The Wolf's Mate Book 3: Callie & The Cats (28 page)

Ethan quipped, "I’m confused. I thought I was
a caveman?"

She struggled in Eryx’s arms and he was
certain she wanted to punch Ethan and he probably should let her to
teach him a lesson. Instead, though, he said, “Ethan, stop teasing
her.”

Ethan hung his head in mock shame, and Callie
grudgingly accepted the gesture and relaxed. He kissed the top of
her head and cuddled her instead of just restraining her and said
gently, “Sweet kitten, please let us work and take care of you.
There will be more than enough to do around the house and the
property even after we’ve remodeled, that you’ll be glad to be
home. And then once the cub comes, then it will be even better. And
we want that. Truly.”

She lifted her eyes to his and looked
confused. “You just want me to be a – housewife?”

“Not just a housewife, love,” Ethan said,
“our wife, the mother of our cubs, and whatever else you want to
be. We’ll give you the moon in the sky if you want it. Just don’t
ask us to be okay with you working when you’re pregnant. We never
will be.”

“Alright.” She said finally. As first fights
went, it wasn’t a bad one. And at least now she knew how they felt
about her working. Maybe it was a possessive thing for them, but
they didn’t want her around any other males without them
present.

The good news that followed the next day came
from the fire chief, Don Pope. “Mayor called, said your girl’s
pregnant. I just wanted to let you know that my sister is a
midwife. She only delivers weres. And she has hospital privileges
at Cranston Memorial for ultrasounds, deliveries, and the like,
it’s about 25 minutes west of you; she lives in Bracks.”

He wasn’t really sure how he felt about the
mayor waving their personal business around town like that, but he
was very glad to have the news to tell Callie. Chief Pope had
wanted to talk to them more about taking over the police station,
and they agreed to come over for dinner that Sunday and meet his
sister.

Saturday night, for the full moon, Callie
didn’t shift. She couldn’t. Out behind their barn, she stripped and
crouched down and that same small pain noise she’d made in January
spilled from her mouth and this time she didn’t ignore it. He’d
been worried sick about her, because she’d clutched her side like
she was injured but she said it was just a muscle spasm. She let
them fuss over her all night; sometimes she fought their pampering
as if she couldn’t imagine them wanting to take care of her. Truly,
he’d never enjoyed anything more.

That Sunday evening, they met Don Pope, his
wife Gwen, and his sister Sarah. Gwen and Sarah were also
were-bears. Don and Gwen had two children, both grown and in
college. Gwen was a great cook and piled the table with trays and
platters and they had a good meal and good conversation. Callie
liked both Gwen and Sarah, and Sarah offered to do the ultrasound
the following week when she passed her eight week mark. The chance
to hear the heartbeat of his cub made his own heart race in
anticipation.

The next week, they decided to meet with the
mayor and once he discovered that Ethan was also an EMT, he offered
them a very good deal: Eryx to run the department as interim chief
until they could call a vote of the city council the following
month, and Ethan to run the ambulance a few days a week. It would
allow him to still be foreman on the farm and stay close to their
wife, which is what they both wanted. They told him they’d get back
to him the following week because they wanted to discuss it with
Callie first and check with their father about coming on as a
deputy when they got settled. Callie was on-board for both of them
working, and seemed relieved that Ethan wouldn’t be gone full-time.
Eryx was slightly jealous, but he also knew that she loved him and
that wouldn’t change just because Ethan may get to spend more time
with her during the week. And he’d rather have her looked after
than be alone, even in their home.

That Thursday night, they met Sarah at the
hospital. Because she was a midwife that handled only were-animals,
she had privileges within the hospital but they preferred her to
bring her clients in after-hours for routine physicals. The exam
room was small and they stood at the head of the examination table
on either side of her and each held a hand.

Eryx had no idea what it would be like to see
Sarah examining his half naked wife in stirrups and it made him
feel strangely possessive. Even if Sarah was a woman and they were
Callie’s mates, he didn’t really care for someone so close to what
was his. A glance at Ethan over Callie’s head told him that he
didn’t much care for it either. All these new feelings for them
were hard to deal with sometimes.

Sarah pulled out a small device attached to a
computer on a rolling tray. It was a wand ultrasound. Callie
grimaced and squeezed his hand and when he looked at her in concern
she chuckled and said, “It’s not as big as you, it’s just
uncomfortably plastic.”

Sarah grinned at Callie, “Lucky girl,” to
which Callie just snorted. Then Sarah said, “Next one at five
months will be regular on the belly. This is best for so
early.”

He and Ethan watched the screen and murmured
soothing things to their sweetheart. Finally Sarah tilted the
screen towards them further and said, “There you go. Hope you have
a big enough house.”

Was that – two? Callie broke the stunned
silence. “Are you fucking kidding me?”

Sarah laughed, made an adjustment with the
wand that made Callie grunt slightly, and then zoomed in. “Nope,
two babies. Identical, too. But you kind of expected that, didn’t
you?”

Callie groused, “I might have if I’d planned
this in the first place.”

They all laughed and he and Ethan kissed and
half hugged her as much as the table would allow and Sarah
continued to click around the screen and take measurements and then
she printed out three pictures. “Right over eight weeks. Target 40
weeks delivery would be September 28th, however with twins they
almost always go around 35 weeks, so you’re looking at August 20th,
sometime around there.” She released Callie’s legs from the
stirrups and handed her some paper towels to clean up with. “I’m
going to sit out in the nurse’s station and make some notes in the
file for you, come out to chat with me when you’re cleaned up.”

Ethan took the towels and cleaned the
lubricant from Callie’s body with gentle strokes and Callie sighed
and closed her eyes. Eryx leaned over and kissed her forehead, “Are
you okay, love?”

Her eyes were bright and shiny with unshed
tears when she opened them. She smiled and a tear slid down the
side of her face. “I’m very good. I’m just surprised and, well,
it’s a good surprise. A really good one.”

It truly was.

Chapter 20

**Callie**

When the family arrived the first week of
March, the kids were so happy to see them and it was really
wonderful to see the kids and the rest of the family, too. Even
though she’d worried about everyone resenting her for having to
move a few states away from their home, she couldn’t miss the
happiness that seemed to be coming off of every single male. Like a
great weight had been lifted from all their shoulders. She knew
what that weight was, because she’d felt it when she left the pack.
They had their freedom now. They could live and love how they
wanted and there were no female lions to stand in their way.

The boys were homeschooled for the rest of
the school year because it was too late for them to enroll in the
small school. Grant and Aaron brought the boys over to the barn and
they did their studies in the main house while Lisa and Callie
shifted between working on wedding details and helping them with
their work. Lisa loved having the kids around. Since her family had
abandoned her, she didn’t even know her own nieces and nephews and
she was so thrilled to have the boys to dote on. And they were in
heaven. Two females to love on them. Whenever Ethan or Eryx were
with them, Callie kept the attention to a minimum and the little
ones figured out pretty quickly that it made them uncomfortable to
see her paying so much attention to the kids. The further along in
her pregnancy she got, the more possessive they got, but that was
okay with her.

Morning sickness was blissfully absent, but
she was hit with food cravings and aversions that would drive a
normal man to drink. One day she’d enjoy eating something and the
next day, just the smell of it would have her running for the
bathroom. It took the boys a while to figure out that she wasn’t
ill exactly, and they were very accommodating about her weird
cravings and helping her in the bathroom if she needed it. She
didn't like throwing up in front of others, but after a while she
got over that feeling when she spent a good bit of time on her
knees trying not to throw up on her hair.

Eryx began his job as Sheriff the second week
of March and Ethan took two shifts as the only EMT driver in town.
He only answered two calls, though, and one of them was because an
elderly woman couldn’t get her bottle of aspirin open. James was
deputized right away and he took the night shift while Eryx took
the day shift. Aaron planned to take the deputy exam for the county
as well. Grant was going to work on Rhett’s farm and bring the boys
along until they were in school in the fall, and was planning to do
his real estate on the side, but not until the market picked
up.

They found a minister, thanks to Sarah, a
female were-bear from their parents’ den, who was willing to marry
them the way they wanted. The ceremony had to include both of them
as her husbands, even though the certificate would say that only
one of them was her legal husband. It didn’t matter to her which
was on the marriage certificate. She was a little too consumed with
the twin babies in her belly to think about minor things like whose
name was where on a piece of paper that meant nothing to her except
she got to take their last name.

The minister, Pastor Giselle Uriah, had a
similar problem finding someone to marry her sister and the king of
their bear den, because thirty years ago humans were twitchy about
weres. Humans still were, of course, but things were better than
they used to be. As it turned out, were-bears were mostly just big
people. The fire chief was a huge man with big meaty paws and a
shock of dark hair that looked like a mane. And Gwen and Sarah were
tall and broad, not fat but not lean either. Just big and curvy.
And Giselle was no different. Callie liked her right away. She made
a draft of the vows for them and they tweaked them just slightly,
and Callie gave Ethan and Eryx a little argument about the “obey”
part and had a good time teasing them about it. Love, honor and
listen-to-sometimes, seemed much more fitting from her
perspective.

Although they made progress on the barn, it
seemed considerably slow going to her, so she mostly just hovered
in the house with Lisa while she did a lot of work on the wedding
for her. Among her many talents, she had a knack for organizing
things whereas Callie didn't at all. Callie could organize some
things, like a spice shelf, but not something intricate like a
wedding.

It was towards the end of March and they were
going to try on wedding dresses at the only decent place, which was
in a town just south of Ashland called Hoffsman. Ethan and Eryx
wanted to come. Not so much for seeing the dress, she didn't think,
but because they didn’t really like her being away from them. They
still hadn’t gotten her a car of her own, but she hadn’t asked
either. She had a half dozen people willing to drive her at the
drop of a hat so maybe she was just being selfish and spoiled, but
hey, if they were willing, then she could let them indulge her.

Callie stood on a platform in front of the
full length mirror and chewed on her bottom lip. The woman who was
helping her try on the dresses fluffed the skirt and smiled up at
her from the floor. The carpeted platform was circular and several
feet off the ground in front of a bevy of mirrors to show every
angle.

It was a nice dress. She wanted something
strapless because they preferred that look on her. She wasn’t one
of those women that wanted to spend a fortune on a dress she was
going to wear once, but she wanted one nice enough that if they had
a daughter some day that she’d want to wear it, too. She shook her
head and said, “Let’s see the other one, then, and I’ll make a
decision.” She’d had ten dresses on already. Lisa was having fun
doing something girly. She’d spent way too much time with just
Rhett.
Stupid human women shunning her just because she married
a were.

The final dress was perfect. A sweetheart
neckline led to a gathered waist that was embellished with beads
and seed pearls. The short train was the perfect length for the old
Methodist church that Pastor Giselle had reserved for them. And
what was even better was that although the dress fit well, it would
give with her belly if she puffed out at all between now and the
wedding, which was slated for May 1.

She chose a plain, long veil with scalloped
edges that would attach with a crystal clip at the back of her
head. For her shoes she chose simple low heeled white satin
sandals.

Now that her dress was picked out, it was
Lisa's turn, and Callie sank down into the wine red velvet love
seat in front of the stage and slipped off her shoes. When Lisa
came out with her first dress on, she looked down at her from the
small stage, "Are you sure about the colors?"

Callie laughed. "Definitely. Unless you'd
rather try to find a color to fit my eyes, and I'm not sure how
nice anyone would look in greenish-brown."

The attendant brought out dresses in the
style Lisa had asked for. Tea length, which was past the knees,
strapless but not daring. What's the fun in that? She told the boys
she wanted silver and black as colors, because their eyes were
shades of gray, and they wanted her to put her eye color in there.
When she said no, they suggested amber because of the color of her
wolf's eyes and she liked that even less than hazel. So they'd
finally made her compromise with dark green because it was her
favorite color.