FSE

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I missed Freya's advice, and her calm assurances. The few times I'd allowed myself to think about birthing Fen and I's pups, I'd been reassured by the assumption that she'd be there. She'd told me how long I'd be pregnant, when I'd feel certain things. It was hard at first to even believe she was dead. It seemed like she'd just taken a long trip, and she'd be back anytime. I'd think of things I wanted to tell her when I saw her again, and then have to remind myself that was never going to happen.

The first few days were tense, there were several fights. Many had died, and still more suffered in those first few days while the pack pecking order got shuffled around and reestablished. It seemed brutal to me, for people capable of reasoning to act that way. Emmett wasn't disturbed at all though. He was in two more fights, and only received very minor injuries. Of course, he didn't have protective fur or thick werewolf skin, so to receive a good strike from one of them would have been far more devastating than for another werewolf. I'd seen him fight only once at home, but I imagined these battles were far harder and required far more use of his brain to keep himself from harm. Thankfully, Emmett had a good head on his shoulders as well as strength behind him.

I knocked on Em's door, I checked on him every night to be sure he didn't need tending to. Emmett cleared his throat. "I'm fine Ava." He called, voice deeper with whatever trouble he was feeling.

I laid my head against the door, I figured I knew what it was about. "Invite me in Em." I told him soothingly through the door. "I know you're upset."

Emmett grunted. "Fine, come on in then." He was sitting on the bed we'd set up for him, arms crossed behind his head as he sat propped up against the wall. He looked like he might have been crying, but he'd wiped off his face and had a deep, sad frown on his face.

I got up onto the bed with him, sitting, and I took his hand in my lap. "Freya made an impact with a lot of people Em, you don't have to hide that you miss her and feel bad that she's dead."

Emmett forced a small smile. "I didn't know her for very long, I'll be alright Ava. I can't shake some of the rules of home. I wouldn't be allowed to mourn her there, so it feels awkward for me to do so here. Her husband has every right to mourn her."

"And her friends. And you were a friend." I rubbed the back of his hand with my thumb. "A very good friend. It's not as though her husband doesn't know she was closer to some than others, that you and she were close since you'd arrived." I pulled him into a hug. "At least let yourself mourn her when you're alone and when you're with me."

"Alright Ima. Favorite brother." Emmett mumbled against my hair, and I smiled though I knew we were both crying a little. Freya was certainly worth our tears.

At first, I wasn't sure what was happening. About the third or fourth time I felt it in half so many days though, I remembered what Freya a told me about when certain things would happen in my pregnancy. I was feeling the babies move within me, their size having finally gotten large enough that I could feel them. After a few days I knew about when I'd feel them move, that they responded to when I ate and was then still for a while. I found myself eating and then sitting on the couch reading, waiting for the little fluttering kicks.

Something about being able to feel them there and not just the effects they had on my body was exciting. One day I couldn't help myself and I got a very nice, wolf style cradle for the babies that would sit right up against our bed. I lined it with rabbit furs. I sat on Fenrick and I's bed, knitting them a blanket. It wasn't until I heard the front door open and I knew it would be Fen that I blushed, realizing he'd find this sudden interest in the pups odd. "I'm in the bedroom!" I called to him still, knowing he'd be looking for me.

Fenrick walked in, uninjured. Well, not sporting any new injuries. As things began to settle, and he was no longer the hunting party's flogging boy, he was coming home uninjured more and more often. He looked at me, and a wolfish grin lit his features. "That's new." He said, looking at the cradle. "And that is an awful warm smile you have on your face."

"I like when you come home in one piece and I don't have to fetch my sewing kit." I told him teasingly. I pat the bed next to me. "Do you like the cradle? I've seen it a few times at Leila's, and I just had to get it today. I couldn't leave it there anymore. It felt like ours already, with how much I looked at it." I laughed and felt a fluttering kick. "Ooo! Come sit, come sit!" I told him.

He crossed to the bed and sat down next to me, a particularly loving expression warming his gaze as he looked at me. He nuzzled against me as he settled onto the bed at my side. "Can you feel them?" He asked, excitement hidden behind his gruff tones.

"Yes." I said excited. "You might be able to too, that's why I wanted you to sit." I put his hand on my belly, which was now quite noticeable. I had just over a month out of three to go though, and they'd pick up the growing pace during this final stretch, I was told. There was another fluttering under his hand and I grinned at him, lifting my eyebrows in question, hoping he'd felt it.

He didn't have to say anything. He had a large wolfish grin spread across his face. He lowered his muzzle to my stomach and pressed it against my belly as there was another kick. A moment later he lifted his head and pressed it against mine. "Our pups." He said proudly. "I love you, Ava."

I hugged him tightly, pushing my face into the fur of his neck. "It's so exciting." I told him in a whisper. "Still scary, maybe more scary, but it's so exciting." I nuzzled the side of his face. "I love you too."