17 Bullets: becoming the Werewolf Queen

Chapter 31: Glimpse of Black

33 BULLETS

Walking after Thann found out I was pregnant was going at a stinkin' snail's pace. I needed to get back to Molly even more so now that I was having a baby. She'd had two alien babies. She was sure to be able to give me a bit more information on Indawo pregnancies than anyone else.

But Thann hovered over me like a mother hen.

Aww, a mother hen. I missed my chickens.

Focus.

I mean, I guess it makes sense. This will be the third baby on the whole darn planet. Even normal Earth dads hover. My brother waited on his wife hand and foot... well for the first baby anyway.

If I even made a bit of a yawn or looked at a potential seat too long, he would have me laying down for fifteen minutes.

It was tedious.

He was being ridiculous.

We hadn't even made it back to where we camped last in two days.

But I was starting to feel better. The nauseous episodes were getting fewer and far between, but the craving for raw meat was sky rocketing. Though, I hadn't admitted to that one... yet.

This was going to be a long nine months.

Thann seemed so surprised that I agreed to raw meat that day far back, I couldn't imagine him seeing Molly chow down on uncooked hamburger too often.

Maybe he was expecting me to like it, and when I got sick that was the problem.

Who knows?

And while I was feeling better, my pants had grown tighter and tighter. My extra pair of pants wouldn't fit here soon, even unbuttoned.

Was I already showing?

Taking my hundredth break since lunch, I sat on a rock and looked down over my belly. It really did seem like there was a bit of a bump there.

Unbuttoning my pants, I gave my stomach a breather from its entrapment and roamed fingers over the heavy heat there. The heat was growing too. Now it was just over an inch above my belly button and rounding wider on the sides too.

Thann put the packs down and came and kneeled in front of me, hands bracing over the emerging bump. It was becoming his favorite place to be. Night times would have him wrapped around me, hands over my belly and every waking minute between.

I didn't quite mind. I didn't know what the baby thought, but I responded to his heat. It was soothing and peaceful, like a breath of fresh air after a long ocean dive. So I just let him do it whenever he wanted.

I didn't see the big deal about people grabbing your stomach.

But I guess that I've only ever had him around, so I couldn't speak for Earth women.

What was it that my sis-in-law's pregnancy shirt said? 'If you didn't put the baby in, or are going to take it out, don't touch the belly'.

I guess Thann did put the baby in. It was kosher.

Now why was I already having a belly to touch?

"Is it just me, or should I not have to wear maternity pants for like six more months?"

I was what, a week along? Two weeks along?

Counting on my fingers, my period wasn't even due for another seven days. That would barely make the baby setting up camp, right?

It wasn't the first time I desperately wanted to check google.

Only vaguely could I remember my sister-in-law's symptoms and timeline to a pregnancy, but she had a similar size to me and she didn't even begin to show until four months in.