Chapter Seventeen
Russell
I was restless. Beyond restless. And, of course, it was the middle of the night so there wasn’t much I could do about it other than lie in our bed and stare at the ceiling, waiting for morning. It had been getting worse and worse as my pregnancy progressed. Of course, it did. Mother Nature’s way of preparing me for a newborn and lack of sleep, or so the theory went.
“You’re up,” my groggy mate grumbled. “Is it time?”
I didn’t need to ask him time for what. It was the question he asked every time I groaned, held my back, put my hand on my huge-ass belly, or closed my eyes for a second too long. He was sure I was going to push out a baby at any second. How nice that would be if it worked that way.
“What did I say the last seventy-two thousand nine hundred and eighty-three times you asked?” I rolled onto my side to get a look at him all sexy and sleepy.
“You would be sure to tell me.”
“And?”
“And that the midhusband told us to come for some labor-inducing herbs if the baby didn’t come by then, and that he was pretty sure he’d see us because the baby hadn’t dropped yet and you went late last pregnancy.” His eyes were closed, but I had no doubt he was rolling them.
“So, we will go as planned. Hayden is the best,” I reassured.
He was, too. My mate had managed to get rid of Marge but Distance still had not replaced her. If we were a more progressive pack, I’d have begged them to offer Hayden whatever he wanted to join us, but in many ways, we were very old-school, and life would be hard for him. Which was a shame because I had a feeling we could’ve been friends in other circumstances.
“How long until morning?”
I glanced at the clock behind him.
“Two hours.” I sighed.
“Good, then cuddle me, mate, and let’s get some rest, and in the morning we will bring Ollie to school and then we can head out.
I slid into his open arms and snuggled in, closing my eyes and inhaling his scent.
“You know, you have a gift for making me sleepy,” I teased my half-asleep mate. “I mean if you are up for it.” He always was up for it, but that wasn’t going to do anything about it.
The midwife had let it slip out the week before that sex could induce labor, and Jameson’s biggest fear was me having our baby on the side of the road, in a snowstorm, during a hurricane, as the earthquake came in at 7.4 on the Richter scale and the highway was closed due to a bridge collapse. My pregnancy might have had his imagination in overdrive.
What Hayden failed to say was that it was the spermies in the birth canal and not the orgasm that might possibly speed things along. No amount of googling had convinced Jameson of the fact, which was just as well because the horny part of pregnancy had already been replaced by the is-it-over-yet portion.
“Go to sleep, love. We have many things to do in the morning.” He kissed the top of my head, and I settled in for a couple of hours of wide-awake snuggles only to find myself yelling at the alarm what felt like a second later. I had somehow managed to fall asleep in the protective arms of my mate.
“Papa.” A knock came at the door. I had to give it to Ollie; he was young, but he had manners.
“Come in,” I called, not wanting to open my eyes and, from the grunt Jameson made, neither did he.
“Can I come and see the baby being born?”
That was the last thing I expected him to ask.
“I don’t know. We could be there a long time.” I tried to find an excuse—any excuse to say no, but I kept drawing blanks.
“I can bring my tablet,” he offered.
“Why don’t you go get dressed, and I’ll let you know.”
He clapped his hands before running out of the room singing that he was going to wear his big brother shirt.
“So, umm, I don’t care if he comes with us, but what if something goes wrong or it takes a full day of labor or something?” I was being a chickenhead and leaving it up to my mate. The idea of Ollie being there sounded decent enough. It wasn’t even two generations ago that it was common practice in our pack, but it was not going to be on pack lands or even the next town over. It was in the city.
Jameson sat up and grabbed his phone from the nightstand, pressed a few buttons, and held it to his ear.
“Hey, Travis. What do you say about driving Ollie up to the midwife? It can be like the days of old when the alpha was there for pack wolves, only you have the excuse of Ollie needing a break if you want to skip out.” Jameson was creative. I’d give him that.
Before I knew it, my brother had agreed, and I was headed into the shower to get ready, and from the way my belly was dancing in the shower, my pup was just as excited about meeting me as I was about meeting him.