Chapter 190: Whole Again Chapter 33 - Landry POV
“Jennifer is going to love this!” Cheers Beatrix excitedly from the passenger seat.
I glance over, my mind once again trying to reconcile that while I am looking at the body of Jennifer, it’s not Jennifer in control. The main thing driving that fact home is the glowing aquamarine eyes looking out the windshield. The other is the mannerisms. Beatrix is exuberant and uses a lot of big gestures, whereas Jennifer is more delicate and demure, except for when she’s excited.
“Is she still sleeping?” I ask as I drive towards the packhouse.
“Like a baby,” she giggles, rubbing her belly affectionately, “I’ll start to wake her up once we get there. I don’t want to risk spoiling the surprise.”
“I really appreciate you helping me surprise her like this, and I think she’ll love how you’ve dressed her today,” I say graciously.
“Well, I have known her since conception. I know what she likes,” she says proudly.
Beatrix, Matthan, and I have been planning today very carefully without letting Jennifer catch wind. The key part of the plan involved Beatrix stepping into Jennifer’s body this morning and getting her ready while she slept, and she really has put together the perfect attire.
Beatrix has dressed Jennifer in a stunning baby blue full-length figure-hugging maternity dress with spaghetti straps and this piece of fabric that hangs over her bust and off her shoulders – I have no idea what women call that. Her hair is cascading down in voluminous waves allowing her natural highlights to catch the midday sun, and for comfort, Beatrix has chosen flat sandals with white lace flowers that wrap from her big toe and around her ankle. All eyes will be on her, just as they should.
I wasn’t sure how to dress for today, so I just went with navy blue trousers, white sneakers, a white button-down shirt, and a powder blue sweater over the top. I wanted to match what Jennifer would be wearing in some way without it being glaringly obvious.
“You look great, stop your fussing,” Matthan lightly chastises.
“I’m not fussing, I just want everything to be perfect,” I correct him.
I pull up to the packhouse and park Jennifer’s car next to Delta Chris’ car. I get out, zip around to the passenger side, and open the door extending my hand to Beatrix. With a bright smile, she takes my hand sending a delightful zap through my palm, gets out of the car, lifting up onto her tippy toes to kiss my cheek, intensifying the zap further, yet making Matthan grumble and curl up in a ball.
“What’s with you?”
“I want to get kisses from Beatrix,” he whines.
I sigh. “I promise after this I’ll let you spend some time with Beatrix with Jennifer’s permission. Okay?”
His big ears perk up and his tail begins to wag with excitement. “Thank you, Landry!”
Beatrix chuckles with a smile on her face, “He can be so cute sometimes.”
“This is why he’s your animai and not mine,” I say, wrapping an arm around her and walking towards the packhouse. We make our way inside and once over the threshold, Beatrix comes to a halt.
“I’ll wake Jennifer up,” she announces, closing her eyes. I hold her steady and after a moment passes, Jennifer’s groggy eyes flutter open, her aquamarine pools now their normal shade as she tries to take in her surroundings with the most adorable, confused look on her face. “What’s going on?” She asks, taking another look around, “How did I get to the packhouse?”
“It’s okay, Beatrix brought you here and got you ready. I promise it’s for a good reason,” I say as I try to mask my excitement.
Jennifer looks down at herself in surprise and touches the fabric of her dress. I can tell she likes the dress, so Beatrix clearly made the right choice.
“I told you,” says Beatrix smugly.
“How come I’m so dressed up?” Jennifer asks, now taking in my appearance with the cutest shocked Pikachu face, “You’re dressed up too?” She suddenly lets out a gasp and I can feel guilt and panic course through her which immediately worries me. “Have I forgotten an anniversary?!” She shrieks.
I relax and let out a warm chuckle as I shake my head. I lean down and gently kiss her temple feeling her relax a little in my arms. “No, Pixie, it’s a surprise. Come with me.”
I tighten my arm around her and escort her down the hall to the entertainment room. I place my hand on the handle and open the door to a chorus of ‘SURPRISE!’ being cheered by several pack members. Jennifer’s shock is quickly erased by overwhelming excitement and happiness as she takes in the faces and the setup.
“Happy Baby Shower!” Cheers Beta Vitali, as he comes over and gives Jennifer a big bear hug that she happily returns.
All the ranked pack members are here, along with Jennifer’s parents, Nare, Michael, Jane, Macy and her animai Kelly. The entire entertainment room has been decorated with white, yellow, and purple paper flowers, matching streamers and balloons and a banner that reads ‘Happy First Pup!’. A long table has been set up with flowers and an assortment of foods including the cake and cupcakes I spent all yesterday at the packhouse baking. The cake is a large square cake with yellow floral pipping and a large purple fondant bow to make it look like a present. Jennifer loves banana fosters, so the cake is a butter cake with caramel and banana filling with rum and cinnamon. The cupcake tower is full of cupcakes with purple buttercream frosting with piped sunflowers. The cupcakes are dark chocolate with a strawberry champagne centre, and yes, the alcohol quantity in the desserts will have no effect on her or the baby. I wouldn’t feed them anything remotely dangerous.
“You guys did all this?” Jennifer asks as happy tears pool in her eyes.
“Don’t go giving us the credit, it was all your animai’s idea. He put it all together, we just followed instructions,” says Gamma Evalyn, throwing me a wink as she cradles her newborn baby in her arms. Gamma Evalyn and Tyson just welcomed their first pup a few days ago, a beautiful baby girl they’ve named Violet. The pack was so excited to meet their future Gamma and Evalyn has been showing her off like crazy to anyone and everyone.
“I hope Jennifer doesn’t want to go showing off our pup. I don’t want people putting their dirty hands on our pup,” grumbles Matthan. Now that he mentions it, I don’t like the thought of that either.
“Don’t be silly, Matthan. Jennifer would much rather cuddle with our pup than show them off,” soothes Beatrix. She’s right. Knowing Jennifer, she’d just want to be curled up at home showering our little one with all the love she can, and I am perfectly content with that. In fact, I insist on it.
Jennifer smiles up at me, love and adoration pouring through our bond as she takes my hand in hers, “You did all this for me?” She says in awe.
I smile down at her, “I know you’ve been feeling a little down lately, so I wanted to give you something to smile about.”
She lifts up onto her tippy toes, gripping my sweater as she gives me a surprisingly passionate kiss that I don’t hesitate to return, electricity shooting through me as I wrap my arms tight around her, feeling her swollen belly press against me. I chuckle against her lips when I feel the baby kick through her.
“I’m not sure how I feel that our baby doesn’t seem to like me kissing you,” I say playfully.
She chuckles, “That was a happy kick. I think the baby likes us kissing,” she says with a broad smile.
“I’m going to take your word on that,” I say, pecking her lips.
“Okay, enough of the kissing, time to open presents!” Declares Nare, coming over, taking Jennifer by the hand, and dragging her away to a nearby sofa so she can begin opening presents.
I stand by and smile, experiencing every moment of joy emanating from my soulmate as she opens gift after gift. Some gifts confuse her, and me, because just looking at them I wasn’t even sure what some of them were, and then there’s the breast pump which surely was originally designed as a torture device. That can’t actually be comfortable, can it?