Page 18 of A Pact for Porter

“You’re gonna be a great dad,” I said, snuggling into my mate.

“And so are you.” He kissed my forehead. I loved it when he did that. “So are you.”

I glanced down at the ultrasound picture, the one I’d been clutching since he handed it to us. There were five babies—or, right now, five specks. We were going to be a family of seven. That’s almost a whole pack. I was birthing an entire pack. Or a herd as a group of my people were called. A pack-herd?

Chapter Fifteen

Porter

We always knew we’d have to move. Even before Chip, I had seen it as a possibility, but after we mated, we agreed that it was not our long-term home. We had not planned to make a move so quickly. In fact, even when I put the house on the market, I thought we had plenty of time to make plans. Some of the HOA neighbors had mentioned that properties in our community were sitting on the market for week or even months.

Which was fine with me. It gave us time to find the place we wanted and pack and do a few things around the place before the Realtor scheduled an open house and people came in to see how we really lived. Which was pretty good, but not stranger ready.

So imagine my shock when six hours after it went on the market, Randy the Realtor texted me that we had three offers and they were engaging in a bidding war. Turned out that I had one of the bigger backyards, which I hadn’t realized because I did not stand on the balcony and stare into other people’s private spaces like some I could mention. But that one factor along with a few of the kitchen features and a few upgrades I’d chosen in flooring and window coverings when I bought it made my little home one of the most desirable in not just this community but even the surrounding neighborhood. Which was basically all townhomes.

Three days later, we’d accepted an offer 30 percent over asking price with a 10 percent bonus if we could be out within forty-five days. Talk about frantic! Chip was at Animals, so this project was largely on my shoulders. I packed and sorted and sent him links to homes I thought would meet our needs, but nothing seemed right, and time was winding down. We agreed if we didn’t get the bonus, it would be all right, but I hated to throw it away. And I had to bear in mind that once we found it, we’d be rushing that owner, and I didn’t want to just have to pass our extra 10 percent along to someone else.

Frustration rose, and I was really starting to feel like I was letting my mate down when one morning at work, my phone buzzed, and I looked down to see a link, sent by Chip, to a home he’d heard about from someone at Animals. Someone…Karma. It was everything we’d talked about. Older, it would need some cosmetic work, but all the important things had been updated in the last decade. Plumbing, wiring, heating… I studied the online prospectus and fell in love.

It is currently unoccupied and owned by a pack. The alpha is willing to rent it to us for a month while the paperwork goes through, if you like it.

I don’t like it.

Oh. Never mind then. The disappointment rang even in writing. Sometimes my jokes required translation.

I love it. So. Much. Want me to go look at it?

No. Wait for me.

Chip, timing is everything and that price is great. We don’t want to lose any time.

The door swung open, and Chip stood in the doorway between my office and my PA’. “Then let me pee, and maybe you can take an early lunch?”

Normally, my boss was a stickler for schedules. I could have lunch at any time as long as it was the same time every day. But he’d met Chip and been so charmed by my capybara mate, I said, “On your way back from the bathroom, let the boss know what we’re up to.”

He grinned and disappeared for what was probably his tenth pee of the day.

The house was perfect. I knew it before I even put the car in park. The pack alpha had given him the code for the key box, and they had someone in the pack who would take care of all the transfer documents, saving a big part of the commission. The rooms were big and airy, there were three bathrooms, our minimum requirement with our family going to be large, and when we stepped out the back door, the deal was made. Not only did the roomy yard back up onto pack lands where we could run, but there was a courtyard, and my mate nearly swooned.

We paid full asking, which was very reasonable, and the month’s rent. Chip had to get back to work, but, first, we took the boss out to show him the house and he let me take immediate vacation. I might have used my one favor to get that first trip to Animals, but capybara charm won out every time.

We more than beat the deadline and got our high price plus the rush bonus.

Chip got a courtyard.

Chapter Sixteen

Chip

A logical person who was having five babies and had just moved into a new house would focus on things like getting the kitchen perfect, making sure the nursery and the bedrooms were ready, and that kind of thing. But that wasn’t me. I was too excited about the courtyard. I was going to transform it into a space that was perfect for both capybaras and wolves.

I mean, not super perfect. There wouldn’t be prey for hunting and acres to run, but it’d be a place where we could come out in our animal form and just chill and play and connect.

We went back and forth on whether we wanted to enclose the space so that it could be used year-round, just by adding some sort of a roof to the top, possibly retractable. Ultimately, we decided not to. This would be better. We could be out here during all of the seasons.

“What are you working on?” Porter came up from behind me, rested his chin on my shoulder, and looked down at the tablet I was drawing on.

“There’s so much potential here, and I want be able to use this space wisely so we have room to run around as well as just relax.” I looked down at my plan. “But also, I wanted it to be pretty, and possibly a place to entertain friends on occasion.”