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“It’s perfect.” His company initials in front of a blurred out Animals habitat within a circle. “Perfect, since everything has flowed from there. And you’ll let me help?”

“Alpha with five kids and a company, I couldn’t do it without you.”

That afternoon, we went out celebrate, but instead of a fancy steakhouse dinner, we spent that same money on office furniture and supplies. He would still need to leave this week for a job, but when he got back, I planned to have it ready for him. Luckily the attic was drywalled, but it could use a coat of paint and a floor polish and a nice rug under his new desk. Also, a playpen in the corner for whatever little ones were keeping him company on any given day and a big fluffy floor cushion against the opposite wall. We would need at least a part-time nanny, but that could wait until I went back to work after my paternity leave.

I was mostly excited to surprise my mate on his return with the office all done. He’d shown me pictures of what he had in mind, and it would keep me busy in the long hours he was away.

A week later, I covered his eyes with my hand and guided him into the office. “One, two, three, and look!” I yanked my hand away. “Surprise!”

He looked around, dropped his head into his hands, and burst into tears. Oh no! Even though he’d shared his vision, creating perfect habitats was his job and his gift.

“I’m so sorry! I’m so, so sorry, omega. I’ll make it all go away. We can start fresh, and do it just the way you want it. I overstepped, damn my pushy alpha ways.”

He lifted his face and swiped away tears, revealing a huge and wobbly smile. “Is that why you think I’m crying? Porter, I joked or maybe was a little serious about you not listening when I was talking about setting up the business but I knew why you were so jumpy. You just worried about me. Normally, you are the kind of listener who does this!” He waved around him. “You heard what I said and looked at my ideas and translated them into the perfect habitat for me. I do this for people all day and hope to achieve what you did, not always with 100 percent success. You not only set up a place for the babies but a big fluffy bed for my capybara.”

“Well, I was afraid to put a pool up here. I didn’t think the joists would support it. And it’s not exactly a floor meant to tolerate big spills.”

He sniffed and walked around, touching things and casting me soft smiles. “Well, other than that, it’s perfect.”

“See? I didn’t achieve 100 percent either.”

“No, but you’re close enough to make my heart sing. Kind of as usual.”

Chapter Eighteen

Chip

I was ginormous. I had to get maternity pants made special for me—that’s how huge I was.

It was one thing to grow five babies, but now I was at the point where any day now, I was going to have to get these babies out of me. I wasn’t sure how that was gonna happen. Like, I knew the process, but making it happen…that was a different story.

Five. Five fully formed, full-size babies were going to be birthed. At my last growth ultrasound, they thought the smallest one was going to be over eight pounds. The smallest. I didn’t ask what the largest was because frankly, I was terrified of knowing.

I wasn’t sure I could do this, and it scared me. My mate had his own worries. I refused to add to them, slapped on a happy face, and pretended everything was right in the world when he was around. It was freaking exhausting. I did complain about my cankles, though, because how could I not?

My capybara was full-on miserable. I hadn’t been able to shift since about the tenth week, and he just wanted to go take a nap in the water. That was it, but he couldn’t have it. I promised him once the babies were here, we’d find a place for him to have that sleep. That wasn’t enough for him.

The doctor initially thought the babies would come early because there were so many and they’d run out of room. They did not. We were at the point where he was threatening induction if they didn’t come soon, and I was not about that. I wasn’t going to refuse the doctor’s advice, but I was going to do everything I could to get these babies out.

I ate spicy food. I ate sour food. I walked and walked and walked. Fine, that was a lie. I waddled and waddled and waddled. My mate knotted me every night. I even drank some gross tea. Anything anyone heard that might help the babies come, I did. But they were stubborn. Stubborn as could be.

A couple of times, I had Braxton Hicks contractions and thought we were there, but we weren’t. So today, when I had a contraction, I dismissed it. It was probably just the Braxton Hicks again. Right? Wrong.

I drank my water, put my feet up—all the things they told me to do to stop the fake contractions. Porter wasn’t as sure as I was, that it was Braxton Hicks, asking to call the midwife, but I stood firm. If they were real, I’d know.

Then one contraction became two. Became three. I continued to stay in denial. Which, given that getting to meet my babies was a top priority made no sense, but not much about this part of my pregnancy did. My hormones were all over the place.

It wasn’t until I got up to use the bathroom and my water broke that I took it seriously.

“We gotta go.” Porter was running around, grabbing keys and hospital bags.

We had planned on doing the home birth when we first discovered I was pregnant, but for five, we wanted to have help available if needed. Our local doctor was a shifter and promised the nursing staff would be too, which was good. The last thing I needed was to partially shift and have a human nurse who didn’t know what they were looking at freak out. Partial shifts were rare, but pain had a tendency to bring them out, and childbirth was painful.

“We gotta get you to the hospital.”

“I need to get changed.” There was no way I was going to the hospital in wet pants.

My stomach hurt, and I tried not to show it, but it was proving to be impossible.