Gently waking Ryker up, I cover his handsome face in kisses.
‘You know if you keep doing that it won’t just wake me up, but also the man downstairs, my sweet,’ he says with his eyes still closed. I throw a pillow at his face.
‘Hey!’ He sits up and throws a pillow back at me. I lean backward, dodging the pillow. I poke out my tongue: ‘Ha! You missed!’ I tease.
‘Oh, did I?’ He says, jumping out of bed and running toward me, flinging me over his shoulder and whirling us around in a circle.
‘Ryker! Stop!’ I giggle.
‘You’ll make me sick,’ I say; he stops.
‘Well, you’re no fun!’ He feigns a pout.
‘No fun? Have you forgotten about all the fun we had three times last night?’ I ask him.
‘You got me there; you’re fun in that department,’ he says, slapping my bum.
‘Ah! Did you really just smack my bum?’ I ask.
‘Yes. But it should be the least of your worries; I’m so tempted to bite it right now,’ he threatens, with a seductive growl.
‘Ryker!’ I laugh. ‘Put me down.’ I giggle.
Ryker runs into the dining room downstairs with me over his shoulder with a grin on his face. I scream his name the whole way down. ‘Ryker!’ I yell; trying not to laugh at his playfulness. He sits in a chair and pulls me onto his lap.
‘There; I put you down,’ he says, winking at me; I roll my eyes.
‘Did you just roll your eyes at me Luna? I might be forced to give you another spanking,’ he says mischievously.
Blushing, I turn away. Of course, everyone at the table has heard what he said; they eat in silence, smirking, and try to contain themselves.
‘Since we have the day off, I’d like to take you into town and spoil you,’ he says, nuzzling his face into my neck; I nod in agreement and kiss his cheek. We finish breakfast and make our way to the shopping strip.
‘Where would you like to go to first?’ He asks. I look around at all the shops, and can’t help looking at the ice cream shop.
‘Ice cream!’ I yell, dragging him across the road.
‘Ice cream? We just ate breakfast!’ He replies.
‘I know, but you said you wanted to spoil me today, and it’s been so long since I’ve had ice cream,’ I say, pondering all of the flavours I might be able to choose from.
‘Ice cream it is!’ He says. I squeal with excitement.
‘Yay! Thank you!’ I say, wrapping my arms around him.
Entering the ice creamery, we are greeted by a lovely shop assistant by the name of Maisie.
‘Alpha. Luna. How can I help you?’ Maisie asks. I look at the different kinds of wafer cones and the different ice cream flavours in the glass cabinet.
‘I’ll have the triple-scoop cone: one scoop of chocolate, one scoop of mint, one scoop of vanilla and one scoop of rainbow please. Make it massive!’ I ask Maisie. Ryker is surprised.
‘Astrid, that’s a lot of ice cream for a werewolf,’ he says, his hands in his pockets, as he waits patiently, and watches Maisie scoop four different flavours of ice cream into a wafer cone just for me.
‘I can’t help it; I’m so hungry,’ I say, my arms folded against myself, as I lean against the glass, watching Maisie add the last scoop of rainbow to my wafer cone.
‘Here you go Luna. That’s yours,’ Maisie smiles. I’m instantly in a happy mood taking the ice cream from her; I bite into it without hesitation with my front teeth.
‘Thank you so much Maisie,’ I say, skipping out of the store happily. I sense Ryker rolling his eyes at me behind my back.
‘I saw that!’ I laugh.
‘Saw what?’ He asks.
‘You rolled your eyes at me,’ I say.
‘How do you know?’ He asks.
‘I don’t know. I just know that you did,’ I say, and continue to eat my ice-cream.
‘Where should we go next?’ He asks, licking grooves into a scoop of chocolate ice cream in his single-scoop cone.
‘Medley’s clothing store; I need some new jeans and stuff,’ I announce; all of the ice cream in my cone has already gone, leaving the cone with its chocolate-filled point to be devoured.
‘Okay,’ he says, smiling. I wolf down my cone, savouring the rich chocolate end, and enter the store; Ryker has no choice but to bring his cone in with him.
‘Alpha, Luna: it has been a while since I’ve seen you both,’ Medley smiles.
‘It has been a while Medley. We have been very busy,’ I say, smiling coyly at Ryker.
‘Of course. I can imagine all the paperwork you have, now that Shady Crest is your territory,’ she says, smiling; Ryker and I aren’t talking about the paperwork.
‘Yes, the paperwork has been insane,’ Ryker says, smirking.
‘I’m after some new clothes. All my others don’t seem to fit as comfortably as they used too,’ I explain.
‘You might be interested in our new range over here,’ Medley says, pointing to a wall of clothing that has just arrived.
Walking over to the new arrivals, I grab a pair of jeans and a tshirt I like, and hold them in front of my figure in a mirror.
‘This dress is nice,’ Ryker says, passing me a dress to try on. I go into the changing room and lock the cubicle door behind me. I push my legs into the skinny blue jeans; I almost fall over trying to do the zip up.
‘Are you okay in there?’ Medley asks.
‘I think there’s something wrong with the size Medley. They don’t fit.’ I walk out of the changeroom in the tshirt and skinny blue jeans; the tshirt is extremely tight around my bust and my tummy, and the zip and the button on the jeans won’t fasten. Medley and Ryker giggle.
‘Why are you laughing?’ I ask; they fail to contain themselves.
‘I love the tshirt babe – it’s turning me on seeing your boobs like that,’ Ryker chuckles.
‘What?’ I ask.
‘They look bigger than normal in that tshirt,’ he says.
‘You are in so much trouble when we get home,’ I say blushing.
‘What kind of trouble?’ He asks with a cheeky smirk. I roll my eyes and go back into the change rooms.
‘I saw that!’ Ryker says.
‘Saw what?’ I ask.
‘You rolled your eyes at me,’ he says; I can’t help but laugh.
‘Okay, okay,’ I mumble, locking the cubicle door behind me. I put the dress on that Ryker chose: it’s elastane and strapless and sits mid-thigh, exposing a lot of leg.
‘This fits much better,’ I say, showing him. He eyes me up and down with approval, and pins me against the shop wall to kiss me; our display of affection exceeds what’s acceptable in a shop setting.
‘Should I leave?’ Medley asks, her face a rosy, embarrassed, pink hue. We pay her no mind, as Ryker runs his hand up my thigh.
‘I’ll just be in the office out back if you need me,’ Medley yells out, leaving us quickly, and tottering off to her office. I moan as he strokes my inner thigh.
‘As much as I want you to take me right now, I don’t think a clothing store is ideal; customers could walk in on us,’ I point out. Ryker lifts me up so that my legs are around his waist, and squeezes himself into the changing room with me in his arms. He locks the door behind us.
‘Remember our first time in here?’ He asks, with a desirous look in his eyes. I blush and nod.
‘I think we should finish what we started,’ he declares.
With my arms around his neck, he pulls my underwear off, and I unbutton his jeans, releasing his throbbing member. He turns me around and pushes himself into me from behind; thrusting his length into my core until we both moan and climax together. We leave the store giggling.
‘Let’s go for a run!’ I suggest.
‘Sounds good,’ Ryker smiles.
We reach the woods and leave the shopping bags and my new clothes on a spot on the ground. We undress, and I stuff our clothes in the plastic bags with the new items. Ryker shifts into his wolf and runs off. He pauses when he realises I’m not following him. Astrid? You haven’t shifted. Are you okay? He links.
I don’t know. I can’t shift. Nothing is happening. Why can’t I shift? I link back, with clear panic in my voice. Ryker shifts back and dresses himself.
‘It’s okay. You’re probably just too tired,’ he says, kissing my head. I shake my head:
‘I don’t feel tired,’ I reply. He takes my hand.
‘Come on, let’s go home,’ he says, and I nod and follow for a while before stopping.
‘Astrid?’ He asks. I run to the closest bush and throw up.
‘Let’s go home. I’ll call the doctor,’ Ryker says, concern in his voice. My surrounds spin, and I feel faint, before collapsing and blacking out.
I hear the sounds of hospital machines beeping and whirring; I open my eyes and putting my arm up, cover them from the bright lights.
‘Am I in the hospital?’ I ask.
‘Astrid. You’re awake!’ Ryker says, taking my hand and smiling.
‘You blacked out. I brought you straight to the hospital. The doctor will be here shortly to speak with us. They took some blood to run some tests. I’m sure you’re fine though; it’s just a precaution.’ A nurse enters the room with a monitor on a trolley.
‘Alpha, Luna: doctor is on his way. He asked me to get some things set up for him,’ she smiles, plugging a machine into the power-point on the wall, switching it on and leaving the room.
‘Alpha, it’s been quite some time since you’ve been here,’ the doctor smiles, coming in.
‘Doctor Herman. Is she going to be okay?’ Ryker asks.
‘Yes. She will be fine. Her results came back positive. We’ll do an ultrasound to see how far along she is.’ Ryker and I look at each other confused.
‘Positive for what?’ I ask. Doctor Herman gives a chuckle.
‘Pregnancy,’ he says. My mouth drops open in shock.
‘I’m pregnant?’ I ask.
‘Yes. Congratulations to you both,’ he says, shaking Ryker’s hand.
‘I’m going to be a Dad?’ He asks the doctor. The doctor nods and smiles, and squirts some gel across my lower abdomen, and glides a sort of scanner device over the gel.
‘And there it is,’ he gestures to the screen.
Frozen in awe, staring at the medical screen, we see two little arms, two little legs, a body and a head. We can even hear a heartbeat.
‘That’s our baby?’ I ask, looking up at Ryker. His eyes well with emotion, as he kisses the back of my hand.
‘Yes. That’s our perfect little baby,’ he says, softly. Tears of joy and happiness overwhelm me.
‘Ryker – we’re having a baby!’ I cry. Ryker squeezes my hand and kisses my forehead.
‘You’re going to be the best mother, I just know it,’ he says, beaming.
‘How far along is she Doctor Herman? Ryker asks.
‘She is twelve weeks, so there’ll be no more shifting until the birth of the pup,’ he explains. He grabs some paper towel and wipes off all the gel.
‘That’s why you couldn’t shift today,’ Ryker ponders. Before I can pull my tshirt back down, and after Doctor Herman has finished wiping the gel off it, Ryker kisses the skin on my belly.
‘You have exhausted yourself, Astrid. I suggest bed-rest for a few days. Avoid wearing yourself out. We don’t want you collapsing again,’ Doctor Herman says. He prints out the ultrasound pictures and Ryker tucks them safely in his pocket before scooping me up in his arms.
‘Time to take my family home to rest in bed,’ he says, as he leans down to kiss my forehead, before kissing me softly on the lips; we leave the hospital room beaming.
