*Phoebe*
“He’s so precious!” Sasha cooed at our baby, Evan, as Brady and I arrived at the baby shower. Sasha leaned over, making ‘gim, gim’ motions at Evan.
I laughed and gently handed Evan over to Sasha. Evan looked up at her with his big black eyes, utterly fascinated. Little fangs flashed as he gurgled, and Sasha awed and ran a hand over his wispy black hair.
Adding to that his alabaster fair skin, Brady and I both knew our little Evan was going to be a heartbreaker one day.
Around us, balloons and strears and paper signs of, “It’s a Boy!” popped out from all over. A table in the next room was so laden with presents that I was surprised it didn’t crack. Sasha had really put a lot of effort into this, and it made feel all mushy inside about our close friendship.
Sasha bounced Evan gently in her arms, and he squealed with delight, his little fists shifting to claws and back with excitent. You would think our little man was all vampire by looking at him, but there were parts of in there too. His claws and the way he sniffed the air, taking in all the scents around him.
“Phoebe, you look so radiant!” Sasha exclaid. “Motherhood suits you.”
I blushed. “Thank you. You, too.”
“I’ve been so looking forward to eting this little guy,” Sasha went on, and I could see our son’s big dark eyes were busily capturing Sasha’s heart. “Aww... who’s a handso little mister? You are. Yes. You are.”
I smiled and Brady put an arm around , beaming–the proud papa.
“I have so many gas planned,” Sasha said, putting Evan up to her shoulder and continuing to bounce him. My recently-fed and happy little man obliged her with a loud burp that drew the attention of half the guests.
“That’s my boy,” Brady grinned. “And... gas?” He started making a face.
I elbowed him in the side as Sasha’s eyebrows drew together.
“I an, yay! Gas!” Brady corrected himself.
Sasha smiled. “It’s going to be so fun. You’ll see. But first, let’s get Mama so lunch.”
Brady and I were escorted to the head table of a room full of long tables. I saw so of Brady’s vampire friends were there, along with my shifter friends and so people from the court. Sasha really had decided to put on a big to-do.
Soon, everyone was seated, still chatting away rrily. A few servers clearly hired for the day ca over and put down plates of ham, potatoes, and green beans in front of Brady and , then began serving the other tables in turn.
They sashayed through the room again with little personal servings of fruit in little blue bowls and topped off water and wine... and sothing Sasha called a “Baby-Boy-tini.”
I took a sip of Brady’s, but just a sip to taste. I was breastfeeding, after all. It tasted really good, kind of like cotton candy.
Queen Lena and King Xander arrived late, but they were quickly seated and served. I could hardly believe we were at the head table and they weren’t, but they took it in stride and seed to enjoy just being part of the rank and file for once.
“You do look beautiful, my love,” Brady said, leaning in and kissing my bare shoulder. I’d worn a yellow, strapless sundress. More in the “baby boy” spirit, Brady was wearing a blue dress shirt and black pants.
“You’re quite the charr,” I laughed. “And you only caught onto that one... fifteen minutes late.”
Brady shrugged. “What can I say? Sasha stole my thunder.”
“Uh huh. You’re just hoping we can skip the gas and go ho and work on baby number two,” I accused him.
“Guilty,” Brady chuckled.
“Mhm, you can’t pull one over on , mister. I know you too well,” I sniffed.
“No, nuh-uh, not gonna happen,” I said. “We’re playing gas and that’s final.”
“I can think of a few different gas...” Brady whispered in my ear, then stopped when Sasha returned with the baby, Lucas in her wake.
“He’s just so adorable... so adorable,” Sasha sighed, reluctantly handing Evan back to .
Scratch that. Evan was already a heartbreaker.
“Lucas, looks like my son’s giving a run for your money,” Brady teased, and Lucas held up his hands.
“I can’t fight it. He’ll definitely win,” Lucas said.
“Of course he will,” Sasha added unrepentantly.
I covered my laugh with a cough, then started making faces at Evan, who giggled and pawed at my face. Then Brady picked up Evan from my arms and began making faces at him.
Evan’s face scrunched up with unhappiness, so Lucas stuck his head into view and tried.
That only made the situation worse, and Evan’s lower lip started to tremble.
“Ugh. n. Always a competition,” Sasha lanted, plucking Evan away from Brady. She smiled sweetly down at him.
Evan started to coo, then began to show an interest in Sasha’s necklace, blinking and tugging at it in fascination.
After so light blue sorbet, Sasha gathered everyone in the large living room for the gas she’d prepared.
Brady hunkered down on the sofa next to , resigned to playing gas.
“Our first ga is to pin the pin on the diaper,” Sasha said, gesturing to a bunch of large diaper pins in a dish with plastic ducklings on them. Then she pointed to the wall, where there was a poster of a diaper pegged to it.
“That’ll be easy,” Brady snorted, taking his arm from around and standing up to get a pin.
“Not so fast,” Sasha said. She pulled out a blindfold, sothing frilly and blue that looked like a grandmother would wear at night to get so shut-eye, and waggled it in front of his face.
“You want to wear that?!” Brady protested.
“Don’t worry. Lucas is wearing it, too,” Sasha replied, spearing her husband with a look.
Lucas had been edging his way toward a kitchen escape. “Er... bathroom?”
“Wrong way, darling,” Sasha said sweetly, though her eyes flashed.
Lucas plunked down into an armchair, his escape averted.
“n,” Sasha and I sighed together.
Brady grumbled as Sasha put the blindfold over his eyes. Then Sasha spun him around four tis and let him wobble off on his way.
He ended up pinning the pin on a ficus.
Lucas snickered, and Brady tossed the blindfold at him.
Lucas didn’t do much better. He put a hole in a “Baby Boy” decoration that was a good three feet away from the poster of the diaper.
Everyone started laughing then, and others rose up excitedly to take their turn. Queen Lena turned out to be the closest to the diaper, and she got a prize–a blue, scented candle.
“Now, Mama, ti for baby food taste testing!” Sasha said excitedly, pulling over a small table with a tablecloth draped over the top. She put the blindfold on . “Okay, everyone guess how many she’ll get right.”
There was a rustle, and I assud the tablecloth was coming off as people were scribbling down their guesses.
Out of eight selections, I only accurately identified the carrots and the apple sauce.
“I win!” two of Brady’s friends said at once.
Sasha grinned and took out two more party favors. These had gift cards to local child-friendly restaurants in them.
Then Sasha turned on the television and had us all guess the baby movie by one five-minute scene.
King Xander won that one. In fact, he knew every single one of them.
“Six kids,” he explained with a self-deprecating smile.
“Ahh,” the room responded.
King Xander got a package of chocolate candies.
rcifully for Brady and Lucas, and those of us hoping to never taste a jar of baby food ever again, Sasha declared the gas over after that third one and said it was ti for presents.
Lucas and King Xander pulled the table out of the other room, and a few of Brady’s vampire friends went and got the gifts that hadn’t fit on it.
King Xander and Queen Lena apologized and said they had business to attend to, and asked if we would open their gift first.
Brady didn’t need to be asked twice. He tore the paper off like a kid at Christmas.
It was a vibrating, bouncy baby chair.
“Trust . This is going to save your life,” Queen Lena said, and King Xander gave an emphatic nod of agreent.
“I trust you. And thank you very much,” I smiled at them. “And I hope whatever you need to do today goes well.”
“We hope so, too,” Lena replied.
Xander took her hand and they made quick excuses and left.
“Mine next! Mine next!” one of my girlfriends insisted.
“Are you leaving, too?” I asked.
“No. I just can’t wait!” she said.
I laughed and pulled the tissue paper out of her gift bag. A board book of “The Velveteen Rabbit” was nestled inside.
“Oh, this is cute.” Brady held the book up for everyone to see.
We got several more books, tons of cute outfits, teethers, toys, and all manner of bibs and burp cloths.
Finally, we got to Sasha and Lucas’s gift.
Brady and I opened it together, and inside were onesies with little bats and wolves on them, and a little moon nightlight with the na “Evan” cut into it.
My eyes teared up. “Sasha, this is all so... so cute. And you’ve done so much! I can’t believe how lovely... just... everything is.”
Sasha teared up as well and ca up and hugged .
We ended up squishing Evan between us, and he made a little grunt of protest.
That made everyone in the room laugh.
“Now, now, don’t go suffocating our son,” Brady teased, plucking Evan out from between us.
“They’re mothers. They’re supposed to suffocate their children,” Lucas chuckled.
Sasha snorted. “And whose overbearing self was it who told Hunter he couldn’t climb a tree that was literally three feet off the ground?”
“That’s different,” Lucas muttered.
“Uh huh.”
“Don’t worry, Evan,” Brady murmured to our son, rocking him in his arms. “I won’t be an overbearing brute like Uncle Lucas.”
“Yeah, just you wait,” Lucas said.
I finally let go of Sasha and looked around at everyone. “Thank you so much. I just... I can’t even express... thank you.”
“Yes, thank you all,” Brady echoed.
Sasha wiped her eyes. “So,” she said brightly. “Who wants cookies?”
After the baby shower wound down and most of the guests had left, I found a mont to pull Sasha aside while Brady was busy showing off Evan to the last few stragglers.
"Sasha, I can’t believe how amazing this whole baby shower was," I said. "You must be so busy with everything going on with the schools, how did you have ti to put this all together?"
Sasha smiled. "The school renovations are actually coming along much faster than expected. Most of the pack Alphas in both realms are thrilled to have schools for gifted young won. Of course, there’s been so pushback from the more conservative packs, but I think once the first class graduates, they’ll co around."
I nodded. "That’s wonderful to hear. And how are things outside of the palace? Any lingering threats after everything with the Lycaon Church?"
At the ntion of the church, Sasha’s expression darkened. "There’s always an undercurrent of unease after sothing like that. Royal security forces will be on hand to assist the warriors of each pack with security once the schools open. We can’t be too careful."
I shuddered, thinking back to our run-ins with the fanatical church mbers. "No, you’re right. It’s good you’re taking every precaution."
Sasha squeezed my hand reassuringly. "But let’s not dwell on darkness today. Today is for celebrating new beginnings." She gazed over at Brady making silly faces at our giggling baby boy. "Just look at that precious angel. He’s going to have the most amazing life."
I smiled back at her, optimism rising up to chase the shadows away. "Yes, he is."
Brady and Lucas ca over to find us, Evan now sleeping contentedly in Brady’s arms.
"There are my two favorite ladies," Brady said, kissing my cheek. "I think it’s ti we let the new parents get so rest."
Lucas nodded. "Yes, you two should head ho. This little guy needs to get his beauty sleep." He tickled one of Evan’s tiny feet.
"Which reminds ," Brady added, "we need to work on catching up to you two in the baby departnt." He winked at .
Lucas laughed. "Hey now, we’ve got a pretty good head start, but challenge accepted!"
Sasha swatted his arm playfully. "Oh no, the competition has already started and he’s only a few weeks old!"
I just shook my head and laughed. Our lives were so full of love and hope. As I gazed at my sleeping son, I knew Sasha was right–he was going to have the most amazing life.
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