Chapter 93 It's official— they're getting married!
93\. It's official— they're getting married!
At the mansion,
Aura was enjoying cucumber pickle in the foyer with Madam Martha sitting beside her, knitting a sweater for her baby.
"This is yummy! I think I can knock down just another jar of them," She sounded delicious, sending the old Housekeeper into a fit of laughter.
"You speak as if it is a doughnut with dark chocolate and lots of sprinkles." Madam Martha commented, she shook her head left to right as the view of her daughter munching on those cucumbers looked so gut-shaking.
The twilight was bursting outside the mansion. Orange hue of the setting sun cast long shadows of trees and buildings on the ground. The singing of the birds have reduced to a consoling chiming as the winds blew gently. Aura had been satisfying her cravings all day long.
Her bump was starting to show. It was round and plump. She had not gained much weight. But looking at the excitement with which she was gobbling food these days, Madam Martha was certain her daughter would grow plump sooner. She had a glow on her cheeks only pregnant women would show on their face. A happy smile with exhausted lashes, those when fluttered, appeared like the leaves of palm moving along the serene winds before coming to a still.
She was tired but her eyes won't give in already. Her heart yearned for Damien and it was in his arms she desired to fall asleep. To kill time every day at this hour of the evening she ate beside Madam Martha as she knitted clothes for her grandchild.
"Btw I have been observing someone smile since morning." Madam Martha said.
Aurora glanced up her teasing countenance as she stuffed the last bite of the last cucumber in her mouth. She bit back a smile and tried not to blush.
"Umm, nothing, I have been actually thinking regarding my conversation with Damien we had in the morning." She lowered her eyes hesitantly.
"What conversation?"
"He claims that it will be a daughter. I was wondering what if we truly have a baby girl? What would happen if it was really a girl?"
The women stared at each other before Madam Martha laughed, "Then the possessive Alpha would be on cloud nine."
"I can imagine that. But it will only happen when we truly have a daughter. You know, we didn't check the gender yet and I am kind of nervous to see his reaction if it were to be a boy." Aura took the jar of the pickle and sipped a spoonful of brine.
Madam Martha cringed. It was weird to see her drink it like it was milkshake.
"Boy or girl… Damien will love the baby intensely. There's no doubt about that. However, if it is really a girl then I can imagine him fighting with you constantly over the kid and spoiling her."
"Huh, he's already warned me to not stop him from spoiling the baby. I don't know how I am going to handle them both in future." They laughed and talked some more.
They were enjoying the conversation until Brian walked inside the hall with big carton boxes. Their voices died and pure curiosity washed over the two ladies as they observed more and more carton boxes being brought inside the hall by three other men.
"Is it done then?" Aura elbowed her mother watching Brian pull out a big list as he inquired the men in front of him.
"Did you order something, honey?" Whispered Madam in Aura's ear.
As she declined it with the shake of her head, the beta male turned to them and inhaled a big breath.
"Damien purchased some stuff from Amazon… for the baby." His disclosure sent the eyes of the ladies under the strands falling on their flawless forehead.
They looked behind his back at the stacked up brown boxes varying in all sizes. They were more than twenty. May be more, Aura reckoned while surveying the boxes. She didn't get to count them as Brian sighed loudly, catching their eyes back.
"He summoned me in his cabin all the way from the headquarters, which is located outside the city on an urgent basis, and asked me to deliver the boxes home." His low voice was anything but cool.
They saw his mouth twist angrily. Brian settled on a couch and poured himself a glass of water, "Your boyfriend's gone crazy, Aurora. The baby is not here and he's ordered an entire warehouse of baby products."
Her belly tickled as though the Alpha's baby was throwing its hands and legs in excitement. She trudged to the mountain of boxes and trailed a shuddering hand on one of them.
"Baby products?" She hushed to herself while attempting to guess what all stuff the boxes could hold, staring at the vast difference in the sizes of the boxes.
"Not just baby products, future Luna," Brian's tone was like silken oak, his voice like nectar. "There are lots of products. It will take you a week or two while unboxing."
"A week or two? I can unbox them within a few hours… I will show you how!" Aura giggled and excitedly rushed to the kitchen.
Her crazy sprint caused Madam Martha to drop her knitting needles. She placed the balls of wool and the almost knitted sweater beside her on the couch and stood up. Her heart drummed as she observed Aurora come back like a roadrunner.
"No running, Aurora," She sternly pitched.
"Sorry, Ma, I am just too excited to remember." She slowed down before the boxes.
"Me too," It was Brian.
They were all excited and looking forward to seeing what the Alpha purchased for his first baby. He sounded serious when he called for Brian. Now he was excited to see what was so important that made the alpha ask his beta to drop an important crime he was evaluating in the headquarters, and visit him in his office.
"I am hopeful whatever he's bought is going to be of some use." Brian said.
"I second your thoughts, Brian. I don't want him to spend money crazily over stuff we would not be needing for a newborn baby." Madam Martha spoke animatedly.
They peered at Aura as she tore the tape with a cutter she grabbed from the kitchen, and opened the first box.
Her eyes glowed excitedly. She clapped her hands as her chin raised high in pride and squealed, "My boyfriend loves children. He would never waste money on unnecessary goods." While plucking out tiny clothes.
"Wow, I like the choice of colors." There was a sudden inclination of appreciation in Brian's voice.
He watched Aurora undo another big box and freeze with her hands clenching tightly around the flaps.
"What's in there, dear?" Madam Martha approached her, realizing that Aura wouldn't respond.
"I-it's a lovely baby cot," She was overwhelmed herself as she extracted the parts of the cot from the box and began to assemble it.
Brian lent a helping hand. Together they built the cot just as the manual that has come with the cot showed. It was peach in color. There was a cute mobile hanging in the center of the crib containing stars, moons, pearls and glittery clouds that glowed whenever light struck it. It was a small rainbow that stretched their mouths in surprise for it had 'Baby Hunter' written on it.
"This makes me have a baby of my own." Aura chuckled as she gaped at Brian playing with the crib mobile.
"Let's open this now," The ladies chuckled at the visible zeal of the beta male.
He grabbed another big box and tore it with the claws of his hands. He laughed at the onset of expressions shown by the ladies as he passed a 'can't help the wolf in me' look. It took him a few seconds to turn the rigid carton box into pieces. He pulled out another box that was inside of it— the package of the company that delivered it.
"Wow, I am speechless." To their astonishment, there were hundreds of tiny toys in the box Brian undid.
Very small ones that fit in his palms. Aura joined him and the two appraised the toys baby Hunter would enjoy playing with.
"He's got the whole Disney world here!" Exclamation from Madam Martha cracked Brian and Aura up.
She was not wrong given that the toys were all Disney characters ranging from the cast of Mickey Mouse, Winnie The Pooh, Pinocchio, Bunny, The seven Dwarfs from The Sleeping Beauty, characters from The Jungle Book and all the freaking beautiful princesses with their respective princes.
The way Aura admired them it appeared as though she was taken to her childhood. Brian was no less. He raised a handful of toys (more than a dozen) and lifted it to his cheek and stroked it up and down against his jaw.
"I love them." His whisper got Aura to repeat his act.
As the toys grazed her skin, "I want to go back in time and play with them as a kid."
"Brian," She turned her head to Brian and excitedly tugged at his sleeve. "Is there a way to become a kid again? Let's go back to our childhoods and play with these."
"I wish I could meet the excitement in your eyes, Aurora. As much as I want to go back, there is no way." He shrugged his shoulders.
Madam Martha rolled her eyes. They were getting too unexpectedly childish. She let them be and went to the other brown box and peeled off the tape. Her fingers sunk in the package she pulled out of the amazon box. It was soft.
No sooner did she unpack the good than her mouth dropped and eyes stared at it in surprise.
"Diapers?" Brian collapsed to the floor full of stuffed toys and clutched his stomach.
It was embarrassing but Aurora could not stop her own mouth from stretching into a laugh. There were several dozen diapers. They had a good time teasing Aurora and the mind of the Alpha for buying these products for his baby. Soon they were done with all the boxes and found a place on the couch to deal with their breathlessness.
"I never laughed so much in decades! This was a fun-filled evening and no matter how much I curse Damien for making me travel at such a short notice to his office from the headquarters, I am glad he did." The beta male flashed his white teeth while pointing at the floor beside him that was littered with unpacked goods among a heap of discarded carton boxes.
The ladies agreed. Aura was about to say something when her phone buzzed with a message from her alpha boyfriend.
"Damien sent a message," She announced and accessed the message sent to.
It read,
'Switch on the television to any news channel of your choice. There is a surprise for you, love;)'
"What is it, Aurora?" She was grinning cutely when Madam Martha caught her arm.
"Damien wants me to switch on the television. He talks about some kind of surprise." Carried away by a new air of curiosity she got up and put the TV on.
Stunned like a kid caught in the act of stealing a candy, she froze in her place once she switched to a news channel. Her eyes bulged out of the circles. The phone slipped out of her grip as Aura covered her chest with a hand to calm her throbbing heart.
'This is not a dream, is this?' She couldn't help but ask herself between a trail of happy tears dribbling down her stuttering eyes.
"Congratulations, Luna," Brian side-hugged her vibrating body.
His body language spoke of his awareness regarding the news she was shuddering at.
Madam Martha kissed her forehead from the other side.
"I am so happy for you, darling." She shed her own tears of happiness.
Why?
That's because…. The Alpha declared just an hou r ago at a press conference that he was going to tie a knot of marriage with his secret fiancée in three days, i.e on her birthday.
Tbc…