Chapter 193: I Want Them Together on the Same Plate
Still, underneath all the surface-level irritation and burning embarrassment, I could feel the deeper truth pulsing quietly but steadily through every chaotic moment of it all. I was growing a baby—a real, living baby—right there inside my own body, my baby that we had created together in this unexpected way.
And no matter how scared I remained or how strange and foreign my emotions had become under the hormonal onslaught, that one thought kept wrapping itself around my heart in the softest, most comforting way imaginable.
I was exhausted to my core, overwhelmed by the constant unpredictability, and wildly swinging through moods like a pendulum, but I was also slowly beginning to understand and accept that this strange, emotional, craving-filled mess was simply an integral part of something truly precious and life-changing.
And maybe that was precisely why the alphas watched me so closely now with unwavering focus, why they hovered nearby and fussed over every little detail, and why they tried so hard to keep me safe and supported in every possible way.
They could already see and sense what I was only just beginning to accept myself—I was no longer carrying only my own feelings and burdens within me—I was carrying a shared future too, one that bound all of us together irrevocably.
Thankfully, they all accepted the baby as their own without any fight. All of my alphas will act as the baby’ fathers. At the end of the day, they all knocked me of.
Then, unexpectedly, Hellen’s words hit me harder than I had ever anticipated they could, and before I could stop myself or hold them back, my throat tightened painfully and hot tears spilled freely down my face in an unstoppable rush.
I don’t want to think over her words but my mind constantly rethinks it, making me feel sad.
Please, i don’t want to cry!
I had been trying so desperately hard to act annoyed and difficult, to pretend like I was still fully in control of everything happening around and inside me, but the raw truth was that I felt scared out of my mind, completely overwhelmed by it all, and so overflowing with intense feelings that even the smallest act of kindness from them made me break down entirely without warning.
Hellen noticed my sudden shift immediately, her instincts sharp as always. "Oh, my sweet girl," she said, her voice softening to a tender whisper at once as she shifted carefully beneath me and adjusted my position to make me even more comfortable and secure in her lap.
Reyes said, "Don’t cry like that—come here into my arms where it’s safe."
I tried frantically to wipe the tears from my face with the back of my hand, but they kept coming relentlessly, hot and embarrassing and utterly impossible to stop no matter how hard I fought them.
"You’re doing so incredibly well through all of this, you know that," Hellen murmured reassuringly, one hand rubbing slow, soothing circles on my back while the other steadied me gently against her warm chest. "You don’t have to have all the answers or figure everything out perfectly right now in this moment."
"Yes, we will be patient with you. None of us is angry at you, okay? It’s something that you can’t control," Reyes said, patting my head.
That simple reassurance made me cry even harder than before, because it was exactly the kind of thing I had needed to hear more than anything else and exactly what I hadn’t allowed myself to believe or accept until she said it aloud.
Ivory’s usually stern expression melted away into pure concern as she stepped closer without hesitation, her presence a steady comfort. "We weren’t trying to upset you at all with our words," she said gently, her voice stripped of its normal edge. "We just want to take care of you and make sure you’re okay every step of the way."
"I k-know... you d-do, I... really do," I choked out through the tears, but my voice cracked painfully anyway under the weight of it all. "I just feel so—so w-weird a-and o-out... of sorts all the time, like nothing makes sense anymore."
Ana moved to my other side smoothly, her tone calmer and more measured than usual, almost careful in how she chose her words. "That’s because your body is changing so fast right now on every level," she explained patiently.
"Ana..."
"Your hormones are surging and fluctuating all over the place, and your emotions are naturally going to run high and unpredictable for a while as everything adjusts."
I let out a shaky, miserable little sob that seemed to come from the depths of my chest and buried my face against Hellen’s shoulder for a long second, because facing all of them while crying felt too exposing and raw.
"Hey, look at me," Hellen whispered tenderly, brushing my damp hair back from my face with gentle fingers. "It’s perfectly okay to feel scared about all this—it’s okay to feel happy too in the midst of it. You don’t have to choose just one emotion and stick to it rigidly."
That permission made something tight and knotted deep inside me finally loosen and unwind. I sniffled loudly and looked up at them through wet eyes, my cheeks still flushed and streaked, my eyes burning from the tears.
"I-I... s-still w-want t-the... pastry a-and t-the pickles, no matter what," I insisted stubbornly.
A startled laugh escaped Ivory before she could catch herself, breaking the tension in the room.
"Of course you do—that makes perfect sense now." Ana sighed again, though now there was a little smile tugging genuinely at the corners of her mouth for the first time. "We’ll get you both without question, though separately would be ideal for the flavours."
"No, a-absolutely... not," I muttered back, still teary-eyed but already digging in my heels with stubborn determination once more. "I want them together on the same plate. Otherwise, it will taste bad! And I want it to be tasty!"
