Ellie’s POV

Today is the day. It’s Christmas day, and C.J and I would finally be able to share the news of both our engagement and pregnancy to everyone. It was a real challenge to keep the secret this long. I had decided to not wear my ring until today, just so no one would be able to tell. I also stuck to wearing baggier clothes, which I’m sure shocked a lot of my family because I like to dress up and wear clothes that are more form fitting. I also had to stop hugging others as much so that they wouldn’t notice my bump. It was now very obvious that I was pregnant, and I’m already 20 weeks along. I honestly didn’t know how people haven’t found out by now, but I guess we have been really careful.

Wilbur is the only one who knows about our engagement and he hasn’t told anyone which we are both really surprised by. I can tell that it’s killing him though, but he only knows about the engagement and not the baby. We are going to meet up with our friends tomorrow for a little christmas of our own, and that’s when we are going to tell them. There have been so many times where I just wanted to spill the beans to Walker, because he kept asking me to shift so he could show me off to his or I guess our friends now. The doctor had warned us that I would not be able to shift while I was pregnant because it would be fatal to the baby, so I had to keep coming up with excuses when he asked. Walker usually just accepted no for an answer which I was grateful for, but my family were a bit more pushy.

Since it was our first Christmas together we were a little stuck on whose family we would spend it at. What we decided was that we would spend the first half of the day with my family, and then the rest at C.J’s. Since my immediate family was so big it would cost a fortune for everyone to buy presents, so we did a secret santa. All the adults would have their name put in a hat, and we all took turns pulling out a name, so whosoever name you got would be the person you would buy the present for. And you would keep it a secret so hence the name secret santa. All of the children’s names also got put in a hat, but instead of them picking names the adults would take turns pulling names until there weren’t any left, and they were responsible for buying the presents for those children. It was a great system, and made it so that everyone got presents without breaking the bank. Most of the families also got more presents for each other that they opened at home, but secret santa worked for getting presents for the whole family. The rest of our family lived far away. It was always just my parents and us who spent Christmas together, but we had enough people to never get lonely.

Unfortunately I pulled out Drew’s name, but C.J got lucky and pulled my sister Jillian’s name. Technically he wasn’t supposed to tell me, but I threatened him that he couldn’t touch me if he didn’t and he spilled the beans right away. That’s right. I always get what I want even if I have to play dirty. At first I had no clue what to get Drew because he’s a weirdo, but I still love him and want to get him something that he actually wants. I also helped C.J pick out Jillian’s gift since he had only met her a handful of times. Drew was the ultimate bachelor, but he absolutely still acted like a five year old. So I tried to put myself in the mind of a five year old, and I came up with the idea of getting him this set of sumo suits. I’m sure that he would enjoy playing around with those, and battling my siblings. Jillian on the other hand was 27 and had 4 children that all acted older than Drew. Jillian adores plants and flowers. It’s actually how her and her mate mate. Ben’s a mouse shifter and an omega, and she’s a pretty intimidating Alpha, and apparently he had seen her around highschool but could never bring up the courage to talk to her. My sister was really popular in highschool, and Ben was a big nerd with the funniest glasses. Anyways I guess one day, Ben had finally grown the balls to talk to her and went and bought a bouquet of flowers and everything. I guess right as he approached her, and tapped her shoulder she turned around. She didn’t even get to say anything before he shoved the flowers into her hand, and then fainted. Apparently my sister thought that was cute, and that was the beginning of her love for Ben and plants.

So anyways, C.J got her this big house plant that was called a fiddle leaf fig plant. We potted it in this big white pot, shoved it in a giant box, and then wrapped it. It looked so funny, and we kept it in my room so that we wouldn’t have to bring it over from C.J’s house. That was it for the adults, and now onto the children.

As of right now there were only 11 children, and there would soon be 12, but that meant that there were more than enough adults so we just made it so that the siblings picked a child. Since C.J is still new they told him to just help me out with the child that I picked. So, we got Mason who is Jonathan’s oldest son. Mason is not that much younger than me, and is already 14. I had no clue what 14 year old boys like. At fourteen I was into hoodies, and sleeping. I did know that Mason is really into baseball, so I thought that he would love tickets to a baseball game. C.J loved baseball as well, so we figured that we could all go together. We didn’t want him to feel like a third wheel so we bought a fourth ticket that he could bring a friend or whoever he wanted. I really hope that they all like their presents.

I was planning on wearing my ring there, and just waiting for someone to notice. I figured I would just wait to reveal the pregnancy when I felt the time was right. I was wearing this fitted white long sleeve dress that stopped right below mid thigh on me. I matched it with a pair of red earrings, and red flats. I wore a big coat that did wonders in hiding my belly. I would just have to avoid hugs, not that I could even hug C.J very well. I already had a hard time hugging him before, but now I could barely reach him and I was only 20 weeks pregnant. C.J seemed to love how big my stomach is getting. He loves to put his hands on my stomach especially since the baby had started kicking recently. This baby is very active, which they must get from C.J because I was in no means active nor did I enjoy to be. C.J looked really handsome in his dress pants, and red long sleeve button down. I had to convince him not to wear a green tie, that was just a little too much for me to handle.

We arrived a little early, because I wanted to help my mom get ready and finish decorating, plus with the help of C.J we wouldn’t even need a ladder. I put the presents under the huge tree which would be absolutely crowded by presents by the time everyone showed up. I was getting really excited. Christmas always made me really giddy, and I couldn’t wait to see what everyone got. I was surprised that my mom hadn’t noticed the ring, but she was always really distracted on the holidays.

Before we knew it everyone was here and the house was packed. To my amazement, it wasn’t an adult that noticed my ring first it was my nephews Max and Mason. Max was only 3, and Mason was 14 so he was in charge of watching his cousins outside.

“Pretty” Max grabbed my hand and seemed transfixed on the shiny object. Mason then looked down to see what his brother was talking about, and his eyes widened dramatically. He pointed at me, and then ran into the house. I rolled my eyes at him, went over to C.J, and waited for them all to come out.

“What is this I’m hearing about a ring on your right hand?” Of course Mason would tell his dad first. Jonathan went up to me and grabbed my hand. He put his hand on his head, and pretended to faint. Why is everyone in this family so dramatic?

I held up my hand as all of my siblings surrounded us trying to get a glimpse at my ring. My mom was freaking out, and my dad just smiled and patted C.J’s back congratulating us. My siblings’ mates started to tease us, and told him that he was going to regret marrying into this family. I scowled at all of them, and he just pulled me closer into his side for a quick hug.

“Dang! That thing is huge! Do you happen to have a sister C.J?” Drew was right on cue.

“Sorry, but I’m an only child” C.J apologized, and Drew walked away muttering how it wasn’t fair that I got the rich one. I mean the rich part was just a bonus, I love C.J with all of my heart, and I would love him just the same if he was deep in debt. It’s not like I was looking for someone with money, I didn’t even know he had money when he first ran into me. I just thought that he was hot and nice, and that was good enough for me.

Eventually everyone settled down, and refocused their attention on bigger issues. Presents! The children got to open their presents first in the order of youngest to oldest. This meant that when the adults came, I got to open my presents first. Ha! Take that old people! They all seemed to love their presents, but I was really nervous when Mason opened his present. We put his ticket in a funny card, and kept the rest in C.J’s pocket to reveal after. He opened the card, and everyone watched him since it was his turn no one else was opening presents. It was a rule. I let out a sigh of relief as he looked up at us and gave us the biggest smile.

“Thank you! Thank you! Thank you!” Now everyone was really curious what he got. Jonathan asked him, and he finally showed everyone the ticket. That was when C.J pulled out the other three tickets.

“We thought that we could take you, and you could bring one other person that you wanted” He smiled and thanked us again. He then gave the ticket to his mom so that he wouldn’t lose it. Mason had a reputation for losing things. It made me so happy that he liked it and I could tell that C.J was feeling a bit smug about it. I think he was quickly winning over the title of favorite uncle, and he could tell. The kids thought that he was a playground, and the older ones thought that he was really cool and a total badass. Spoiler alert C.J is not a badass. He is a big softie.

Now it was finally my turn to open my present. I had no clue who my secret santa was this year. Last year it was Drew, and he sent me a text asking what I liked and that he totally wasn’t asking because he was my secret santa or anything. Needless to say I wasn’t convinced.

I was really surprised when my brother Jake stepped forward, and handed me a very prettily wrapped box. I had no clue what he could have gotten me. I bet C.J was expecting for me to open in slowly trying not to rip the paper, but I was not that kind of omega. I enjoyed destroying the wrapping paper, and Jake cried about how he spent forever wrapping it, but we all knew that his mate wrapped it. I finally opened the box, and as C.J would say “squeaked” in joy. Jake had gotten me this lovely sundress that was baby blue, and had medium sized wooden buttons down the front of it as decoration.

“Thanks Jake! I love it so much!” Now Jake looked a little sheepish as everyone commented on his choice saying that he should buy clothes for them.

Darcy got some new books about nursing, Lewis got a new set of tools. Lewis’ mate Lacey got a new coat. Now it was Drew’s turn. When I stepped up to give him his I almost laughed at his scared face. Maybe I wasn’t as innocent of a brother to Drew as I was to all of my other siblings, but that was because he was annoying. I gave him the big box, and he shook it around. See what I mean. He is a child.

He jumped up in glee, and promptly showed everyone the box that had a picture of two men wearing the sumo suits ready to run into each other. This prompted all of my siblings’ faces to light up mischievously as they thought about beating each other up. I guess it was a good gift. He thanked me, and I smiled in return. After Drew was Jillian, and C.J went upstairs to go grab her present. I could see her getting excited when she saw the huge box. He set it down in front of her, and told her not to move the box. She nodded and opened it carefully. When she looked into the box she jumped up and gave C.J a big hug. Then she pulled it out slowly, and everyone laughed when they saw what it was. Ben questioned how they would get it home, and she just said that it could sit in the front seat. I’m pretty sure that was where Ben usually sat

Next was Ben and he got some new nerd books, Jake got a new pair of shoes, and now it was C.J’s turn. I think it surprised my siblings that C.J was so old compared to me. We had never really mentioned the age difference, but if they had a problem with it they didn’t mention it. I almost cried when I saw that Drew had picked C.J’s name. Who knows what he thought to get. C.J opened the present, and laughed really loud. He pulled it out of the box, and revealed a giant container of protein powder.

“Thanks Drew, I am actually running low on protein powder. I’ve never had this brand before, is it any good?” Drew pretended like he actually had any knowledge of working out, and told us that the worker told him that it was good.

“That’s not all” Oh great what else?

C.J pulled out a giant bottle of vodka, and a stuffed mouse.

“What are you trying to say Drew? That he needs to drown himself in alcohol in order to be with Ellie” This comment came from Lewis who quickly shut up when I glared at him.The rest went by quickly, I felt bad that I wasn’t really paying attention, but the baby was kicking, and I was getting really hungry.

After the presents are done, each family takes a picture in front of the tree and then we take one big family picture outside. This time we go in order from oldest to youngest. So Jonathan’s family went first. When it came to me and C.J, my nerves had set in. I figured this was the perfect time to reveal it. I turned away from everyone and took off my coat, when I turned around all eyes went to my stomach.

“What the fuck!” Drew exclaimed and rushed over to come feel my stomach. He poked it as if he was testing that it was real and not fake. Everyone else seemed stuck in their place unsure how to react. My mom then shook out of her stupor, and ran over to give me a hug. C.J and I posed for a quick photo, and then we were bombarded with questions.

“How far along are you?” My dad asked, looking at my stomach in awe. You would think that it was their first grandchild or something.

“About 20 weeks. And in two weeks we have a doctor’s appointment to see if it’s a boy or a girl” They nodded still in shock

“You’re only 20 weeks along. Why are you so big already. Please don’t tell me you’re having twins. My heart can’t handle any more.” My mom put her hand on her heart.

“No we’re not having twins. The doctor just said that this baby is taking after C.J, and is going to be huge. Trust me we checked multiple times” They all nodded, and things started to calm down.