The Turn of a Page

Chapter 38

Chapter 38

            The next five years passed by rapidly. School was over for us, and college had passed by quicker than I ever thought it would. Taking up my musical talents, I had become a lyricist and song writer. I focused a lot of my work on the tunes of the wilderness, as was my nature. I was successful in the best form of the word and now shared a small little cottage with Baz in the countryside, near the towns and city that I grew up in and around.

            We had had many passionate nights together, although he went out more and more often to keep track of the pack (they hadn’t dispersed far from where we had grown up together), leaving me home alone.

            I had recently come off the pill, but I hadn’t told Baz as I didn’t want him to think I felt forced into the decision. We had no need to get engaged or get married, we were mates and that is stronger in tying a couple together than vows or sermons.

            Another passionate night and another lonely day went by. The month passed by hastily, and I became happier than my teenage years seemed at the time.

            I had nipped off to the bathroom while Baz lay on our leather sofa (much to my annoyance). Taking a box out of my personal cupboard, I ripped open one end and took out the long plastic tester. Sat on the toilet, I slipped the end in the stream of my urine and sat waiting for five minutes, in anticipation with tightly closed eyes and my legs bouncing under me.

            Opening my eyes one at a time, I gasped as the indicator was blue. Smiling all the way from the bathroom to the lounge, I held my hand over my mouth and leant against the doorframe.

            Hearing my footsteps, Baz had sat up. As there were a couple of tears down my face, he thought I was crying and positioned himself in the way that I would usually sit on his lap. ‘Kerry? Kerry, baby, what is it?’ I averted my eyes from the pregnancy kit and stared him square in the face. He then noticed what I held in my hand. ‘Honey, come here. Why are you upset?’

            I giggled with a sob. ‘I’m not upset, Baz. I’m...’ I hesitated, trying to take it all in at the same time as saying it. ‘I’m pregnant.’

            As quickly as the words left my lips, he had shot his arms around my waist and spun me around before kissing me softer than he had in years.

            ‘Seriously? Oh my god! We’re going to be parents!’ He was taking it so well, I thought he might have got a bit mad or annoyed that I hadn’t told him I was off the pill. ‘When did you stop the pill?’ Then he waved his hand through the air. ‘Nevermind that. When did you think you might be... you know?’

            Sitting us down, I wiped my tears away before answering. ‘Two weeks ago, when I skipped a period. You’re mad that I didn’t talk this through with you?’ I asked, tension in my words.

            ‘What? Why would I be mad at you? I’m the happiest I’ve been since I first met you.’ He brushed my hair back and kissed me once again. ‘Oh, baby. I’m so happy. Hey, I won’t go out for a couple of months, now I’ve got two to watch over here. I want to make sure you’re happy and sorted before I go running off again. Uh, I just want to howl so much and run around the forest like twenty times.’ He took some breaths to settle himself; I meanwhile sat with the test still in my hand and my smile of content on my lips. ‘What made you want kids?’

            ‘Baz, don’t ask me that. The thing is we have a baby on the way and I want to tell my family, but at least wait a few weeks before we go telling everyone. Please?’ I begged.

            He pulled me into his lap. ‘Whatever you say. Can I tell Charlie? He is my Beta, and like my only family still around.’ His parents had died in a car crash two years ago, it was devastating but I stayed by his side while he got through it; he didn’t go out for almost four months.

            ‘Ok, but only Charlie,’ I said with one raised finger. ‘And make him promise not to go blabbing to everyone,’ I added with pouted lips.

            ‘Take my word for his, he won’t tell anyone.’

*****

            The next nine months went slower than the months before. My bump got bigger and bigger and Baz kept to his word about staying round more than he had been doing. My parents were told one month into my pregnancy and had come down to visit with presents and lots of hugs. It was good to see them again, though I told them I had always been thinking of them.

            Nine months ended and I insisted on a home birth. Baz didn’t like the idea but I stood by my decision and he gladly stayed with me. After five hours of labour, I gave birth to a beautiful baby girl. She had her father’s eyes and my button nose. When she had been wrapped in a blanket, Baz held her in his arms with tears of joy rolling down to his chin. My midwife weighed her and checked her over before handing her back to me. Her tiny fingers locked around my little finger as we looked at each other. Mother and daughter. Baz and I had already agreed on names for a boy and a girl. We named her Amber and she grew to become a werewolf of a light brown coat and the pride and regal stubbornness that any Alphas’ daughter would have. But with tough parenting and watchful eyes, Baz and I brought her up to be proud yet considerate about what she was.

*****

            The rest of mine and Baz’s lives carried on. We bought a large house near a forest, kept in touch with our closest friends and went on to raise two more children: another daughter, Mia, and a son, Tyler.

            Mia and Amber were a lot different; Amber was more of a daddy’s girl and stayed by Baz so much more than me, however Mia was more my daughter than Baz’s though she didn’t have that girly personality as I never did much during my youth. Tyler was different again; he was more for running about and searching through the forest in our back garden although he would never go too far and was always home for supper.

            Whenever Charlie and Ashley came round (they had become mates too) they would always fuss over the younger two but it would never bother Amber, or so Baz and I thought.

            Our family was now complete and our whole pack had expanded to that of over forty or so as each of the couples went on to have children of their own.