"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.
The most difficult part besides telling Leo was having him leave the day after. I almost had to call Jackson to come get him because he refused to be without me for even a few hours.
"I will not leave you and my pup alone, absolutely not."
"Leo, you have a job and you love that job! Don't lose it, we'll be alright. Jackson and Ana can check on me once in a while!"
"You can go stay at the pack house? I just need to know you're safe, Eleanor."
"I am safe, baby, but you need to go to work. I will visit the pack house every day, but I will be sleeping in our bed. You know how I already feel about sleeping without you, especially can't do it in a strange bed."
"You're making it worse," he growled, and I growled back. This was getting ridiculous.
"If I have to call Jackson I will, Leo. Please, just go. We will see you soon, alright?" I touched my stomach, and he swallowed.
"I will never forgive myself if something happens to you both, Eleanor, you know that. I will be sick with worry while I'm away."
"We will link everyday, alright? Whenever you are worried, just link us. We will be here." I stepped forward, gave him a short kiss, then pushed him away. Since then he'd gotten slightly used to leaving us, but he didn't like it any less.
"It's good to see you, brother," Jackson's voice followed by June's squeal broke me out of my daydream. Leo's arm wrapped around me and he gave Jackson a small nod.
"How are you doing, sweetheart?" Jackson asked Ana, who'd been quiet for a few minutes.
"I think...I think he's coming, Jackson." The words left her mouth in a strangled tone, then she winced. Jackson almost dropped June, hie eyes widening.
"You're serious?" He asked. Ana growled, and I felt my own eyes widen. She was pissed.
"Yes, Jackson, I'm serious. Hurry the hell up, I've been having contractions for an hour."
"An hour!" He shrieked. I held back a giggle at his girlish tone.
"They were ten minutes apart, Jackson, you'd know what that meant if you'd read the baby books during my first or second pregnancy!"
"I read the damn books, Ana, it's-"
"You should really get going," I suggested, watching Ana's face scrunch up in pain again. "We'll stay here with June."
June screamed in excitement causing all of us to wince. Jackson picked Ana up and turned to Leo.
"We'll link you," he said before he shot out of the house. June simply stared up at us. This wasn't the first time we had watched him, but each time seemed to be something completely different.
"Well, June, what do you want to do until your parents get back?" I asked.
"Where'd they go?" He asked. I pointed towards the door.
"They went to have your baby brother. Should we watch some TV?" I knew it was an easy out to just put him in front of some cartoons, but I hadn't seen Leo in three weeks. We needed to talk about why he was home early.
A few minutes later we were in the kitchen, the faint sound of children talking on the TV and June giggling once in a while filling the air.
"Why are you here?" I asked abruptly.
"I thought you would be happy to see me," he said with a knowing smirk. I smacked the side of his arm, and he pretended to fall out of the chair from the force of the hit.
"That's abuse!" He whined, and I tried not to laugh. Instead I raised a brow, still not having an answer to my question.
"We finished today," he muttered, rubbing his arm with a sour look on his face. My heart almost stopped.
"What?" I whispered. He smiled, quickly forgetting about his arm injury.
"We finished this morning, then the Council reviewed everything and we were able to leave fairly early. I wanted to surprise you and our pup," He murmured with the biggest smile on his face.
The smile dropped seconds later.
Worry took over his face as his eyes glazed, and I knew it was Jackson. What happened? Did she already have the baby?
"We need to go," Leo said, sliding some shoes and a jacket on and grabbing June. I quickly followed suit, rushing into the garage and into a car. It already had one of June's carseats in it, so we were leaving fairly quickly.
"What's wrong?" I was scared to ask, but waiting for the unknown was worse. He sighed.
"Ana's losing too much blood," he said, "apparently this has been a dangerous pregnancy for her, and they want to see if either of us are her blood type." I nodded and looked out the window. This must be terrifying for her and Jackson.
I almost forgot to get June out of the car, because Leo had immediately bolted into the pack doctor's building. As I entered, I heard my name being shouted down the hall. Jackson was quick to walk over to me and grab June before ushering me to a room.
I looked up, expecting Ana to be in the room, but it was empty besides Leo and two female nurses.
"Sit down, sweetheart. This should only take a minute." I followed her instructions, sitting down and ignoring Leo's growl as the needle stuck into my skin. I winced, but closed my eyes and braved on for Ana.
"How's she doing?" I asked the nurse, hoping she would know.
"She's stable for now, but we really need to get these blood tests done." She got right back to the point, and in just about a minute they were taking a little bit of Leo and I's blood out the door.
We were silent, both too nervous for Ana to say anything.
"We've got a match!" We heard down the hall before both nurses scurried back into the room and over to me.
"How much do you need?" Leo asked with a growl. "She's pregnant." A gasp came from the door, and a grin ate up Jackson's face.
"Congrats, brother," he murmured, patting Leo on the back. I gave a small smile.
"We don't know yet, it depends on when Ana finally births the child," Jackson answered as the nurses got busy with the needles again. I winced, and Leo grabbed my other hand.
"Be careful," he muttered, placing a small kiss on my hand. I leaned back and closed my eyes, trying to relax. Jackson left quickly after, saying the doctor had linked him and was ready to start with Ana again, and soon enough we heard her pained screams come down the hall.
"I hope she'll be okay," I murmured to Leo, my eyes slightly tearing up. He nodded and gave my hand another kiss.
"Is that what you'll sound like?" He asked in a childlike, shy tone. I shrugged, trying to avoid messing up the needle.
"I feel faint, nurse." Leo's growl practically shook the whole room as he stood and let the chair fly behind him.
"Thank you for telling me, sweetie. I'll grab you some cookies and juice." The nurse said before she scuttled out of the room.
"What the hell?" Leo asked, sitting back down, grabbing my hand, and squeezing it hard.
"I'll be fine, just have to get my blood sugar up a little," I said quietly. He looked like he still didn't believe me but nodded anyway. The nurse rushed back in with a few cookies and a little juice box, thrusting it into my hands before grabbing two blood bags and rushing out again.
The other nurse came and unhooked me as Leo fed me some cookies, trying not to giggle looking at his aggravated face.
"I'm fine, Leo, I promise. It's-" I'm cut off my the screech of a baby, and happy shouts all around us.
About an hour later we were able to meet little Jay, and we were both able to hold him. Watching Leo hold him was very, very funny because he was so scared and stiff he caused Jay to cry and Leo quickly handed him to his mother.
I gave his hand a reassuring squeeze.
We could do this.
We would do this.
As lovers.
As best friends.
As mates.
****
Thank you all so, so much. I really hope you enjoyed Leonidas! What a rollercoaster it was, but I'm glad you stayed on for the ride. Check out some of my other books, and I'll see you guys soon! All the love for you.
LaurenMGranich