Chapter Forty-One

Kian

"What about...Matthew?" I say. When I look up from the book, I can't help the giggle that escapes when I see Bridger's face. His nose is scrunched up and his eyebrows creased. He doesn't look at me as his eyes are trained on the road before us.

"Definitely not," he says in disgust. I laugh and look back down at the book in my lap.

It's a book of names...for a little boy! We found out the sex of our pup just a day after our trip in Sephael. Marquise had stayed behind to prepare to move out of Sephael and to help The Gold Court prepare the omegas in one of their safe houses for their new home. I knew I had bigger responsibilities such as talking with Corzo about moving west, but I just couldn't keep myself from scheduling an appointment to finally know the sex of my and Bridger's pup.

It was such an amazing and beautiful moment to share with Bridger and I was beyond glad that I had waited. It was my first-ever positive sex reveal and Bridger's first-ever reveal in general. When he saw our pup on the screen of the ultrasound machine, his eyes became wet with tears as he held my hand. We were both seeing our pup for the first time, but our pup seemed too shy to want to meet us. He refused to look at us, keeping his back to the ultrasound wand with his little legs curled to his chest so we couldn't see anything no matter how the iota turned the wand on my belly.

Eventually, after some coaxing by pressing harder against my belly, we annoyed him enough to force him to move. With that, we glimpsed his front and the healer, who seemed just as excited as us, exclaimed: "It's a boy!"

It was also then that we discovered our pup is an omega. I hate to admit it – and I didn't tell Bridger – but when the healer revealed that, my heart dropped a little. Not in a way that I was disappointed or upset, but in a way that made me fearful and anxious. Even now, as I read the names inside the book, I can't ignore the anxiety that comes with knowing I'm about to bring another omega into this cruel world -- a world that is against us.

It scares me because there is so much that can go wrong. Omega pups are fragile and much more sensitive to the world around them. It's scary because I had to work hard to rid my brain of the prejudice against omegas that was instilled within me. What if unaddressed issues pop up while I raise him and I put the wrong ideas into his head?

I just don't want to hurt him or have him get hurt. I'm scared to bring an omega into this world, but I'm even more scared that the world will hurt him before I can properly teach him how to survive.

"What about Killian?"

"Sounds too much like your name, so selfish," Bridger jokes. I playfully slap his arm.

We're finally, finally leaving the packlands and heading to a human city called Lakecross to do "some shopping". When Corzo agreed to allow me to move five miles west, it didn't take long for confirmation to reach Marquise who immediately got to work on moving the packhouse. However, moving such a huge house proved to be impossible and unnecessary, so instead, the Lords and Marquise decided to just build a whole new packhouse. This way, our old packhouse can trick intruders or serve as something else for Corzo's pack since it's closer to his than it will be to mine. At first, I was sad because I've grown to really love our beautiful packhouse and Vic really did go above and beyond with the security systems. I didn't want to leave that all behind, but they promised that the house they had in mind would not only be big and beautiful, but it would also incorporate all of Vic's security measures.

With the help of Vic and his team, the Lords and Marquise began constructing a new packhouse and with the help of their magic, it's almost finished. From what I glimpsed, the house is massive and serves not only as a packhouse, but also as an apartment complex that will house a lot more omegas than my old packhouse. These apartments will also come equipped with their own kitchen and will range from one bedroom to three. I thought that was a good idea and we can build as needed if the omegas have bigger families or other needs.

I wanted to stay and oversee the building with Vic, but everyone insisted that I go and have time to myself. Especially Bridger, who was desperate to start shopping for our pup since we found out about the sex. I can admit that I was also more than desperate to finally start nesting and creating an amazing nursery for our baby. There's just so much happening in so little time that I can't prioritize my needs right now. I guess I need to learn how to manage my time better. But now that I'm away and doing something for myself and our pup, I can finally breathe better and give into my personal needs a little.

Bridger turns a corner and a cold chill runs down my spine as a sense of unease settles over me. I grab the center console to steady myself but nothing can shake the feeling of wrongness that seems to settle deep into my bones.

"That's us leaving werewolf territory," Bridger explains, "we're with the humans now."

I try to hold back a groan that threatens to release as I try to get used to this new feeling. I can't explain this feeling, all I know is that my senses are high and I no longer feel safe. I don't want Bridger to turn back around, but feeling unsafe makes me feel almost angry because I don't just have to protect myself, I have to protect my pup too. I shut my eyes tight.

"I don't like this," I say.

I feel Bridger's hand squeeze my thigh but I don't open my eyes. I feel sick and scared and I hate it. The human world has absolutely no protection surrounding it. It feels like a...like a world without barriers. Just free roaming and unprotected. I have never encountered a rogue, but this is how I imagine they feel. The human world feels rogue.

"It takes some getting used to," Bridger says calmly, "the humans don't have magic or any source of magic or divinity to protect them. They are the only creatures like this."

"How do they survive?" I ask.

"The have laws created by their governments, but even those laws are broken from time to time. Their punishments can be very harsh though in certain countries. Most other species leave them alone, humans are dangerous in their own right with their wreakless behavior, dangerous curiosity, and inventions. Their biggest threat is themselves." Bridger explains.

I know that humans don't know about us or any other species outside of the animals and plants they're used to. What I don't understand is how humans come to be Hunters and how the don't know about us on a larger scale.

"So how do humans find out about us and become Hunters?"

Bridger shrugs. "Maybe they see something they shouldn't have. Werewolves are only permitted to shift within werewolf territory, some may not heed that rule and a human may witness it. But no one knows. What we do know is that Hunters are usually employed by other supernatural."

Slowly the sickness eases away as Bridger continues to drive down the empty road. I can hear noises further ahead of us and my eyes go wide when we turn a curve and stop. Before us is a bigger road – a highway – with two lanes on each side instead of one. Cars speed past each other, zipping up and down the road. The cars are loud and I can hear other sounds like music coming from them.

"It's so loud," I complain.

Bridger laughs. "You wanted to see the humans. Their hearing isn't like ours, they are very loud."

I stare out the window and...I'm sorely disappointed. It's not like I was expecting them to look different, but I was expecting them to...be I different. I mean, I am only seeing them in their cars – some are talking on the phone, some are singing – so maybe I'll experience whatever makes them special and different (besides not having anything to protect themselves) when we start shopping. Angels have that peaceful nature and glow around their body, Meri have scaly skin and fishtails and webbed fingers, nymphs can blend in with their surroundings like that one lizard that starts with a C and can "control" the weather, what can humans do? I'll find out soon enough.

I go back to my book of names.

"Hayden?" I say, "that one's okay."

"Yeah, but there has to be better names."

I agree and close the book. This is my first time naming my pup and I want the name to be as perfect as him. I don't have much time to think of one and I know I can always name him after I give birth, but I want be as ready as possible. I've already waited so long to do anything for him like tell his own father, figure out his sex, build his nursery so the least I can do is have his name ready for when he enters the world. But naming a pup is proving to be so hard. I have to pick a name that my pup will be called for the rest of his life – even when I'm long gone. It can't be anything so complicated that it's embarrassing or so simple that he'll get confused with others. It has to be something just right. Perfect. It has to fit his face and his body, his voice, his personality -- none of which I know right now. What if I name him something stupid and he grows up hating it and hating me for naming him it?

No, no, I can't think like that. My pup will love me as long as I love him.

"How long until we get to the target?" I ask.

"Target is what the store is called, Kian," Bridger laughs. "And like thirteen minutes, we have to get some food, though. I'm starving."

I nod and go back to looking out the window at all the humans who are on the road with us. Corzo is still working on getting me a birth certificate so that I can work on getting a license. Watching all these people zoom past and the road and trees blur together as Bridger speeds with them makes me nervous, though. I don't know if I could be as good of a driver as the people on this busy highway – I've never even seen a highway, much less driven on one. I'll just have to practice the same way I've been practicing everything else I've been doing.

Bridger's car computer lied because instead of arriving in thirteen minutes, we arrived in twenty. We're now in a city surrounded by a bunch of big buildings and roads and loud noises. Bridger drives us into a giant parking lot that has way too many cars parked inside. Beyond the lot sits the huge Target building with three big red balls in front of it. Humans walk to and from the big store with the red shopping carts or bags hanging off of their arms.

I move closer to Bridger when I realize there are more than just humans at this store. I know it was silly to think that only humans would be here considering some werewolves are very comfortable "intermingling with the humans" as Bridger put it. I just wasn't expecting ...a lot of them. I guess it makes sense since the human world is open to all without any magical protection. Still, it's a bit scary sensing werewolves near and not being able to see them or know what they're thinking. What if they belong to James's pack and they see me? What if they just hate omegas and they try to capture me like Hunters?

I've experienced other werewolves, of course. When I was training with Corzo, he'd invite me into meetings with other alphas and betas. But this is different because if they tried to attack me, Corzo's pack would have done something. Now, whoever these werewolves are can easily attack me even with Bridger around. I have no idea how many there are.

"Hey," I hear Bridger's voice over my loud heartbeat. He squeezes my hand in his. "It's okay if you want to get out, but it's important that you can be around others in the wild – especially werewolves. Plus, you can fight now, if it comes down to it — which it won't – you will be okay. You have me, but most importantly, you have yourself and everything you've learned. Right?"

I breathe out slowly and nod. "Right."

"Remember, Corzo knows all the packs here. He would have told us if they're hostile towards omegas, okay?"

I nod. He's right, Corzo would have warned us.

I don't want to spoil mine and Bridger's date/baby-day. I won't let some random werewolves spoil it either. So with another, bigger deep breath, I pull Bridger's hand to guide him into the store.

This is my first time in a store like this. Bridger told me there are "food courts" inside the store where we can eat before we begin shopping. Humans are smart to put food places inside their shopping centers.

In Target, there are two restaurants: Starbucks and Pizza Hut. Bridger leads me to Pizza Hut and orders a medium pepperoni Pizza, garlic breadsticks, and two drinks. I don't realize just how hungry I am until the smell of pizza and other greasy foods flood my nose. My belly growls as Bridger and I sit down. I rub my stomach and Bridger laughs.

"Try not to bring any attention to your pregnancy," he whispers, "Human males can't get pregnant. We have to blend in."

"Right," I nod, briefly forgetting that humans don't know anything about the supernatural. They have their theories and silly movies about angels, demons, werewolves, and vampires, but they truly don't know how anything about us or that we're real. I know if my pregnancy was showing like it did when I was pregnant with Avery and Ivory, I definitely wouldn't be able to be here shopping for my pup. If the humans saw me with a pregnant belly, I don't think they would take too kindly to it.

Humans are so fascinating in the sense they just don't know anything. They're probably very smart – they created the Internet and the YouTube and they put food courts in their stores after all – but I can't imagine not knowing that I'm living among magical and non-human people. They sit around us not knowing that we're not one of them. A little kid even runs up to me because her toy rolled under my chair. Another walks past me with a dog and the dog's ears perk up at Bridger and I, his nose twitching. So even their animals know we're not "normal" yet they don't.

I wave at the dog and he looks at me as if I were crazy. I can't wait to have my own cat.

Bridger's name is called after a few more minutes. He gets up to get our food, leaving me to sit at the table by myself. It wouldn't be so much of a problem if as soon as he disappears around the corner to get our food, a group of young werewolves appear, marching towards the line opposite of where I sit. I figure the wall hides me well enough, but a girl's head snaps in my direction and we connect eyes immediately. I don't know if I should look away or stand my ground. Looking away would look bad on my part but keeping eye contact can start something I don't want.

Luckily, Bridger appears, completely unbothered by the group, with our food in his arms. I could have gotten up to help but he skillfully stacked the two boxes on one arm and held the two drinks in both hands. I look away from the girl and right at Bridger, my nerves slowly calming as he offers me a loppy smile.

"Your food, good sir," he says in a weird accent as he bows while also placing the food on the table. I laugh and scoot closer to the table so I can open the boxes. I've had pizza and garlic bread before, but definitely not this much for only two people. It all looks so delicious that I fear I might turn into Mika and eat it all before Bridger can even blink. Luckily, Bridger protects himself by grabbing the first piece and I quickly grab the second.

The pizza is amazing and so are the breadsticks. I feel like I'm in food heaven as I devour each slice, surprised by my own appetite. When we're finished, I could go for more, but I'm far too excited to start shopping to want to wait for a second order of pizza and breadsticks.

Group of werewolves forgotten, I grab Bridger's arm and drag him to the first aisle I see. It has nothing to do with babies, but there are a bunch of candles that hurt my head and make my eyes water. I quickly leave the aisle to save my nose and Bridger happily allows himself to be dragged behind me. Eventually, we make it to the baby section and I squeal once I see all the tiny baby clothes.

"Look how small," Bridger says, grabbing a pair of little frilly socks with cardboard inside. His hands are huge compared to them. "Are his feet going to be this small?"

I nod, remembering how small Ivory was when she was born. "Have you ever been around a newborn?"

He shakes his head. "I've seen babies and I've held them, but I've never been like...present in their lives if that makes sense."

He has a light in his eyes as he wanders around the clothing section, picking up little clothes in both the boys' and girls' sections and pointing out how tiny they are. I can't tell if he's scared or excited about how small the clothes are, his tone is just full of amazement every time he speaks.

"Our pu– baby is a...you know, so he will be very small," I say.

"I don't want to crush him," Bridger says seriously, "these clothes are so tiny, I can't imagine someone being any smaller."

I smile and stand closer to him so I lift up on my toes and peck his lips. "You won't crush him, you're too gentle."

With Bridger relaxed and comfortable, our shopping continues from there. Bridger and I decided the nursery theme would be Spring-esque so we focus mostly on greens, yellows, and whites for nursery items. We even choose a car seat even though I don't plan to take our pup out of packlands until he's much older – just in case, as Bridger put it. Neither of us knew what to purchase as first-time parents so Bridger took to Google and I watched YouTube videos to find recommendations. We buy a crib even though he will be sleeping in our room in his bassinet given to us from Marquise as a thank-you for inviting him and his partner – who I have yet to meet – into our home. We also buy playmats and a play-pin for when he's older and he needs time to himself. We buy a lot of baby-friendly books and toys and for a second, I start to worry that we won't have the money to cover it even though Vic bought us those gift cards.

Surprisingly, at the end, we do have plenty of money to cover the costs and soon enough, we're loading our pup's stuff into Bridger's car.

"Ryder...is going to love it!" I say, trying out a new name.

Bridger gags. "Oh hell no to that one."

I hate the name too so I quickly add it to the "Hell no" list along with Michael, Landon, Teddy, and other names Bridger and I absolutely hate. I have the list on my phone as well as many other lists like stuff we needed to buy for the nursery and "maybe" names. I notice I keep lists in my head for things I need to get done and now that I've discovered that I can make lists on my phone instead of carrying around notebooks and notepads, it's much easier to keep all my lists with me. I've got my daily to-do, my monthly goals, my baby names and baby needs, recipes I want to try, and I know there's more to come. I really like making lists.

As I go through the name book, Bridger enters the highway we were on before. I hum as I flip through the pages, absently rubbing my little belly while Bridger drums his fingers on the wheel. I allow myself to bask in the peacefulness, my mind wandering away to mine and Bridger's future. I imagine walking alongside the beach with our hands intertwined, a little boy running ahead of us. He'd walk just out of reach of the tides, giggling everytime the ocean kisses his barefeet. Bridger would teach our pup how to swim quickly so that he won't hurt himself when playing in the water. Would our pup look more like Bridger or me or would he be a perfect combination of the both of us? I hope he at least has Bridger's beautiful green eyes. Bridger already looks at me with so much love and joy, I don't know if I can handle having someone else look at me with those eyes with even more love and joy.

I just know our pup is going to be perfect no matter who he looks like. Our family is going to be tiny but beautiful.

I start thinking about what I need to do when I get back Oasis. I need to check on the new pack house as well as touch base with Marquise on where they're at with preparing the omegas. I also need to talk to Corzo–

Bridger swerves. I gasp and grasp onto the front, dropping my book on the floor of the car. Bridger curses as he quickly turns the wheel and pulls over onto the side of the road. Horns from other cars blow at us as he stops the car on the side. We jerk forward and my heart beats out of my chest as I try to catch my breath.

"Goddess!" Bridger yells, turning to look through the back window. "There's a whole box of...something in the road. What the fuck? Are you okay?"

He touches my shoulder and I take a deep breath with a quick nod.

"What happened?"

"Hold on."

He opens the door and my eyes go wide, scared he might get hit by a car. We're off the road, but it could happen. I watch through the windows as he jogs to the cardboard box sitting right beside the white line next to the hard part of the road that makes a terrible sound when you drive on it. He picks it up and runs right back to the car. He opens the door and places the box on the backseat.

"What's in it–"

My eyes almost shoot out of my head when a tiny, furry gray head pops out of the box. A kitten?! I hear other little mews that make me unbuckle my seatbelt and get up so my knees are in the seat. I peer inside the box and see three furry white, gray, and black kittens moving around.

"Bridger, these are babies," I breathe out as I reach inside. The gray one hunches her back and hisses at me the best she can. The others cower behind their sister, attempting to hiss as well. Their little bodies shake in fear.

"Someone must have abandoned them," Bridger says as he presses his fingers against the head of the gray one. She hisses at him but does nothing else to attack him.

Not a second is wasted before my mind is made up. "We have to take them home with us. We can't leave these babies in the road. They could get hit."

"We don't have any supplies for them," Bridger says, "we need basically the same things we bought for our pup: bottles, a bed...cat formula. Goddess, these little guys are so young."

It breaks my heart to see these babies inside this box. They could have easily been killed by a car and if not a car, then a wild animal. I can't help but hate whoever abandoned them because they are so small and definitely too young to be away from their mother – wherever she is, she must miss them. A mother cat couldn't have put them in a box and dragged them here, a human must have done this.

I look at Bridger and he knows that I'm not going to let these kittens go. They have to come home with us, there's nothing else that can be done. We have the money to buy them beds and kitten formula and we will have to make time to care for them. We're already bringing one life into the world, we might as well take in three more.

"We can keep them," Bridger says with a sigh, "it'll take time to get them used to us. Look up a Pet Smart – I know we have one near here."

I nod and quickly do as told, typing in Pet Smart in Google. Google gives me a bunch of different Pet Smarts but I tap on the one that has the smallest number of miles. Bridger puts it in his car computer and joins the cars on the highway. I keep an eye on the babies in the box Bridger placed on the floor. They meow and move around in the box, but none of them try to get out.

It makes me so angry that these kittens – little kittens – were just left on a busy highway like this. Whoever abandoned them could have easily taken them somewhere safe. Just like my parents, they didn't want me and they could have easily given me to a safe place, but they didn't. They did what was easy. Why are there so many bad people in the world?

"Kian, baby, don't cry – they're okay." Without looking, Bridger's hand rubs my face. I didn't even realize I was crying until now.

"It just sucks--" I wipe my tears with the back of my hand, "--they're so helpless, they could have died, Bridger!"

"But they didn't. They're safe now."

I look back at them. The little gray one looks at me and pulls her lips back to show me her tiny teeth and silently hisses. She reminds me of Peyton and I smile at her despite her anger towards me. She – like Peyton – has all the right to be angry at everyone. She has known nothing but fear, but not anymore. She and her siblings come to a warm, loving home and have their bellies full of milk in no time. They won't even remember the time they were stuck in a flimsy box on a busy highway. I'll make sure of it.

Just like how I'm going to make sure that Peyton and the rest of my family will know nothing but peace for the rest of their lives as well.

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Word Count: 4646

Happy New Year's Eve!

Just wanted a cute chapter before shit hits the fan :)

The Cat Distribution System found Kian!!! If you guys have pets, tell me the names of your fur(or scale or feather) babies!!!