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Blaidd had always been a stubborn one, his mam used to say. And over the last year, Fae had come to know that as he relaxed and let her learn those facets of his personality. He was also proud, fiercely protective of what he considered his, and possessed of a temper that could silence the entire council chamber.

But pregnancy had made him positively unbearable.

One child, Myra had told her, was enough to turn even the gentlest male wolf into a snarling, territorial beast.

Two?

That were enough to drive Blaidd to the brink of madness. It had all begun the morning the healer discovered the second heartbeat.

Fae, lying on the examination bed, had looked from the healer's delighted expression to her husband's increasingly alarming one.

"Two?" he had stammered.

"Two healthy heartbeats," the healer confirmed with a smile on her homely face.

"Are you certain?"

"Blaidd," Fae warned.

"Absolutely certain," the healer replied, still smiling, because she was used to unreasonable males like these doubting her word.

Blaidd had stared at Fae's belly as though she had somehow concealed an entire army inside it.

Then he had asked whether she ought to be walking.

That had been seven months ago.

Since then, Fae had not been permitted to lift anything heavier than a book, climb more than three steps without supervision, or venture beyond the gardens without an escort.

Her woodworking had been the first casualty.

"You cannot seriously expect me to spend seven months doing nothing," she had protested while he put things away.

"You can draw."

"I am a woodworker, Blaidd."

"You can draw things you intend to make. After the birth. "

"I could also carve them."

"No."

"I could use the smaller tools."

"No."

"I could carve sitting down."

"Fae."

She had pouted and thrown her mallet at him. He had sidestepped it and asked what would have happened if that had landed on her foot.

He had then proceeded to rub her aching back, and kiss her forehead. The infuriating man. She had lost the plot because they then ended up in bed.

By her seventh month, Fae could no longer see her toes. She discovered this while attempting to pull on a pair of trousers. For several minutes, she struggled with the fabric, one hand braced against the bedpost, the other desperately trying to find the opening for her foot.

Blaidd appeared in the doorway.