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Lily

Having three babies when I was expecting one had been a huge adjustment.

All the plans I’d made from furniture to schedules to sleeping arrangements had been tossed out the window.

We’d had to purchase additional baby gear from cribs to car seats to carriers.

I’d planned on wearing our little one from the beginning, but I couldn’t carry all three.

Maybe, if I had help, I could manage to wear two, but three wasn’t going to happen.

I thought about getting a stroller, but didn’t love the idea. Not with our terrain.

So we did the only rational thing we could think of—we bought a baby carrier for every adult in the family, including Sylvia.

We’d never ask her to do child care; she had enough wounds without feeling like we were using her.

But as their aunt Sylvia, it felt fitting that she had a baby wrap just like her brother’s.

Our sweet babies were rarely put down, and they were thriving.

Today was our first day at the farmer’s market since I gave birth, and I was excited. I wanted to see everybody, let them know that I was back. I didn’t need anybody finding new places to get their canned goods. But also, I wanted to show off the babies.

The last time I was there, everybody, including me, thought there was only one little one on the way. They were going to be as surprised as I had been. Maybe not as surprised, but pretty close.

My mates set up my table, each of them wearing one of our sweet babies on his back. It was the hottest, sexiest thing I’d ever seen. I loved watching them go full-on dad mode.

While we were deciding to finally name the pack, I teased that we should call it The Three Papas? That was a hard pass for them. I still kind of loved it.

We ended up compromising. And by compromising, I meant, I didn’t really have a say. They decided we were going to be Flower River Pack.

“It sounds like a bakery gone wrong,” I protested.

“Nope. You’re wrong.” Benji shook his head. “It’s as beautiful as our mate.” There was no getting around it. We had the silliest pack name to ever exist.

But also, it did sort of fit. So much more than Rumor’s pack, Darkshadow. They were neither. They’d been the sunshine in my world for a long time and would continue to be Rumor’s sunshine for the rest of their lives. There was nothing dark about them.

I sat down at our table, taking Rose from Harlan so he could set up his art.

He didn’t have very many pieces this time, and I wouldn’t be surprised if his time at the farmer’s market was coming to an end.

He’d been picking up more and more commissions, and he loved those.

He loved that he was able to create exactly what someone needed out of things that others discarded.

He’d still come, maybe have a few things, but his income base was definitely shifting.

Today was Sylvia’s first time venturing out to the farmer’s market.

She was still in the van but had insisted she wanted to be here in case we needed help with the babies, which we probably would.

We might have outnumbered our three little ones, but they knew how to keep us on our toes in the very best of ways.

The market wasn’t even open yet when I had a line at my table. I could pretend all day long that they missed the few weeks I was gone and wanted my pickled onions and applesauce, but they were there for the babies 100 percent.

They oohed. They aahed. They told us they were the most adorable babies on the planet, which was fact. But between my three and Rumor’s two, it was baby-and-toddler admiration central.

Quite a few of the booth owners dropped off baby gifts as well. Some were homemade like the items they sold, others adorable onesies and stuffed animals from the local store, but all of them given with love and acceptance.

I hadn’t expected it. I knew that this place meant a lot to me, but I didn’t realize I meant a lot to this place.

I was sold out by noon, as was Harlan, but we stuck around, taking new orders and talking to everyone. By the time we went home, I was done. Ready to go to sleep for at least a year.

So were the kids, all three of them falling sound asleep on the way home.

We brought them upstairs and set them in their cribs, shocked when they stayed asleep, but also grateful. It meant we had some time to be together, the four of us.

We took off our clothes, shifted, and climbed into my nest then snuggled together in our wolf form. Together as a pack, in the truest sense.

My pack.

The Flower River pack.

Home.