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We lay on the floor for a few minutes, and I relished being able to have her body wrapped in my arms again and feeling the bond sparks when she started to move away. I held onto her desperately and looked down at her face on my chest, panic filling my chest.
“Don’t leave again, please,” I pleaded. I couldn’t do it anymore. I couldn’t be away from her. I felt like a part of me was missing for the last four days. She kissed my chin and shifted so she was lying beside me, her hand on my still-clothed chest, drawing small circles on it.
“I’m sorry,” I said into the silence, looking up at the ceiling. “I shouldn’t keep things from you. I was worried about the stress on the pups, but instead, I just made it worse. We work better together.”
“I’m sorry, too. I was hurt and angry, but I took it too far. My hormones are all over the place, and I let them take control instead of talking to you about it. I was coming to talk when I heard what you said to Gillian and Danny,” she answered.
“When is your next doctor’s appointment?” I asked, not wanting to dwell on the past four days. I had my soulmate back, and I would do whatever I needed to make sure I never lost her again.
“Thirty minutes,” she said, looking at her phone. “Will you come with me?” I turned on my side so we were facing each other.
“I wouldn’t miss it.” I kissed her nose.
“I want to cook tonight. Creamy Tuscan chicken with saffron rice,” she said when I helped her up from the ground. I tucked myself back in, then walked over to the half bath and grabbed a cloth to help her clean up. I helped her adjust her clothing and kissed her deeply just because I could, and I had missed it.
“That sounds amazing. Do you need someone to help you?” I asked.
“No, it’s fairly simple.” I tried to stand my chair up again, but the back leg was broken, and Celeste blushed when she saw. “Sorry, I was a little too eager.” She giggled.
“It was old anyways,” I said, mind-linking Gillian to have our assistant order a new one. “Come, let’s go check on our pups.” I wrapped my arm around her waist and headed toward the hospital. Several people’s faces lit up when they saw us walking, happy we were no longer fighting. “So, shall I tell Gillian to accept the invitation to head to Mexico?” I asked.
“Yes, maybe by the time we get back, the elders will have captured Sandra and her mom,” she answered, wrapping her arm around my waist, too. It felt so right, and Atlas was wagging his tail in the back of my head, finally talking to Kara.
We arrived at the doctor’s appointment, and Dr. West was happy with the progress of Celeste’s weight and blood tests. Celeste lay down and lifted her T-shirt to reveal her stomach. Seeing her tiny bump made me feel so much joy while I held her hand, and we waited to hear those wonderful, strong heartbeats again.
“The pups are growing quite well. They will be large, something normal with alpha pups, and since you’re both of alpha lineage, we can expect that bump to grow quite large before the end of the pregnancy. Given your slim frame, we might need to discuss bed rest as we near full term, but we will cross that bridge if we come to it. Other than that, everything appears to be going great. Keep eating the way you are. We are seeing very positive results.” He smiled at us. “ By the end of next week, we should be able to tell the gender of the babies, unless you want to speed things up with a blood test.”
“We can wait?” Celeste said as she looked at me to confirm.
“As long as the three of them are happy and healthy. We can definitely wait,” I told the doctor.
Chapter forty
Celeste
Itwasdayfourof our fight, and I was done. I lost steam and realized that while I had a right to be angry, I might have overreacted a little. My anger made everyone miserable over the last couple of days, and it wasn’t fair to anyone. But I needed to find a way to express what I needed. I couldn’t and wouldn’t let anyone make decisions for me. I deserved to know what was happening. How could I protect myself if I didn’t know the threats waiting for me? What if I had ditched the guard to get a breather because I thought Markus was being an overprotective father-to-be? Being treated like a delicate porcelain doll wasn’t something I wanted out of my life, and right now, everyone was treating me as such. Markus was supposed to be my partner, not my guardian or my keeper.
Even Kara, who initially wanted to do unspeakable things to Markus and Atlas’ manhood, felt a little sheepish at her reaction. Atlas stopped trying to link her after the first day, which made her sad, though I reminded her that’s what we’d asked for.
This morning, we agreed that the pregnancy hormones were likely part of the issue, and we decided to ask Markus to come with us to the next doctor’s appointment as an olive branch. The office door was partially open, and I heard Markus telling Danny that he wouldn’t make any decisions for me anymore. That he’d made a mistake not telling me about Sandra. With a little push from Kara, we flew into the room and onto his chest. We missed him and didn’t care that Danny and Gillian saw how we threw ourselves at our mate.
Now I was cooking dinner. Everyone in the pack house was happy to see me out of my room. I had plenty of offers to help, but I’d grown close to Melissa in the past few days, so I took her on as my apprentice. She was enjoying it, having never been allowed to touch anything that wasn’t bleach at Blood Moon.
Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Danny and Gillian come into the kitchen. They were shuffling their feet uncomfortably and elbowed each other, trying to decide who would speak first. I rolled my eyes, amused at their antics. I pushed a batch of brownies I made earlier for the kids toward them. They grinned and grabbed the container, sitting on the kitchen counter as they talked to me about what had been happening with the girls’ training and who was improving the most. I was turned to the stove when I felt a set of delicate arms come around me and a tiny sniffle. I turned and hugged Maya back.
“Hey, it’s okay. I‘m sorry I was a bitch. I’m using my one pregnancy get-out-of-jail pass for this one.” I chuckled at her.
“You’ve never been mad at me before,” she said.
“Then I have a feeling it might be a long four months for all of you,” I teased, finally getting a laugh out of her. She sat on Danny’s lap and started digging into the brownies.
“Aren’t you guys eating dinner?” Melissa eyed them as they wolfed down most of the batch while she chopped mushrooms and sundried tomatoes.
“Of course we are. Celeste is cooking. Who would miss that?” Gillian spoke with his mouth full.
“How are you able to fit all of that plus dinner?” she asked.
“Their stomach is bigger, and they have their wolf,” I told her. “They need more calories because they burn so much more. You will see. You will be eating lots once your stomach is used to it, and then even more after you get your wolf,” I said as we continued to prep.
