Page 36 of Matched in Mayhem

Babies really did build bridges between people. It didn’t go unnoticed by me that Bennie took the role of being ‘uncle’ to Oaklan and Resin and I didn’t mind. His paternal extinct that extended to every little kid and baby near him made me love him that much more. I couldn’t wait to see him with our own kids.

Our life together fell into a comfortable rhythm. We spent almost every waking moment together while I was pregnant and I relished in being the center of Bennie’s universe. At first, I wondered if the other people in his life would resent me, but as my pregnancy went on, not only was it clear that they didn’t, but that it made sense for him to stay with me more and more. Carrying triplets was hard work.

While the prescription strength gummies kept away the pregnancy sickness nothing could help the speed at which my stomach grew up. It was as if I went to bed one night and sleepwalked down to the bowling alley and swallowed one of the balls straight from the rack before finding my way home to wake up the next morning with my stomach having clearly morphed into a baby bump. One that Bennie couldn’t keep his hands off of. Though, he did swat quite a few hands that belonged to people who didn’t ask permission first. He nearly knocked the head off of one of the newest temple trainees a few days before my ‘big ultrasound.’

I was napping on a sofa in one of the temple’s hangout rooms. Daisy had curled up on the couch arm at my feet in her cat form and was sleeping hard. The man, an alpha lion shifter, had wandered in and I guessed he was watching me sleep but hadn’t realized that Daisy was watching him with one eye. Whenever Bennie was helping at the temple his little sister became my self-appointed bodyguard. From what Daisy said and what I later picked up over the family link, the lion reached out to touch my stomach and she did what any good bodyguard would do: She pounced.

Startled, he grabbed her, roaring. That woke me up and I slammed a pillow hard into his knees to buy me time to sit up. Daisy bit his hand and shifted back, yelling “DON’T TOUCH US! DON’T TOUCH US! HELP! HELP! HE’S TOUCHING US! DAAAAAADDDDY! BEEEEENNNNIIIEEE! PAAAPAAAA!”

The room was instantly full of people, but Bennie was there first. He was clad in his blue temple volunteer shirt and jeans. His scent was murderous as he lifted the lion man from the floor and slammed him against the wall. The man swiped at him, trying to explain, but there wasn’t an explanation he could’ve given. Touching a sleeping stranger, pregnant or not, was creepy. So, Bennie punched him in the nose twice before Slyvin arrived, the only one brave enough to pull him off the lion since Ryder wasn’t there.

During all the chaos, I managed to pull Daisy onto the sofa with me. She clung to me, growling, a little hand on my belly like she was going to eat the next butthead that touched me. I smoothed down her hair, trying to soothe her, but as long as Bennie was mad, she was going to keep growling.

Bennie nearly punched Slyvin as he turned, ears and whiskers out to face the person pulling him away. His fist dropped when he saw who it was and relief washed over me. Bennie hadn’t blacked out. He knew exactly what he was doing. He was protecting me and Daisy.

“I’ll remove him. You tend to your mate and my daughter,” Slyvin said, his tone leaving no room to argue.

Bennie joined us on the sofa, pulling both of us close as Daisy started explaining what happened over the family link. The lion was transferred to another Temple of Frost and wasn’t allowed around omegas until further notice. I wasn’t sure if he was dumb or just lost to some weird impulse, but I hoped that Bennie’s punches were enough to knock it out of his head.

“You can’t touch people without permission. Miss Lydial says that if someone touches you and you say no you scream and if that doesn’t work you try to get away and if you can’t or you can’t leave your friends you eat them! I was going to eat him if someone didn’t get here soon! I started with his hand!” Daisy exclaimed later when she explained what had happened to her carrier. “I was going to eat him. We don’t put up with that. Miss Lydial says you can’t put up with it. That’s how people get hurt.”

Miss Lydial was one of Star and Zeke’s daughters who taught self-defense classes for younger kids. It was mostly stranger danger and how to get away but apparently it was also knowing when to bite an enemy. No wonder Daisy was so protective. The poor little cub was just learning about how to defend herself.

“Leave it to Star’s kids to tell them to eat people,” Bennie laughed.

“You know what, it’s a pretty solid plan. Imagine, you’re demented and trying to kidnap a group of kids and you’re dumb. So, you try to kidnap them here and then every last one of the little brats decide it’s time to bite you at the same time,” Raziel nodded. “You’re not getting away before at least one of their parents get here.”

Raziel had been in and out of our house since the day Brad tried to shoot me. He was just as much a part of the rhythm of my life as Bennie and his family were. He showed up with the most random food and gifts and sometimes he hung out with me while Bennie hunted. Sure, we didn’t need fresh game, but as a tiger Bennie needed to hunt and as a pregnant wolf I was never going to say no to food. Especially not after waking up and finding out someone tried to grope my belly in my sleep. It was such a strange thing to happen. Like really? You see a sleeping pregnant man and try to cop a feel on his bump?

“Takes all sorts of weirdos,” my wolf sighed inside his inner sanctum.

***

The next morning, Raziel was butchering what was left of the deer Bennie hunted the night before when Midwife Wane arrived. Thankfully, he was in the backyard, and the midwife didn’t have to walk by that. Though, maybe he’d just want a bite instead of being grossed out for all I knew. Still, some shifters were removed enough from their inner beast that seeing a dead/butchered animal while not in their shifted form grossed them out and I didn’t need my midwife puking on the biggest day of my pregnancy so far. We were finally hanging out at home for a change and my aching hips and back were here for it.

I was ready to bounce off the walls or would’ve been if my wolf hadn’t had the image of me bouncing around the room belly first like some wolfman beachball. Though, he didn’t have much room to speak. Inside his inner sanctum, he was just as pregnant and big bellied as I was. Carrying three tiger cubs meant they all fought for space inside me and kicked like crazy. They were in their little cub forms and having twelve legs kicking around was wild some nights. They kicked me and if I was cuddled up to Bennie, they kicked him too. They’d kicked every time I’d seen Midwife Wane or when Granpa or anyone touched my belly. Our cubs wanted to make sure everyone knew they were inside me for the last week.

“I think they’re wrestling,” Bennie laughed as I stretched out on the sofa and grimaced from another kick. I’d already taken my shirt off. The best part about us being friends with Brad was that my alpha no longer wanted to eat Midwife Wane. I wouldn’t have been able to prove it in a lab or at pack court, but I was pretty sure his intense need to eat people the day we first met the midwife had nothing to do with him. Instead, it had everything to do with some tiger sense tinging off that something was about to go down. Bennie just projected it onto the midwife and my anxiety.

Bennie leaned on the back of the couch with his elbows resting on it, looking down at me as Midwife Wane ran through all of his usual questions: my cravings (currently raw meat and just raw meat), my appetite (huge), my pain (achy), my sleep (interrupted my internal kicks or wrestling depending on which theory you believed), and my anxiety (mostly minimal).

“And we’ve worked out the birthing plan too,” I said as he set up his portable ultrasound machine. “Here of course with you on standby. I’ll probably be in wolf form but want to leave myself enough wiggle room so that I can change my mind on that one. Of course, I’ll be in human form if they decide to s-h-i-f-t into their h-u-m-a-n form.” I said being careful not to say certain words aloud. If they were old enough to hear music through my belly, I figured they might learn words through my belly too. “No pain meds planned unless it goes over twelve hours and with multiples, I know it might. I want Bennie focused on me and Grandpa Clyde too if he shows up. So, I’d like you there for labor intervention if needed. Though, if I need a c-section, I’d like Grandpa Clyde to do it, because he’s done them in a field in the middle of a battle and I think that would make my wolf less likely to freak out and that would be important during an emergency c-section if there isn’t time to put him under. Plus, I know a lot of the newer lit suggests not putting the animal under for short things like c-sections. It’s been debated for decades now, but I think having my wolf asleep while I’m awake would freak me out. Oh and I want delayed cord cutting if possible and I want my ‘golden hour’ with the babies. Like vax them and do anything that needs to be done immediately but otherwise, I don’t want them shuffled around or want them dragged off. Me, Bennie, and the babies. I’ve already sent a copy of the outline to Grandpa Clyde too and he’ll help enforce most of the stuff that’s just boundaries, but no one bothers us during golden hour unless it’s life or death. No one picks up any of them without permission if they weren’t there when they were made.”

“Can you email me that outline too?” Midwife Wane asked. His eyes were saucers.

“I know it’s a lot but I’ve seen a lot of babies be born and I’ve seen a lot of people do things that would’ve annoyed me if I was the carrier involved,” I said. “I don’t want to be pushed around during labor to do things I’ve already decided I don’t want to do. Not that you’d do that, but if I don’t tell you now you won’t know and then it’s a whole thing. But yeah, I’ll email it to you too. Oh, and if there’s a threat, Raziel is in charge of eating them.”

“That’s actually in the plan,” Bennie chuckled. “He was here the night we were typing up the list.”

“My wolf won’t have to worry as much if we’re being guarded by you, Grandpa, and a dragon. Like if a threat gets through that, we were just meant to die,” I shrugged. “So, I’ve been feeling around my belly because I know getting sexes on furry feline babies can be difficult, but I think I know where they are. So, Big Boy, is here. I don’t know that he’s a boy, but he has huge feet.” I pointed at a spot on my stomach lowest toward my crotch. “I think the two smaller ones pushed him down there to get him out of their way. Then Bunny Feet is here,” I said, pointing at spot on my stomach under my heart. “This one likes to kick with their back feet like a fighting bunny. Then,” I pointed to the side of my stomach opposite Bunny Feet, “Thump is here. It feels like they’re always just thumping me with one paw.” I pointed out the direction it felt like each kitten was lying in this morning.

Midwife Wane nodded and thought about it for a second. I wondered if he was about to tell me that I couldn’t possibly know all of that but instead he just measured my belly as if he’d forgotten to do it earlier. He hadn’t done it yet, so maybe he had forgotten about it. Of course, Big Boy whomped him one with all four paws for daring to be near his part of my belly. The midwife and Bennie chuckled, but I winced.

“That’s going to make it hard to see what we want, huh?” I laughed, rubbing the spot. A little paw pressed against my belly like my baby wanted to touch me.

“Actually,” Midwife Wane bit his lip and Bennie pulled his phone out intent on my calling my grandfather. While I sanctioned Bennie to be my emotional support, Grandpa Clyde had done a few ultrasounds along the way.

“He’s about a week short of three months in,” Bennie said as if he heard something I didn’t.