“Leah, it’s so good to see you!”
After three days on the road (it probably would have been fewer if she had been able to avoid taking so many bathroom breaks), Janie finally arrived at her best friend’s house.
Leah and Tom had been living together for the past year and a half, and the place was a decent size for that area of California.
“I missed you so much! I’ll show you to your room.”
Leah led Janie upstairs and into the guest bedroom, then quickly closed the door behind herself.
“Show me the belly.”
Kiera blushed and pulled her shirt up. Several more tendrils of purple had begun to snake out from her navel, and the mound where the pups were growing–she was convinced it was a litter of at least three–had grown twice the size it had been originally.
“How did you know?” Janie asked, looking down at the floor.
“Oh please! I’ve known you my whole life. When you told me you quit, and I saw the tabloid pictures, maybe I put two and two together… How many do you think you’re having?”
“Two or three,” Janie said. “Maybe more, but that’s uncommon in human mothers.”
“Listen to you!” Leah exclaimed, laughing. “You’re the expert now, are you? How does daddy feel about the little bundles of joy?”
Janie swallowed hard and looked away. “He doesn’t know about them.”
“What?!” Leah exclaimed. “How can he not know?! Can’t shifters sense that kind of thing or something?”
“Maybe he could have if I would have stuck around a little bit longer.”
“You have to tell him, Janie! This isn’t right!”
“I can’t,” Janie said, hot tears burning her eyes. It was the first time she had allowed herself to actually cry about this. “It would put them in danger. And Dean…the bear shifters have been really on the offense lately. I just couldn’t bring myself to put them in harm’s way…”
“Okay, okay,” Leah said, hugging her friend and fishing a tissue off the end table. “I understand. You can stay here as long as you need. But I’ve got to warn you. I don’t know anything about giving birth to wolf pups. This is all new turf for me.”
“You and me both,” Janie said, finally smiling again. Her emotions had been out of control lately. She went from wanting nothing more than to speak to Dean to hating him for ever putting her in this position to begin with. Nothing seemed to be good enough.
“Well, settle in and then do your best to make it down for dinner if you’re up to it. We start at 7pm usually. All right?”
Janie nodded and Leah smiled kindly at her before leaving.
It was nice knowing she had a friend that she could depend on through thick and thin. No matter what happened, there would always be that.
***
“Are you all right, Janie?”
Janie’s face was tense with pain, and she swallowed hard. She had been with Leah for the past eight months, too independent to stay at her mom’s house, but too scared to venture out on her own during her first pregnancy. Her best friend didn’t care at all, and they’d been enjoying the experience as they had back in college.
“I don’t think so,” Janie gasped, a contraction jolting her forward. She cried out in agony and soon, she could hear the urgent footsteps of Leah and Tom heading toward her.
“Her water broke,” Leah said in a loud whisper. Tom immediately left the scene, scurrying around the house to get the diaper bag and suitcase of clothes they had prepared months in advance.
Janie closed her eyes, silent tears streaming down her face. What she wouldn’t give for the man holding her suitcase to be Dean.
But that was all but impossible. From the media coverage, it seemed that he didn’t seem to care one way or another that she was gone. Sure, he hadn’t been rumored to be dating anybody, in the throes of his nasty divorce, even if he was, his PR department would take care of the publicity. Still, it would have been nice to see at least some indication that he missed her.
Another contraction nearly brought her to tears, and soon, Leah was ushering Janie out of the house and into the big SUV parked in the driveway. Tom was already behind the wheel, the picture of panic incarnate. If Dean had been driving, she knew she would have felt safe and cared for no matter what happened. He wouldn’t let on that he was scared even if the world was on fire.
“Easy does it,” Leah said, helping Leah into the back seat and sitting beside her.
They sped off to the hospital, where Leah was quickly admitted.
“Are you all right?” Leah asked. “Do you want anything? Should I call your mother?”
Dean. All she wanted was Dean. She was having their child alone, without him, and he had no idea. What was going to happen to her? Would she ever be able to tell him?
Labor was agonizingly painful, but after twelve long hours of excruciating pain and tears shed, both for her own pain and the pain of not being able to share the experience with Dean, something miraculous happened.
A tiny wail erupted into the room and soon, she was holding an 8lb. 8oz. baby boy in her arms. She had expected there to be more in there, she’d read horror stories about litters of pups being born to human mothers that left doctors astonished, but as soon as she looked at her baby she knew he had been her only.
“He’s beautiful,” Leah gasped when everybody was finally allowed in to visit. “I can’t believe it. What are you going to name him?”
Janie’s voice shook, but she said the name as firmly as she could muster.
“Dean.”