Their Pride

Their Pride Part 46

Chapter 45

Looking down, I marveled at the size of it.  Sure, there were pregnant people in my old pride, they had children, but I had never paid attention to the rate of which they were pregnant.  I had thought that it was a nine-month process.  It was like that with normal things, why not them?  I needed to remember that we were not normal things; we were shifters, cat shifters.  I placed my hand on the bump that may have been one month in shifter time, but three months in human time, plus the fact that there were three made it larger than I would have thought. 

I looked up at my face in the mirror, nothing different.  To be honest, if I wore a large shirt, no one would even know I was pregnant.  Something kicked against my hand.  My eyes went wide.  Lifting up my shirt, I expected to see a foot stretching the skin, but there was nothing.  One of them kicked me, I thought with a large smile.

“When did it happen?” asked Zeke from the doorway.  From the sound of his voice, I could tell he had ran from where ever he was.

I glanced behind him, and saw Seb trying to push past Zeke.  My snow leopard stood in the doorway, looking at my stomach in quiet awe, while Seb still pushed as hard as he could at his back.  “Let him in.”

“Who?” Zeke mumbled before shaking his head.  “Oh, sorry.”

He moved out of the way, but Seb stood in the same spot, shock covering his features.  I had to admit, I was a little dazed myself.  “Did he just say sorry, and listen to you?” Seb asked.

Nodding, I sent Zeke a large smile.  “You listened to me.”

His face flushed slightly as if he did not want that fact to be known.  “Yes, well, I was distracted,” he mumbled while pushing Seb forward.  “Go touch her stomach.  I want to feel too.”

Seb forgot about the apology and stepped towards me with excitement on his face.  “They may not kick,” I warned him. 

He shrugged at me before placing his hand on my stomach, nothing happened.  We stood there for a minute, and I couldn’t help but let out a sigh.  They were going to be a stubborn bunch, these children.  I shook my head, feeling doubts again.  What if I wasn’t ready?  What if I couldn’t do this?

“I felt it!” Seb shouted in excitement causing me to jump and the baby to kick again.

Seb’s hand moved only to be replaced by Zeke’s, but still, nothing happened.  “Have negative thoughts,” Zeke mumbled, and then winced as if he weren’t meant to say anything.

My eyes narrowed at him.  “What do you mean?”

He scratched the back of his head with his free hand.  “Well, every time you start to doubt yourself, Jessie kicks you.  She doesn’t particularly like negative thoughts.”

“Great.  I’m going to have a cheerful little girl.  What am I supposed to do with that?” Another kick caused me to glare at my stomach. “That was a legitimate question.  Have you seen the people I’m around?” I asked her.  “They all think negative thoughts.  It’s part of who they are.”

“I felt it too,” Zeke said in a loud voice as he and Seb high fived each other. 

I watched the two of them start talking about it as if it were the most magical thing they had ever experience.  I had to admit that it was amazing, but my excitement was centered on something else too.  The two of them were talking, not as they were before.  Now, the two of them were talking to each other as if they had been friends forever.  The thought made me smile, and made the kicking go away.

Zeke’s phone began to ring, causing their conversation to come to a halt. “Hello,” he snapped.

The voice on the other end whispered, making it hard for me to hear the words.  I shrugged.  If it was something important, Zeke would tell me when he hangs up.  Instead of closing his phone though, he handed it to me.  “It’s my contact.”

I grabbed it, looking at it as if it was going to explode in my hands; I gently pressed it to my ear.  “Hello?”

“Hi,” a voice said awkwardly on the other end, “this is Amaya, Zeke’s, um, contact.”

I let out a sigh. “I’m Ally, and don’t worry about Zeke; he’s a grump.”

She let out a surprised laugh.  “Do not let him hear you say that.”

“Why?” I asked, while staring at Zeke standing in my doorway with a slight smile on his face.

“He will go batty on you.”

“Batty?”

“It means crazy,” Zeke told me, making his voice loud enough for Amaya to hear on the other end.”

Her breathing stopped, and I could picture her tensed, ready for a fight.  “Tell him I wish for his forgiveness.”

It was my turn to laugh as she said the words sincerely.  “Zeke is a big teddy bear. He’s not mad.”

“A teddy bear,” the girl mumbled.

I nodded my head before realizing she wouldn’t be able to see me. “Yeah, a big teddy.  Now, how is Blake?”

“Why don’t you just check in on him telepathically?”

“He’s doing this on his own, and he wouldn’t like the fact that I’m checking up on him at all.”

“Gotcha,” she said before continuing.  “Well, he, um, got attacked.”

“He what?”

“Alex,” Seb said in a warning tone.  “It’s not her fault.”

Taking a deep breath, I nodded before making my question sound less harsh. “How did it happen?”

“There is something going on around here and I don’t know what it is.  You should be proud of him though.  He stopped a war from happening and saved Kris.”

Zeke straightened in the doorway, and I knew he wanted to know more.  If he didn’t want to tell me about his sister, I wasn’t going to ask questions for his benefit.  “That’s good.  How is he now?”

Silence echoed on the other end.  “He’s sleeping. I don’t think he has a lot of energy after the healing process.”

“Will you stay with him?”

“Stay with him?” she repeated.

“Yeah, lay down with him, make sure he is okay, and do not leave him alone.  He may not know this, but a lot of people want to cause him harm. There’s something about Blake.”

“I know,” Amaya whispered. 

I snapped the phone shut and threw it towards Zeke.  I heard it connect to his palm, but I wasn’t looking at him; I was looking at Seb.  “We’re going to Alaska.”

“Okay,” he said with a nod, “but we are getting there the right way.  There will be no running across the border, understood?  Anything could happen, and it makes you vulnerable.  If we’re going to Alaska, were driving.”

“Okay.”

“Ally-Cat, he means you need a passport.”

“A passport?”

They both let out a sigh, but I smiled. I was on my way to Alaska.