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Story: What’s Rogue Got To Do With It (Fur-Ever Mountain Pack #1)
CREVEN
When I became Alpha of our pack, it hadn’t really been a choice.
Accepting the responsibility had been the only way to keep my mate safe.
And while I’d have loved for there to have been time to really think about what my decision would mean for my mate and I and what it would look like, I didn’t regret taking on the role.
Auden had been right. If we were going to be a pack, we needed to not show weakness and sadly, in shifter politics, age was often a weakness.
In a lot of ways, I assumed my life was going to look exactly like what I’d been living and the pack would be the same as when we arrived plus two. Auden had just kind of been living his life in his own little sheltered world and I was happy to be part of that.
Only now it would be the three of us officially, so much had changed. We were a new family and that took adjusting to. All packs were families of sorts, of course, but with Auden, it went deeper than that.
My mate and I were both orphans, and Auden took on, not really a fatherly role, more like a grandfatherly. It was both beautiful and frustrating, depending upon the day. And if that didn’t shout family, I wasn’t sure what would.
For the most part, life did go on as normal, as normal as it could be when your omega was expecting your first child. It was to be expected. Pregnancy hormones were no joke.
The one change that caught me off guard since becoming a pack was the way the Alpha bond connected me.
Auden and I were able to get each other’s attention no matter where we were in the pack lands through the bond.
That was helpful, especially if one of us dropped a tool while we were on a ladder or were announcing dinner was ready.
It took a little to get used to, there was a sense of invasiveness that came with it, but the pros outweighed the cons.
But with my mate, that connection went far deeper than that.
It wasn’t surprising given we were mates, but it still took getting used to.
Just like with Auden, I could sense when he needed me, but more than that, there were times when I felt his pain as if it were my own.
As his pregnancy progressed, so did his discomfort.
Not once did he complain to me, but his back would ache at things that at one time would have been no big deal.
He’d had numerous cramps in his legs at night that I felt before they tore him from his sleep.
And there was ligament pain during particular growth spurts that hurt parts of me that didn’t exist, which— whoa.
It made me feel helpless. There was nothing I could do to help him other than be there by his side. More than anything, I wanted to take it from him, to bear it as my own.
But today, something new went through our bond, something I’d never experienced before. It was the laughter, but not the kind when he found something funny. No. This was his happy laugh, the beautiful sound that came when he was overcome with joy.
I followed it into the woods, where he was staring at a tree that was in the deepest part of the river, using a stick to try and reach it.
“I’m thinking you’re seeing something I don’t?” I rested my chin on his shoulder, wrapping my arms around him the best I could, kissing our mating mark, snuggling in close. He leaned into me, his head falling back, angling for a kiss, one I gladly gave.
“No, we’re looking at the same thing.”
“I see a tree?” What I didn’t see was what made it special.
“Yep,” He dropped the stick and turned in my arms to face me, my arms not quite able to reach around him anymore. “We need to get it out of the river.”
“Okay, I can work on that.” Denying my mate wasn’t happening… ever… at least not until he replied by telling me he was going to help.
“Not going to happen.”
He stuck out his bottom lip in a faux pout. “Being pregnant doesn’t mean I’m not capable of helping.”
I lowered my hands to his belly. “Being pregnant means you’re not supposed to do things that could put stress on the baby. I can get it out. What are we doing with it?”
“I saw a video once where you could take the trees that had been in the water for a long time and use them to make beautiful instruments.”
Of all the possibilities I had considered, that wasn’t even in the same county as them.
“Are you planning on singing for me, my love?”
“No, but I was thinking that we could use it to make a crib for our little one.”
I had no idea if it would work or what it would entail, when the lumber would be ready… any of it, but I spent the next two days extracting it from the water, watching videos, and making a plan.
If my mate wanted a fancy crib for our little one, he was getting one.
It broke my heart when I realized that the timing wasn’t going to work to get the project done before little one’s birth.
Taking waterlogged wood and turning it into something useful without specialized drying equipment took a long time.
And it made me determined to find something equally special for our little one.
“We’re going out,” I said, holding my hand out for my mate.
He took my hand and allowed me to help him up and out of his spot on the stoop.
There had been a time when he’d fight me on it, telling me he could do it.
But that was no longer the case. He was not as agile and steady on his feet as he was even the day before.
He carried our baby all up front. If you looked at him from the back, you wouldn’t suspect he was with child, but from the side, it looked like our sweet baby was laying from head to toe with their feet at my mate’s navel.
Larkin was adorable and sexy like this.
“Where are we going?” He brushed off the back of his paternity pants.
“It’s a surprise.”
“That surprise better include ice cream,” he mumbled under his breath as he waddled with me to the truck.
I was taking him a couple towns over to a shifter carpenter I had heard of named Jeb. Auden told me made the most beautiful pieces and had a knack for knowing exactly what you needed. Hopefully, something there would catch Larkin’s eye.
But first, we did stop for ice cream, because if my mate wanted it, he got it. We sat under the pine tree, cones in hand, on a day that was far too chilly for the cool confection.
“You weren’t really taking me for ice cream, were you?”
“The second you mentioned it, I was.” I wiped my thumb under his lip, gathering up some drips of his mint chocolate chip, and licked it clean. “But no, that isn’t the plan. You know how the crib project isn’t quite working as quickly as I wanted?”
He nodded. “It’s fine. Pregnancy sometimes makes me have emotional ties to things I shouldn’t. Our little one will be fine anywhere.”
“Emotional ties to our land are good. It means we’re feeling like a pack in all ways. And our little one will be sleeping in a bed made from that tree, it just won’t be a crib.”
“A big kid bed lasts longer.” He leaned in and licked my ice cream. “Delicious.”
As we finished our cones, I told him about the carpenter and once he learned Auden knew him, he was excited. That excitement changed to joy as we met the older man, a beaver shifter, because of course he was, leading us to the back where his finished cribs lived.
“This is it.” My mate went straight toward the far corner. It wasn’t until we got closer that I saw why. Carved into the panel was a fox and a wolf. “This is our baby’s first bed.”
Jeb smiled. “I had a dream that I needed to make that one. I guess I know why. You’re Auden’s new Alpha, right.?”
“I am.” It was interesting that he didn’t refer to our pack by name, but by its association with Auden.
“I grew up the next pack over and we were friends. This is my gift to you. Please accept it as a thank you, for making my childhood friend no longer alone, and for giving him what he always wanted, a pack filled with love.”