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Anastasia snorts. “You remember that I did ask you to procure me a bed, right?”
I hold up a hand as if I am taking an oath. “It’s tucked away at my house.”
Something that was painful to do. I didn’t even consider it at the time, but looking for and commissioning a crib for a child that is not mine hit me hard. It took Rej’thorek quite a bit of work and a few days for me to recover from that one.
“Well, Volikan is building his own.”
My eyes widen. “No.”
She sucks in a deep breath as she nods slowly. On her long exhale, she sighs. “Yes.”
I rocket up to my feet, holding my hands out toward her. “Okay. You have to show me this now.”
It takes a lot of effort and rocking for us to get Anastasia up to her feet, but after several minutes of huffing and one time of me falling on my ass, we’re both up and out of breath from laughing.
“Oh!” Anastasia screams, pressing a hand to the side of her stomach. “Oh, gods, I think they’re trying to do a flip.”
“You’re probably freaking them out!” I wheeze, bent forward and trying to catch my breath.
“Stop laughing!” She sucks in deep breaths through her nose, trying to stop as she presses firmly against her abdomen. “Oh, I haven’t laughed like that in a while.”
“I laugh at Rej’thorek at least once a day.” I loop my arm through hers.
“Yeah.” Anastasia smirks. “I lied. I laughed that hard this morning when I Volikan jumped out of bed because he heard ‘a scary noise.’” She rolls her eyes at me. “My stomach growled.”
I chuckle, my stomach hurting from overuse. “No more jokes!”
She shakes her head, still grinning as she leads me down the hall to the nursery. I stop in the doorway, eyes wide.
It’s cute. A medium-sized room with a massive window and white, sheer curtains framing the chaotic sky. A comfortable looking armchair is tucked in the corner with a table next to it. Right next to us is a small dresser and table to change the baby.
But what caught my attention is the debris on the floor.
I walk over to it, pressing my lips into a thin line. “Uh, Anastasia?”
The giggles are already bursting out of her. “Mm-hmm?”
“Is this…” I pick up a piece of wood that looks like it’s been splintered at least four times. “Part of the bed?”
She bursts out laughing. “I think so!”
“No wonder you needed my help.” I look at her in mock horror, still holding the tattered material in my hands. Then, my eyes land on another fractured piece on the floor next to her. It’s in five or six different pieces, and I cock my head. “What’s that?”
Anastasia’s eyes flick down, and the smile falls from her face. Instantly, her body shifts. “I didn’t realize he’d dropped it,” she murmurs, and I don’t think it was intended for me.
I set the ‘bed’ piece down and cross the room to her. Squatting down, I pick up the pieces as best I can, setting them in a small pile on the table. Up close, I can tell that it once was a toy, and as Anastasia shifts, I grow concerned on how it ended up in this state.
“What happened?”
She hesitates, and I turn toward her, waiting patiently. “A tremor made it fall.” Ah, the tremors. I should have known that was what it was. She sighs softly. “It really set Volikan off. That’s why he was acting so weird when you showed up.”
Honestly, I didn’t notice. He’s always glaring at everything and when he isn’t, he’s smiling like he’s about to attack. I’m sure he’s a great mate, but with me, he’s someone to stay away from.
“I see.”
She runs a hand through her hair, and I can tell this must really be weighing on her. “He’s kind of freaking out. And not in the ‘I’m about to be a dad and don’t know what to do’ way. More like ‘I can’t protect my child against things like a tremor nearly knocking our island out of the sky’ way.” Her eyes flick up. “And we’re not blaming anyone obviously. It’s just that they are growing more frequent and it’s started to worry him.”
I nod. “I understand that.”
