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I shrugged. “Every couple of months, although I have a sneaking suspicion that camping, at least not in the way I had been, will not be in my future for a while.”
“Why not? Is it because you won’t have time off here or because you don’t think that I’ll want to go? Cause I’ll go camping with you. Unless you want to go on your own, then I’ll respect that too. It’s up to you.”
Goddess, I loved this alpha. “Silas, how do you feel about children?”
He went still, and for a moment I thought he might have stopped breathing. Then he sat back and leaned up on one elbow, his eyes still pensive.
“Why do you ask?” It wasn’t the answer I’d expected. This was probably a conversation we should’ve had earlier. Not that we’d had a ton of time to focus on the future when we were trying to pick of pieces of the past.
He remained silent, waiting for my response. My stomach lurched. It had been rolling for most of the day, a symptom I had written off as totally normal for what I suspected was the cause. A cause I thought he’d immediately be all for. Now? Now I wasn’t so sure.
Silas leaned close to me and sniffed, his nostrils flaring. His eyes widened in recognition.
“A cub? We’re going to have a cub?”
I nodded. “I snagged a pregnancy test from the clinic today when I was picking up more of that Arnica cream for you. It came out positive.”
The smile that overtook his face lit up the room and eased the anxiety I’d felt. He was as happy about this as I was. My mate and I were starting a family.
“A cub,” he whispered the words. His eyes glazed over as he looked off into the distance as if he was imagining our future. “That’s so amazing.” He leaned forward and kissed my lips.
“You’re happy then. You want children?”
“Only a dozen,” he said.
I laughed. “How about we negotiate that down to two or three? Or at least not more than a minivan full.”
“Deal.” He patted his chest, and I leaned in, snuggling closer to him, soaking in his warmth.
My cat would want to be near our mate as much as possible for the next several months. Which was honestly more of the same. If my beast and I had our way, we’d spend most of our waking hours together. Maybe as time marched on that would change, but I doubted it. Silas was mine, and as such, I longed to be by his side.
“But seriously. Whatever you want. Even if it’s just one. I’m happy with whatever family I make with you. No matter what it looks like.” He kissed my neck and then nuzzled against me, scent marking me like he always did.
“Thank you. That means a lot to me,” I said. “Should we make an appointment to visit tomorrow to see Mortimer?”
He shrugged. “Probably. He has that ultrasound machine, although it’s a little early. I would like to have one, though.”
I didn’t really understand what he was talking about, but if it was good for the baby, I was all in. There was so much to do to get ready. Humans had it easy with their long gestation periods. They had time to think about all of this. We had to pretty much get the ball rolling immediately.
“We have a couple of months before the baby arrives, so we have time to think about it… but do we add on to the house or will Nathan be someplace else?” My mate swished his mouth to the side the way he did when he was deep in thought.
Nathan was still healing, and I was happy to have him as our houseguest. He was every bit the great guy Silas said he was, and the two of us had quickly become friends. But with him here, we ran out of room. There was a solution for that, but it required planning.
“For the record, I’m not asking him to leave or stay or whatever.” He let out a long breath. “It’s just…I feel like I’m worrying about a lot of things right now all of sudden.”
I kissed my mate’s cheek. “We’ll have plenty of time to worry, mate. Let’s just enjoy the moment.”
Plenty of time being relative.
“Right. Of course. But Gideon did mention that the houses around Asilo were getting quite large now, making room for all the new cubs. I don’t wish to move Nathan if he doesn’t want to.” He said it all in one breath. I loved seeing him this excited. It was contagious.
“He’s welcome to stay here for as long as he wants,” I assured him. “He fits with us and still has a lot of healing to do. Being with people he loves and trusts will only help with that.”
“I’m glad to hear that, mate. Thank you. I can’t get over how amazing you are.” He bounced a little, his excitement and the sugar flowing out of him.
“Me?” I asked. “You’re the amazing one.”
“Oh,” he said. “Care to show me just how amazing you think I am?”
