Wolf Bargain (Wolfish 3)

Soon, the days of planning have passed into weeks and my due date is fast approaching.

But so is the impending attack.

I try to help with things as much as I can, but it’s difficult to get much done between bouts of sickness. My temporary reprieve after learning about the triplets soon gives way to such complete exhaustion that I often find myself barely able to get out of bed for days at a time.

When I am up and walking around, I help work to put up defenses around the house and the bottom of the hill. We lay traps and give ourselves as much of the ground advantage as possible since we will be so greatly outnumbered.

Though my help isn’t so much manual labor as it is shouting encouragement from the sidelines with a pitcher of lemonade in one hand that’s mostly been drunk by myself.

“Here,” Kaleb says as he hands me another small sack of stones to lay against one of the traps during his next visit to get a refill on the now-nearly-gone lemonade. I’ve been trying to rig the trap myself between sips of lemonade, but he must have seen me struggling with it and didn’t want me to get hurt.

Hence the pitiful excuse for pebbles he’s brought over to replace the rocks I was trying to use before.

“Don’t give her that,” Marlowe says as he smacks Kaleb upside the head. “She shouldn’t be lifting stones.”

Kaleb growls at him and his eyes turn fiery as Marlowe tries to wrench the stones from my hand … only to nearly hit himself in the face with the bag when he discovers how light it really is.

“Really, Marlowe?” Kaleb says. “You think I’m an idiot?”

Under normal circumstances, Marlowe would just laugh off his own overreaction. But tensions are high, so between the pregnancy and imminent attack, there isn’t much “backing down” happening these days.

The two boys posture against each other as I try to get between them. Getting between anything with my current size is a nearly impossible feat.

“Guys, stop,” I say as I put a hand against each of their chests.

Rory stops what he’s doing and steps closer. I can tell that he doesn’t like me being in-between Kaleb and Marlowe when they’re arguing with each other. He doesn’t like me doing much of anything lately.

“Sabrina,” Rory says, his voice carefully measured. “Move away from them.”

“What, like we’re going to hurt her?” Kaleb spits back at him.

Now all three boys are radiating a tense and aggressive energy. I’m used to this from Rory, but Marlowe and especially Kaleb … not so much. It leaves me unsettled, not to mention the pups. The churn in my stomach, as if sensing the tension themselves. If I’m not careful, one of them is going to give me a powerful kick to the spine and send me doubling back.

“Stop,” I say sternly. “All three of you, please. I can barely deal with this as it is, and I won’t be able to handle it if the three of you are fighting.”

In tune with my scolding, one of the pups does just that—only it kicks my front, nearly sending my flying forward into my own poorly-cobbled trap.

All three boys’ faces change from anger to concern at once. It happens so quickly, it would be comical if I wasn’t already struggling to keep down the contents of my stomach. At this rate, I’m going to be more baby than me soon.

“I’m sorry,” Rory says looking at me apologetically.

The other boys apologize too and back away from each other.

“It’s hard for us to help,” Kaleb says. “We’re all so on edge about keeping you and the pups safe right now. Sometimes it’s hard to rein it in.”

“It’s okay,” I say as I try to lean up on my toes to kiss him. It’s an almost impossible feat now, so he leans down a bit to help me. “I understand. But we’re all on the same side of this and we need to make sure we stay that way.”

“Agreed.”

We work on preparations well into the evening, and even then, there are still traps to be made.

“It’s late,” Rory says as I get up to follow the boys back out into the forest again to lay a few more traps along the tree line. “You should stay here now with Romulus and Lydia. We won’t be gone long, there’s only a couple more traps to set.”

“I want to come,” I say.

The three of them look at me with hesitation.

“You might as well take her with you,” Lydia says to help my case. “You know that she’ll end up going after you anyway.”