“Don’t be silly, Bradley. You’ll be a great father. You’re already a fantastic role model to so many of the young bears in the clan. You’ve got this, babe.”
“I sure hope so. I don’t want to screw it up. Oh, God. You’re an omega. How many babies will you even have?”
“Probably millions at once,” Kay replied.
“Millions?” Bradley said, looking horrified in a way that caused her to laugh.
“I don’t know, but we have a whole clan to help us raise them. We will be fine.”
“I sure hope you’re right.”
“So do I. It’s not like we can change our minds now.”
“True. We’re going to have ourselves a basketball team, maybe even a football team.”
“What if some of them are girls?”
“What? Girls can’t play sports? That seems rather sexist of you,” Bradley chided.
“They can play sports if they want, but I wouldn’t count on it. Most little girls are more interested in dolls than balls.”
“Our little girls will be the best of both worlds. They will be just like their mother, beautiful, strong and multi-talented.”
“Did you get someone else pregnant too?” Kay asked.
“Don’t be modest. You are the most perfect woman in the world. You’ll be a fantastic mother to all the girls and all the boys we might have in this litter and any others that come along later.”
“Whoa now, sperm whale. Let’s get this litter into the world before we start talking about more. A moment ago, you weren’t sure you could be a good father and now you’re planning to build a tiny army of baby Bradley bears.”
“You know I’m just still in shock. I’m so excited, Kay. This is so wonderful. I’m fine with one litter or ten. I don’t care. As long as I have you, I’m the happiest man in the world and having a bunch of little ones to drive us both bonkers is just the icing on the cake.
“We’ll see if you are still saying that when they are running wild all over the place and getting into absolutely everything.”
“I will be. I just wish Walter were around to see it. I always thought I’d fail him. It was his one hope that I would get married and have children. He wanted grandchildren and I was the closest thing to a son he had to give them to him. I sometimes feel horrible about lying to him the way I did.”
“You did the right thing. Who knows what would have happened to this ranch if you hadn’t been the alpha when everything came to light with the missing girls and the meth labs.”
“Yes, but I still lied to him. It was wrong.”
“You did what was best for everyone and Walter died knowing that this place was in good hands. If he were here now, I’ve no doubt he would be so proud of you. I know I am, and I know that your children will be.”
“Let’s go inside,” Bradley said, opening the car door and walking around to open hers for her. They walked hand in hand to the house and made their way inside to find themselves alone.
“Quiet in here tonight,” Kay said, observing the empty community room.
“Good. We have some celebrating to do. How about I pick you up and whisk you off upstairs before you get too fat to carry?” he teased.
“Yeah. I’m going to get so fat that I’m as round as I am tall. I’ll order some tents to wear. They’ll keep me covered, plus the crumbs from all the cake and cookies I’ll be eating constantly will just roll off that kind of material.”
“Oh, baby. You had me at round. Let’s go upstairs and make babies.”
“We’ve already done that.”
“Let’s go pretend to make babies.”
“Sold!” Kay said happily as Bradley picked her up and carried her to their bedroom, both of them happier than any two people had a right to be.CHAPTER THIRTY-FOURAs the months passed, Kay grew increasingly nervous about how the birth of their litter would go. Unlike human women, ultrasounds were of little use in a shifter pregnancy like hers. There were too many babies to really tell where one began and another one ended, so you rarely got an accurate count on litter size, gender or health.
Still, there appeared to be no obvious problems with the cubs or with her as she grew larger and larger until she was nearing time for delivery, which would be carried out at a shifter hospital dedicated to a mix of clans and packs. There were also mid-wives, but omegas usually preferred a more formal setting due to the numbers they could produce. It was just more than a mid-wife and maybe an assistant could handle.
Finally, the day came.
“Bradley, I think I’m having contractions,” she said.
Bradley looked at her from where he stood making both of them a sandwich. He appeared incredibly calm for a man about to have who knows how many children. He continued making the sandwich.