Leonidas ✔️

Epilogue - Eleanor

"How're you doing, Ana? You feeling okay?" I asked quietly. She was sitting on a chair in the dining room of the pack house, her feet elevated on another chair and a wet washcloth on her forehead. Her second pregnancy was taking a toll on her.

"I think this'll be the last one," she whispered back, weakly putting a hand on her stomach. June, her four year old son, was running around with his father outside as Ana closed her eyes and tried to breathe. "I don't want to talk about it too much, Eleanor. How's Leo doing at the Council? Have you heard from him recently?"

When Harry came back to visit a few months ago, I connived Leo to show him some of the houses he'd completed. After officially beginning to work with the builders of the pack, he'd completed several homes and renovated some large buildings as well! He was very proud of the work he was doing, but wasn't comfortable showing it off to others.

After Leo showed him some of the houses he'd worked on, Harry asked him to come refurbish some buildings for the Council. There was sensitive material in some of the buildings and just at the Council in general, and Harry told Leo he'd chosen him because he trusted him. Leo accepted.

I was happy for him, but I missed him. He tried to come home every other weekend, but the Council wanted pretty much everything renovated so it was going to take a while.

"He's alright. Happy to do work that he loves," I said, trying not to stare at her overly large stomach. "We linked yesterday, we talked a little bit before he had to go. He'll be home this weekend, then back at the end of the month for good." 23 days until then. Not that I was counting.

Ana nodded at my response and we fell quiet, listening to the sound of June shrieking outside as he was chased by Jackson.

"Uncle! Uncle!" June shouted, and I flew to my feet. Leo was back? I pushed the screen door open and let my eyes search for him, but there were only two people in the yard. Jackson had June pinned to the ground and was tickling him as June shrieked with joy. I sighed. He'd visit in two days, I'd be fine.

I walked back inside to sit back down by Ana and stopped in my tracks to smile.

He was here.

"Surprise," he muttered with an earth-shattering smile on his face, opening his arms. I didn't wast a second and flew into them, squealing. Ana chuckled and when I opened my eyes I realized her feet were on the ground and she was sitting up. I pushed at Leo's arms and he released me.

"Ana, you're supposed to be resting," I said, trying to lightly push her into laying back. She swatted my arms.

"I'm just sitting, Eleanor, I'll be fine. It's nice to see you, Leo. Been a while." Leo simply nodded in response, pulling back into my arms.

"How are you guys?" Leo murmured into my ear. His hand drifted down to my stomach, and I gave him a quick nod.

"We're good," I answered. He took his hand away and cleared his throat. We hadn't told anyone yet, because it still really really scared Leo. We marked each other about two years ago, and it's been wonderful ever since. I could hear his thoughts and feelings through the mate bond, and sometimes his voice... while he was away, he was mostly concentrating on his work.

I told him I was pregnant about a month ago. He locked himself inside our room, and didn't come out until I'd started to have a panic attack, fearing he wouldn't want the baby or me anymore. He stepped out of the room with tear tracks on his cheeks, and we collided into a mess of sobs, screams, and just overall fear.

Neither of us really had good role models for parents, and the fear that we would act like them was overwhelming to say the least. We didn't want to go to Ana and Jackson for help, either. They had already done so much for us, so we would work through this one together.