Page 229 of Captive Omega

I refocus on the book I have open in my lap. I get to the childbirth chapter, and I wish I’d stopped the chapter before. “That, uh… that doesn’t look like it’s going to be fun.”

Before I can dwell on it, I snap the book close and decide to speak to Isaura about it. She has a way of making the terrifying seem a little less scary. At least when it comes to childbirth. The three men sitting around me do the same for every other part of my life.

“Have you thought of any names?” Vaughn asks.

Mom asked me the same, and I told her no. That I wasn’t ready to even think about it. I didn’t tell her why, not wanting to worry her. “I was afraid something would go wrong.”

I’m still not sure if Dexter Pieter will change anything in the city, but I have this strange feeling something is in the works. And I have his number now—unless he gave me a fake one—so I guess I can call him and insult him again.

The sort of change I want is big, and it will take time. So I’ll wait a little while, and in the meantime, let myself think about having a baby I didn’t think I would survive long enough to have.

“Maybe you could help with names?” I suggest.

“Probably not a good idea.” Vaughn stretches out on his back, pillows his head with his arms, and turns to look at me. “Garrison will go for something old-fashioned like Linda.”

“What’s wrong with Linda?” Garrison asks, a line forming between his brows.

Vaughn bolts upright. “My fucking god, you were actually considering it, weren’t you?” He stares at him in abject horror. “Linda? For our kid? No fucking way.” He looks at me. “Unless you like Linda?”

“Um, not really.”

“See?” Vaughn lies back down, pleased.

Garrison’s lip quirks in a half-smile, clearly not insulted by Vaughn’s violent rejection of Linda. He’s relaxed as he reclines against the wall with one leg bent, disheveled in gray sweats and his dark hair mussed. Content. I like the look on him. “Vaughn will want something different. He’ll go with Neptune or Forest.”

I laugh. “Neptune?”

Vaughn hums thoughtfully. “I know he made those up, but I’m not against Forest. For a boy or a girl, it could work.”

“So we’ve got Linda or Forest,” Blaine sighs. “How about we leave those extremes and try something sentimental?”

We sit on the nursery floor, discussing names and flipping through the pregnancy book. Blaine terrifies the shit out of me when, white faced, he warns me to never watch any birth videos on the internet.

And laughing.

We do a whole heap of laughing.

When I feel a gentle touch on my back, I look at Blaine. He’s shuffled a little closer to me, so I move closer to him and rest my head on his shoulder as the sunlight streams in from the window and over all of us.

“Nola-Grace,” I say, when a name blindsides me.

Garrison, Vaughn, and Blaine stop talking and look at me.

“If it’s a girl, I think I’d like the name Nola-Grace. Nola, for my grandmother and Grace just feels…”

“Hopeful?” Blaine offers when I fumble for the right word and can’t find it.

I nod.

“Nola-Grace Lucas,” I say. An omega always takes the pack’s name as her own. “I know you haven’t bitten me, so I’m not really your omega until that happens.”

“You were our omega the moment you chose to be, Resa,” Garrison says. “A bite means nothing to me.”

“Or me,” Blaine adds.

“Or me,” Vaughn adds.

We all look at Vaughn.

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