Chapter 526: Midsummer’s Eve
"Graeme, I have to go!" August giggled, trying to wiggle out of her mate’s embrace. He was standing behind her, his hands flat against the sides of her large belly.
"You can stay for a few minutes longer," he growled softly into her hair, and she sighed, letting him hold both the pup and her together. They would be separated for an entire night, so it only seemed fair to steal a few more moments.
"Greta is going to come get me herself if I don’t go now," she said finally. "She has been looking forward to this for weeks."
"Her first night apart from the twins," he chuckled. "She won’t last the whole night. She thinks she wants a break from them, but I guarantee you either Sam will panic and call her home or she will panic and go home on her own."
"Sylvia will be with him," she chuckled in turn. "I’m sure she and Sam can handle the pups."
"Just wait. I know my sister. How much do you want to bet she abandons the party before midnight?" He rubbed his hands over the swell of her stomach, and suddenly a kick from the pup surprised him.
Both Graeme and August gasped, and Graeme moved his hand to the exact spot where the foot had kicked out.
"See. He doesn’t want to leave dad," He chuckled, letting her go so he could crouch in front of her belly. He lifted her shirt and splayed his fingers against her skin. "You tell her son," his deep voice rumbled softly against her stomach like he was speaking only to him. "You’re going to miss our bedtime story, aren’t you? All to be with a bunch of females."
His deep brown eyes slid to meet her hers with a teasing glint. It still made her stomach flip—that look from him. The depth of those eyes and the well of love there that was never ending.
"The superstition about being separated the night before the ceremony is silly anyway," he said to her now, teasing but still with a thread of hope in his eyes that he could sway her—convince her to stay.
"Silly?" She giggled, raising her eyebrows in surprise. "I have never heard you use that word. Is that new word for Theo? Is your daddy filter on already?"
"Don’t listen to her. Silly is a very tough word, Thelonious," he turned his attention back to her stomach.
"A tough word?" She pinched her eyebrows together and laughed.
"Goddess, I love your laugh. Stay with me," he pleaded amid her laughter, kissing her stomach and then raising those deep eyes back to hers that were smiling in the corners. "It’s a stupid tradition. You’re my mate regardless of what happens tonight or tomorrow. I want you with me now, Moon."
August groaned with a waning smile. "As Alpha and Luna, we have to uphold the tradition. Don’t act like you don’t have your own gathering to get to tonight. Seth and Lucas will be disappointed if they are left to endure all of those males alone."
"I’m the Alpha. I make the rules," he smirked and stood, fitting her shirt back over her stomach as he did.
"I don’t think so," she shook her head with a smirk of her own. "That’s not how it works, Bun-Bun."
"You’re lucky that you’re in a delicate position right now," he said, the shock of hearing that name blooming large on his face.
It had been a long time since she called him that. Finding the stuffed animal earlier in the day while they were finishing decorating the nursery must have brought it fresh to her mind.
"A delicate position?" She scoffed. "I don’t think so."
"You’re not in a delicate position?" He tilted his head to the side, smirking at the offense she was faking.
"No," she scoffed again, screwing up her face at him. "Do you know how badass I am right now? I am carrying another person inside of me. In a week, I am going to be pushing that person out of my vagina and into the world. I am in no way delicate!"
"Oh good. So I can tickle you like this?" Graeme asked, pinching her side and causing her to squirm and arch into him in response.
"No! Okay, no! No!" She laughed, trying to wiggle away from him again. "Fine! I’m delicate! I’m delicate!" She screeched, attempting to arrest his hands that were taking turns finding her sensitive spots and exploiting them for as much laughter as they could.
"Goddess, really?" Greta called from the front door, pounding on it with her fist a few times. "We only need her for one night, Graeme!"
They had taken to locking the doors after Finn absentmindedly walked in one day without knocking and found his Alpha and Luna in a compromising position on the sofa. Not only was it awkward and mortifying for August, but Graeme nearly separated Finn’s head from his body for the second time that day.
In fact, it took two full weeks before Graeme could even look at the male without an instinctive snarl rising in his throat. Even then he only forgave him because Finn was the one who carried Greta to the pack house when she unexpectedly went into labor in the middle of the woods.
"Why did you go on such a long walk alone?" Sam asked Greta later, upset with his mate for being so far from him when he felt her panicking with the onset of labor.
She had been panicking, and he could feel it through the mate bond, which made him panic even more when he couldn’t find her. The emotions threw off his natural instinct to follow her scent, and he ended up tearing through the woods blindly until he finally just went to the pack house and found her already there in the care of Maggie, Charlotte, and his mother. Had he been any later, he would have missed Gia and David’s births all together.
That was another reason why Graeme was having a hard time truly letting August go tonight. Theo’s due date was only a week away. What if he came early? On the one night August was away from him?
"It’s going to be fine," August smiled and ran her hands through his beard, pulling gently on the scruff there. It was getting long again. "Your son will come at the perfect time, and you will be right there when it happens."
He sighed and rested his forehead against hers. "Promise?"
She nodded with a small hum and smiled when his hands curled around her again, drawing her closer.
"You know Gia was the one who insisted on coming while her mom was in the middle of the woods right?" August chuckled, the pup’s sweet cries filling her thoughts. "It wasn’t David. David would have waited."
Graeme chuckled, the deep resonance of his sound filling her chest. "You are probably right about that. She takes after her mother."
Gia was the one twin who was always yelling for attention. When she was hungry or tired or needing a diaper change, everyone knew it. David was the quiet one.
"You know I’m right here, don’t you?" Greta yelled from the other side of the door. "Your mate and your son will be fine, Graeme. Open up!"
"Like I said..." Graeme chuckled softly and walked to the door. "Gia takes after her mother."
