29. A New Problem

A New Problem

Dalton

P regnancy life hack for shifters: sleep in shifted form so you aren't bothered with heartburn. Highly recommend this.

Shifting was great for the babies. They shifted each time with me so it made life much more comfortable. I'd accidentally spent the night in my raccoon form with Larken's ora wrapped around me and slept the entire night through when I discovered what a great idea it was. I slept so much better! I woke up feeling energized until I remembered I was carrying four babies and one of them liked to use my bladder as a pillow. A vast improvement to the nights in my human form where I had to get up to go to the bathroom or to take some heartburn medicine Michaella had made for me.

Pretty sure Kade cursed me with heartburn.

I loved being pregnant now that I was just over three months and I felt the babies all the time. Not feeling nauseous all day helped. I knew the nausea was just a side effect of the extra hormones, but it sucked balls.

My super healing ability appeared to be suppressed enough not to cause danger to the babies. I was truly grateful for that. ívarr believed it was due to it being a multiples pregnancy. He feared I may never have a single child pregnancy to term unless we found a way to medically counteract my healing, or use magic in a way which wouldn't interact with my system. A lot of risk to take, especially with other kids at home.

Not that I was planning any more babies for a long, long time. Teagan's untimely reminder of my ability made it something we had to consider. Basically, my healing could send me into heat much sooner than most shifters. There might not even be a break in my ninety day cycle unlike other shifters who got a reprieve of at least one year.

This ability really was a double-edged sword. No breaks in my heats meant we had to find a good contraceptive or a new heat blockers. Certainly not the ones Kade was on which made him sick.

I thought about Hiroshi then, and his close heats. He and Teárlach used their magic together to heal the residual damage to Roan's arm after he'd lost sensation and movement in it. The healing was a last ditch effort to regain use of the arm, but had a longer lasting effect on not only Roan, but Hiroshi and Teárlach, too.

Roan got back use of his arm, which was amazing. Hiroshi ended up in a spontaneous heat, only a couple of months after having twins, just to end up pregnant again! Then, of course, there was the elf prince. Teárlach fell into a sleep which we feared he wouldn't recover from. Despite our best efforts, elves had found out about it and had, naturally, been reticent about adding their healing to our healers' talents.

When Teárlach did wake, he was different, and a month later, he had his animal soul. He was now an alpha and Axel's mate. Even with my initial jealousy over the pair, I respected the elf. He was a fantastic mate to my friend and I appreciated just how much love they had for each other.

Really, without Teárlach acting as a catalyst, I wouldn't have my fated mate and our growing family. My feelings for Axel were mixed up. I wasn't even sure if I really ever did love him in a romantic way. It was easier now to be around him because that crush was gone, and all that remained was friendship. I felt closer to Chase now, though. Axel was a Prince Consort, his life was so different from mine.

I took far too long getting ready for work, considering I'd be shifting and making a run there. Chase had a closet full of clothes for me there after we discovered that running to work in raccoon form was better than taking one of those stupid golf carts .

The golf carts were the worst, okay? It had nothing to do with getting my stomach wedged when I tried to drive the damn thing. I absolutely did not want to need a driver to take me everywhere.

Besides, shifting regularly was beneficial for the babies. I was sticking to that excuse.

After eating and dropping my thin robe, I called on my raccoon to take over. They loved being pregnant and were desperate to build our nest. They thought the new house with the beautifully carved wooden nursery furniture were the best things in the world. My alter loved Ingal's shiny additions with the crib mobiles he'd made.

Ingal had taken an elven nursery rhyme and made a little music box which played as each mobile spun. Little figures, two men and an elf, a lizard, a raccoon, an owl, and then a wolf to represent The Luna, all spun around a bright full moon. I thought they were perfect.

We scampered along the pathway towards the mansion. The day was warm, so we took our time. There was no rush since Chase would still likely arrive after us. Office hours were flexible, after all.

Chase was waiting for me when I arrived.

"We're needed in a meeting in less than an hour!"

It had been a while since I'd seen him so frantic. He began rifling through my closet. I'd hated most of the clothing options for pregnant male omegas. First, they were ridiculously overpriced for the poor quality materials they were made of. Second, they were often leisure wear, as if male omegas were incapable of holding down business wear jobs. I knew maternity wear for human women was much more diverse, but they hadn't caught up with the times for male omegas.

Okay, I could totally pull off the business pantsuits cut for women, especially the maroon or lilac colored ones. I would look amazing in a wrap around dress, thank you very much, but I could guarantee there would be issues, given how many times we had video conferences with so many important, or rather, self-important people, who already saw me as lesser for being a male omega.

So I'd taken the initiative and spoken to one of Ingal's elf friends, who had helped me design some stretchy, yet business appropriate clothing. Honestly, I could make a side thing out of a fashion line if I wasn't too damn busy in the office.

Taking the robe he threw at me, I shifted and tied it around myself. "Who is it today?"

"Ulrian Darkglade in the flesh. He and his assistant will be here to check everything is on the up and up." Chase rolled his eyes.

This was a pointless exercise for the mayor. He'd already been given the information multiple times. This was his first official visit to the compound. There had been one very brief appearance on pack lands where he made it clear his mission was to take us down.

"Well, fuck."

"Yeah, so you need to be on your A game."

I went to the closet and found a pale purple shirt which set off the hazel in my eyes nicely. There was a matching tie and slim cut dark gray pants. There was a bump band, made of a skin tone colored fabric I put on under the shirt. It gave me support, which was desperately needed with four babies doing a wriggly dance inside me.

Last, I added a gray vest which matched the pants perfectly. There was an illusion woven into the fabric so I looked slimmer. I knew it probably wouldn't work on the mayor, but on his human assistant it should. Besides, I loved the cut of it and it gave me somewhere to store my phone more easily.

Suitably dressed, I fussed with my hair, styling it the way I liked before I went to gather all our recent reports. Our tax statements were up to date, or permits all recently refreshed. Goddess, had that been a battle. I wondered what the mayor had up his sleeve for us.

His motivations made little sense to me. Was it just because of our ties to the elves? The fae and elves were in an uneasy truce following centuries at war, after they left us to form their own realm, Abrocaelum. Surely there couldn't be more enmity there.

Was it just the aviary? We had thwarted most of their attacks on us. The alliance with the Greenbriar pack was helping us keep supply lines open. We were still having issues delivering locally, which caused a lot of problems with law enforcement. They were very quick to victim blame. We had taken to recording all interactions with the other pack and just leaving if we could, rather than getting into an altercation.

Or was there another angle I didn't know about yet? Whatever it was, I would get to the bottom of it, hopefully before I went off on parental leave in a few weeks. Then once the babies arrived, I was going to try working from home for a little while with Ingal's help.

I was training up Rudi, Mateo's father, to be my replacement. The older shifter remained unable to fly after his ordeal with the aviary but still wanted to be of service to his new pack. We had offered them the chance to leave Sweetwater and the Northarbor area, they could go to Greenbriar, for example. Rudi had wanted to stay with the pack who took his family in without expecting anything in return. I really liked the older man.

The man was sharp as a tack. I would have feared for my job had I not been sort of promoted. I wasn't "just" Chase's assistant now, I was pack treasurer. As their accountant, I dealt with the money side of things anyway. This was only a new title and pay raise.

Larken would be stepping back a bit from enforcer duties, no outside missions, so he could help Ingal while I worked. Lark working part-time made more sense than me doing it. With working half my week at home, I'd still get plenty of time with the babies.

"You ready?" Chase pulled me out of my musings.

"Yeah," I gathered up the papers and followed him to the library.

Waiting for us were the usual suspects, Blake, Kade, Roan, Dakota and Deke. We had additional enforcers, Melody, Sam and Sebastian covering the corners of the library.

There were refreshments laid out on a low coffee table, looking particularly appetizing. Damn Winter and his love of baking. My stomach growled as I took my seat. The others laughed, breaking the tension.

Minutes later, Larken led in the fae mayor, his human assistant, and a bird shifter. I heard Sebastian's muffled gasp. He knew this person then, had to be from his time in the aviary.

The bird shifter locked eyes with Sebastian. A multitude of emotions flitted over his face before briefly landing on devastation.

That's my father. Seb used the pack link to tell us all. He's the aviary's Second, last I heard .

One by one we all schooled our features into a mask of indifference while Sebastian must have been fighting a war within himself. Seeing his father years after fleeing the aviary over his mixed mating to Jake must have been hard for him. How he kept a straight face, I didn't know.

There was tension in the room as Blake made the introductions, and the mayor's assistant, a woman called Theresa, did the same for her party.

We lapsed into silence while Chase gave out refreshments. A tactical move on our part. We didn't want an omega serving the aviary as they didn't treat their omegas well and it would place us in a vulnerable position. An alpha serving them would give them the impression we deemed them as important guests, equals. The same went for asking Melody because she was the only female beta. We knew the aviary had no place for female betas. Chase was the perfect choice.

A knock came at the door, Larken went to answer it, admitting Jasper and Teárlach into the room. Jasper immediately went to his mate's side.

We want the voice of The Luna , Blake explained as he took a sip of his coffee.

Ulrian, the mayor, broke first. "Shall we get to business?"

"Let's," Blake agreed .

Over the next hour, there were more drinks, and I caved and ate some of the cakes Winter had made as our paperwork was scrutinized carefully.

Eventually, even my Alpha's limitless patience wore thin. "Why are you doing this? Why partner with them?" He glanced at Sebastian's father, a look of fury in his eyes. "Do you understand the level of disrespect you've shown by bringing the Second in command of the aviary here? A clan who have done nothing but attack us? They tried to take my infant daughter!"

It was there, a tiny, almost imperceptible widening of Ulrian's eyes. "Is that so? I was unaware of such an attack."

"The Northarbor aviary has worked for almost the last two years to undermine our growth, to harm our members, and even to hobble us financially. If it weren't for my talented people and my connections in the area, we would have collapsed, leading to chaos, as most of our people would be unwelcome in Northarbor thanks to their bigoted views."

The mayor listened to this calmly, though his fingers did twitch around his cup and saucer. "I see. Well, this paints quite a different picture than the one which I had been presented with. Could I have a report of these attacks on your pack? "

"We reported them to the police," Blake stated bluntly. "If those are not on file, well, you can draw your own conclusion."

"Theresa, please request the relevant files from the police." His ice blue gaze met Alpha Blake's. "If those files are indeed missing, would you be so kind as to provide evidence?"

Blake looked at me. I gave a faint smile to my Alpha.

"I have those files already compiled and backed up. Not only is there paperwork, there are recordings."

Ulrian looked mildly impressed. "I understand inter-species skirmishes, though I have to confess this ongoing issue between Sweetwater and Northarbor mystifies me. You worship the same goddess, do you not?"

Sebastian's father broke his silence. "They have perverted the way of The Luna. They spout blasphemy!"

Jasper's presence became clear when our goddess spoke through him.

"Do not speak of which you do not understand. Your clan has lost its way from the path. The Sweetwater pack is under my protection. Their betas know fertility. Alpha females are returning to the world."

"Fascinating. Your goddess speaks to you?" Ulrian's eyes gleamed .

"Ah, Ulrian Darkglade, I hope you are ready to pay the price for your past folly. You have an opportunity to be a beacon. I see much potential in you."

Jasper's brow beaded with sweat as his hold on the goddess wavered. "Be safe, my Sweetwater shifters," she said as her goodbye.

The room remained in silence for a long moment as we digested her words. What was she warning Ulrian about?

"Well," Ulrian stood. "This has been an unusual meeting. You have given me much to consider today. I would like to remind you of one new ordinance, which came into being last week."

"Which is?" Blake asked.

Ulrian looked at my swollen stomach. My hand paused the rubbing motion. The babies were getting hungry and the cakes weren't cutting it. We wanted loaded fries with raspberry jelly and lots of cream cheese.

Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Larken wince at the stray thought I sent down the bond. My cravings were too odd for him.

"All new births must be registered in person by both parents, with the baby, or babies, within two weeks of the birth or the parents will incur a substantial fine, or spend a month in jail. Something to remember with the baby boom in Sweetwater." With that, he stalked from the room, his assistant following.

Sebastian's father lingered.

"Go, Father. We don't want you here."

"But, Sebastian…"

"No. You didn't want me when I was a beta, you can't have me now I'm an alpha."

"It's true? You changed designation?"

I hated that we were all witnessing this moment. Sebastian was ready to crumble. I knew he missed his family. He blamed his father for hurting Jake. The punishment they enacted on Jake was so old fashioned and cruel. They had locked him in his raven form for the crime of loving Sebastian, a peregrine falcon shifter.

"We both did. Me and Jake. He had our baby, a little alpha peregrine shifter, Matthew, last month."

"Your mother—"

"Made her choice. You better go." His voice broke. "I doubt the mayor is waiting patiently for you."

Larken and Melody got close enough to push the aviary representative from the library. He'd more than outstayed his welcome.

Kade ran to put up a silencing ward as soon as Sebastian's father was out of the room so Sebastian could break down in peace. Jasper went to the alpha, taking him in his arms before Kade joined in .

When my mate returned, he wrapped me in a hug, clinging to me and shaking with panic.

"What are we going to do? All of us out there will be a nightmare. Anything could happen," his fear leached into his words.

I didn't know, could barely react, too concerned for Sebastian to even think of the monumental task we had. Register the babies in person, or face jail. It was lunacy! Yet, we had no other option.

"There's no choice. We'll find a way. There's nothing else we can do."