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“I should start crunching some numbers. Babies can cost a lot of money. If we start preparing now—”
Pol pressed his mouth to mine. “Let’s just enjoy the day without any worrying, okay?”
I grinned. “Okay.”
We celebrated by going down to our cave, the place where we’d met and fallen in love. We fished, lazed around in the hot sun, swam, and enjoyed each other’s bodies.
“I love it here.” He snuggled into my side as we watched our fish cooking on the fire. “When you first came home, I was worried—worried that when I came back here with you, all I’d see is the bad.”
And there had been a lot of bad.
“But you don’t, do you?” I kissed the top of his head.
“Nope. All I see is the place where, for the first time, I felt like I was home. You are my home, Silas. I love you.”
“You’re my home too, Pol. It was here that I first began truly living, as broken as I was. I love you.”
I kissed my mate, and kissing turned into more, our dinner burning to a crisp. Worth it.
Chapter 20
Silas
“And that’s why, in the springtime, on a certain date that I can never remember, we have to file taxes with the humans. And we have to pay a certain percentage of sales tax on our purchases, which makes no sense to me because some items qualify, some don’t, and as far as I can tell there is no rhyme or reason.”
The belly beneath my ear rumbled, and I felt a swift but firm kick that hit against my cheek. “There, see? Now you’re getting it.” I kissed the belly, and Pol let out a snort as he laughed.
I absolutely loved talking to our baby while he was cocooned in his father’s belly. Gideon told me that the babes could hear us and that it helped them recognize us when they were born. The first time I felt a little bit awkward. But now? Now I just babbled on and on or told a story or instilled knowledge on them.
“Are you trying to bore our child so that they will stay in there? I want to coax him out into the world, not bore him with it,” my mate teased.
“Trust me, my dear baby. There are lots of exciting things you can do with numbers.” I was used to people thinking math was boring. And it could be. All fields had the potential to be. “For instance, I found a way within our budget to build your uncle Dean a brand-new kitchen and buy the milling equipment that your uncle Gideon wanted, and I was even able to have enough money to purchase brand-new yoga equipment for your daddy’s class, and all the omegas were so happy.”
“Yes, we did really appreciate that.” The class had looked at me like I was Santa Claus. It wasn’t even like it was my money. The pride provided it, but as Pol explained it, having an alpha go out of their way for them without wanting anything in return was not something many of them had experienced before.
“See! Numbers are fun.”
Pol threaded his fingers through my hair, and I relaxed against his stomach, still holding the curve of his protruding belly. There was another thump against my palm and then two more after that. I would never get tired of feeling my child move and seeing my mate carry our future.
A pang of longing hit me, knowing that these days were numbered since Pol was nearing the end of his pregnancy. Any day now our cub would make an appearance. Would he look like his omega father or maybe like me? Or would he be a perfect mash-up of us both?
Pol hissed and clutched his stomach. “He’s getting very active now.” It was as if the whole belly shifted beneath my cheek. “Oh goodness,” Pol said. “I think I’m going into labor.”
“Are you sure?”
Mortimer had said that babies usually slowed down a bit right before birth… that they ran out of room. But our little one had been kicking up a storm and lulling me into a false sense of us having time.
He let out a long groan and gripped my hair until strands pulled from my scalp.
He was definitely in labor.
“Okay, I think you might be sure,” I said, and I disentangled his hand from my locks. “Should we have Mortimer take a look?” I figured we had at least a few false alarms before Mortimer would get too tired of us. We’d only been in once the week before, thinking that Pol was going into labor.
The old man had shaken his head at us and pointed us out the door. This time, though, maybe he would take a look.
“Let’s go,” Pol said.
He was ready to walk himself to the clinic, but I wasn’t going to have that. I swept him into my arms and marched out our back door and walked across the grass. It was early in the morning. I was entirely caught up on all my paperwork because I knew that I would be taking time off soon, and I didn’t wish to be behind when that time started.
