Page 22 of Rogue If You Want To (Fur-Ever Mountain Pack #2)

OTTO

Was I the size of a house? No, not even close. Did I feel like I was? A thousand percent.

I was at the point in this pregnancy where I didn’t even bother trying to get pants up over my belly.

Doing so only left me feeling crappy about myself, and when I did succeed, it was uncomfortable.

And my shirt? There was not a chance in this world of getting it to come down low enough to reach my pants waistband. It wasn’t happening.

It was safe to say that I looked absolutely ridiculous with my belly hanging out over my pants, my shirt so short that you just saw my lower baby bump, but not low enough to be a crop top and a fashion choice. Nope. I looked ridiculous.

The thing was, you’d never know how ludicrous I looked by hearing my mate’s words.

He constantly told me how sexy I was, kissing my belly, nipping at my mating mark.

And at first I thought he was being nice, knowing that it was frustrating me, trying to make me feel good.

But then I overheard him tell Creven about how lucky he was to have such a hot mate.

It wasn’t unusual for my mate to talk about my looks or about being lucky with me, but with other people? Yeah, that was new.

He thanked the goddess openly for us coming together, never bragging about my looks.

I assumed it was the same reason I didn’t brag about his—I didn’t want other people checking out my mate.

This time was different, and I felt guilty overhearing it, especially when Creven responded with, “Tell me about it. When my mate was about to have Oak… I couldn’t keep my hands… ”

I walked away so fast, not wanting to get caught overhearing. But that stuck with me, and it got me through the past week when I could no longer even pull my shirt down where I wanted it.

“I need you,” I called to Torin who was working in the kitchen.

He’d picked up some wire attachments to put in the cupboard after I dropped the onion powder for the fifty billionth time. They were designed to hold the spices and make them easier to access, and I was overly excited about them. Adult life was interesting like that… the mundane becomes the thrill.

Torin was so sexy when he was doing things around the house, and I could watch him all day… except I needed to pee.

“What is it?” He was already there, not wasting a single second.

“I want to get up out of my chair, and this is embarrassing, but?—”

“I got you, mate.” He helped me up, and most importantly, kept my balance. It wasn’t the getting up and down that was especially difficult. It was staying up once I was upright, my center of gravity so different from day to day.

“I need to use the bathroom.”

“And then… maybe cinnamon rolls?” He knew me so well. At first, I used to think he was the one who loved them best, but now I was pretty sure we were tied in our admiration.

A few minutes later, we were going into town.

It was still a lot to get used to, being around humans so much and not staying hidden on pack lands, in my old sheltered world.

Although I suppose sheltered indicated protected, and I wasn’t protected there.

Isolated world was probably the more accurate description.

In any case, I was liking this new freedom of mine a lot.

There weren’t a ton of shifters I interacted with when I came to town, but there were some, and they always treated us well, not like we didn’t belong or that we were somehow on their turf. I knew there were some alphas around that weren’t the most welcoming, but that hadn’t been my experience yet.

“I can smell them already.” The door to the vehicle was barely cracked open, and the scent of cinnamon goodness wafted in.

“Stay there, mate. Let me come around and help you out.”

There had been a time when I’d have argued that I didn’t need help getting out. I gave up on that when I started to admit that I needed assistance to get out of my stupid chair.

My mate didn’t mind. If anything, he liked being there for me.

We walked hand in hand into the coffee shop and were greeted by Marina’s bright smile. All I knew about her was that her name was Marina, as indicated on her name tag, and that she was the human employee who always remembered I liked cinnamon rolls.

“So, cinnamon rolls.” She gave a knowing smile. “How many today?”

“Ummm… we’re gonna eat here today?” I looked at my mate, and he held up one finger for himself. “Three, please.”

She gave a nod and went and plated them up, dividing them accurately, three on mine, one on his.

“Anything to drink?”

I’d gotten to the point where even tea was not for me, and opted for water, and my mate had his coffee.

We sat in the back, eating our delicious snack and talking about the nursery and the changes we’d made to it and what still needed doing.

What I hadn’t realized at the time was that my mate had planned this afternoon together time.

It felt like it was my idea, and maybe I mentioned it first, but the cinnamon rolls, or at least the trip to town, was going to happen regardless of me bringing it up.

He and our pack had gotten together to surprise me in a way I never expected.

When we drove back home and walked toward our house, there by the fire pit was a table full of baby presents.

“This feels very human,” I said to my mate.

“That’s because I used to pretend to be one. Not really, but I lived among them.” He half shrugged.

That made so much sense. This was a human celebration that he'd have been accustomed to. It was touching, seeing everybody get together for us like this, especially with it being so foreign a concept to the majority of us.

A couple of people gave us books. There was a crocheted blanket, a stuffie that represented each of us, diapers… all the typical things you’d see at a human baby shower, according to my mate.

And that was great. Having our child spoiled before they were even here gave me a sense of what was to come, and how they would be treasured by this pack just the way Oak and the other children were.

But what really hit home… truly hit my feels in a way I wasn’t expecting, was that they had changed what they were doing to fit my mate’s background. This was one more reminder of how I needed to let go of past expectations for a pack and embrace this beautiful family that was now ours.

We played some games that I didn’t really understand.

One about candy bars that sounded like names, I guess?

My mate won that one. Another game had to do with listing as many names for certain letters of the alphabet, which at least I understood.

There were more and all were silly little human games that had us laughing.

The cake was delightful, but my favorite part of the entire shower was sitting with my packmates as they told us stories about their favorite childhood memories or their favorite thing that their moms and dads did with them.

The idea was that it might help me and my mate decide what kind of parents we wanted to be, I think. I wasn’t clear on that. But to me, it had nothing to do with any of that. It was so much more.

I was getting to know my packmates on a different level, and the more I learned about each of them, the more I wanted to be a member of this pack that could help make everyone feel as welcome and as loved as I currently did.