#Chapter 474 – Sharing the News Ella
“Cora?” I gasp the minute I get the phone to my ear, still scrambling out of bed and tangled in the sheets.
“Hey, Ells,” she says, her voice somehow both tight and bored at once. “Sorry to wake you up – ”
“You didn’t wake me – ” I say quickly, reaching for Rafe in his crib and scooping him up in my arms. Behind me, I hear Sinclair climbing out of bed too, coming to my side.
“I didn’t?” Cora asks. “Why actually.” Her voice goes stony. “Don’t tell me. Knowing you and Dominic, I probably don’t want to know.”
A little laugh bursts from me as I shake my head, trying to get back on track with this conversation. “Cora,” I say, looking down at Rafe’s bright, wide -awake face, “what’s up? Why are you calling? Is the baby -”
“Yeah,” she says on a sigh. “Roger insisted I call. Baby’s on its way!”
“Oh my god!” I shriek, spinning to Sinclair and beaming at him for the second time this morning. “It’s time for the baby! We’ll come right away -”
“No, take your time,” she says on a sigh and I frown at her even though she can’t see me.
“Cora, what is going on? Why are you calling in the middle of the night for us to come but then also telling us not to hurry?”
“Because my stupid mate made me call you,” Cora says, her voice annoyed. She lowers her voice to a whisper. ” He’s completely freaking out, Ells, even though everything is progressing totally normally -”
“Awww,” I say, passing Rafe to Sinclair’s waiting hands and smiling up at him. “Go easy on him, Cora! He’s a first-time dad!”
“And a last time dad,” she mutters, making me laugh again, “if he’s this annoying every time I go into labor.”
“Okay, well, should we come?” I ask, looking up into Sinclair’s face, a silent question in my eyes. Can we go? Is there any pressing national business that means we need to stay back? Sinclair nods eagerly to me, letting me know we can.
“Yeah,” she says on another sigh. “Do you mind? Honestly, Ella, I don’t think my body is anywhere close to ready to push but Roger just wants everything in place.”
“Okay,” I say cheerfully, nodding up to Sinclair who gives me a wink and starts to walk away to the closet to get himself and Rafe dressed. “Honestly, Cora, if he’s freaking out this much how did you ever talk him into a home birth?”
“Well now he’s trying to talk me out of it – anyway,” she sighs, “will you just come?”
I grin as I hear Roger yelling something in the background, his voice thick with anxiety though I can’t hear what he’s saying. My heart swells a little for my secretly-sweet brother-in- law, who I know has his whole heart wrapped up in what’s happening today.
“Yup,” I say, “we’ll be there as soon as we can. And we’ll let Henry know too.”
“Okayyy,” Cora says on a sigh. “See you in a bit!”
“Excited!” I call through the phone before hanging up and tossing it onto the bed. Then I practically skip into the closet in my excitement, going immediately to Sinclair’s side and wrapping my arms around his waist, grinning up at him.
“Is Cora all right?” he asks, cupping my face in his palm.
“I think so,” I say, nodding up at him. “Apparently she’s still got time – Roger’s just freaking out.”
“Of course he is,” Sinclair says with a laugh. “Roger’s great under pressure except when it comes to things that are completely out of his control. It’s going to drive him crazy to have to watch Cora have to go through a great deal of labor and pain and not be able do anything about it.”
“That’s so weird, but also so sweet,” I say, nodding and pressing a quick kiss to his chest before flitting off to my side of the closet and selecting some clothes that I hastily pull on. When I’m ready, I turn to take the half-dressed baby from my half-dressed mate and finish getting Rafe all wrapped up in cozy layers.
“Are you ready to meet your little cousin, Rafe?” I coo to him, plucking a little squeeze pouch of baby food off its place on the shelf and sitting down with him in our little arm chair so he can have something to eat while Sinclair finishes getting ready. “And then, in a couple of months, your little baby sister?”
Rafe grins at me and I laugh, because the way he looks at me when I talk – god, it’s as if he’s already starting to understand.
I spend a few quiet moments with my son, thinking about how he’s going to react when there’s a little baby around –
And quite suddenly my eyes fill with tears when I realize that in my mind I’ve already stopped thinking about Rafe as The Baby
That the title has already passed to my little girl
“What is it?” Sinclair asks, and I whip my head up to see that I was so lost in my thoughts that I didn’t even notice when he walked over to me.
“Rafe’s not the baby anymore,” I say, sniffing even as I laugh at my own ridiculousness. “I didn’t even think about that “
“Of course he is,” Sinclair says, smiling sympathetically at me and taking Rafe from my arms. “He’s always the baby.”
“He’s already so big!” I insist, gesturing towards him. “He was trying to stand up in his crib today! And now that there’s a Sinclair cousin coming today – and another baby on the way “the tears start to spill down my cheeks and I press my hands to my poor mother’s heart. “Oh, he won’t be the baby anymore! He’s the eldest!”
Sinclair laughs at me a little, shaking his head. “He’s always our baby, Ella. You know that. He can be both.”
I stand quickly, reaching for my baby boy and clutching him protectively to my chest when my mate hands him back to me. I shake my head as I look up at Sinclair. “It’s just all going so fast…”
“Life has a habit of doing that,” Sinclair murmurs, stepping close and wiping my tears away with his thumb. ” But if it didn’t, you won’t get to live it.”
I nod, sighing and looking down at Rafe, who looks up at me with curious and interested green eyes. I can’t help but smile at him and press a quick kiss to his head. Then I look back up at his father. “Let’s not tell anyone about the new baby yet, all right?” I say quietly, sniffing back the last of my sentimental tears. “Let Cora have her day.”
“It’s a good idea,” Sinclair says, wrapping an arm around my shoulders and pressing a kiss to my forehead. ” Though Roger will probably be able to smell it on you.”
“Do I already smell different?” I ask, my eyes going wide. I am, at best, a few days pregnant – honestly, even if that.
Sinclair sniffs the air around me lightly, experimental. “A little,” he says with a shrug. “It’s subtle, and Roger will be distracted, but yes, Ella, any wolf who gets close enough to you is going to be able to tell that you’re carrying my pup.”
“Weird,” I say, looking down at myself and sniffing. “Why can’t I smell it?”
“I don’t know,” he says, his mind already moving towards other things as he starts to look towards the closet door. “Can you usually smell yourself?”
“I don’t know…” I say, honestly thinking about it. Seriously, I’ve known I’m a wolf for a while now, but it’s still weird. “Can Rafe smell the baby on me?”
Sinclair laughs, tugging me along with him as he starts out of the closet and we cross to the door of our room. “I don’t know, ask him.”
So I do, babbling a little to my sweet baby as we walk down the hall. But of course he doesn’t respond with his own words, though he sends a great deal of happiness down our bond and reaches out his hands to me, trying to touch my face and making me laugh.
I’m quite full with happiness as Sinclair and I climb into one of the cars in the garage downstairs, surprising the poor sleepy attendants who rush to get it ready for us. But even with the little delay, we’re on the road in a few minutes, heading to Cora’s house to help her, and calm her mate, and greet the new little Sinclair baby.
