It took nearly fifteen minutes of driving down a rough, off-road path through the woods just to reach the highway. Cheyanne usually had to spend a lot of time making sure the suspension on her truck was still in good enough shape to actually handle the drive. Lynn didn’t enjoy the drive down the dirt road because she wasn’t tall enough to brace herself against the floor and would easily be tossed around without her seatbelt. They could have taken the interstate, but cutting through the woods let them reach the highway almost thirty minutes faster than if they’d taken the way around.

It was Cheyanne who was the most uncomfortable by the drive. With one hand on the wheel, she held her rounded belly with the other, steadying herself as she stared ahead in concentration. After they rounded a corner, the front right tire suddenly thudded into a ditch that had been deepened by a recent storm.
“Oof,” Cheyanne gasped, slowing the truck to a slow crawl while she winced and soothingly stroked her belly. “Damn…”
“That was a big one,” Lynn said, slightly dazed. She shook her head and glanced to her pregnant wife. “How’s the belly?”
“Damn near scrambled,” Cheyanne winced as she pressed a palm into her stomach. There was still some give to her belly, but not much. She was starting to look unmistakably pregnant. “Pup’s gonna come out with whiplash, I swear…”
“Take it slower, Chey,” Lynn complained as she braced herself against the door. “It’s not good for the baby to get thrown around like that.”

“I know, I know,” Cheyanne growled impatiently. She accelerated slowly, but found that the truck’s back tire was still stuck in the ditch. She glanced over her shoulder and huffed with a toothy frown before shifting into a higher gear and flooring the gas pedal. The back tire kicked up dirt as the truck was freed, causing the entire vehicle to bounce violently. Lynn was picked up a few inches before being dropped onto the seat while Cheyanne’s belly visibly jostled in her lap as the car shook.

“Chey.” Lynn snapped.
“Sorry,” Cheyanne said defensively. She stopped the truck for a moment and took both hands off the wheel to massage her sore belly. “I ain’t havin’ fun with this, either.”
“Maybe we should’ve gone the long way…” Lynn sighed as she sat up in her chair to peer at the dirt road stretching out before them.
“The truck can handle it,” Cheyanne said as she patted the dashboard.
“I’m not worried about the truck,” Lynn sighed.

“Well…” Cheyanne sighed as she shifted back into gear. “We’re too far to go back now.” She sat up in the driver’s seat and re-adjusted the seatbelt slightly beneath her baby bump. Lynn shook her head and held onto the handle on the inside of the door, gritting her teeth.
Cheyanne set the truck into four-wheel drive and continued down the dirt road, but at a fraction of the speed they’d been going before. It didn’t make the ride any less bumpy, but it kept the two of them from being tossed around in the cab, which Lynn appreciated, both for her and the sake of the pup in Cheyanne’s belly. After another ten minutes, the trees around them came to a stop as the road cut a winding path through the middle of a neighbor’s field, dotted with cylindrical hay bales surrounding a tiny, rarely-used farmhouse. Lynn gazed dreamily out at the pretty view as they drove, her head in her hand. Cheyanne rolled down the window to let in some of the cool, Fall air and stuck her head out to feel it blowing through her fur. The pregnancy had effected her already strong sense of smell and the scent of hay, falling leaves, and a recent shower were strong in her nostrils.

“Finally,” Lynn sighed in relief as they reached the end of the field and turned onto the highway. The two of them could feel the smooth tread of the tires on the flat, paved road beneath them. Compared to the dirt road, they might as well have been flying.
“That road ain’t never been that bad,” Cheyanne remarked, rolling the window halfway up so she could talk without shouting. She scratched behind her ear thoughtfully and frowned as she thought out loud. “Could get all that mud packed down, I reckon. See if we can hire a tiller or a roller out there. Or, hell, maybe just rent the damn thing and I’d take care of it. Couldn’t take much more than a week.”

Cheyanne paused, still lost in thought, as she absentmindedly reached down and scratched her rounded tummy. Lynn noticed the movement and giggled, thinking back to how Cheyanne had complained her growing belly made her stretched skin itchy. After a few minutes of silence, Lynn shifted in her seat to reach over the center console and began to roll up Chey’s stretched shirt.
“Uhh, hey?” Cheyanne chuckled, while keeping her eyes on the road. “Excuse you.”
“I just wanna see it,” Lynn giggled as she pulled Cheyanne’s shirt up to reveal her black-furred middle.
“Not like it’s goin’ nowhere,” Cheyanne smirked. She jumped a little as Lynn’s fingers touched her sensitive belly. “Don’t tickle me or I’m liable to run us off the damn road.”
“I’m not!” Lynn protested as she stroked Cheyanne’s belly and smoothed her fur down beneath her palm. “I’m just looking.”

“You get plenty to see of me and my baby gut at home, Lynn,” Cheyanne said.
“So?” the smaller dog responded as she patted her wife’s gravid swell. “Why wouldn’t I wanna see it? Just looking at you with your belly makes me so happy I wanna cry.”
“Aw, Lynn…” Cheyanne said, softly. She reached down and pulled Lynn’s hand away from her stomach, then lifted it high enough to kiss it. “That’s sweet, but wait ‘til we stop, alright? I still gotta drive.”
“While you still can,” Lynn teased as she took her hand back and measured the distance between Cheyanne’s belly and the steering wheel, which were only inches from touching.
“I don’t give a damn if the pup is comin’ outta me right then and there,” Cheyanne said, loudly, as she stabbed a finger to the gear shift. “There ain’t nothing that can keep me from drivin’ my truck.”

“Yeah yeah yeah,” Lynn said, rolling her eyes. “We all know that the pup is gonna be your second baby.”
Once they’d gotten past the dirt road shortcut, the drive to the store barely took fifteen minutes. It was a behemoth of a supermarket, seemingly dropped in the middle of the surrounding forests, with a sprawling parking lot almost as big as the field next to their house. The overpass of the interstate was visible just behind it and accounted for the majority of its traffic, but there were enough local customers from the surrounding farmland for the store to stay afloat. It was simply the most convenient place to go.

Cheyanne pulled into the parking lot, finding it unexpectedly crowded at that time of day. She frowned with a low growl in her throat as she became more and more frustrated to find a parking space near the front of the store, or at least close enough that she wouldn’t need to carry things very far.

“Chey!” Lynn excitedly said, pointing out the window. “There!” Next to a pair of handicapped spaces was a third space marked with pink lines in the pavement and a picture of a stork on a metal sign.
“Aw hell, c’mon Lynn,” Cheyanne said, embarrassed as she touched a hand to her belly. “I don’t need that, yet.”
“So?” Lynn smiled toothily. “You can still take it!”
“I don’t need it, though…” Cheyanne huffed. While she was deliberating, she noticed the impatient flash of lights from a car behind her. She sighed in irritation before turning on the truck’s blinker and pulling into the expectant mother parking space.
“See! Look how close we are!” Lynn said as she unbuckled her seatbelt.
“I coulda walked…” Cheyanne grumbled as she shifted into park and turned off the engine.

The air conditioning inside the supermarket was still on full-blast from the hot Summer, so the air inside was almost colder than outside.
“Alright then,” Cheyanne sighed as she pulled a folded scrap of paper out of the pocket of her shorts. “All what I need is on this half’a the store,” she gestured to the right. “Then all the food is on this half.” She gestured to the left before handing over the shopping list to Lynn.
“Don’t you need it?” Lynn asked as she unfolded the piece of paper.
“Nah, I remember it,” Cheyanne said as she tapped the side of her head. “’Sides, you got more to get.”
“Uhmm…Chey?” Lynn said, fighting a fit of laughter as her wife began to walk away.
“Huh?” Cheyanne asked, pausing and turning back to Lynn. “What’s wrong?”

Without a word, Lynn walked up to Cheyanne and pulled her shirt down over her baby belly, which had still been bared to the world when they’d walked in. Cheyanne glanced down at herself and tucked her tail between her legs in embarrassment. Lynn patted Chey’s tummy affectionately before skipping off to pick up a shopping cart for herself.

In the frozen food aisle, Lynn noted with amusement that most of Cheyanne’s shopping list was composed of breakfast food. Chey never had much of a sweet tooth, so it seemed very appropriate for her pregnancy cravings. It struck at random times, as well. Lynn was growing used to the sight of Cheyanne in the kitchen making pancakes at all hours of the day with a hungry smirk on her face and one hand resting on her swollen belly.
In addition to the essentials Cheyanne had written on the list, Lynn gathered frozen breakfast meals for when Chey didn’t have time to make something from scratch. With the cart halfway full, she pulled her cell phone from her pocket and pulled up a separate shopping list she’d compiled on her own, consisting of vitamins, vegetables, supplements, lean meats, and other foods healthy to a pregnant woman. Lynn wagged her tail quietly as she scrolled down the list, noting how many of the foods and recipes seemed like something she would eat, as well. Lynn’s appetite had always been smaller and more picky than Cheyanne’s, even before Chey had gotten pregnant. It would be nice to make something they both could eat, once in a while.

By the time the cart was getting heavy enough that Lynn had trouble steering it, she’d set it at the end of the supplements aisle and was following down the shelves of vitamins with one finger touching the rack. Her phone was in her other hand, where she was checking the list of supplements for reference. Before she knew it, Lynn was standing in front of the prenatal section, the shelves stocked with pink bottles depicting silhouettes of women with curved bellies. She piled the essentials in her hands and was already having a hard time carrying them before stopping in front of a bottle of cocoa butter, cocking her head to the side as she contemplated whether Cheyanne might need it. She was so lost in thought that she barely noticed the two figures slowly approaching her until they were only a few feet away.

“He-llo there,” said an elderly female voice with a deep, southern drawl. Lynn nearly dropped the bottles to the floor as she jumped and whipped her head around. A pair of elderly raccoons stood above her, staring down with polite smiles that didn’t reach their eyes.
“O-Oh! Hi Edie,” Lynn responded with a quick smile of her own as she struggled to keep the bottles from falling to the floor. She leaned to the side to acknowledge her surly, unpleasant husband who crouched behind her like a vampire with a cane. “R-Ralph.” He responded with a curt nod behind his glasses. Edie paused and grimaced slightly, which Lynn wondered if it had something to do with her not calling them by ‘Mr.’ and ‘Mrs.’ According to Cheyanne, they were not above that pettiness.

“It’s so nice to see you again,” Edie continued, her speaking slow and condescending, as if talking to a toddler. “We hadn’t seen y’all at church in a while.” Lynn narrowed her eyes slightly. She wasn’t from the South, so it had taken a while for her to learn that the phrase ‘We hadn’t seen y’all in church’ wasn’t quite as friendly as it sounded.
“Oh, we…we haven’t had a chance to go…lately…” Lynn said awkwardly. She and Cheyanne had attempted to attend services at a church not far from their house before, one Sunday, the pastor had performed a fiery, bombastic sermon extolling the virtues of Leviticus that Lynn quietly believed might have been related to their presence there. “Too busy with the farm these days. It’s hard to get away.” She laughed awkwardly.

“Well…I’m sure the Lord understands,” Edie smirked. “We just came back from a beautiful sermon about the troops over in the Middle East.” She sighed wistfully and nodded to Ralph, who responded with a wordless grunt that must have been approval. “Those boys really are doing God’s work over there. Real American heroes.”
“Oh, yeah…Definitely,” Lynn nodded, wondering to herself how they’d just gotten from church if it was early-afternoon on a Wednesday.

“How are you doing, sweetie? Are you and Cheyanne…” Edie pursed her lips and glanced to the ring finger on Lynn’s hand. “…still friends?”
“Yes,” Lynn said coldly. “We are still friends.”
“Well.” The raccoon woman scrunched her face as if she smelled something foul. “That’s nice.”
“It is,” Lynn said, defiantly. She shifted the bottles of vitamins in her arms as she prepared to turn her back on the couple and walk away, but one of them dropped from her hand and rolled across the floor toward Edie’s foot.

“Oh! Let me get that for you, sweetie,” the raccoon said before she stooped to pick up the bottle and give herself a good enough excuse to look at what Lynn was buying. As Lynn held out her hand to take the bottle back, Edie ignored her and instead peered closely at the label, her lips moving silently as she read it to herself. She suddenly gasped in overblown shock and brought her hand to her chest, setting the bottle back on the shelf instead of handing it over to Lynn.

“Oh my Lord,” Edie said in breathless shock as she looked down at Lynn. “Sweetie, congratulations! I had no idea you were expecting! Oh you must’ve just found out! Who’s the father? Anybody from around here? What’s his last name? I was hoping you’d find a nice man here, sweetie.”
“O-Oh, uhh…N-no, it isn’t…” Lynn stammered, taken off guard by the flood of questions. “They’re not for me. It’s…Cheyanne.”
“Oh?” Edie said, pausing to glance at her husband. She turned back with a forced smile down at Lynn. “Oh…How…nice for the two of you.” She leaned over and patted the back of Lynn’s hand before saying. “We’ll be praying for you, then.”

“There ya are,” said a loud, familiar voice from the end of the aisle. Cheyanne strode high above the shelves, a cart of her own at the end of the rack. Her long legs crossed the distance between her and Lynn in seconds, her bump bouncing slightly with each step. “I was lookin’ all over the food aisles for ya, darlin’.” Cheyanne glanced up as if she’d just noticed Edie and Ralph standing there, then very deliberately crouched and kissed Lynn on the cheek. “Find everything okay?”
“Y-yeah,” Lynn stammered, wagging her tail and blushing at the kiss.
“I’m ready to go when you are,” Cheyanne said. Her face darkened as she turned toward the raccoon couple, who were expectantly waiting their hello. “Afternoon, Mrs. Edie,” Cheyanne nodded. “Mr. Ralph.”

“Oh Chey-anne, your friend was just telling us all about the good news!” Edie said, glancing down at Cheyanne’s stomach.
“You mean m’wife, Mrs. Edie?” Cheyanne said.
“Whatever you say, sweetie,” Edie smiled. The shuffled forward and rested a hand on Cheyanne’s belly without asking. Chey clenched her teeth and breathed hard through her nose, but said nothing. “You’re movin’ right along there! Who’s baby is it?”
“It’s our baby,” Cheyanne said, stepping back out of Edie’s reach and touching Lynn on the shoulder.
“I just meant the father, Cheyanne,” Edie responded, unable to hide some of her irritation.
“I know what you meant, Mrs. Edie,” Cheyanne said, cocking her head to the side. “We used a donor. The pup is ours.”
“Well, technically,” Edie said with false cheeriness, “the pup can only be yours, sweetie.”
Cheyanne paused, staring at Edie for a long time. She glanced down at Lynn, then stepped forward and pointed a finger to the middle of the old woman’s chest.

“Y’all wanna run that the hell by me again?” Cheyanne growled.
“I was just pointing out-”
“I know what you said,” Cheyanne interrupted with a snarl. “I just wanna know who in the hell you think you are to say that to me and my wife.”
“Well it’s true,” Edie snapped, her polite facade vanishing in an instant. “Y’all can’t make it by yourselves, can ya? It’s not really her baby.”
“That’s none of your god damn business,” Cheyanne said.
“You don’t talk to my wife like that,” Ralph finally spoke up in a low, wizened voice as he waved his cane at her.
“Then she shouldn’t talk to mine like that,” Cheyanne shouted, loud enough for her voice to echo.

“You shouldn’t even be allowed to have a baby!” Edie sneered. “Growing up without a father…I can’t imagine how they’ll turn out.”
“Well, Mrs. Edie, your son had a father and we know where he is right now,” Cheyanne responded, her voice low.
“How dare you say that to me,” Edie said, scrunching up her face and whipping her tail.
“I dare, you old bitch,” Cheyanne said. “I put up with enough’a this shit from my family and I’ll be damned if I take any more of it from you.”
“Imagine what your parents would think,” Edie chuckled as she glanced between Lynn and Cheyanne’s belly. “You were from such a good family.”

“I don’t give a damn what my-” Cheyanne began to shout back, but she suddenly stopped, frozen in place with her finger inches away from Edie’s chest. Her expression was somewhere between anger and surprise. Lynn and the two raccoons were taken off guard by her sudden change in behavior, but Edie quickly recovered.
“I’ve got nothing more to say to you,” she sniffed as she turned away with her husband. “I’ll be praying for that baby, then. They’re still innocent in the eyes of the Lord.”
“Degenerates,” Ralph spat in his weak, old-man voice as he followed her.

“Chey?” Lynn said, concerned. “Chey, they aren’t worth it. They’re just a couple of old bigots, you don’t need to get so worked up about-”
Cheyanne reached down and touched the side of Lynn’s face, holding her affectionately but silencing her. She stared straight ahead at nothing, her head cocked to the side as if listening to something far away. She squinted her eyes into slits, her mouth falling open slightly.
“Uh…Chey? Cheyanne? Are you okay?” Lynn asked.

As an answer, Cheyanne reached down without looking, gently grasped Lynn’s hand, then pressed her palm to the center of her belly. They waited in silence for almost a minute, but the moment before Lynn tried to pull away, she felt a faint, tiny sensation like popping bubbles from inside Cheyanne’s belly. She paused, as still and silent as Cheyanne, until she felt something like the fluttering of bird’s wings from inside. She and Chey glanced at one another in shock before Lynn noticed Cheyanne’s tail was wagging furiously behind her.

“That’s the baby,” Lynn breathed.
“I think it is,” Cheyanne agreed, her hands trembling as she touched them to her belly. “Oh my God…that’s the pup. I can feel it.”
“What’s it like?” Lynn asked, her own tail wagging. “What’s it feel like?”

“I...I don’t know…” Cheyanne stammered. Lynn had never seen her so rattled before. “I-It doesn’t…It doesn’t feel like anything else I’ve ever felt…Like…there’s somethin’…somethin’ moving in there that ain’t me.” She shuddered and made a gulping sound. Lynn glanced up to see tears streaming down Cheyanne’s face. Chey blinked and touched her hand to her cheeks, just noticing her wet fur.
“Aw…Damn it…” Cheyanne swore as she wiped her tears on the back of her arm. She started laughing and rubbed both hands over her bump. “Well I…I guess there’s a baby in there, alright.”

Lynn set down the armful of pills and wrapped Cheyanne in a hug, crouching slightly to press the side of her face against her bump and feel the pup moving against her cheek. Cheyanne reached down and pulled Lynn in closer.
“Pretty good timing, huh?” Lynn remarked. “I think the pup saved you a jail sentence for assaulting an old woman.”
“She’d have deserved it,” Cheyanne said, sniffing back more happy tears. She paused, then stroked Lynn’s head and added, “Don’t listen to a fuckin’ word that old bitch says. This baby is yours just as much as it’s mine.”

“I know,” Lynn sighed, feeling a small bump against her cheek. “I love you, Chey.”
“I love you too, Lynn,” Cheyanne said.
The supermarket around them seemed to vanish as the two of them held each other close to feel the first movements of their baby, growing healthily inside Cheyanne’s womb.

****************************************************************************************************

“Lynn?” Cheyanne called from the bed. “Can you open up the window?”
“Why?” Lynn said in disgust as she toweled off from her shower. “It’s too hot out there.”
“Hot?” Cheyanne snorted as she rolled over onto her side, one hand resting on her belly. “I’m hot right now! I need th’ extra air.”

“I’ll turn up the AC then,” Lynn said, crossing to the bedroom door and the thermostat in the hallway.
“No! Lynn, don’t! That’ll just turn up th’ electric bill!” Cheyanne tried to sit up to stop Lynn from fiddling with the thermostat, but she found her belly took up too much of her lap to move around and simply flopped back onto the bed, sighing helplessly as she heard the hiss of air through the vents behind the bed.
“Better?” Lynn asked as she walked back into the bedroom.
“Coulda just opened the window,” Cheyanne pouted.
“And let in about a thousand mosquitoes,” Lynn countered as she climbed up onto the bed.
“I’m just gonna get cold again in ‘bout an hour,” Cheyanne sighed as she turned on her side to look at Lynn.
“That’s why I’m here,” Lynn giggled as she crawled closer to Cheyanne and nestled herself against her. “To keep you nice and warm.”

“Well, ain’t you cuddly tonight?” Cheyanne smirked as Lynn nuzzled up against her neck.
“I’m always cuddly,” Lynn said, kissing Cheyanne and pinching her ear teasingly. While wrapped in each others’ arms, the two of them both felt the light thumping of kicks from Cheyanne’s belly, nestled between them. “Somebody’s still awake,” Lynn smirked.
“Not sure he ever does,” Cheyanne said, glancing at her rounded middle. “Now that he’s got his legs, he can’t wait to try ‘em out by kickin’ the hell outta me.”
“He’s just saying hello,” Lynn said, touching Cheyanne’s gravid stomach. She felt a few more taps just below her fingers and giggled, her tail making a thumping sound it wagged against the bed.

“Guess the little fella’s talkative,” Cheyanne remarked. She took a deep sigh, then rolled over onto her back, huffing momentarily as the weight of her belly was more evenly distributed across her body. She flexed her paws on the far end of the bed, noting it wouldn’t be long before she lost sight of them altogether. In a few months, it would be nearly impossible to comfortably lay on her back for more than a few minutes. Cheyanne explored her shape of her baby belly with her palm, quietly wondering if that day would come sooner than she expected. It didn’t seem like the pup was wasting any time.

“Ooooohh...” Lynn sighed as she looked down at the sloping dome of Cheyanne’s belly. “Look at you.” She wiggled out of her wife’s arms, then made a little hopping motion to flip 180 degrees on the bed, resting her paws on the pillow next to Chey’s shoulder. She rested her arm across Chey’s thighs and traced a finger over her belly dreamily. “You’re getting so big.”
“Stop,” Cheyanne protested, squirming. “It tickles, quit it.”
“I’m barely touching you!” Lynn huffed.
“That’s why it’s tickin’ me,” Cheyanne said, folding her arms.
“It’s because your tummy’s getting sensitive,” Lynn said, leaning over and resting her head atop Chey’s bump. “You’re growing too fast for your skin to keep up. Are you using the cocoa butter?”
“Nope,” Cheyanne said, wrinkling her nose. “I hate the way it smells. Plus, I got too much fur down there, y’can’t even see stretch marks. Don’t see the point.”

“It’s not just for stretch marks, it’s to help your skin from drying out and get more flexible.” Lynn sat up and rested her hands on Cheyanne’s belly, which was already the size of her small head. “You’re only gonna be getting bigger, yknow.”
“Uh-huh,” Cheyanne said, huffing impatiently. Lynn sighed. Even if it was a good idea, Chey never liked being told what to do. Arguing was pointless, but Cheyanne also had a habit of silently agreeing with Lynn a few days later, so it didn’t matter.

Lynn looked down at Cheyanne’s belly beneath her nose. It seemed to radiate warmth, like it had a heartbeat all on its own. Technically, taking into account the pup inside, it did. With a sly smile, Lynn began to slowly roll up Cheyanne’s shirt to her ribs.
“I shoulda expected more of this,” Cheyanne chuckled.
“You said you don’t have any stretch marks,” Lynn said as she finally tucked the shirt just beneath Cheyanne’s breasts. “I wanted to check.”
“Sure ya did,” Cheyanne smirked. “You never miss an excuse ta get your hands on my baby bump, huh?”
“Why would I?” Lynn said, sliding a hand through Cheyanne’s pitch-black fur. “You carry it so well, I can’t resist it.” As she dragged her palm down Chey’s swell, she felt her fingers brush over her nearly-popped bellybutton, like a soft pebble against her palm. “There she is,” Lynn giggled as she poked Cheyanne’s navel. “I think your turkey timer’s almost done.”
“I know…” Cheyanne sighed, frowning. “It feels almost weirder than when the pup moves.”
“I’m sure,” Lynn nodded before leaning over and kissing it. “But it’s so cute. I can’t wait to see it poking out from under your shirts.” She paused, then tugged on the fabric of the one Chey was wearing. “Well, the ones that still fit.”
“Ghhhg,” Cheyanne shuddered as Lynn kissed her bellybutton again. “It’s so damn sensitive…”
“I know,” Lynn said. She pulled back and glanced down at Cheyanne’s belly, exposed to the air, while the pregnant dog lay helpless beneath her on the bed. “Does it still itch?”

“Not all th’time,” Cheyanne shrugged, scratching her nails on the side of her stomach. “A lot, though.”
“I can help with that,” Lynn said. She bent her fingers into claws and began to vigorously scratch her nails into Cheyanne’s furry belly. Chey gasped, then bit her lip and breathed a satisfied whine as Lynn eased her itchy stomach with her hands, filling the bedroom with sckitch skitch skitch skitch sounds.
“I know that has to feel good,” Lynn said, as she sat up on her knees while continued to scratch Cheyanne’s belly. “You liked this before you had a baby in there.” Chey’s tail began to thump against the bed between her legs, her tongue lolling out of her mouth in satisfaction as she made happy groans in the back of her throat.
“Lower,” Cheyanne groaned, pointing to the lower curve of her tummy, just above her hips. Lynn obliged while keeping one hand massaging the upper part of her stomach, sliding the other just above the waist of Cheyanne’s pants. She momentarily considered going lower, but Lynn decided to save that for later. No reason to rush.

As Lynn scratched, Cheyanne turned over slightly and began to kick one of her legs involuntarily, whining happily. Lynn couldn’t keep herself from smiling and giggling over how Chey had melted beneath pregnant belly scratches. It was adorable.
“Oh!” Lynn suddenly jumped as she felt something move beneath her fingers. The pup inside Chey’s womb was evidently just as excited by the attention and was turning and kicking enthusiastically inside his mother. It was an odd sensation to feel something poking back at her from inside her wife, but her heart melted as she saw the tiny thumps and pokes coming from beneath Cheyanne’s dark fur.

“I...I think he liked that almost as much as I did,” Cheyanne remarked, touching the sides of her belly. “He’s havin’ a damn fit in there.”
“Like mother, like son, huh?” Lynn said, leaning over the kiss the pup from outside the womb. “Want me to keep going?”
“N-Nah...Lemme just…just catch my breath…” Chey panted, her eyes hazy with satisfaction.
“You’re acting like I did a lot more than just scratch your belly,” Lynn remarked.
“I…It felt…g-good…” was all Cheyanne had to say on the matter as she smoothed her belly fur flat, then held it in her hands protectively. Lynn rolled her eyes, then crawled on her hands and knees to sit between Cheyanne’s legs, sliding closer to her thighs.
“Move your tail,” Lynn grunted, pushing aside the furry appendage that was still wagging elatedly. Once Lynn was as close to Cheyanne as she could manage, she turned on her side and rested her chin on Chey’s belly, legs wrapped around one of her thighs. Cheyanne sat up slightly to look Lynn in the eye. Once their gazes met, Lynn fluttered her eyelids seductively and began to trial her fingers through Chey’s black belly fur.

“So how sensitive is your tummy, now?” Lynn teased, drawing a circle just above Chey’s navel. “You always loved attention down here, but now that there’s a little baby swelling you up so nicely…” Lynn held both sides of Cheyanne’s stomach and kissed between her hands, making sure to hold her mouth there a few seconds longer. Cheyanne breathed a hard sigh through her nose and wiggled her hips.

Lynn leaned over, starting far down at the lower curve of Cheyanne’s rounded stomach, and dragged her tongue all the way up and over, stopping only at Chey’s bellybutton. Her pregnant wife whined in satisfaction, shivering at the stimulation. Lynn curled her knees closer to her torso and began to affectionately lap her tongue against Cheyanne’s belly, alternating with kisses and even more than a few love bites. Cheyanne threw an arm over her face and bit her lower lip, her senses becoming madly overstimulated. She bent her legs in at the knees, as if to hold Lynn in place as she lovingly worshiped her baby belly.
“I can’t believe how big you are already,” Lynn said, taking a break with her mouth and caressing Cheyanne’s bump with her palms. “It’s only barely the second trimester and you look like you’ve only got a month left.” Lynn paused to watch the pup’s kicking bounce from inside Chey. “God, you’re going to be so huge by the end of this…”

“You lookin’ forward to that?” Cheyanne panted, leaning back to push her belly farther out. “Can’t wait ‘til I’m bout to pop, huh?”
“Hell yeah,” Lynn grinned, kissing Cheyanne’s belly again. “I don’t think I’ll be able to keep my hands off you.”
“Good,” Cheyanne grinned. “I don’t want ya to.” She hesitated, her mouth open slightly as if she had more to say. “I was…I was a little scared you might not wanna do nothing with me after I started…gettin’ big. Thought maybe you might not thi-”
Lynn silenced Cheyanne with another long kiss to her belly, as well as a hand slipped down the front of her pajama pants. Lynn waited until Chey could breathe again before speaking.
“Chey, you are just as hot pregnant as you were before,” Lynn said, lustfully. She squeezed her belly and added, “Maybe even more. And I don’t care how big you get or how fat you feel, I’ll be just as turned on then as I am now.”
Cheyanne blinked, then smiled wide enough to make her eyes sparkle in the low light.
“Well, if you really mean that,” Cheyanne said, patting her belly and wiggling her hips, “then how ‘bout you help this big mama-to-be slide outta these pants so we can get this show on the road?”

Lynn’s heart began pounding excitedly as she wagged her tail and began to slowly take both of their clothes off.

Hours later, once the lights were off and the window was open to let in some of the cool air, the two were cuddled together beneath the bedspread, wearing nothing but their fur. Lynn slept deeply, her face half-nestled into Cheyanne’s hair and one hand wrapped around her round middle. Cheyanne herself, however, was still awake and gazing thoughtfully out the window, into the moonlight.
Being careful not to wake Lynn, Cheyanne shifted and reached to the bedside table, feeling around for an envelope. She pinched the corner and picked it up, dropping it onto her chest before reaching up to turn on the lamp. She blinked in the orange light, then removed the contents of the envelope.
A few minutes later, Lynn made a low, grunting sound before she woke and blinked in the lamplight.

“Chey?” she grumbled.
“Oh, sorry darlin’,” Cheyanne whispered, setting the photograph down on her chest and wrapping her arm around Lynn. “It’s alright, go back t’sleep.”
“I’m okay…” Lynn sniffed. “I was only out for a second.” She sat up slightly and looked at the envelope that had fallen between them. She smiled and said, “Wanted to take another look?”

“Yeah,” Cheyanne said, bashfully. She picked up the fallen picture and held it up in the light. It was a photo of a 4D ultrasound, depicting the shape of a pup with a stubby muzzle and short, folded ears, as if sculpted out of clay. The clearest look they had yet at the pup Cheyanne carried. “Hard to imagine he’s right down here,” Chey said, patting her stomach from above the sheets.
“That’s him alright,” Lynn said, sleepily. “That’s our little boy.” She paused, then tapped the photo and corrected herself. “Our big boy.”

“I wasn’t expectin’ a boy,” Cheyanne said. “I dunno why, it was a fifty-fifty shot, after all.”
“Me either,” Lynn shrugged. She scratched Cheyanne’s tummy affectionately and said, “But that’s okay. I don’t mind a boy.” She paused, then asked, “Were you wanting a girl?”
“I mean, I dunno what I wanted,” Cheyanne sighed. “It was gonna be a baby no matter what. But now that we know it’s a boy…I mean…I’m just thinkin’…” She sighed, her ears folding back on her head. “He…he really ain’t gonna have a dad around…and I’m just…worried that maybe he should.”

“Chey,” Lynn said, her voice slightly louder as she sat up in bed. “Don’t tell me you’re taking what that Mrs. Edie bitch said seriously.”
“I’m not, I’m not,” Cheyanne said. “But I…I’m worryin’, still. Maybe it isn’t good for a boy…for a boy to have two mothers…”

Lynn reeled at the possibility that Cheyanne could think that, but had to calmly remind herself where she was and where she came from. Cheyanne moved their relationship slowly and cautiously, at first, which Lynn had struggled to understand before coming to a revelation. There had never been a time in Chey’s life where she wasn’t punished in some way for who she was. For most of her life, loving women had been a sickness or a condition she’d had to control, and even after getting away from her family, Cheyanne struggled to break away from those beliefs sometimes. Especially in the middle of the night, when her defenses were down. Lynn loved every part of Cheyanne with all her heart and only wished that Chey could feel that way about herself.

“Chey,” Lynn said, leaning closer to her ear. “Are you going to love him? After he’s born?”
“’Course I am,” Cheyanne said, almost offended. “I love him already, and I ain’t even met him yet.”
“Then that’s all you need,” Lynn said, stroking a hand on Cheyanne’s belly. “He won’t know the difference between our love and anybody else’s love. He’ll have as much as he needs, no matter who his parents are.” Lynn sat up and kissed Cheyanne on the cheek before moving the ultrasound photos to the table. “Now go to sleep before you stress yourself out. It’s not good for the baby…”

Cheyanne didn’t answer, but wordlessly turned over and flicked off the light, bathing the bedroom in darkness again. Chey turned over away from the window and pulled Lynn into a tight squeeze, her belly bumping into her thighs. Lynn sighed comfortably, shuffling back into Cheyanne’s warm embrace.

“…Chey?” Lynn asked quietly after a few minutes of silence. “What happened did Edie and Ralph’s son?”
“Prison,” Cheyanne mumbled. “Got caught makin’ PCP.”
“… Oh,” Lynn said, her eyes wide. “…Holy shit.”
“Yeah, I know,” Cheyanne nodded. “I went t’high school with him. Real asshole, too.”
“I think we’ll be better parents than Edie and Ralph were,” Lynn nodded.
“We already are,” Cheyanne said, shortly before finally falling asleep.
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