The Porch Wolf

Alpha Leo Volkov’s POV

In the morning, we moved Vicki’s car seat to Adrienne’s rental car and loaded up. Adrienne had been queasy at breakfast, and I didn’t want to have them both cooped up in the car for hours on end. Adrienne sat in back with her as they used her phone to plan out the trip. Our first stop was San Antonio, where the zoo had a small aquarium attached.

Now that Adrienne was in the mix, she wanted to visit more than just aquariums. After hearing what she wanted, I had to agree. She wanted to visit some of the country’s famous barbecue places.

Vicki and I were in full agreement with that.

Luckily, San Antonio was less than three hours away. Adrienne was feeling better, and I wanted some authentic Mexican food. We went off a web search and ended up at a small place called El Chivito Tortas Ahogadas. I found out Adrienne spoke fluent Spanish when she and the owner started talking animatedly. “Just find a seat, and I’ll order,” she said. The meal was fantastic; I tried torta ahogada, Argentinian empanadas, and fish tacos. When lunch finished, we checked into a hotel before heading over to the aquarium. “Don’t expect too much compared to some other places,” I told Sharkbait as I paid.

“There’s more to life than just sharks,” Adrienne added. The aquarium had more freshwater exhibits, lemurs, and a stingray and shark lagoon. “Someone stole one of those sharks a few years ago; they grabbed it and put it in a bag in their stroller,” she said.

“Bad people!”

“Yes, very bad.” We spent a lot of time at the touch pool watching the small sharks; a juvenile blacktip, horned shark, bamboo sharks, banded shark, smoothhounds, even a guitarfish. It was only a few feet deep, and kids could lean in and touch them as they swam around. I bought some food, and Vicki got to hand-feed the sharks as they swam by her.

“I want a SHARK,” she said as we washed our hands after we left the exhibit.

“Home aquariums can’t have big sharks,” I said. “You’re not going to have a mature blacktip at home.”

“We need a BIG tank, Unky Leo!” I could just imagine. I was pretty sure that in the next few years, a saltwater aquarium would be in our house, and a small shark would be in it. We spent the afternoon there before her stomach growled. “Barbecue?”

“Of course,” I said. Adrienne had left early to do some shopping, as we didn’t have all the clothes and things we would need for the trip. When she returned, we piled into her car and drove to our first barbecue stop, The Smoke Shack, conveniently located a few blocks away. A classic Texas barbecue, we were soon sitting at a table with a tray loaded with ribs, brisket, pulled pork, and sides.

The only indicator of Vicki’s progress was the growing pile of rib bones in front of her. “Don’t you want to try the brisket or the pork? Maybe some chicken?”

“No, Unky Leo,” she said as she tossed another bone down. Finally, she gave up as Adrienne was packing up the few leftovers. “I’m full,” she said as she came back to the table after going with my mate to wash up.

“That’s too bad. We’ll have to eat dessert on our own.”

Her eyes got wide as she saw the banana pudding coming over, the edges defined with Nilla wafers. “I need a spoon,” she said.

That set the pattern of our next week. We would drive after breakfast to the next place, eating lunch or dinner at a famous barbecue place. The afternoon into the evening would be the aquarium, then dinner before heading to a hotel. On the way to Dallas, we hit up Louie Mueller Barbecue before going to the SeaLife Grapevine. It was a lot like our aquarium back home, and Vicki liked it a lot better. Dinner was at the Cattleack BBQ; their brisket and beef ribs were excellent, and we even got Vicki to eat them. “Man does not live on baby backs alone,” I told her.

“Werewolves could,” she said as she went back to her ribs.

After Dallas, we made a long drive up to Kansas City to make the pilgrimage to Arthur Bryant’s. There, we had the burnt ends, pulled pork sandwiches, and, of course, the ribs. We spent the day at SeaLife Kansas City, alternating who was with Vicki so we could each get some shopping done. After that, it was across the state to St. Louis.

St. Louis was a style of barbecue heavy on the sauce, where Texas was more dry rubs and brisket. We ate lunch at Jone Bar-B-Q. We had to go there for lunch, because the hours were “11 AM until we run out.” We all got ribs, and they were excellent, eaten on picnic tables out front. It would have been easier to tie Vicki to the roof and go through a car wash than to clean her up with wet wipes. That girl got sauce EVERYWHERE.

The fun part was the brand new St. Louis Aquarium. Adrienne and I hadn’t seen the Atlanta Aquarium, so this one was fun to visit. Built at Union Station, a huge train station in the World War Two era, and blended the old and new seamlessly. The Shark Canyon exhibit had 250,000 gallons, making it half the size of the shark exhibit at the Mall of America.

We made it to Chicago on Friday and got a hotel room downtown on the South Loop. When we got to our room, people were waiting for us.

“MOMMY! DADDY!” Vicki ran into the room, jumping into her Mom’s arms as she sat on the bed. “What are you doing here?”

“We couldn’t let you have ALL the fun,” Brent said as she moved to his arms. “I’ve never been to the Shedd Aquarium with a shark expert!” We ended up spending the weekend in Chicago; we visited Shedd on Friday, the Natural History Museum Saturday, and the Museum of Science and Industry on Sunday. “I think I need a vacation from my vacation,” I said.

“There’s one more place to go,” I said. “We’ll get there tomorrow.” We left Monday after breakfast, driving up towards Wisconsin. The SUV was full since Brent and Liv had taken a shuttle to the hotel. Vicki didn’t realize where I was going until I exited 90/94 in the Wisconsin Dells.

“Waterpark?”

“The Great Wolf Lodge. Where else?” We had adjoining rooms again, with Vicki staying with her parents. Vicki swam all afternoon and evening, dinner poolside, and then again in the morning. By the time we left at noon the next day, she was exhausted. “She’s going to sleep the whole way home,” I said as I looked in the mirror at her, already drooling onto her shirt.

“Good,” Liv said. “We’ve had a lot of fun. Thank you for taking her so we could have some alone time.”

“You’re welcome. We enjoyed spending time with our granddaughter.” Her eyes teared up a little; with her father still refusing contact with her, our relationship meant a lot.

“How is it going to work for her now that you two are having a child? Is she still your heir?”

“She will be six years older than both of our children, and who knows what will happen in the next ten to twenty years,” I said. “I can promise you that I will love and protect her as my own. When the time comes, as a mantled Alpha blood female, she will have choices. I will let her make the choice that is best for her.”

“Even if it isn’t your Pack?”

“What if her mate has a pack elsewhere? It’s a lot of unknown. I’d rather that we focus on stabilizing our Pack, rebuilding the company, raising our young, and seeing you two through your pregnancies. I’m far more nervous about Adrienne and our baby than Vicki’s mantle.”

“I’ve been doing some reading, and I’m nervous too,” Adrienne said. “I can’t believe it’s real. I thought I was too old to need birth control.”

“It only takes one,” Brent said. “I’m happy that you and Liv get to be pregnancy buddies, both due in early November.”

“And we’ll be fat and sweaty all summer,” Adrienne complained.

“Beautiful, and the pool will feel so good,” I said.

Adrienne laughed as she remembered something. “You got lucky. When I was pregnant with Anthony, it was winter, and I had a craving for a Dairy Queen Peanut Buster Parfait. He tried five places before I called him back and told him to get me Mexican food instead.” I tried to act relieved. “Don’t worry, when the cravings hit, a mate who wants to have sex again will get it for us.”

“Of course, dear,” Brent said quickly.

“We have our first well-baby visits on Thursday,” Olivia said. “I hope you don’t mind, but with you moving here recently, I didn’t know if you had a doctor. We have appointments right after each other.” She reached her hand out to Adrienne. “Could you be there for mine? My Mom probably won’t be able to get away, and you’ve done this before.”

“Only if you are there for mine,” Adrienne said.

We got home before dinner, and most of the Pack was there to greet us. The children all went downstairs for supervised play while the adults had a meeting upstairs. “In the end, we got what we needed. Miesville is a recognized Pack, Luna Adrienne’s mating is acknowledged, and the Alphas know Vicki is my heir. Also, my brother Ivan is heading to Stillwater to take over that Pack.”

Adrienne pulled Olivia and Brent up next to her. “That doesn’t mean there won’t be changes around here,” she said.

“WE’RE PREGNANT,” Liv said with a huge smile.

“Congratulations, you two,” the ladies said as they descended on Olivia.

“You don’t get it,” Adrienne said. “We are BOTH pregnant. Due in November.”

The house shook with the screams of joy at that one. The broke early, as it was a work night, and we were tired.

I worked Wednesday and took the afternoon off Thursday for the first of our baby appointments. Olivia wanted the two of us in the room for her checkup, and we all had tears seeing the first ultrasound. The waterworks continued with Adrienne’s examination. “The good news is that you are in good health, and many women in their late forties have healthy babies. We will be monitoring you closely, especially as you enter the third trimester,” the doctor said. “Now, let’s take a look, shall we?”

Adrienne lay back on the table as I held her hand, and the doctor started looking with the ultrasound probe. The little black sack came into view, the baby a little bean inside. She printed a photo. “Everything looks normal,” she said, but as she moved the probe around, she stopped again. “Baby number two looks normal, too.”

“WHAT,” Adrienne asked.

“Congratulations, you’re having twins.”

Adrienne stared at her, then looked at me. “I can’t believe you knocked me up with TWINS at the first opportunity,” she said.

“Fraternal twins, too early to tell the sex,” the doctor said. She got a view with both babies and printed that out for us. “I’ll see you in four weeks. Diet, exercise, and neonatal vitamins.”

“Thank you, Doctor.”

She walked out, and we just looked at each other. “We’re gonna need a bigger house,” I said.

The End

Continued in Book 2, Sharkbait