by E A Price
“My father?” snarled Harold, then immediately checked he had not woken the baby. He hadn’t.
“He asked me to find a female from another pack – a female of high enough ranking, and one who wanted to be an alpha’s mate. Someone who would steal Harold away from you. Nora is the niece of a fellow alpha in Texas. He wanted to be rid of her, and she wanted to be an alpha female.”
Harold’s eyes flashed in a fury. Christine grasped his hand.
“How could you?” she asked in disappointment.
“I thought it was for the best!” he howled, and then looked down to check he had not disturbed the baby. He hadn’t.
Her father crumpled a little, and her mother patted his arm encouragingly. “But as time passed, I could see I was wrong. I tried to get your father to stop her but…”
“No wonder she was trying to stick her tongue down my husband’s throat,” said Christine sourly.
“Button nose, Christy…”
“Leave,” growled Harold, his body trembling in anger.
Her father looked to her, but Christine remained blank.
“We’ll come back tomorrow,” murmured her mother peaceably as she led everyone away. Her father looked downcast, and her siblings were embarrassed.
“At least we know why she did it,” said Christine.
Harold grunted.
“I’m sorry for my father.”
He shook his head. “It was my father’s idea.”
“Didn’t work, though,” she said a little smugly.
“Of course it didn’t,” he said a little sternly. “Nora has already been escorted from the building by security. Needless to say, she is fired. I must speak to my father about this matter.”
“Tomorrow.”
He looked at her questioningly, and she smiled.
“Your father is a butthole. Your grandmother is a complete cow. My family is crazy. None of those things are going to change just by talking to them today – there are always going to be things like this. But our baby is barely twelve hours old, let’s just enjoy this time with him before we have to tackle the real world.”
His lips quirked. “You are right, as always.”
“I’ll remind you that you said that later.”
Harold kissed her temple. “I would expect no less.”
They watched their baby stir and exchanged joyous expressions. Their relationship may have started strained, but it grew stronger every day. There would always be wrinkles in their lives – always problems to deal with – but in amongst all those wrinkles and problems, there would also be the perfect moments – like this one.
“I love you, Mr. Buchanan,” she cooed.
“I will always love you, Mrs. Buchanan.”
Epilogue
Ten years later
Christine let out a moan as she sank a little lower into the bubbles. The warm water felt good on her aching feet. She ran a hand over her huge stomach and smiled.
After four boys, she was excited to meet the little lady who was about ready to be born. Not that she didn’t adore her boys to the moon and back, she was just ready for a little female reinforcement. Finding live frogs in her pups’ pockets was all well and good, but she’d much prefer to play tea parties than catch the frog that was now hopping loose around the house.
Christine opened her eyes as Harold stomped into the bathroom. She roared with laughter at the sight of her dripping wet, soap covered mate. He gave her a sour look as he grabbed a towel.
“So, did you give the pups their baths?” she asked in between hiccups.
Harold scowled. “My love, your children are heathens.”
Christine traced patterns over her stomach. “When they’re good they’re our children, but when they’re naughty, they’re mine, right?”
“Absolutely.”
He smiled at her before dropping to the floor and leaning over to give her a kiss.
“How are you feeling?” he asked, concern etched into his face.
“Relaxed,” she murmured. “Thank you for taking care of the pups.”
Harold stroked her cheek. “My pleasure, my love. I really don’t know how you do it every day. I thought my work was stressful until today.”
To give her a little break, Harold had taken the four of them to an amusement park. Of course they went lots of places as a family, but usually Christine was there to help him. Going anywhere with all of them was always quite traumatic, particularly when going it alone. But Harold had returned with all four boys, all intact and none of them hyped on sugar like when they went to see their grandparents. Candy was the only way Marguerite could cope with them.
“Can I get you anything? Do you need anything?” he offered.
She smiled, remembering how he used to say that to her when they were first married.
“How about you join me?” Harold raised his eyebrow. “No funny business,” she added. “Just a nice relaxing bath.”
He chuckled, kissed her again and started to strip. She watched him with hungry eyes. Up until recently, Harold had taken to exercising less over the past few years and started to develop a slight paunch. Not that she minded, even if she wasn’t pregnant, she wouldn’t be as slim as she had been when they first married. But he had started going to the gym after she found out she was pregnant again, and she had to admit, he was looking very fine. If he were anyone else’s husband, she might suspect him of having an affair, of wanting to look better for a younger woman, but not Harold. He would never do that. She knew him, and she trusted him.
“What’s wrong?” he asked as she stared.
“Nothing, just admiring my fine figure of a husband.”
He snorted self-deprecatingly before carefully climbing in behind her. She sighed as he fluttered kisses over her shoulders and hair.
Christine gasped and tensed.
“What is it?” he snapped, always on edge when it came to her wellbeing.
She relaxed back into his body again. “Oh, just a contraction.”
“Oh.” A few beats passed. “What?! You’re not due for two weeks!”
“I had another about an hour ago. This little lady is keen to say hello.”
“Shouldn’t we be getting to the hospital? Shouldn’t we be doing anything but this?!”
She could feel the anxiety rolling off him in waves. They’d been through this four times, and he was still terrified something would go wrong.
“We have a little time,” she murmured soothingly. “If we went to the hospital now they’d probably just send us back home anyway. I’d rather be here as long as possible.”
She took his hands and kissed them before wrapping them tightly around her. He grumbled and remained tense and unhappy.
“Do you remember when we first met?” she asked, trying to take his mind off the baby’s imminent arrival.
“Of course,” he huffed. “I couldn’t believe the most beautiful woman I’d ever seen was about to become my wife.”
Christine smiled in pleasure. “It was just the dress and the hairdo…”
“It was the woman in the dress.” Harold kissed the spot right under her ear.
“Did you ever think back then that we’d end up here?”
“Honestly?”
“Honestly.”
“Not exactly. The first time we met I thought there was a possibility you’d bolt before the ceremony.”
Christine slapped his arm. “I would not have done that!”
Harold laughed and tightened his grip. “I’ve never been happier to be wrong. Why are you thinking about that?”
She shook her head dismissively. “Just something someone said earlier. I told them we had an arranged mating and they said they felt sorry for me.”
“Who said that?” he demanded angrily.
“Doesn’t matter, honey,” she said soothingly. “I was just thinking that yeah, maybe it wasn’t smooth sailing at the start, but we got pretty damn lucky. Most people who choose their own mates aren’t as happy as us.”
>
“I’m the lucky one.”
Christine grinned and twisted back to look at him. “No, we both are.”
They kissed and cuddled for a while until Christine sighed.
“I guess we better start getting ready to go to the hospital.”
Harold clambered out the tub and carefully helped Christine out too. He wrapped a towel around her and patted her stomach.
“I thought you said we have time yet.”
“We do, but it’s probably going to take a while to get the kids dressed.”
Harold’s face fell. “Aww, hell.” No easy feat. As soon as one was dressed another started undressing or running around with their underwear on their head.
“Yep, we better get moving.”
He squeezed her hand and beamed at her. “I love you, Mrs. Buchanan.”
Christine giggled. “Right back at you, Mr. Buchanan.”
The end
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