Page 38 of What's Rogue Got To Do With It

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?”

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