“May I hold her?”
“Of course. Just make sure you support her head.”
He tenderly pulls Harmony into his huge arms, tucking her into the curve of his bent arm and pressing her against his chest. She stares up at him as though she knows who he is.
“They say you can see someone’s soul in their eyes. Harmony has an old soul. It’s why she’s so calm. She's ready to join our world, eager for it. I’m going to show her everything. She’ll become a warrior… anything she wants.” Ragnar smiles at Harmony and makes baby sounds.
I’d managed to cut her umbilical cord, then wrapped her up tightly in a towel. She’s still covered in the mess from birth, but Ragnar and the other two pressing in on either side of him don’t seem to notice.
“I’m convinced she has my mouth,” Crius says. “But as long as she looks mostly like you, she’s going to be beautiful. And any guy who even thinks about looking at her will have to deal with us four first.”
“No guy will be good enough,” Stone states.
I smile to myself, hearing and seeing the affection they hold for our baby. She is going to be the most protected girl in the world.
Lying on a mountain of pillows, my body is still sore, but it’s easing, and I give thanks for my fast healing. Though I’m not ready to move, it’s a mess between my legs, and I’ll need assistance to clean up, but I’d prefer it wasn’t my men. I still want to be beautiful in their eyes.
They’ll disagree, and I grin to myself at the thought, but I’d feel extremely self-conscious. Instead, I focus on Nikos, whose nostrils are flaring with each deep breath. Slowly, his eyelids peel open, and my pulse accelerates.
“Nikos,” I call out, and the others turn to him.
He groans like a bear, scrunches up his face, then pats his chest. “It feels like I’d been run over by a stampede of elephants.”
Crius is by his side and yanks on his arm to drag him to a sitting position. “You gave everyone a scare when you passed out like a damsel in distress.” Crius grins and gets a grunted laugh from Nikos.
“Right. And shut the hell up.” Sluggishly turning toward me, he groans, then his eyes fly open as his mind plays catch up. “Narah.” He throws himself at me, his arms coiling around me, and I wince at his weight.
“Stop squishing her to death, you big lug,” Stone barks.
“The baby,” Nikos almost squeals and frantically looks around until he sees Ragnar walking her over to us.
“Say hello to our baby girl Harmony,” I say.
Gasping a strangled sound, Nikos takes her into his arms, and I notice the glint in his eyes.
“Little Harmony, if you knew what we went through for you, you’ll never misbehave your entire life.”
Crius barks out a laugh. “I’m pretty sure Narah went through most of it.”
Nikos raises a death glare at Crius that could scare away the dead. “You have no idea what we both went through.”
Stone’s eyes open exaggeratingly, but Ragnar hasn’t taken his attention from Harmony.
“Don’t worry, Nikos,” I say. “I know how hard that was for both of us.”
He’s looking down at Harmony, humming a tune to her, and my heart swells at the sight of these powerful Vikings completely at the mercy of a tiny baby.
The door suddenly bursts open, and a red-faced Jae and gasping Kaira stand in the doorway.
“Oh. My. Goddess. You had the baby,” Jae squeals and rushes over to Nikos while Kaira moves to my side and hugs me.
“Are you okay, Sis? We just got back from the woods, and when the guards told us you had the baby, we came running. No one came to tell us.”
“It’s okay now, but it was an ordeal. I don't want to experience that again for a while, but you have a little niece now. Her name’s Harmony.”
Kaira’s smile stretches all the way to her eyes as she scrambles around the bed to reach the others. As they all stand around Nikos and Harmony, I feel the heaviness of exhaustion coming over me. As my eyelids slide down, someone else enters the room.
I spring them open to see Meira looking around. She cries when sees the baby, then moves closer to see Harmony. Next thing I know, she’s coming to me, just as her three Alphas enter the room, looking slightly sheepish.