Chapter 120

Chapter 120
Nate’s POV 

I stared at myself in the mirror, my hands holding me up as I leaned over the sink. There were deep, dark circles under my eyes. Normally I slept like a log, especially this late in my pregnancy. Last night, though, I felt a prickle at the back of my neck. It woke me up, and I could feel Silas brush my face. He had linked me when I was asleep, and I didn’t even realize it.

Lor made me a crystal that blocked any “outside interference,” as she called it. After pushing him out, I slipped the crystal on since it usually sat on my desk while I slept. As I stared at the wall that her magic built, I could hear Silas’ pleas and his cries on the other side.

The Silas I knew would have never tried to link, let alone sound so broken when the connection dropped. Noah and Finn said that Lor had dug around in his head and unsealed the magic. I thought back to our last conversation, how scared he was, and how he sounded the same from back then as he did now.

Finn got a kick out of saying they literally took the stick out of his ass. Noah was less exuberant about it. He said that Silas would be fucked up for the rest of his life, but neither of them nor Lor went into any detail. Now, I questioned what really happened.

I hadn’t been able to go back to sleep after that. Most of the morning I spent snoozing in my chair. What I needed to do, though, was go down and help map out the town we were building. Stairs were the bane of my existence right now. Especially with how enormous I was. The level of annoyance I felt over how big I was with the twins paled compared to how I was feeling now.

Splashing some water on my face, I wiped it down with a towel and steeled myself. Slowly, grasping the railing, I waddled ridiculously down the stairs and into the kitchen. Currently, it was our preferred place to gather around and work.

Noah was cooking when I walked in. Keri sat on one of the kitchen stools, and Finn leaned his hands on the kitchen counter. It smelled good, and I felt my stomach rumble. I don’t know how it still held any food considering how squished it was, but I still ate like I was feeding an army. Keri looked up, and her eyes narrowed.

“Jake put you on bed rest, Alpha.”

I sighed and rolled my eyes. “You ask him how well that went the first time around.”

Finn growled. He was nowhere near as large as I was, but he also had the straightforward job of only carrying a single pup. This time around, he kept his calories to a healthier level than before.

“Nate, seriously. You make me uncomfortable just watching you.” He was a little over a month behind me due date-wise.

Smiling, I placed my hand on my belly. “Yeah, well, I promise you it’s ten times worse. But I’m not gonna sit up in my room while you guys work down here.”

Noah slammed the pan down onto the oven. “At least sit down.”

“I’ve been sitting down all morning.”

Keri sorted. “Judging by your ankles, you didn’t put your feet up while you were doing it.”

“Ha-ha. If I could see my ankles, maybe I would care.” It was my go-to joke if someone mentioned my ankles.

Despite hearing it all the time, the three of them laughed. I pulled out a stool and sat on it, looking at the map of the territory. We had a couple of different options of where we wanted to place the town, and we had a few different layout mocked ups. The issue was where we wanted to place the town itself.

“Keri and Noah have been arguing all morning over the location.” Finn tattled, and both of them glared at him.

Keri rolled her eyes, taking a bite of bacon. “I’m just saying…if your pack is literally called Hidden Forest, why the hell would you put your town at the edge of the territory, off the road, and not in the forest?”

“We will have zero foot traffic! If it’s hidden, the businesses won’t be able to thrive! We need to have a place that’s an easy in and out, where people can spend money.” Noah threw up his hands.

Noah and Finn didn’t completely accept my idea to prevent the pack from benefiting from the humans. I could understand their hesitation. When I explained to them how I planned on making money for the pack, they were skeptical.

Our entire economy and revenue relying on a single production was scary. I didn’t think that would be the only thing, but it was for now while we were building. I’d sold a few of the large crystals to the High Council before breaking a few into smaller pieces and putting them on the market. With what we had sold, we could actually build the entire town with no need to worry about how much it would cost.

“We could just move Lor’s magic. Allow the humans to access just the town. It opens the option for bed and breakfasts, bars, restaurants, gas stations…things we can use to build our economy. I just think it should be something we think about. Not just completely closing ourselves off to the idea that we can use humans as a source of income.” Noah sighed. “I’m just trying to say that it’s an option. Not that it’s the best option. It’s worth thinking about. We can still have our pack and have it closed off. Just not all of it.”

Keri frowned, shaking her head as she glanced over at me. “It will come down to what we are going to be as a pack. I know our Alpha wanted it to be a safe-haven, but those don’t pay bills.”

Noah threw his hands up, but she put her finger up and continued. “I don’t think it’s impossible, though. I think if we want to be a safe-haven and closed off, I think we could do it. If we dedicate a chunk of the territory to having humans on it, I don’t think we could be considered a safe-haven. It’s hard to pass off that you just got lost in the forest behind the city.”

“So it comes down to who we want to be and how we want to define ourselves as a pack to the entire supernatural community? If we answer that, we will get our answer of where we put our downtown.” Finn added, his eyes narrowing as he stared at the pages on the table.

I leaned against the table, elbows resting on it. Each option had its own pros and cons. Honestly, they knew what I wanted. I’d already made it this far pushing for having the entire territory apart from human society. It was going to be a hard road, and I knew they were only trying to help.

Noah lifted a plate of pancakes to me, and I waved him off.

“You need to eat something, Nate,” Finn chastised me.

I patted my babies. “You think I need to while I look like this?”

Keri snorted, and I was pretty sure I saw some milk come out of her nose. Laughing, I passed her a paper towel. I turned to Noah after I confirmed she would not choke.

“If it’s not too much trouble, can you just make me an omelette with whatever veggies are in the fridge?”

“Never a bother, Nate. If anything, I’ll make one for myself too.”

Finn sighed. “Why do you get the crazy healthy cravings and I’m over here wolfing down pancakes?”

Keri laughed. “I’ve already gained five pounds just from staying here with you guys.”

Finn and I snorted, but Finn was the one who clapped back. “Yeah right. Where’d it go? Your head?”

I let Finn and Keri bicker like siblings as I stared at the map. Rubbing my belly absently, I winced as one pup kicked hard. My thoughts wandered to Silas. Seeing him sitting on the edge of the bed. He looked so thin and weak. His face also showed more emotion that I had seen in five or six years. His cries still echoed in my head. The sound as he pounded against the magical barrier.

“Alpha!”

My head snapped up, and I saw all three of them staring at me worriedly.

“You okay? You seem a little off today.” Noah rubbed my arm as he placed the plate of food in front of me.

“I’m fine. I didn’t sleep well last night.”

Finn narrowed his eyes. “Nate, you sleep like a rock. I’m pretty sure the house could crumble and the world could burn and you still wouldn’t wake up.”

I chuckled. “I mean, you’re not wrong.”

“Something happen? Nightmare?”

Shaking my head, I picked up the fork and cut the corner of the omelet. “It’s nothing. Really. I’m just a little extra tired today.”

“Well, maybe you should be in bed like I fucking told you to be.”

All four of us turned to see Jake, his hands on his hips, standing in the kitchen archway. Noah left my side quickly, and Keri moved her chair away from mine. Everyone vacated my side as they didn’t want to be in the path of an angry doctor.

“I swear to the goddess, Alpha, you’re going to go into early labor at this point. Again. Is that what you want?”

I frowned, shaking my head.

“Well, that’s what is going to happen. The three of you are just as responsible. You need to be making sure he stays in bed! At most, he could sit on the couch with his feet up. I swear. I’ve never been so disappointed…”

With another hard kick and I grabbed my stomach, wincing. The pain had me curling forward as far as I could with how large I was. Taking slow breaths, I waited for the pain to subside before sitting back up. These three were far angrier about their current living situation than the twins had been.

Jake was glaring at me. “I’m here for Finn’s checkup, but after I’m done, you’re next. In your bed now.”

Shoveling the omelet down, I slid off the stool and waddled past Jake. The stairs had me huffing halfway through, but I got up to my room. I fixed my bed before lying on top of the covers. There was zero chance of laying on my back nowadays, so I just curled up on my side.

Luckily, during the day, the kids were with Nessa and Fey, most likely exploring the treehouses on the far side of the territory. That was another work in progress that was causing us more than one headache. Slowly, things were getting built and put into place, using resources that Solaris had designated to the true building of a pack.

My eyes closed for a moment, and when I opened them, I realized I had drifted off. Jake had knocked before coming in. He had his portable ultrasound machine with him and set it up next to the bed.

“How often do they kick that hard?”

“I don’t know…a few times a day?”

Jake was pulling things out of his bag. He motioned to my shirt, and I lifted it for him. His hands didn’t check my stomach, but pressed my ribs. As he finished on the left side, he pressed on the right, and I hissed. His frown deepened as he continued down my ribcage, a second hiss as he hit the last rib. Still, he didn’t say a word as his fingers expertly pushed into my stomach.

“Can you roll onto your side, back to me?”

I rolled over and sighed. It was really hard to lie on my back. The weight felt as if it were crushing my insides. His fingers pressed down on my spine one by one, before expanding to my back. My eyes were getting heavy when he finally tapped my side. Rolling back onto my back, Jake turned on the ultrasound machine.

“They’ve given you two bruised ribs. Your spine and back seem fine, but I’d hate to see how everything else is faring.”

Jake spread the cool gel over my bump and put the wand against my skin. Immediately, there were the blaring heartbeats of my pups, and I smiled. It was always a wonder to hear, even if I could feel them moving around and kicking the shit out of me.

“I’m going to be honest with you. I think these pups are big enough. They measure full term, and we could wait the next two weeks for them to get Alpha-sized, but I think it’s unnecessary.”

I looked at the screen, my three pups curled up together. “I mean, waiting doesn’t seem all that bad.”

“I’m worried they are going to do more damage, Nate. Damage to you that wouldn’t be easy to repair or may even permanently disable you.”

Chuckling, I shook my head. “I’m already disabled, Doc. The weather gets below sixty here, and I’ve got to use my cane.”

“Don’t be a smart ass, Alpha. You know what I mean.”

He lifted the wand and wiped off the gel from my belly. Putting his stuff down, Jake looked at me seriously.

“Professionally, as your doctor, I think we need to induce you. I know you probably want to hold off, but I want you to know the pups would be safe coming out at any time. They’ve got so much Alpha in them, I wouldn’t be surprised if they just walked on out.”

Sighing, I placed both hands on my babies and rubbed in circles. “Let’s play it by ear. I’d like to check back with you in a week to see where we are and how I feel.”

He nodded and squeezed my shoulder. “I’ll be back next week then. I have a conference on that Monday at the local college, but on Tuesday we’ll check what’s going on.”

I smiled and gave him a single nod. Jake packed up his things and headed out. I could hear voices down below, and I’m sure he was tattling about my condition. Apparently, I had a pack full of tattletales.