Chapter 23

twenty-three

DEE

It takes some time for the clouds to clear from our frantic lovemaking, and then even longer for Russ’s swelling to come down enough that he can slip out of me again. Warm come rushes down my thigh, onto the comforter. I can already taste the edges of dreams as Russ lies down next to me, curling his huge, furry body around mine. He rests his hand on my belly and rubs it gently, like a crystal ball.

“Have you ever seen a half-human wolfperson?” I ask. I’ve wondered for some time how our baby might come out.

“I was friends with one growing up.” He nestles his chin on top of my head. “He was a good guy. A little short.”

I laugh.

“Most half-human hybrids come out looking like their monster parent,” Russ says after a while in a more serious tone. I wonder if this is how he sounds when he’s acting like a doctor. What would it be like to be his patient? Probably would have a painful crush on him.

“So our baby will look more like you? ”

He nods. “Probably. Most likely.”

I think about this for a while, and find that my hand has been absently stroking over his for some time. I’m starting to fall asleep in the warm afternoon light coming in the windows when I hear Russ’s voice. “I have to go to work soon,” he says, but when I move to get up, he keeps me lying down on the bed. “No, no. You and Boomer can stay here as long as you want. I have another car if you decide you want to go home.”

He kisses my forehead, then covers me with the blanket and starts busying about putting his clothes back on. Soon, I’ve drifted off, and when I wake up, it’s dark out and Boomer is lying on the bed next to me.

“Well, you made yourself right at home, didn’t you?” I ask him, and he just lets out a little huff. I pet his head a few times before finally getting up.

There’s a note on the kitchen table with a set of keys on top, but I’m not in any rush really. I just slept all day, and I feel like there isn’t an ounce of tension in my whole body after the way Russ treated me like a queen earlier.

After finding some unseasoned, cooked chicken to feed to Boomer—which Russ thoughtfully left behind—I sit down on the couch and watch a television show. Later I dig out some leftovers, and before I know it, I’ve fallen asleep again.

Faint light is coming in the window when I hear Russ say, “I’m so happy to see you, my dear.” He scoops me up and carries me back to his bedroom, where we curl up under the blankets together to sleep until noon.

RUSS

She fits rather perfectly into my life.

But I don’t tell her that. I don’t even imply that, letting her instead come to that conclusion on her own when we both awaken in the early afternoon, and we decide I ought to take her and Boomer home.

Now that the door has been opened, though, there is no closing it again. We see each other every other day, saving time for our friends in between. I invite her along to the next barbecue, even though the weather’s turning colder, and Caleb offers her some flavored seltzer because he knew she was coming. I have one, too, and I think not drinking has actually been good for me.

The cub has grown again at our next appointment, though I knew that already from watching and listening to my mate’s soft body every day. During this exam, Dee holds my hand tight to hers, and we all jump when the cub kicks inside her.

“A very active one,” Dr. Hodgens says, noting our linked hands with a twitch of his mouth. “Must have some eager parents.”

A little of Dee’s smile falls, because I’m still not sure that she’s ready.

She’s now over at my home more days than she’s not, but I haven’t yet extended an invitation to move in. I’m taking things at her speed, waiting for her cues. My favorite activity is to bring her up into my lap so she’s using my body like a recliner, then wrap my arms around her while we watch a movie. Afterwards, perhaps during, I dip my claws into her pants and simply taste her with my fingers, spreading her open for me.

I’ve taken Dee all sorts of ways, to show her how good it can be with me, every day for the rest of her life. She liked to ride me at first, but now her body is too heavy, and so I often fuck her underneath me.

“Doggy style,” she’ll say, gasping, as she turns over to get on her hands and knees and expose her perfect rear to me. “It’s easier on my back.”

Oh, how taking her this way reminds me of when I first sowed this cub in her, and I’ve torn some holes into my bed with how furiously I’m overtaken by the instinct to breed her full again.

But nothing compares to bringing her legs up over my hips, and watching her ever-growing belly bounce with each of my thrusts. I’m more careful when I give her my knot, but she doesn’t seem to want my care. She always demands more.

“Russ?” Dee asks one night, while I’m still stuck inside her.

“Mm?” I love to bury my snout in her hair after I fuck her and breathe in deep, filling up my head with her ripe smell. The way her flavor sweetly hums my name, I know she was meant to be mine.

“It seems kind of silly that I’m paying for a whole separate apartment. Don’t you think?”

I can’t help the smile that spreads across my face. “It is silly,” I agree. “Do you want to move in here? It won’t require much change to your lifestyle, I don’t think.”

She giggle-snorts, which tightens her up around me, and I buckle forward. A rumble of pleasure fills my throat as Dee pushes her hips back against mine, bringing my swollen cock even further into her. My eyes roll back in my head as my overstimulated knot is squeezed and milked.

She knows just how to drive me absolutely wild.

“Boomer already knows this neighborhood better than ours,” Dee says, rhythmically rolling her hips so I groan with every pass. “And he loves having a yard.”

I manage to think about the outside world long enough to remember how she mowed the other day, then picked up a pair of gardening gloves and started trimming back the hedges. I like that she already feels my home is hers.

Dee flexes the muscles of her pelvic floor, and I’m incredibly pleased that I got her that video on doing kegels to make birth easier.

“Then move in,” I grunt. “Please. Come and live with me, Dee. And bring your plants, too.”

“Since you asked nicely.” She gasps as I thrust into her, harder, and now her pussy has softened enough for me that I can pull my knot out and work it into her again. “I would love to.”

She’s seven out of ten months pregnant when we sell off most of her furniture, or give it away to the next tenants. It’s easy for me to do the heavy lifting, and soon she’s settled in my home, sharing my big master bedroom with me like I’ve always dreamed.

We have Liesel over often, or meet her at the local burger joint, since Dee’s cravings for red meat only get more and more intense. A symptom of carrying my cub, unfortunately, is that she’s starting to want things a cub would want to eat.

“It’s like carrying around the world’s most wriggly basketball,” Dee groans as she sits down on one of the benches. “She’s always moving around and kicking.”

Liesel looks indifferent, as she often does. “I’ve heard babies do this,” she says. “At least it’s not crying yet.” I get the sense Liesel isn’t much of a children person. She looks at me next. “So, what is the plan? Are you two going to get married before the baby comes? ”

Dee blanches. “Married?” She shoots me a guilty look as she splutters. “We haven’t talked about that yet.”

I shrug. “I don’t see any rush. The cub comes when the cub comes, and our relationship doesn’t hinge on that.”

Liesel’s eyebrows go up, and Dee gives me a relieved smile. She’s not there yet, and I won’t rush her. I want her to come at her own speed.

“I see,” is all Liesel says, but her eyes never leave me. “Are you going to nurse the baby, then?”

Again, things Dee and I haven’t talked about. I get the sense her friend knows that, and is intentionally stirring up the hornet’s nest.

“I-I don’t know,” Dee says, wrapping her arms around herself. “I’ll be right there, so, probably yes.”

I don’t express the joy I feel inside. I just stroke her back and slowly, her arms release. Then she smiles up at me and takes my hand.

By the time she is eight months pregnant, though, there are fewer smiles and more groans of irritation. I work out her tight muscles as best I can, kneading her sore body with my knuckles, and get more muscle relaxant from the hospital. I buy all her favorite foods, and make sure she does her exercises, as much as she hates it. At night, I curl up around her when she’s too cold, and turn on the fan when she’s too hot.

It’s only been nine months when her water breaks.

DEE

The moment I go into labor, I see a side of Russ I’ve never seen before. All his hair is standing on end, and his lips are curled in a snarl as he grabs his phone and starts making calls.

“No,” he snaps at someone on the other end. “She’s coming to my hospital. I don’t care about DreamTogether. Our relationship with you is concluded.” Then he slams the END CALL button and makes another one.

“I’m bringing in Dee right now,” he says into the phone. He’s counting on his wrist, when I feel another twinge in my abdomen, and he restarts the count. “Yes, they’re fairly close together.”

A decision is made, and Russ helps me up off the couch. I limp along behind him out to the car, and he drives like a wolf out of hell toward his hospital, giving me instructions on how to breathe as we get closer. I try to tell him that I’m still doing all right, but he’s on a mission now.

They’re waiting for me when we arrive, and I’m led to a private room. This is a hospital in a monster area, so most of the doctors, nurses and patients are various trolls, gargoyles, and even a fairy woman who keeps her wings tucked away in her scrubs.

Russ stays with me, coaching me as my contractions get closer and closer together. A nurse comes in, and they take some measurements together, talking quietly about how my labor is progressing. It’s strange but comforting to see Russ become his doctor-self. He’s knowledgeable and firm, and frequently stops to explain each step of the process to me.

“This is going to be difficult,” he says in a serious tone. “She’s early. I’m not sure what’s going on.”

I’m surprised that I don’t detect fear in his voice, simply unyielding determination. I nod, trusting in him to take care of her.

Discomfort soon turns to pain, and I’m suddenly quite angry with my past self for ever signing up for DreamTogether. Surely past me knew that future me would have to suffer through this.

Bitch.

As the contractions get more intense, Russ disappears, and I grow worried when he doesn’t come back right away. I can’t do this without him. I need him, right here, with me. This is our baby, the one that we made together, that he told me we would raise together.

He promised me.

My breathing is coming faster and I’m about to call out for him, when a wolfman walks in dressed in scrubs, his face covered in a mask. I gasp with relief.

“Russ!” He pulls down his mask to kiss me on the forehead.

“They told me I shouldn’t do this myself, but I don’t trust anyone else with you,” he says, nuzzling my hair. Then he replaces his mask, brushes his hand once more over mine, and takes up his place at the bottom of the bed.

My labor is long and arduous, and Russ has frequent exchanges with other doctors and nurses that I can’t hear. His face grows more worried as the pain drags on, but I’m afraid to know what might be wrong, even as I’m dying to make sure my baby is all right.

Still, I trust Russ to handle it, to make sure she gets here safely.

“Okay, my dear,” he says to me, gently rubbing my thigh while another nurse stands nearby, poised to act. “She’s ready to come out. She might be a little tangled, so I need you to push hard and fast, okay? ”

“That’s what I said,” I joke, and then cry out as another bolt of agony lances through me.

But I do it. I do what he tells me, and I scream and sob and he praises me every step of the way. Except... there’s no sound, not when she should be crying.

“Cut it off now,” I hear Russ snap, and someone works between my legs.

There’s a gasp, and then more muttering, that tapers into a long, drawn-out silence.

My heart speeds up. She has to be all right. She’s mine. She’s my girl, my daughter, and I need to meet her. I need to hold her, and learn who she is, and watch her become the best version of herself.

I’m on the verge of tears when suddenly, a small wail fills the air.

She’s here.