Alpha Markus
Chapter 74

Celeste P.O.V.

It was day 4 of our fight and I was done. I had lost steam and had realized that while I was right to be angry, I might have over reacted a little. I could see how everyone was miserable over the last couple of days, but I needed to find a way to express what I needed. I couldn’t and wouldn’t let anyone make decisions for me. I deserved to know what was happening. How can I protect myself if I don’t know the threats? Being a delicate porcelain doll wasn’t really my thing and what hurt the most was that everyone was treating me as such. Markus was supposed to be my partner, not my parent or my keeper.

Even Kara, who had wanted to do unspeakable things to Markus and Atlas’ manhood, was feeling a little sheepish at her reaction. Atlas had stopped trying to link her and it made her sad. We had agreed that the pregnancy hormones were likely part of the issue and we decided to ask Markus to come with us to the next doctor’s appointment. The office door had been partially open and I heard Markus telling Danny that he wouldn’t be making any decisions for me anymore. That he’d made a mistake not telling me about Sandra. With a little pushing from Kara, we flew into the room and onto his chest. We’d missed him and we didn’t care that Danny and Gillian saw how we threw ourselves at our mate.

Now I was cooking dinner. Everyone in the Packhouse seemed happy to see me back out of my room. I’d had plenty of offers to help but I’d grown close to Melissa in the past few days, so I’d taken her on as my apprentice. She seemed to be enjoying it, having never been allowed to touch anything that wasn’t bleach at B***d Moon.

Danny and Gillian came into the room. They kind of shuffled their feet from one side as they elbowed each other, trying to decide who would speak first. I rolled my eyes, amused at their antics. I pushed forward a batch of brownies I had made earlier for the kids at the Packhouse at them. They grinned and grabbed the container, sitting on the kitchen counter as they talked to me about what had been happening with the girls’ training and who was improving the most. I was turned to the stove when I felt a set of delicate arms around me. I turned and hugged Maya back. She was close to tears, “Hey, it’s OK. Sorry I was a b***h. I claim pregnancy as my defense,” I chuckled at her.

“You’ve never been mad at me before,” she said.

“And I have a feeling it might be a long 4 months for all of you,” I teased her and she laughed. She went over and sat on Danny’s lap and started eating brownies.

“Aren’t you guys eating dinner?” Melissa eyed them as they wolfed down most of the batch while she chopped mushrooms and sundried tomatoes.

“Of course, Celeste is cooking. Who would miss that,” Gillian spoke with his mouth full.

“How are you able to fit all of that plus dinner?” She asked.

“Their stomach is bigger and they have their wolf,” I told her. “They need more calories because they burn so much more. You will see. You will be eating lots once your stomach is used to it and then even more after you get your wolf,” I said as we continued to prep.

We went in to dinner and the girls were very excited about having my food. They had only ever had scraps or bites of it before. I sat with Markus and we talked pleasantly about the trip. Danny and Maya now knew they were not coming. They were OK with staying to take care of things as long as we promised they could go the next time. Maya looked nervous about being in charge for a week.

‘You will be fine. You got this,’ I reassured her, ‘The girls are lucky to have you in their corner.’

She smiled at me and gave me a quick nod.

—

The next week passed by quickly. Lacey had finally woken up and while she couldn’t confirm a mate bond because she didn’t have her wolf, she did feel safer when Richard was around. We allowed them to keep their side by side rooms, though Markus assured me he had spoken to Richard about the fact that Lacey was still a minor.

We were heading to a remote area about 2 hours southeast of Mexico City near Parque Nacional El Tepozteco. The pack was even more remote and we would be surrounded by volcanos. Communication was not going to be easy, so we were trying to arrange everything before we left. Gillian was practicing his Spanish every day. I could hear him walking around with his phone in his hand and headphones on repeating phrases. Markus….was trying, but goddess knew it was almost a lost cause, so I was teaching him just basics. It wasn’t like my Spanish was perfect. I’d barely used it since my parents died, but I had tried to talk to myself in Spanish and had found a couple of books to help me practice it when I had free time at B***d Moon, so I was fairly confident I would at least be able to hold some sort of conversation with them.

It was the day before we were scheduled to leave and we were in Dr West’s office. I had been cleared to travel already but this was so we could find out the gender of the pups. The Dr came in as I was laying down on the bed and lifting my shirt to reveal my stomach. Because I was having Alpha pups and two of them, it was definitely growing steadily, much to the pride and delight of Markus and Atlas.

“Good Morning Luna, Alpha. Ready to see the genders of the future leaders of the Pack?” He asked with a smile as he set up the ultrasound machine.

“I will be happy as long as they are heal-“ Markus started saying again, and was interrupted by the door to the appointment room opening. Danny and Gillian came in, followed by Maya, Alexander, and Marie. Markus was on alert immediately, “What happened?” he asked, moving to the other side of the bed to protect me.

“Happened? What? Oh no, nothing happening.” Danny said, looking at the ultrasound machine and the probe still in Dr. West’s hands

“We didn’t want to miss the gender reveal,” Gillian said, his eyes twinkling with excitement. I couldn’t help but smile. I already knew they had an ulterior motive.

Markus rolled his eyes and moved back to the other side of the bed as the others scooted closer. I saw Melissa, Gabriel, Zack and a few other warriors outside the door. “We were going to tell everyone,” Markus sighed, “You don’t all need to be here.” I giggled.

“This will be cold Luna,” Dr West said as he turned on the monitors. I saw Melissa, Zack and Gabriel trying to sneak their heads in the door without actually being inside and I laughed as the cold gel was put on my stomach.

“You may as well get in here before you fall sideways,” I told them and they blushed and walked inside.

Dr West put the probe on my stomach and after a bit of probing up and down, a clear black and white image of one of the twins came into view. The entire room started cooing but were in silent awe the moment Dr. West turned on the sound and the loud heartbeat echoed through the speakers. He started shifting the probe, trying to get a picture of the gender.

“Well Alpha, it looks like our first heir is a girl,” he said, and Markus’ entire face lit up. He bent down to k**s me as we heard many excited voices on our side, but we paid them no mind. Dr West was now looking for pup number two. Another strong heartbeat sounded and everyone held their breath. I smiled.

“Our second heir,” he said pointing at the monitor, “Appears to be a very unbashful Alpha male,” he finished, laughing. It was true. The pup’s legs were basically opened wide for all to see. Markus looked like he’d won the lottery.

“I get one of each!” He howled happily. Suddenly, our moment was interrupted by a couple of “Whooo!” followed by a couple of g****s not only in the room but outside the doors.

We turned to look and saw Gillian, Danny, Maya and Marie were pulling out their wallets while, Melissa, Gabriel and Alexander were holding out their hands with big grins. Zack’s money is already out and splits it between the three. I turned back to look at Markus, who was looking at everyone with his jaw open.

“You bet on our pups!?” He whispered in a cold, deadly voice. Everyone stopped and turned to look at us. It was funny to see the moment each realized they might be in trouble. Maya slowly moved behind Danny, and Marie blushed.

Gillian’s phone rang and he must have thought that would diffuse the situation because seconds later Kelly’s voice could be heard screaming, “Boy and Girl! Boy and Girl! I told you it wouldn’t be all boys. You are paying my share, there’s no way her butt would give away the gender with twins!” Gillian paled as he pushed the end call button when Markus let out a growl.

“YOU LOOKED AT MY MATE’S BUTT?” Markus half growled. I was trying really hard not to laugh at this point, but then Melissa slowly inched over to my end and handed me half her share of the money. Markus’ eyes snapped down to the money that was now in my hand and then looked at me.

“You too?” he said.

I burst out laughing. “I mean, I’m growing them…..”I said and I had tears in my eyes. “I didn’t bet,” I explained, “Melissa doesn’t have money so I told her I’d give her the money if she lost but she’d have to give me half if she won.” Even Dr. West was laughing by now.

Markus shook his head and smiled. “And here I thought everyone was just excited to see what we were having,” he chuckled as he cleaned the gel off my stomach.

“Oh we are!” Alexander was quick to talk, “We just thought a little healthy competition to see who could guess the genders right would be fun. This one isn’t 1 in two, it’s more like 1 in 3. It’s more exciting,” while the rest nodded enthusiastically.

“Mhmm,” Markus said as he took the money in my hand.

“Hey!” I protested.

“What, I helped make them, half of it is mine,” he said as he gave me back half of my half.

I rolled my eyes as sat up and I gave them the money back to Melissa. “Congrats on guessing right. Maybe Maya can take you to buy something with your winnings while we’re away.”

Her eyes lit up at that and then her jaw dropped when Markus and Alexander and Gabriel gave her their parts. She gave me a big hug and then ran out screaming, “I’m going to buy icecream and a proper sketchbook!”

“Well that’s the show folks,” Dr West said. “Now out so I can finish my consult,” he shooed them out of the room.