“You’re definitely pregnant!” Osana exclaimed joyfully as she rubbed the ultrasound wand across my belly.

My eyes went blurry instantly with tears and my hand tightened around Red’s as I looked up at his face. He was shining proudly like the new father he was going to be. I couldn’t have been happier.

“I knew it,” he smiled.

“So did I!” I laughed. It hadn’t been just the little belly I had developed recently either. There had just been a feeling, an unexplainable feeling flowing through me that let me know. “How many weeks along am I?”

“I’d say from the looks of things,” Osana mused. “That you’re about three weeks.”

I gasped and squeezed Red’s hand even tighter. “Oh my God! You know what that means?”

“I do,” he nodded. Neither of us said it in front of Osana, but it meant that the first time Red and I had sex, and he’d knotted for the first time, he’d knocked me up – just like we’d joked for the last few weeks.

“Do you want to know something special?” Osana asked slyly. I looked at her and saw her eyeing me with a slight grin.

“Uhm…yes!?” I replied.

“You are having twins.”

My heart almost exploded.

“Red!” I gasped, placing a hand on my chest. My heartbeat was absolutely racing. He moved closer to me and I leaned my head against him. “I – I don’t know what to say!”

“Boys? Girls? Both?” Red asked.

“Two boys,” Osana replied, looking at the monitor. She pointed and showed us the grainy image. “You see here? You know what those are?”

We both laughed at the sight of our baby boys. They looked so small, curled up together, and it was so hard to believe that we were seeing inside me like that.

Those are inside me! I thought in amazement. They even moved, just slightly, but enough. Twins actually made sense. I’d felt a lot of...activity in there, kicking and wriggling, and couldn’t help but think that the child I was carrying was going to be an energetic handful, but now that I knew there were two of them in there…

“Want a printout?” Osana asked. “Some people like those. You can frame it, put it on your wall.”

“Yes, please!” I replied, clapping gently as she pressed a button and the machine whirred and chirped. A paper slid out and she handed it to me.

There they were – our two baby boys. Red wrapped an arm around me as Osana put the wand away and wiped the lubricant off of my belly. I was completely wrapped up in the awe of the moment. A spaceship could have landed outside and I wouldn’t have even noticed.

“Look at that, Red,” I said, my voice barely a whisper. “We did that. We did that!”

“I’ve never been more proud,” Red said firmly, squeezing my shoulder.

Osana quietly packed up the ultrasound and slid it over into the corner of the room as I pulled my shirt back down. I sat up, swung my feet to the floor and stared down at the piece of paper in my hands.

“I’ll give you two some privacy,” she said warmly, giving me a peck on the cheek. “Congratulations.”

“Thank you, Osana,” Red replied as she left the room. Once she was gone, he took me in his arms and looked down at me.

“Can you believe it?” I asked him again. I had no idea what else to say. My mind just wasn’t working. All I could think was, babies!

“I can. It is like poetry to me.”

At first I thought he was just saying something sweet and romantic, but I could see by the look on his face that he actually meant something important with his words.

“What do you mean?” I asked him.

“Think about it,” he replied. “Two boys, orphaned, without parents to raise them with love, find each other, and have two boys who they can raise with all the love in the world.”

His words hit me with such a force that I had to brace myself against Osana’s examination table to stop from falling over.

How did I not see that!?

But Red was absolutely right. Our lives had been deprived of familial love, and now we were pregnant with twin boys that we could give everything we never had. In fact, we could give them more. An entire extended family of wolves and foxes, alphas and omegas, men and women and children to love them, support them and teach them about the world. They would never want for anything.

“The universe is smiling down on us,” Red said as he smiled down on me.

“I – I can’t even process this right now,” I laughed, snorting like a total dweeb. Red chuckled and lifted me to my feet.

“Why don’t we go get some more of that apple pie and sit out on the porch?” he suggested.

“That’s a great idea,” I agreed, sliding under his arm as we made our way through the hallway to the kitchen.

The snow had mostly melted and spring was fighting to break through. When we were shifted, it didn’t really matter, of course. Our fur was thick enough to brave even the coldest of storms, but it was nice to sit outside on the porch in human form and talk, and not having to wear an enormous jacket or long underwear was a welcome change.

“Here you go, dear,” Osana said, handing me a cup of tea, as we came into the kitchen. “Orange and ginger. One of my favorites.”

“I love ginger,” I replied, taking the mug from her and blowing on the tea which was piping hot.

“We are going to sit outside,” Red told her, holding the back door open for me. “Feel free to join us.”

“I’ll leave you two to have some time alone for now,” Osana replied with a smile. “I’m going to do some reading anyway. But I will see you for dinner. Mikey and Toby are with Kyle making some kind of feast. The wolves have invited us down.”

“We will most likely accept,” Red replied as I stepped outside. “Thank you, Osana.”

There was still a bit of a chill in the air, but the sun was shining on its way down and the warm mug of tea in my hands helped fight against the remaining cold. I took a seat on the bench and Red sat down beside me. I sipped the tea, which was still too hit and burned the tip of my tongue a little.

“Ow!” I whined. Red chuckled and helped me blow on it to cool it down. His hand slid under my little baby bump and he pulled me closer to him as we looked out at the trees.

Patches of snow remained in the shadows where the sun never seemed to penetrate through the branches, and the back yard was spotted with puddles and mud. Soon it would be green grass and time to work on the gardens. I’d never done any of that, but I was looking forward to being involved for as long as I could until the babies came.

I yawned over my tea and closed my eyes.

“Tired?” Red asked.

“Not really,” I replied. “I think I’m just – overwhelmed with happiness.”

“That’s the best answer I’ve ever heard.”

“I love you, you know,” I told my mate, leaning against his strong chest.

“Of course I know that,” he replied. “And I love you.”