I was immediately swallowed up by the throng. Blessedly, Jesse had insisted on name tags, and Micah’s family all sported them. It was a good thing too, because their names of the nearly twenty people almost immediately fell out of my head just from hearing them. Hopefully I would get more familiar with them so that I didn’t need name tags, but for now I was grateful to have them.
They swallowed me up in a cluster of hugs, everyone jostling to greet me. The entire family was gorgeous, practically a pack of models, with skin tones ranging from pale white to dark umber, and hair from pin straight to the tightest coils. Micah fell toward the middle with warm light brown skin and bleached curls.
Once I could breathe, Micah tugged one of the women toward me. “Most important introduction for practical purposes, this is my sister Janessa. She’s the obstetrician.”
She had a halo of tight waves and hot pink lips. “It’s so nice to meet you.”
“It’s nice to meet you, too.” I accepted her hug, tropical sweetness similar to coconut and pineapple wafted off her. Micah hadn’t told me which of his family was which designation, but unless that was an exquisite dupe perfume, Janessa was an omega like me.
“You’ve met my mom, Mary,” Micah continued. “These are my dads: Jerome, Marcus, Terry, Emilio, and Archie. And the sibling squad: Tina, Erica and Elias—twins—and Alex.”
I couldn’t help but notice that the initials matched who looked to be the most likely biological father for each of the siblings.
“Should we get you off your feet?” Janessa asked.
“Never gonna say no to a good sit.”
I let her steal me away from the rest of Micah’s family.
“You absolutely don’t have to agree to me being your obstetrician,” she said. “I can bully some of the other doctors at my practice to squeeze you in if you would prefer not seeing someone who’s family.”
“Might be weird for my future sister-in-law to see my cooch, but I think adequate medical care trumps awkwardness.”
Janessa laughed. “I’ll get you caught up on your appointments at least. Gotta make sure my brother’s mate is healthy.”
“I appreciate that.”
Jesse’s family was next to arrive. He brought them straight to me rather than having me get up to my feet. “Sweetness, this is my mom, Marisol, and two of my aunties, Isabella and Camila. Everyone, this is Ava.”
Marisol bent down to kiss each of my cheeks. “Hello, mija. My Jesse has told us all about you. Welcome to the family, dear.”
“Nice to meet you.” I smiled up at her and Jesse helped me to my feet so I could hug each of them. “Thank you so much for coming.”
“Of course. We couldn’t miss out on meeting the mother of our first grandbaby. How much longer to go?”
“About six weeks.”
I watched the families interact while keeping up conversation with a few women who had settled around me.
“They’re all treating you well?” Camila asked.
“Better than I ever imagined being treated.”
Isabella patted my hand. “Jesse didn’t tell us much about your previous situation, but we’re all very glad you’re in a better one now.”
“Me too,” I said, my breath hitching. “I’m just grateful they all seem to be so on board with the baby.”
Marisol clucked her tongue. “As they should be. Any child of your partner is your child too. They deserve the love of a parent whether or not you share blood.”
The baby took the opportunity to kick me in the ribs. Light burst in all of their eyes.
“Would you like to feel the kicks?”
“Yes, please.” Numerous hands lay across my belly, the baby practically doing an Irish jig on my organs to the delight of everyone experiencing it from the outside.
“Someone’s active,” Janessa said with a laugh. “Do they have regular active periods?”
“Not so much at regular times of day, but always when there’s a lot of noise. If I’m outside, or my alphas get chatty, or we watch TV, Baby is always awake for those.”