Page 29 of Eager Beaver
Guy didn’t stop there, though. What had once been a short hallway leading to the bedroom and bathroom, was now extended to an add-on to the back of the cabin. Any words I might’ve had to express how I felt were chased straight out of my head. Guy set me down gently, then took the box from my hands so I could explore freely.
“It’s so… perfect,” I whispered, enthralled. The word was so inadequate for how incredible it was. A nursery for our baby, complete with a crib, dresser, and rocking chair, all made by hand. The walls were the same interlocking logs as the rest of the cabin, varnished a pale gold, the floor covered with a plush green carpet, and there was a bookshelf in the corner, just waiting to be filled. “You built all this?”
“Me and Maurice,” he said with a chuckle. “Maurice did all the hard work, gnawing down the trees. I just put them together, with a little help from the others.”
I stepped forward, running my fingertips over the rocking chair’s armrest before taking a seat, sinking into the cushion with a sigh. There was still the lingering scent of sawdust, a scent I would forever associate with love and family.
“Thank you,” I said, and he leaned against the door frame, watching me rock back and forth. “Our baby couldn’t ask for a better alpha father.”
Guy stepped into the room to pluck our stuffed beaver from the top of a box. “I would do anything for my family… for you.” He set the stuffie in the crib, just waiting for our baby to enter this world.
Summer was almost over, and something told me, we wouldn’t have much longer to wait.
20
Guy
Iopenedthefrontdoor as quietly as I could and peeked around the corner. Fable was nowhere in sight, but that didn’t mean anything. The further he’d progressed in his pregnancy, I swore he’d developed hearing as keen as any shifter. Whether that was a hint to the nature of the child he carried, it was too early to say. All I knew was that if I disturbed his nap, there would be hell to pay.
I might’ve been the largest beaver in this lodge, but that didn’t mean I had no self-preservation instinct. I was not immune to common sense, and all alphas knew that pissing off a pregnantomega was a very, very bad idea. And one who was two weeks past his due date? Practically a death sentence.
“You don’t have to tiptoe,” he called from somewhere deeper in the house. “I’m awake.”
I breathed a sigh of relief. Fable sounded almost… chipper. That was weird, right?
“I brought your favorite treats from Clara’s bakery,” I called as I kicked off my boots at the door, buttering him up just in case his upbeat mood was a trap. He wouldn’t tear my head off if I had cinnamon knots—unless I didn’t hand them over fast enough, of course.
I loved my mate, I truly did, but I was also a little scared of him these days. His mood was on a hairpin trigger, between the swollen ankles, aching back and hips, lack of sleep, and a bladder the size of an acorn. I mean, who could blame him? He hadn’t even been able to eat more than a bite or two of his favorite sweet treats. Any little thing might set him off. He would lose his temper and then immediately feel bad about it, the hormonal guilt making him sob uncontrollably. It was a rollercoaster but with no way to get off the ride.
He would never admit it, but he was absolutely miserable. He really wanted to be one of those omegas who loved being pregnant, who glowed like the sun and spoke only of joy, but the truth was, he’d been counting down the days to his due date with giant red X’s on the calendar. Except then we’d gone marching straight past that date, and every morning he woke up with no sign of baby, he wound up a little tighter, and the only thing that would help was that baby coming out.
We’d tried just about everything by now. Spicy food, long forest walks, and every night before bed, he demanded I try to fuck that baby out of him—which I was more than willing to help with, with great diligence—but nothing worked! Darion, the lodge midwife, had told us to be patient, but at the same time,he couldn’t quite hide his concern. Fable was human, after all, and that was a little outside his realm of expertise. There were far more complications with humans than with shifters, and I’d caught him studying human medical journals on more than one occasion.
Setting the cinnamon knots down on the counter, I went in search of my mate. I found Fable in the nursery, folding itty-bitty onesies. He was humming softly, swaying back and forth as though already holding our baby, his belly far out in front of him.
“Hey, sweetheart,” I said gently, prepared for his head to spin around like inThe Exorcist.
Instead, though, he simply beamed at me, the perfect image of the mate I loved and adored. “Hey, dear. Did you get all your work done? I missed you.”
My guard was up. Was this a trick? “Um, yes, work’s all done. Pierre and Olivier are all set to take over the business for the next few weeks so I can be home with you and the baby. Isn’t that great?”
Fable smiled dreamily, not a hint of his fiery temper in sight. “Thatisgreat! We should do something to celebrate, don’t you think?”
“That sounds nice. What did you have in mind?” Against my better judgment, I let myself relax.
“How about a date night, just the two of us. Who knows when we’ll have another chance. As soon as the baby arrives, it’ll be all diapers, feedings, and sleepless nights. So I was thinking we could cook dinner together, maybe the maple rosemary chicken?”
“My favorite,” I replied, moving in to stand behind him, and I wrapped my arms around his waist, supporting the weight of his belly the way he liked, to give his back some relief. “What else would you like to do?”
He leaned back against my chest and sighed. “Hmm, I was thinking we could go on a kind of babymoon tomorrow. You know, like a honeymoon before the baby arrives. We could drive down to Saguenay and stay at that hotel with the hot springs, for old times’ sake.”
And while I doubted that we would be going so far anytime soon, I liked making plans. “That sounds incredible. I love the way hot springs make your skin glow.” I pulled the neckline of his shirt back so I could kiss his mating mark.
He hummed. “And then maybe we can—” Fable’s words cut off, and his body went rigid in my arms. “I knew it!” he shouted, spinning around to face me. “I knew the second I made plans, this baby would make an appearance. They were holding out for the most inconvenient time!”
“W-What?” I stuttered, confused as hell. But then Fable pointed down, and when I followed his finger, I saw that his pants were wet. “Is that…?”
“Yes!” he cried, triumphant. “My water broke! Let’s go!” He grabbed my hand and dragged me out of the house. And it was a good thing he seemed to know where he was going, because I was still confused about the turn we’d taken. A second ago, we’d been planning a trip, and just like that, we were suddenly at baby time?
