Page 31 of As The Shifter World Turns

31

WE’RE HAVING A BABY

Archer

“It’s time.”

“For the doctor’s visit?” Micah asked as he lay beside me. “I don’t think we need one now.” He sat up. “But you’re pregnant so maybe we do, but a different doctor. A shifter one.” He flopped back on the mattress and Patch sniffed him and gave him a big lick.

I tensed waiting for his ewww moment but there was nothing.

“No, not that.” I studied his unblinking eyes. “This is good news, right?” No response. “The baby, Micah?” That snapped him out of wherever he was and he shot up again.

“I’m so sorry. Yes, yes it’s the most marvelous, most welcome news ever.” He enveloped me in a hug. “I’m trying to process it. We’re going to be dads.”

“So to get back to what I was thinking.” My wolf was clawing his way to the surface and if we didn’t do this now, he’d take control and pounce on the man who’d fathered my child. I had to do this with his help. I’d told Micah once I couldn’t partially shift but for this I could.

“Mate, babe.” My voice was low and gravelly against his ear, and even without looking, my eyes were no longer my own, but my beast’s.

“Yes.” One word set us on a path. “I don’t know what will happen, but I feel it too.” He pulled off his shirt and yanked mine away from my throat. “Together.”

My teeth elongated and sunk into his flesh. I’d nibbled on his skin countless times, but this was deep, and the consequences would last a lifetime. Micah’s bite had me gasping and when an earthy, metallic aroma hit me, I murmured, “It’s done.”

“It’s done,” Micah repeated. He lifted his head and kissed me. Our first as a mated pair. “I don’t feel any different. A little giddy perhaps.”

“My nausea is gone. Maybe we should mate more often,” I joked. My wolf was excited. He was practically dancing as he intoned, Mate. Mate. Mate .

“Not likely,” Micah sassed.

“Can you believe we’re having a baby?”

“Gods, we have so much to do before the birth.” He tugged at his hair.

I lay back on the bed with Patch cuddled into me as Micah ran around the apartment. “Schools. We have to think of schools.” He flicked through his phone, his eyes glazed. And then he flung it down. “The apartment. We need to baby-proof it.” More scrolling through websites with him stabbing and cursing at the screen.

“The garden,” he whooped. “Daire might have poisonous plants or spray them with dangerous bug spray.” He raced down the stairs and I heard him yelling to the grizzly shifter. The thundering of his feet on the stairs had me waiting for his flushed face to reappear.

Patch gave me a look and hid under the covers. “You and me both, sweetness.”

Me too, my wolf agreed and curled up inside me.

I pulled the quilt up to my chin and closed my eyes. “Chest feeding or bottle?” Micah poked his head in the door but I pretended to be asleep. This was too much.

The phone beeped. Neil. A video call. “Hi.” His face popped onto the screen. “How are you feeling? I heard Micah tearing round the garden pissing Daire off. Did Patch poop on the path or something?”

“Nope.”

The phone chimed again and Ivor joined the conversation. “Hi. What’s going on? And what’s all the noise? Daire’s in a bad mood because Micah was babbling about poison. Everyone knows Daire doesn’t use that shit.”

Another ding. This time it was Daire. “Damned right, I don’t. And where’s Micah?”

We were popular today as Ryder joined. He gazed at Ivor with puppy dog eyes but Ivor wasn’t having any of it.

My fellow wolf shifter muted the conversation and disappeared. When he returned, he was wearing a Halloween mask. My guess was he didn’t want Ryder staring at his face. I wished those two would sort things out but really it was on Ryder to shove Kellan out of his life.

“We’re all here,” Neil announced.

“Except Micah,” Ryder noted. “And Martin.”

While Martin and Toby joined us on the roof on Friday nights, and we enjoyed their company, they weren’t yet fully integrated into the Sunshine Manor family. Slowly. Slowly. “They’re on vacation,” I said. “Martin took Toby to the beach for two weeks.

“Where’s Micah?” Ivor asked.

“Baby proofing the apartment I think.”

“That’s a good one, Archer,” Daire chuckled. “I guess Patch is your baby and puppies do get into everything.”

Micah should be here when I told everyone the news. “Micah.”

He raced in. “Please tell me you’re not having contractions. This app says…”

“Contractions?” That was Neil.

“What did he say? Ryder asked. “There’s something wrong with the sound.”

“It sounded like contractions.” Ivor’s voice was muffled by the stupid mask and it was disconcerting having a vampire on screen.

“We have news, guys.” I waited for Micah to take over as he sat on the bed and rubbed a hand over his face. I nudged him. “Wanna tell them together?”

“Tell us what?” Daire asked. “I have a date later. Hurry up whatever it is.”

“We’re pregnant,” Micah and I said.

“How?” Ivor asked.

“Both of you? That’s unusual.” Ryder scratched his head.

“Oh my Gods!” Neil kissed the screen and blew kisses.

“Who’s the father?”

“Daire, shut up!” we shouted.

And of course in the usual Sunshine Manor style, everyone talked over the top of one another until I put two fingers in my mouth and whistled. “One at a time.” I held up my hand. “Me first. Yes, I’m pregnant and yes, Micah is the alpha father. Oh, and I almost forgot. We’re mated.”

That snapped Micah out of his daze. “I have to call up one of my old university professors. He’s a unicorn and a renowned expert on unicorn history.”

“Must be very old,” Daire quipped.

“You’ll keep, buddy.” Micah waggled a finger at him. Ivor disappeared again and appeared onscreen with Daire and gave him a thump. Everyone laughed. “Thanks, Ivor,” Micah said as Daire grumbled and rubbed his arm.

“We have to celebrate. Party time.” The grizzly shifter jumped up and wriggled his ass around the room.

“But Archer’s been throwing up for days,” Neil reminded him.

“Now we’re mated, my all-day sickness has vanished. I’m just tired and achy from throwing up.”

“That’s weird,” Ivor commented. “Though it's a good weird.”

“No more odd than talking to a vampire with fangs.”

“I gotta love you and leave you. Hot date is waiting for me,” Daire announced .

“Can someone talk sense into him?” Neil asked.

“What’s this about?” Ryder added.

“Neil thinks the alpha Daire’s dating is stealing from him,” Ivor informed us.

“That’s bullshit,” Daire huffed and his screen went blank.

“I gotta run too,” Ryder added.

“To Kellan?” Ivor snarled.

Time to end this conversation. ”Okay guys. I’ll fill you in on more details as we have them.”

“Bye. Love you and congratulations,” Neil shouted.

“Guess what?” I said as I pulled Micah into bed with me and Patch. “I’m starving. Wanna order take out, mate?” My mate—I’d never get tired of saying that.

“I’m so glad your appetite’s returned.” He pulled the covers back and stared at my flat belly. “May I?”

“Of course.” He placed a hand on me and I put mine on top of his.

His eyes swam with tears. “I never thought I’d get to be a dad. To meet a fellow unicorn is so rare and to find one who was my one true mate was almost impossible.” He lay his head in my lap. “The day you moved into Sunshine Manor the universe gifted me with two things.”

“Two?”

“You first of all. My life long mate who’ll walk beside me, sometimes in front and occasionally behind, but always with my hand in yours, as we navigate what life throws at us.”

My lower lip trembled and I blubbered, “That was so beautiful. I love you.” Patch poked his head out. “And you little boy.”

Micah crawled under the covers and I lay my head on his shoulder. I had a mate I never thought I’d be able to call mine. And we'd made a baby. “Can you do something for me?”

“Anything.” He kissed the top of my head.

“Please order Thai food, pizza, fries, enchiladas, and ice cream. Oh, and brownies.”

“You sure you can…?” He took one look at my face and saluted. ”Yes, sir.”

I fed Patch snacks while Micah’s voice murmured in the background. I was so hungry, the doggie snacks looked pretty good and based on how long my mate was taking to order, I might eat a handful. I needed them more than Patch.

When Micah eventually returned to the bedroom, I told him, “I know you were ordering a lot of food, but that was a long conversation.”

He sat on the bed and took my hand. “I was talking to my former professor.”

“But you ordered the food, right?”

He laughed. It was such a genuine sound, from deep in his belly. It was so rare to hear that from him, I grabbed his shirt and pulled him in for a kiss .

“Can I have more of that, please?” he whispered.

“After I get my food.”

As my omega Dad always said, my eyes were bigger than my belly, though I made huge inroads into the food. A slice of pizza in one hand, fries in the other while Micah fed me ice cream was almost better than an orgasm. Almost.

When I was finally full and my mate put the leftovers in the fridge, I remembered his phone call. “Did the professor give you any hint as to how we mated? Were the planets aligned or something?”

“He did.”

“What?” I was joking. ‘I know nothing about stuff like that.”

“He said the stories and ancient texts passed down told of unicorns mated with other shifters, but it was so rare for unicorns to meet their one true mate, that the truth became fiction and fiction became reality.”

“Wow!” That was hard to take in knowing unicorns had been denied love.

“It was easier for the community to believe that they could only mate with their own kind rather than wander the Earth for decades looking for their fated mate.”

“That’s so sad,” I sniffed.

“But all that’s going to change thanks to us.”

He brought me peppermint tea and we sat in bed talking about the baby. “Will it be a unicorn or a wolf? A uni-wolf? A wolfie-corn?” I giggled and almost spilled the tea.

“No.”

“Then what?” I asked. He got out of bed and looked underneath. “Micah?”

“That wasn’t me. I mean it was me, but I was just repeating what someone else said.”

We’d been happy for five minutes, a family of three—with Patch—and about to become four. And now the blood had blanched from my mate’s face, and he was looking for someone who wasn’t here or there.

“Babe, get into bed.” Maybe it was time for me to look after him. He’d been doing everything for me and now I was well, I could do the same for him.

“No.” He shot up and bumped his head. “There it is again.”

I wrapped my arms around him. His heart was thundering and I thought he was having a heart attack. I leaped out of bed and Patch cried. “I’m calling an ambulance.”

“No.”

I didn’t want to hear that word again. One small word, two letters and my world was falling apart.

“I don’t need any help.” His expression changed and his eyes were bright while his face was flooded with color. “I hear him.”

With a trembling hand over my mouth, I tried to tamp down the tears. Where was my Micah? I needed him and so did our baby.

He turned to me, his eyes blazing. “I hear my beast, Archer. And he’s a cranky so and so. Says it took mating with you for me to hear him. ”

I sunk onto the mattress, hardly comprehending what he was saying. “But unicorns don’t have a beast, right?” Micah had often referred to his beast as in the actual animal he became when he shifted, but that’s all there was.

“I don’t fully understand it. No, make that I don’t understand it at all. But it’s because of you. Mating you has given me the world.”