Xenos
It turned out that the little elven bakery that Barry ordered the raspberry chocolate protein bars from was a real bakery and not just a factory that produced packaged, shelf-stable baked goods. I had never thought to check it out before. The bakery was simply called BAKE by the locals because the elvish name for the company was more or less the verb ‘to bake’ in elvish. It wasn’t very creative, but it was ‘exotic’ enough to draw in the locals.
BAKE was nestled in an elven village in the mountains and welcomed tourists from all over the world. It was the off season for tourism but thanks to Barry’s ears and heritage we were able to make a reservation at a B&B called Sleep. Yep. The name in elvish was the verb ‘to sleep.’
Barry was right about it not taking too much effort to find someone willing to watch the kids. One of the other doctors at the clinic agreed to stay with them while we went away. Though, leaving the Nightshade village for any amount of time wasn’t that simple. We had to inform the others we’d be gone. After all, they looked to me more or less to lead them. I usually didn’t mind but it was one of the reasons we didn’t take many vacations.
Also, neither Barry nor I were willing to leave before helping Mori and Ni get ready for their trip. It only took a few days to get them on their way and that also gave us plenty of time to get everything else ready. The only thing left to do was my ultrasound.
I’ve never been one to follow strict rules. Rules are bendy. Just like they were meant to be. For most medical things, Barry insisted that I see other doctors. He’d deliver our babies if he expected zero complications but mostly because I insisted on it. Alphas had delivered their children in the wild for eons before modern medicine changed that and if someone had to be between my legs, well, it should be him. After all, I didn’t have the fun of conception all on my lonesome. I also insisted that he perform the ultrasounds now because the older I got the less I liked to be touched. Sure, I loved to hug my family and friends and would laze about with all the bears in the village, but my stomach wasn’t something that should be played with by just anyone.
My c-section was scarier than the war, if you asked me, but that wasn’t the reason I didn’t want them to touch my stomach. I didn’t have a concrete reason besides I didn’t want them to and that was enough for Barry.
Besides, the portable ultrasound machines were really-really portable now. They were the size of our phones with a little attached wand. Barry normally carried one around in his pocket anyway. What I liked most about Barry performing the ultrasounds for our babies was that he did it right from the comfort of one of my favorite comfy spots.
I wouldn’t be able to stretch out on my back for much longer. So, while I still could I did. I stretched out in front of our hearth and lit it up with atsilv ko. Barry knelt over me and gave me a long, slow kiss, sliding his tongue into my mouth and running his fingers through my hair. He’d taken it down himself before we sank onto the floor. He played with my locks as our tongues danced between our mouths. He was already rock hard and I wasn’t sure if it was because it’d been a few days since we last made love or if it was because he really did find ‘pregnant me’ sexy as hell.
“Both. All of the above,” Barry murmured against my lips.
“We can’t do it in front of the hearth right now, alpha,” I reminded him. “We’re home alone but you never know when a teenager will get mad and storm out of school and show up here.”
“I’m just kissing you,” he murmured again. “Well, I’m trying to anyway.”
“Let’s see the baby and then you can kiss me all the way to the bedroom. Then once we lock the door you can kiss me wherever you want. I’ll even let you rim my navel,” I teased him.
Barry gave me one last tongue-filled kiss before sitting down next to me and whipping his wand and the machine it was connected to out of his pocket.
“There’s something really sexy about you whipping that thing out,” I smirked. “Though, my liking how you whip things out is sort of how we keep finding ourselves in this situation, huh?”
“Do you want a break from this ‘situation’ after this baby is born?” Barry asked me.
“Probably,” I admitted. “Just until some of the kids move out. We won’t rush them or anything. Just…”
“We never do,” Barry nodded. “Taking a break isn’t a bad thing. Hell, maybe we let Stephie and this one grow up and then we travel the world.”
“Who watches the bears while we’re gone?”
“The wild wolves outside,” Barry teased, and I teared up.
Long gone were the wild wolves who moved into the territory and took to living around our home when it first became my and Barry’s home. Their descendants lived here now and sometimes I wondered if some of them were reincarnated from the first batch.
“They probably are,” Barry nodded. “Besides, generations of a wolf pack staying right here with us means we’re doing something right.”
“I know,” I said and bit my lip. “But who would really watch the bears?”
“Mori and Teddy,” Barry shrugged. “They like Mori and it’ll do Teddy good to be surrounded by bears.”
“You think they’ll move back here?” I arched a brow.
“You don’t?”
“Mori might actually open his ‘paranormal investigation’ business,” I said gently.
“Huh? I thought he put that idea away when he opened Mori’s Mementos. He has a business now. Who runs that if he goes off and fights ghosts?”
“He’s not going to fight ghosts. Fighting ghosts usually turns out to be a waste of time and he knows that. To answer your question, Preston would take over the shop.”
“They’ve told you this?”
“Preston did. I think he slipped up and told me more than Mori wants us to know yet, but you know how Preston is. Put a box of doughnuts in front of him and he might as well drink truth serum,” I sighed.
“So no traveling the world unless Preston magically grows some of your magic?” I arched a brow.
“Maybe we could. I mean, if you really want to we could figure something out.”
“Mate, I want you to be less stressed,” Barry said. “If traveling does that, then I want to travel. I want to be where you are, but I also want you to be where you’re the happiest.”
“What about you?” I asked him, eyeing the wand he still hadn’t used.
“I’m happiest next to you,” he said.
“Mushy,” I laughed but leaned up on my elbows for a long, slow kiss. “I shouldn’t complain,” I said, laying back down. “Having a mate who’s happy just to breathe next to me makes life easier.”
“Then I’m doing my job right,” he said, glancing at my belly.
We fell quiet as he pressed the wand against my flesh. Goosebumps rose on my back and arms as if he’d rubbed something else on me. As phallic shaped as the ultrasound wand was it was hard not to think about Barry’s naked body rubbing against mine.
A second later, he grinned down at the screen. Calculations went off inside his thoughts and his wolf’s tail wagged inside the inner sanctum he shared with my bear. Barry and his wolf loved all our children equally, but we had more bears than wolves and his inner beast was always happy to welcome another wolf to the pack. Our baby was a wolf.
“Huh,” Barry said, still holding the wand to my stomach as he handed me the bit with the monitor on it. Our baby was a jellybean but even I had seen enough sonograms now to know the slight difference between a wolven and bear jellybean in utero. Our baby was definitely a wolf pup.
“Huh, what?” I asked Barry.
“I was wrong. My guess was bear cub.”
“Can we still travel?” I asked, pushing myself upright once I made sure there were plenty of screenshots of our jellybean to print out later.
“Yeah. We won’t have as big of a window as we would with nine-ish months to play with, but there’s no reason not to go. We’ll just have to wrap it up in a month or so.”
“We can do that,” I said, as he powered down the machine. “Even just a week away would be fun. Make a big difference too.”
“Now, to carry you off---”
KNOCK! KNOCK! KNOCK!
“Chad’s in labor!” Fran an anxious first-time sire pounded her big, bear fist against the door.
“Shit,” Barry swore under his breath as he popped up off the floor like bread shooting out of a toaster.
“Later?” I offered, flashing him a sheepish smile.
“Definitely, later,” he said, sprinting toward the door and grabbing up his medical bag before dashing off with Fran.
There were plenty of healers who could deliver babies, but most sires still ran for me or Barry. It wasn’t always convenient, but I knew my mate took more pride in it than he let on.