witch hazel
chapter 3 part 7
Benita was past the point of trying to be sexy. She was big as a whale and felt like it too. It had advanced to the stage of ‘if I can get it on with minimum struggle, I’ll wear it, to hell with matching colors or patterns.'
“Why are you wearing my grandma’s old sweater?”
“Because your grandma, bless her, was a fattie like me and it fits.” Benita shoveled waffles into her mouth, pushing her hair out of her face with her free hand. It was a mess and she was too tired to care.
“You’re not fat,” Leonardo protested. “You’re gorgeous. I’m going to take you shopping.”
“Don’t bother, unless you’re taking me to the grocery store,” she crammed another mouthful in. She’d only half chewed that when she was taking another, and Leo watched with mixed amusement and concern. “We’re out of hot sauce, by the way.”
Leonardo groaned. She’d been eating hot sauce on everything. Hot sauce ice cream. Hot sauce pickles. Hot sauce eggs. Hot sauce chili. He wondered if the baby was a wolf or a dragon with as much spice as she was craving. He caught her eating habaneros out of the fridge the night before. “I’ll buy another crate on my way home from work.”
“Be careful at work,” she said as he got ready to head out the door to his car pool. “I’ll miss you.”
“I’m always careful,” he smiled, straightening his tie. “Be good for me. I’ll make you dinner when I get home, okay?”
“I’ll hold you to that.” Benita pulled him down to her level for a kiss.
With Leonardo rushing off to catch his ride, Benita wobbled back up the stairs and collapsed in the rocker she’d not yet gotten a chance to use.
“Oh, this thing is nice.”
If she caught her man napping in it now, the fight would be real.
Benita went out to buy a few things while Leo was at work and met Sigrun, the Alpha’s wife, outside the bookstore.
“Oh my goodness, look at you!” Sigrun exclaimed. “You’re huge!”
“Wow. Thanks for that,” Benita mumbled sarcastically. “Everyone’s huge compared to you, you’re skin and bones.” Ordinarily that remark might not have emerged but pregnancy hormones made her crabby.
“I’m sorry,” chuckled the blond. “Can I feel?”
“May as well,” Benita put her hands on her hips. “Little monster’s kicking up a storm.”
Diego: Leonardo, are you in there?! It looks like she swallowed you whole!
Benita: You ass.
Diego: Stay calm! I’ll slay the beast and get you out!
Sigrun: Baby you’re hotter than hot.
Diego: oh poptart, you scandalous thing.
Benita found that as time went on and she got bigger, she spent more and more time exhausted from the effort of keeping her body upright. Her little gander on the town completely exhausted her, so she crawled into bed to nap and wait for her man to come home.
She might have cried a little that they didn’t have hot sauce.
“Gods above, we just bought this thing, why is it already broken?” muttered Leonardo as he crawled on his hands and knees in the kitchen. “Useless modern technology. Nothing made worth a shit anymore. I swear kids these days don’t know what they’re doing.” He continued his old man rant under his breath as he fiddled with the device, trying to discern the problem.
"Damnit, I think there’s something in the filter. Benita can you pass me the screwdriver? Benita?“ He looked up and around, issuing a disgruntled snort when he realized she’d ditched him. He rummaged in his toolbox for the screwdriver, muttering to himself, "I feel so loved. I brought home a crate of hot sauce to make my wife happy and she won’t even keep me company while I repair everything she broke during my work day.”
The missing wife was upstairs in her new favorite chair, comfy with a book and a tummy full of whatever nasty craving she’d had. Ignorance is bliss as they say, and she smiled as she turned a page, thinking to herself what a good man she’d found. He was such a patient sweetheart.
Diego came over to visit his family and was subjected to a somewhat invasive sniffing.
“Why do you smell like the alpha’s mate?” Leonardo growled. Surely his brother wasn’t that dumb.
