Chapter Seven- The Pregnancy
Joey awoke on the morning after the third full moon to find himself alone and sunlight streaming through the curtains. He looked to see a breakfast tray sitting on the desk with the chair pulled up so he could sit and eat at the desk. He jumped out of bed and onto the chair to check out the tray. He saw a bowl of water next to a platter heaped with smoked sausage links. Joey licked his chops before consuming the sausages and lapping up some water. I wonder why Seto had only sausages prepared. Is it because I'm a wolf and wolves love meat? Ah, who cares? That meat hit the spot.
With breakfast taken care of, Joey wondered around the room looking for something to do. His tail swished as he paced back and forth, his head swiveling around the room. There was nothing for him to do, at least nothing that he could see! He curled up on the bed and decided that he could just take a nap. His eyes roamed the room and settled on the closed curtains, the sun shining behind them. The sounds of the city outside reached his ears and his thoughts strayed to his friends.
They're probably wondering if I'm sick or something. That's most likely what I'll tell them when I go back to school. I think I'll ask Seto to look up some kind of sickness that could keep a person in bed for two months. His eyes slid closed and a soft sigh escaped as he drifted off the sleep.
The sound of the door opening reached his ears and he opened his eyes blearily to see Mokuba easing into the room with a tray in his hands and shutting the door with his foot. "Hi, Joey," the boy said. "Lunchtime."
"What time is it, exactly?" Joey asked as he got up and stretched before jumping down.
"About one in the afternoon."
Joey narrowed his eyes at Mokuba. "Shouldn't you be in school?"
"I choose whether to be home-schooled or attend the public school whenever I want. I figured since you're a wolf for two months, I'm going to be home-schooled and one o'clock is usually lunchtime. I go back to my lessons in about thirty minutes and I thought you could use some company."
"Could I ever! I've got nothing to do but sleep, though that's probably good for the pups." Joey sat beside the chair as Mokuba took his food off the tray before setting it in front the gold wolf. There was silence for several minutes before the young boy spoke.
"Uh, Joey, I was wondering. What's it like being a wolf?"
Joey swallowed a bite of hamburger before saying, "Good question. I kind of like it. I mean, there's the enhanced senses and being stronger than usual as well as having a tail and moving gracefully. Of course, choosing when to change is cool, the involuntary change on the full moon is not so cool. I can't say I like being a pregnant wolf." He looked up at Mokuba. "You're not thinking of changing into a wolf too, are ya? 'Cause I don't think your brother would like that."
Mokuba laughed. "No way! I'm just wondering and I thought you could tell me what it's like."
"Well, did I answer your question?"
"Oh, yeah. You told me plenty. You said it's cool, but there are some bad things about it. I'm pretty sure I don't want to be a wolf."
"Good." Joey returned to his food and silence dominated the room again. He soon found himself alone again, but Mokuba had turned on the TV before he left and had fished out the remote so Joey could change the channel using his claws. He sighed happily as he now had something to occupy him. However, he knew he was going to need more than a TV to entertain him while he waited for the pups to be born.
Seto approached his bedroom in the late afternoon and heard the sounds of the TV from behind the door. He opened the door to see Joey asleep on the bed, the remote next to him and the TV playing a movie. He smirked at this scene before switching the set off which roused Joey from his slumber. He focused on Seto and his tail swished happily at the sight of his mate. "Welcome home, Seto."
"Thanks, Joey. Have you been watching TV all this time?" He scratched the wolf's ears.
"Only since after lunch. Mokuba had lunch in here with me, figured I could use some company."
"Ah. Perhaps I should hook up a laptop to relieve some boredom. Would you like that?"
"Sounds good. I want to find a disease to explain my absence from school."
"There's no need. I called them this morning to say that you have mono, which lasts two to three months."
"Really? Wow, thanks!"
Seto shrugged. "No problem. I needed to give them a real illness instead of being vague, otherwise they would have been suspicious."
Seto did hook up a laptop for Joey to use two days later. The gold wolf loved playing the games installed on it once he figured out how to use the mouse with his paws and claws. He would also explore the Internet, sticking to news site as well as gaming and video sites. He even started a word document in the form of a journal. He asked Seto one afternoon about protecting his journal so that no one else could read it and soon Joey's journal was password-protected. Of course, Joey didn't spend all his time on the computer. He watched some TV, but spent most of his time sleeping as his pregnancy progressed. His appetite also increased as did his desire for meat.
Seto kept his word of changing to a wolf at night and found Joey to be overly affectionate at bedtime. The brown wolf found himself being snuggled by his mate; at first this annoyed him and would try to edge away from Joey, but when Joey whined sadly it almost broke his heart at its sound. He consented to Joey's desires and soon found that he rather enjoyed the two of them curled up against each other. It was this position that Seto found himself in when he awoke on Joey's fifth week of pregnancy.
He opened his eyes to see Joey's furry side in front of him and the feel of fur under his chin. That's right. I had put my head on Joey's side close to his stomach just to feel the pups' movements. I guess it was so soothing that I fell asleep, not that Joey minded. Seto sat up, stretched, and shifted to human before getting up to get dressed and head downstairs to get some breakfast and bring Joey's up before leaving for work.
Yugi looked up at the huge mansion and licked his dry lips. Joey had been absent for a little over a month and he and the others were growing concerned. It wasn't like Joey to miss school for so long; a few days sure, but not a few weeks. They called his home, but he wasn't there and oddly enough Mr. Wheeler's reply had been that no one named Joey lived there. Yugi therefore decided to ask Kaiba if he had seen Joey lately since he could think of no one else to ask. He rang the bell and when the butler answered, he asked to see Kaiba. He was led to Kaiba's bedroom door and left there by himself. He took a deep breath and slowly released before knocking.
He opened the door and walked in a couple of feet before a low sound caused him to freeze in surprise. There was a large dog in the room and it, no, she was pregnant and none too pleased to see him. Yugi backed away from the growling, pregnant dog. It was clear to him that she viewed him as an enemy and was warning him off in order to protect herself and her unborn pups. He had been directed to Kaiba's bedroom and had opened the door to find this large, golden dog lying on the bed before said dog leaped off the bed and started growling at him.
"Yugi, what are you doing here?" came Kaiba's voice from the hall before Yugi felt himself being dragged from the room and the door being pulled closed. The short duelist turned around to see Kaiba looking sternly at him.
"I-I was wondering if you had seen Joey. He hasn't been to class in weeks."
Kaiba scowled and answered sarcastically, "No, I have not. If I do, I'm sure you'll be the first one I tell."
Yugi decided to ignore the sarcasm and smiled. "Thanks, Kaiba," he said before turning and leaving the mansion.
Once Kaiba was certain that Yugi had left, he opened the door and walked in to see Joey back on the bed, his forepaws over his eyes. He removed them to see Kaiba enter and he sighed in relief. "Oh, man, I can't believe I acted like that and in front of Yugi, to boot. These instincts are strong."
Kaiba sat down next to the wolf and stroked his head. "I know, Joey. You're doing fine, though. You've only got three weeks left."
"Three weeks. That's good because these pups are constantly moving and it's kind of driving me crazy. I can hardly wait to be human again, although I am comfortable being a wolf after all these weeks."
"You do remember that you'll turn into a female wolf every night for a month after birth, right? And that you'll soon be female in a week or so?"
"Of course, I do. But, it'll be worth it to be human during the day."
