Page 21 of Beared at Christmas
It was still dark when we got on the road the next morning. Ulrik didn’t mind since we’d both had a post-coital nap, followed by a reheated dinner and the packing of his trailer. After a final cleanup in the morning to ensure it hadn’t looked like we had sex all over the place, I locked up for one last time. I was excited about the future that lay ahead for us, but I couldn’t help the heaviness in my heart at not hearing back from my mother. I, at least, wanted her to be happy for me. I would be happy if I had a child, and they found the love of their life.
Chapter Seventeen
Ulrik
Four months later…
“Thank you, once again, for dinner.” I hugged my pops at the door of my childhood home, as Brody got a cheery squeeze from my dad.
“You know it’s our pleasure to have you here every Sunday,” Pops said. “And we’re glad to see you happy again. Your mate is good for you.”
I nodded, pleased that Brody had been accepted into my family without any misgivings because he was human.
“Come here, Clare Bear.” I hugged my sister next, her husband unable to make it to dinner that night since all his employees who worked at the contractor desk at his hardware store had phoned in sick. With a little shuffle, I managed to fit around Clara’s ever-growing baby belly. “You take it easy. You’re getting down to crunch time now.”
With a slight squeeze to my arm, she smiled and shook her head. “I still have a couple of months to go. And Doug helps me out a lot. He’s more careful with me than any of you, mostly because he treats me like I’m as delicate as a human.” She tilted her head toward Brody. “Speaking of humans, I think he’s not going to be too far behind me in bringing new life to this family.”
I glanced over to my mate, who was trying to explain his current work project to my dad. “You think so?” At first, I was certain Brody would never carry my child the way a shifter mate would. The shaman cited the opposite, informing us that the mating bite altered humans to take some of our traits. While Brody would never be able to shift, he did gain the ability to produce slick, and an ultrasound at my sister’s OB/GYN showedthat my mate did possess a womb and could possibly carry and give birth to a child.
Clara sniffed the air. “He smells different. You probably didn’t notice because you’re with him all the time, but something is definitely changing with him. Has he started nesting at all?”
I thought back to our recent shopping trip. “Does buying a bunch of pillows and towels that we really didn’t need count as nesting?” Brody had been adamant about getting them, even though we had plenty of towels and now enough pillows on the bed to cover the entire mattress without anyone in it.
She tilted her head to the side and gave me a knowing smile. “More than likely. I suggest you pick up a pregnancy test soon, and, when it does come back positive, have Brody schedule another appointment with my OB/GYN. We don’t need him going to a human doctor, claiming he thinks he’s pregnant.”
I nodded, my chest tightening at the thought. Very few humans knew about shifters, and we wanted to keep it that way. I dreaded the idea of a human doctor finding out my mate had developed the ability to carry a child. Nothing good would come of that. We’d learned about some of our kind being trapped in their animal form in circuses and zoos. I didn’t want my mate or child to end up in a lab or someplace even worse.
On the way home from my parents’ house, I stopped at a drugstore to pick up a test. Brody waited in the truck, and, when I returned and handed him the box, he furrowed his eyebrows. “What’s this for?”
“Clara thinks you’re pregnant.” I pulled out of the parking lot and onto the road, heading home as I waited for him to react to what I said. “Says you smell different.”
“Ahh.” Brody leaned back in his seat and crossed his arms. “That explains a lot. Why my pants feel tighter around my waist. The strange cravings. And maybe even the heartburn.” He glanced over at me. “We’ve been so cautious. We always usecondoms, and you pull out before you get stuck in me. That hasn’t happened since the day I moved in with you.”
I reached over and rested my hand on Brody’s thigh. “Remember that book I gave you about polar bears?”
“Yeah?” He slowly nodded. “I’ve read some of it, yet I guess I need to read the rest now.”
Rubbing his thigh, I tried to calm the twist of my gut at the thought of being a father. “With polar bears, there’s such thing as delayed implantation. It means the eggs are fertilized, but they do not implant themselves into the womb until conditions are ideal for them to develop into cubs. Perhaps the same is true for us. Maybe my sperm found your eggs back then, but your egg didn’t feel you were ready until you were comfortable living with me.”
Brody took my hand in his and intertwined our fingers. “I want to be a good parent.”
I squeezed his hand. “I’m sure you will be.”
The rest of the ride was silent. I wasn’t sure what to say, with my own thoughts about becoming a father making it hard to focus while driving. Loosening my grip on the steering wheel, I took a deep breath. It was best not to worry until I knew for sure.
The instant I shifted the truck into park in our driveway, Brody rushed out of the vehicle and unlocked the front door to our house. I hadn’t even turned the truck off as he stepped inside and disappeared from view. As I took my shoes off in the entryway, I heard him using the toilet in the water closet in the hallway. He’d left the door open.
“I had to pee anyway,” he called out as I passed by to put the leftovers my dad sent home with us into the fridge. “Thought I might as well do the test at the same time. That way, we’ll know.”
My heart pounded in my chest. A part of me couldn’t wait to be a father, a title I’d longed for since my first mate. Yet, I couldn’t help the gut-clenching anxiety that came with it. I’dalready lost one mate. I didn’t want to have to bury another. I had no idea if Brody being human would cause complications with his pregnancy. And in no way did I want to have to raise a child on my own.
With my hands on the kitchen counter, I willed myself to calm down. I had to be brave for Brody and not let him see my fears. I had a family to depend on. He had no one outside of us. All calls to his family went unanswered, even if some simple searches proved they were very much alive. Plus, he didn’t even know he could get pregnant only months ago. I couldn’t imagine how terrifying that would be to discover.
I startled when I felt a hand press on my back. I hadn’t heard Brody come up beside me, too lost in my own thoughts. “Sorry. I was just…thinking.”
“About what?” He ran his palm up and down my spine. “Because I’m both scared and elated at the idea of being pregnant. I often thought about having kids but never thought it would be possible without a committed relationship and the long process of adoption. I never expected it to happen this way.”
I turned and held him against me. “Yeah, that’s pretty much what I was thinking about, too. I’m very happy if this is what you want. I know this is kind of sudden and unplanned if you are pregnant.”
