Bear My Babies

“Nice to meet you.”

“This is Leona,” Thomas said, pretending to bite the little girl before he put both girls down. “This is Piper,” he pointed at the baby, “and Rosy,” he put his hand on the smaller blonde’s head. “My brother is around here somewhere—AJ—and my father.” He smiled, obviously proud of his nieces as they ran in circles around his legs.

“Girls, go play outside until dinner time,” Emma said and the two little balls of blonde and pink sprinted toward the back of the house. They went into the kitchen to see if Alma needed help, but she ran them back out to the living room where Thomas’ father sat watching television.

“Dad, this is Melissa. Melissa, this is my father, Harold Macmillan.”

Melissa reached out and shook his hand, smiling warmly. His father returned the handshake but not the smile, and she felt a bit uncomfortable. They all sat on the couch and watched the war program he was viewing until Alma called everyone in for dinner.

AJ joined them and Melissa was amazed at how alike he and Thomas were. They looked the same and had the same mannerisms. There was no denying the two were definitely brothers.

“So Melissa, Thomas tells us you’re a doctor. A fertility doctor at that. Very impressive what you’re doing for the shifter community. What clan is your family from?”

Alma choked on the tea she was sipping and Melissa caught Emma elbowing AJ. There was clearly something going on that she wasn’t aware of. It made her unclear of how she was supposed to answer the question.

“Melissa is a human, AJ,” Thomas said. “She’s not from any clan.”

“Oh, my mistake,” AJ said, looking at his wife accusingly.

They’d kept him out of the loop apparently. Melissa felt the tension around the table as everyone fell quiet except the little chatter boxes at the kid’s table.

Alma finally broke the silence. “Melissa you get to help lots of people conceive and give them a great gift. Are you present for the births?”

“No, I’m usually not there for that part of the fun.” Melissa smiled. “They always bring the babies to see me and give me pictures for my office. It’s great to be a part of their lives.”

The rest of the dinner conversation went by without incident. Everyone avoided the subject of Melissa being a human and she was fine with that. She had always thought weres could smell others of their own kind and hadn’t realized that they really couldn’t tell the difference.

“Okay, now it’s time for the second course. The birthday girl’s spread,” Alma said, getting up from the table. “Emma, will you take our guest out while I have a word with Thomas?”

“Of course, come on, let’s go get sugared up.” She linked arms with Melissa and led her after the three little girls who ran as fast as they could toward the back door.

***

Thomas followed his mother into the kitchen, carrying plates and setting them in the sink. “What do you think of Melissa, Mom?” He’d not been able to really get a read on how she was feeling and that wasn’t usually the case with his mom.

“I like her honey, but I’m worried. I’ve been thinking and there isn’t really anything safe about one of our kind having a child with a human. It’s possible there can be complications and it’s not really a natural way to do things. It was always forbidden when there were still plenty of weres around and I think it might have been forbidden for a reason.”

“I don’t think this kind of old school thinking applies now that there aren’t that many of our kind. You and dad haven’t kept in touch with anyone and I’ve never met another were-bear that wasn’t our family or Emma.”

“That’s true. It’s just a mother’s intuition. I have a feeling there was a reason the elders of our kind banned human and were mating, I just don’t know what it was. I remember hearing that it was dangerous for the human and most of the time they didn’t survive childbirth. My mother didn’t talk about such things because there were plenty of us around, so it wouldn’t be an option. So that was never confirmed to me.”

“I appreciate your concern, but I think we’re going to be fine. When this baby is brought into this world, it will be by someone who does this for a living. She knows fertility and babies of our kind better than anyone.”

Thomas’ head reeled at what his mother had said. Surely Melissa wasn’t in any sort of danger by having their baby. Her drugs must have made it easier for her to deliver. Fear coursed through his veins at the thought of losing Melissa.

He thought of all the problems they’d had to overcome so far, and wondered if he shouldn’t have dragged Melissa into the mess he had. They were always going to have stigma attached to them. It was too late to turn back now.

“So she’s pregnant?”

He smiled at the smile on his mom’s face. It was nice to see she was truly excited to be a grandma again. Who knew, maybe they would be able to produce the first new boy for the MacMillians. He knew his dad would really like that.

“We most likely conceived our child early this week. Congratulations, you are going to be a grandma, probably soon!” As open with her as Thomas was, he wasn’t going to tell his mom that they had s*x only hours before coming to dinner. There were some things parents didn’t need to know.

“If you say it will be okay, then I will believe you. I don’t think I’ll stop worrying about it though. That’s my job.” She reached out and touched his face. “I can’t wait to be a grandma again.”

“I know, Mom, you’re good at that.”

“Worrying, or being a grandmother?”

“Both,” he answered, hugging her tightly.

They went out to the backyard to join the party and Thomas felt a little guilty for not mentioning the men who tried to attack him. He didn’t think they would come after his family, but since he didn’t know that much about them, it would be a good idea to be cautious. He’d let his brother know at least.