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I opened my mouth, then closed it again. “Can't we just fix them to the wall so the bookcases don't tip over on them?”

Lucien and Leon both recoiled as though I’d just suggested dropping the babies out of a window, and I winced too because that had sounded much worse out loud.

Thankfully, Darius spoke before I could make it any worse.

“Fixed structures are preferable for security. Nothing can be pulled over, deliberately moved or used to obstruct an entrance.”

I looked between them. We had gone from Do you want to help choose furniture? to falling bookcases and nursery security very quickly.

“I agree,” Alaric said. “The wooden bookcases may be secured to the walls if you wish, my heart.” His attention returned to me. “I'm rather curious about the cots, however. What do they look like?”

He sounded completely normal, but I felt his curiosity through the bond. Only a little, but it was still there.

I smiled. “We need the catalogue.”

“I'll bring my pad,” Lucien said. “I have it saved. We can display the catalogue for everyone to see.”

I stared after him.

Lucien had the catalogue?

“I approve of the safety considerations,” Caius said, “but every exposed edge should be rounded.”

“I agree,” Leon said immediately. “The collection I favour can be commissioned that way.”

“And polished smooth,” Darius added. “No rough textures within their reach until they're old enough to choose for themselves.”

I looked around the table until I started smiling. Alaric caught me looking at him, and I blew him a kiss. He lifted two fingers and caught it.

When I first taught him to blow kisses, he told me, very seriously, that an imaginary kiss was too small to need an entire hand, so two fingers were enough. That was how he caught them now. He brought those two fingers to his heart, completely serious, and the warmth through our bond nearly finished me off.

Lucien came back with his pad and opened the catalogue on a huge holographic display. The furniture Leon liked appeared first.

“Huh.” I tilted my head and studied it. “I do love it, but I don't think I'd want it so dark.”

“It can be commissioned in any wood you prefer,” Leon said. “The design is what I wished you to see.”

“Oh.” I looked at it again. “Then yes. I really like it.”

For the next hour, we sat beneath the dome surrounded by trees and flowers and chose furniture for our baby girls. We picked stone shelves instead of wooden bookcases because, honestly, I didn’t care what they were made of as long as I had somewhere for their books. We looked at different finishes and handles, discussed where everything would go, and somehow spent an unreasonable amount of time comparing two cots that looked almost exactly the same to me.

Every time I thought we were done, one of them noticed something else, and I loved it.

When we finally finished, Leon helped me up and walked me back inside to the sitting room. The others followed, Lucien put the catalogue back up, and I gathered everything I’d already narrowed down with their mothers.

If they wanted to be involved, I was going to involve them properly. Everything.

Blankets, changing tables, storage, tiny bathing things, feeding equipment and several things I still wasn’t convinced any baby actually needed, no matter what their mothers said. My mates treated every decision like it was a matter of national importance.

Gilda came in later with Ada behind her. They put tea, cake and a platter of fruit and nuts on the low table in front of us.

“Thank you,” I mouthed.

They both acknowledged me quietly and stepped away, but I saw Gilda looking around the room. She loved my Alphas. She’d served Lucien and Darius’s birth Pack for years, and I had a feeling seeing them all here, happy and choosing furniture for their daughters, meant more to her than she’d ever say.

Lucien picked up my plate of cake and put it straight on my lap.

Our sofa was so deep that when I sat back properly, my feet didn’t even reach the edge. I used to think it was too much, but now I was pregnant; it was perfect. I could sink into it, stretch my legs out and stay there for hours, especially if people kept putting cake in my lap.