Page 4 of Alpha Talk (Hemlock Wolf Pack: Life in the Happily Ever After #7)
Micah
I hated going anywhere near a healer almost as much as my mate did. More than once, I had whacked Clyde with my stump when he asked to see it. I’d taken care of it myself for years without letting any more of it fall off. It was a good thing that Clyde grew up with bigger assholes than me and learned to duck. It was more wrestling around than anything, but some healers wouldn’t have taken it so well. Usually, if we weren’t close to healers who already knew my history, I wouldn’t go in as a patient. I didn’t like it when Cody did either.
I trusted Clyde. He wasn’t going to eat anyone unless they fucked around with his mate, Ashley, or their kids. Cody trusted him too, but I knew everything to do with pregnancy set off bits of his anxiety. It was a mine field we would have to navigate again.
Clyde had his own practice now and we preferred to see him there. It was less busy than the hospital with fewer people to snap our photos and post online that they spotted the ‘asshole’ Grim Howler. As soon as we were inside the room, Cody stripped down and pulled on the hospital robe as if he might change his mind if he didn’t do it in a hurry. I guarded the door out of habit.
Not long after our girls were born someone tried to snap photos of him in the changing rooms at a department store. That was one of the times I probably should’ve been locked up somewhere. I busted out three of the journalist’s teeth with his own camera phone.
“Don’t beat Clyde up with his magic wand,” Cody teased me as he hopped up onto the examination table. He stretched out on his back and I fussed with his robe to ensure his dick wasn’t peeking out.
“He’s gonna see it all anyway if he’s forgotten how it looks,” Cody teased.
“Are you sure you’re okay?” I asked him, entwining my fingers through his.
“I am. I’m not afraid of this part. This part only goes one way. We see the jellybean and then Clyde tells me how much trouble we’re in for,” he said. “Then we go home and face the trouble.”
“It’s not gonna be all trouble,” I said and ran my fingers of my freehand through his hair. “Not entirely.”
“I know,” Cody said.
“You smell calmer than I expected,” I observed.
“It’s you. Coregulating works. That research isn’t faulty. It’s why The Cuddle Club works and why our exercises at Dark Soul work. True-mates, best friends, siblings sometimes. Anyone with deep connections – coregulation works. It’s as if we can do the work for each other but not ourselves. Or maybe it’s easier to be calm when our ‘person’ is calm.”
“Knock knock,” Clyde said from the other side of the door before it swung open.
“On a scale of one to ten how bitey is he today, Cody?” Clyde said in lieu of hello.
Everyone said Clyde was a raging dickhead before he met his true-mate. That he raised hell and harassed omegas at Hemlock Academy. I didn’t know him back then. I met him right as the war began to groan and grumble. He’d never been anything except a pain in the ass who loved his mate and kids and tolerated most of the rest of us.
“Eh, three probably. Though, more likely to bite me than you,” Cody smirked.
“Good to know but keep the kink on the table to a minimum. Moaning, like laughing, makes it hard to get a clear image of the baby,” Clyde chuckled, flipping through the papers on his clipboard. “Any changes since we last spoke, Cody?”
“No. Well, unless you count the positive test and how hungry I’ve been.”
“Anything else?” Clyde asked, scribbling his blue-capped pen across the clipboard.
“Nothing I can think of. Am I missing something?” Cody blinked at him and his scent started turning nervous.
“Not all at. I find that patients often forget stuff and sometimes if I ask enough times they’ll remember it. Not because of pregnancy but because most patients don’t trust us.”
“Do you blame them?” I laughed because I couldn’t help myself and Cody slapped my chest playfully with the back of his hand. I caught it and kissed it.
“Any sickness?” Clyde asked, setting aside his clipboard so that he could scrub his hands at the little sink in the corner of the room.
“Not yet. Mostly starving. Always starving. If you don’t find a baby you might want to look around for a tapeworm,” Cody laughed.
A few seconds later, both of our eyes were glued to the monitor attached to Clyde’s little machine. The damn thing wasn’t much bigger than my cellphone. Regardless of its size, the whooshing thing did its job. There on the screen, mounted to the bright, brick wall was our jellybean. A wolf. Our wolf pup. Our perfect little wolf pup. Just one. My wolf shifted my eyes to his to confirm that. Just one puppy. I swallowed a sigh of relief. Though plenty of people would disagree on my methods, I kept a lot of my worries about Cody’s pregnancy to myself after our initial conversation. My worries would only drive his on and he wanted this baby. I wanted another baby too but would’ve never brought it up. Mine wasn’t the body who would have to go through the metamorphosis to bring life into the world. I would’ve supported him for the rest of our lives if he decided he never wanted to be pregnant again.
“One pup will be easier,” my wolf whispered into my thoughts before he started licking his paws inside his inner sanctum.
I kissed Cody’s forehead while Clyde talked about measurements and possible due dates. He was almost three weeks along which meant his pregnancy was almost to its second trimester already.
“About two months,” my wolf said between licks.
Two months wasn’t any time at all. Two months would pass us by in a heartbeat. We’d already prepared the nursery and baby proofed the house. We started a college fund and trust fund that would be easy enough to add our unborn pup’s name to when the time came. We did all the tasks that kept us busy while we waited for biology to do its job.
“He’s our only job for the next two months,” my wolf said, pausing in his grooming. “He can say what he likes. We’ll go in and talk to the numbskulls, but he’s our focus. Maybe we keep it a secret, though.”
Xander and Jonah both hit me with congratulations before we ever left the office. My phone vibrated like a rocket ship about to launch out of my hand. Nothing stayed secret long when you were on two different pack links but this was something to celebrate. Maybe this time Cody could even have a proper shower. Maybe I’d host a feast and give out gifts or…
“Alpha, don’t get carried away,” Cody laughed and squeezed my hand. “I love the idea of a feast but let’s see how I feel next week before we start planning what you have in mind. The images I’m picking up look more like a fair or a carnival than feast.”
“Yes!” I mock howled the word. “Let’s have a carnival to celebrate. I’ll rent a merry-go-round and a ferris wheel and one of those teacup rides. We’ll have a dunking tank and make Kodiak sit up there and….”
“Uh…. How about we donate those to kids in need or something,” Cody laughed.
“Frost above me,” I shook my head. “All the kids in the pack can come! We’ll hire one of those funnel cake guys and the cotton candy dudes and….” I shut up because Cody’s stomach growled. “Just a thought, but do you want to go hunting?”
A second later, Cody was furry and darting down the streets of Old New York – rebuilt shiny and new – on his way to the woods. I followed behind him still in human form, jumping from foot-to-foot trying to take off my new sneakers because shoes didn’t always survive the shift. Eventually, I got them off and stashed them in a tree before shifting and racing off to catch up with him.