past Flight School. Tonight it was Amorti and Canton sitting guard. That was the other thing that bugged me. Not that people wanted to help but that I couldn’t run a simple playroom without someone taking offense to it.
“We need to eat the people threatening us. We’d probably only have to eat two or three before the threats stopped,”my lion said into my thoughts.“We know people who could find their info for us. It would be easy. Eat them and then they won’t be around to threaten the baby. Our kitten will be safe.”
He was right on all counts but still I managed to make it to the all-night grocery store without eating anyone. I grabbed a few boxes of the fruit snacks and some other things that looked yummy. When I got back to the house, I sat in the Wing Mini and ate a whole cake from the store’s bakery. It was deep, dark chocolate with coconut and pecan frosting. Shit, I could’ve eaten a second one if I bought it. Pregnancy had already turned me into a bottomless pit.
When the cake was gone, I reclined the seat and listened to the radio. There wasn’t any point in going back inside if I couldn’t sleep. At least that’s what I thought until I woke up hissing at a knocking sound that vibrated too closely to my head. Beryl knocked on the window again and I rolled it down.
