Above is Marigold^^^^ 😊 Hope you enjoy!
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Marcus

The scent of wildflowers, clover, and fresh cut grass fills my nose, the glorious aroma waking me from my slumber...I open my eyes to find its source, my wolf impatient with my delayed efforts.

When they finally open, I find myself staring up at the ceiling of an unfamiliar room...blinking against the bright lights and equally bright walls. It looks like a hospital room...why am I in here?

The scent overpowers the need to answer that question though, and I don't have to look far to find it.

Curled up next to me, a little she wolf with blonde hair sleeps soundly, the golden locks covering her face. I go to reach a hand towards her face, to remove the obstruction that's blocking my view, but I look to see my arm up in a sling. Frustrated, I reach with my other hand and push the hair out of her face, and I purr at the sight of baby pink lips and freckles...

She's perfect...

~mate...~

My wolf purrs again, and I trace over her features gently, planning to burn them to memory. But she begins to stir, shifting against my bandaged chest, making the exposed skin erupt with tiny sparks...

After all these years, I've finally found her...

Her eyes flutter open, and the hazel green depths widen as she catches me staring at her. I smile widely, tucking a strand of hair behind her ear.

"Hello my love..." I murmur, and her answering smile is practically luminescent. She carefully hugs me, nuzzling her nose into my neck and shoulder affectionately...her almost puppy like behavior making me chuckle.

"You are so adorable..."

She raises her head to look at me, and her hands move to my face and trace over the old scars, and my mouth. I catch her wrist and press a kiss to her palm, resulting in a vibrant blush that brings a low growl to my chest.

"My name is Marcus...what is yours?"

Her eyes narrow, and her hands clench and unclench with obvious stress. She opens her mouth only to close it again, and her frustration is plainly obvious.

"Darling, it's okay...you don't need to stress..."

She takes my outstretched hand in both of her own...her perplexed and conflicted expression worrying me greatly.

"What is it love? What are you trying to say?"

She lets out a quiet sigh, and gestures towards her ears...and I tilt my head to the side as I try to translate her charades...

"Your ears..."

She nods, then immediately crosses her arms to form a giant 'X'.

"No.."

She returns to pointing to her ears and making the 'X' with her arms.

"Your ears can't..can't..."

I go over it a couple of times before it hits me...she can't hear...my mate is deaf...

"You're deaf my love?"

She nods, a timid look in her eyes, her shoulders hunched as if she's waiting for something to happen...

She thinks I'm going to reject her...

"Don't be scared darling, it's ok...I'm not going to reject you..."

A look of relief washes over her face, and a sudden thought comes to mind.

"Wait...how can you...?"

She blinks a couple of times, then smiles like she thought of something funny. She taps her pointer finger on my lips, and I understand.

"Of course...you can read lips."

She grins, and I chuckle, which sends a bit of pain through my ribs. She touches my chest softly, worried about me.

"I'm fine darling...but I was wondering if you could spell your name out for me?"

She nods and flattens out the palm of my hand, and I pay close attention as she uses her finger as a pencil.

M-a-r-i-g-o-l-d

Marigold...

"That's a beautiful name mate..."

She blushes again, and I cup her cheek in my free hand.

"I've been waiting for you for a long time...I hope you know that..."

She leans into my touch, and her wolf lets out a rumble of a purr...as does mine.

"It's good to see you awake Marcus."

I look to see Katrina standing at the edge of my hospital bed, her face tired but relieved.

"Luna Katrina?"

I try to sit up in my Luna's presence, but the pain that seizes my chest hurts too much. I feel Marigold ease me back against the pillow, and I grunt in frustration. I don't like being like this, rendered to a bed and incapable of even sitting up.

"Marcus, please, just rest. You've taken quite a bit of damage, you need time to heal. Actually, if it wasn't for Marigold here, you would have bled out before the reinforcements got to you."

I look to my mate in awe, an embarrassed look on her face. I take her chin and turn her face back to me, the fuzzy memory of a blonde wolf and then a blonde girl standing over me as my consciousness faded...Marigold was her...

"You saved me darling?"

She nods, and a warm sensation floods my chest.

"Thank you my love."

She shyly nuzzles my cheek, and I suddenly remember my Luna is in the room when her soft chuckle echoes through the room.

"It seems that you don't have to worry about being bored Marc, for I'm sure that your mate will make sure to keep you too busy to think about getting up. And, I would be happy to help teach you sign language...to help you communicate with Marigold if you like. It certainly would pass the time."

She looks at us with a happy smile, an amused twinkle in her eyes.

"Thank you Luna, I would appreciate that very much."

She sighs. "What have I told you about that? You don't have to be so formal, just Katrina is fine."

She waves off my protests as she walks out, leaving me alone with Mari again.

"Now darling, please tell me about yourself."

Adrienne

I pace back and forth anxiously, my feet moving just as fast as my racing thoughts.

What do I do? How am I going to break this? We're in the middle of a war! How am I going to handle this?

I glance back at the bathroom briefly before returning to my anxious pacing. Ezekiel will be home shortly, and then I have my shift at the infirmary in two hours...I don't know how I'm going to tell them...

I mean, it's not like we've done anything wrong...it's completely natural for mates to go through this important, almost expected stage of their relationship. But to do so when we have a pack of cannibals at our door? Chomping at the bit and foaming at the mouth to destroy us at a moments notice? It couldn't come at a worse possible time...

After meeting my beloved mate Ezekiel in Paris, things moved pretty quickly...especially compared to Kat and Seth's relationship. We marked and mated with each other within the first couple of days...and after we officially settled into our new house in Red Fang, things picked right up where we left off...

So I really shouldn't be surprised that I'm pregnant...

I sigh and look down at my currently flat stomach, which means the pregnancy is in the fairly early stages...most likely only a couple of days along...and considering Ezekiel's Alpha blood, it will be a fairly short pregnancy...4 months at most...

Which means I won't be able to keep this a secret, I'll start showing in at least three weeks...

But then again that was never an option. I'm not going to keep this a secret, it's too important, especially to Ezekiel. These are our pups, I can't hide this from him...and I certainly can't hide it from Katrina, she's going to be the aunt after all...

But Goddess...why now?

~You know exactly why, because as fine as our mate is we can't keep our paws off of him!!~ My wolf Ira answers, and I quickly tell her to stick a sock in it.

"Adrienne? I'm home my dove! Where are you?"

I swallow hard. Well, it's now or never.

"I'm upstairs baby!"

The sound of my mates footsteps echo up the stairs, and I take one last calming breath before he clears them.

"There you are dove, I've missed you today."

His arms circle around my waist from behind, and his purring growl reverberates through his chest and mine as I lean into his touch. He gently grazes over my mark, and I shiver as his warm breath hits my skin, leaving goosebumps and a tiny blush in its wake.

"How was your day baby?" I murmur, his nose skimming up and down my neck. After he had become an official member of Red Fang, Alpha Seth offered him the position of Delta, a position that involves keeping peaceful relations with packs in the US, and other countries. Being Delta does keep him a bit busy, but he always finds time to see me at the pack clinic and most of the time he can work from home. He's really good at it too, having his connections to packs overseas, and it helps minimize the work load of my sister and her mate.

"It was good, but it's much better now that I'm with you dove."

I turn around in his hold and stretch up on my toes to press a kiss to his lips, but with his height, he still has to lean down so I can reach him. I tangle my fingers in the soft curls of his dark brown hair, and his answering growl of approval makes me shiver.

"I see you've missed me as well, dove..." His husky voice whispers in my ear, and the feeling of my legs being lifted out from under me makes me squeak in surprise.

"Perhaps I can remedy that..."

He nips at my ear teasingly, and I almost allow myself to get swept away yet again in his heated touch...almost. When he sits me on the nearby desk, his hands trace up my stomach...and that's when I remember what I have to tell him...which is frustrating because I'm really enjoying myself right now.

"Baby...I-I have to tell you something important..." I pant out after I manage to halt his hands, and he looks up at me with concern, no doubt caused by the tone of my voice.

"It's nothing bad, I promise!! It's just really important." I reassure, and his worried gaze lessens a bit. I hop off of the desk and dart to the bathroom, grabbing one of the four pregnancy tests that indicated positive. I had ran multiple, to make sure it wasn't a mistake, and all of them ended up saying the same thing. Sighing, I return to Ezekiel slowly, keeping the test out of his sight.

"Dove, what is it? You're worrying me."

I sigh again and look up into his blue eyes, blindly placing the test into his hand. He looks down at the stick I gave him, and freezes, just staring at the little thing for a few moments.

"Is this...? Does this mean...? Are you?"

He looks back up at me, the excitement on his face about to burst from the seams. I nod, and then yelp in surprise as I find myself lifted off the ground and being swung around in circles, Ezekiel's strong arms holding me in the air.

"You're pregnant Dove!! With my pups!!!"

I bounce a little as I gently hit our bed, laying on my back as I gaze up at my beaming mate.

"I'm going to be a father?" He asks in wonder.

I giggle. "Yes, I took four different ones, you are definitely going to be a dad."

I laugh as he showers my face with kisses, his happy purr tickling my face. He moves down to my stomach, lifting my t-shirt and planting a gentle kiss right above my belly button.

"Hello little one."

I giggle as he talks to my flat belly.

"I'm only a couple of days along Baby, he can't hear you yet."

He nuzzles his cheek against my stomach, and I swoon at his gentle affection. This is a complete 180 to the formal, professional man he is in public...it's touching to see.

"It doesn't matter, I'll be talking to your belly so much that people will think I'm crazy."

He presses another kiss to my naval, and I silently wonder how I ever got so lucky.