Page 47 of Unexpected Delivery

No wonder it’s like pulling teeth to get her to let us help with the baby. She’s been walking on eggshells while waiting for the other shoe to drop.

Hael had a concept meeting for a new bike build tonight, and he planned to take the guy out for a beer afterward.

I never heard him come in, so I aim for his twin.

Hayes is just climbing out of the shower when I find him. I need him to watch Gracie, so I quickly catch him up on the situation.

“Get dressed. I need you to watch the baby for an hour or so while I take care of Arbor,” I growl, shaking my head.

My fists clench. We’ve been so fucking oblivious, trying to respect her boundaries while succeeding in nothing but pushing her further away.

“Give me two minutes,” he says, ripping off his towel to dry his hair.

I nod and take off for the primary bedroom. We’ve done some covert prepping of the space, but we wanted to ease Arbor into moving upstairs with us. The house is old, and it’s well insulated. I’ve never been able to hear the baby crying from my bedroom, which makes helping impossible.

Heading inside the pack suite, I flip on the lights and make my way to the attached bathroom. It doesn’t take long to get the shower going, and thanks to the tankless water heater, I don’t need to worry about the hot water running out before Arbor gets in.

I grab towels and toss them onto the counter before making my way back to the hallway. I don’t aim for Arbor yet. Instead, I stop by my room, collect a few things, bring them back, and drop them onto the bed before heading downstairs.

Arbor is still swaying in the same spot.

Knocking gently to announce my arrival, I stride in with the confidence of an alpha who knows his omega is suffering. Enough is enough—it’s time for Arbor to see the real benefit of having a pack at her side.

She turns and smiles. “She might really be asleep this time.”

“That’s good.” I make it to her a half a second later. Wrapping my hand around her lower back, I bend, nuzzling my cheek to hers. Her cherry blossom scent smells tart, which indicates she’s stressed or unsettled. “Here, let me take Gracie. I want you to grab some clothes for after your shower.” Carefully sliding my hand under Gracie, I scoop her up while Arbor blinks. “We’re going to let Hayes take the baby for a bit, and I’m going to show you the shower in the pack bedroom. I would have run you a bath, but I wasn’t sure if that’s safe yet.”

She still has two weeks before she’s supposed to see the doctor for her postpartum checkup. Gracie starts grunting, and I pull her up to my shoulder, patting her diaper over the blanket.

“The shower down here works fine.” Arbor’s head tilts, like she has no idea what’s happening.

“It does,” I agree. “But it’s small. I’m not. Grab some clothes. I’m going to hand Gracie off to Hayes.”

And with that, I bolt, trying not to obsess about the look of shock I catch just before spinning around.

Jesus Christ.

I just stole her baby and ran away, knowing it would lure her upstairs. Yeah, that’s not pushy at all.

“I don’t know what’s happening,” Arbor says, appearing at the top of the stairs.

“Don’t worry, Mommy,” Hayes says, waving Gracie’s small hand. “I’m going to be well taken care of while you relax.”

Leaning against the doorway to the pack bedroom, I raise a hand, waving her to me. She shuffles forward, keeping eye contact.

I flatten my back against the door, extending my hand to tell her to come in.

It’s like luring a skittish rabbit, and maybe I’m the wolf, but she just willingly walked into my den. She trusts me on some level, and I’m not about to fuck that up.

What I really yearn to do is to take care of her.

“Take a right at the hallway. First door on your left is the bathroom. The one at the end of the hall on the left is the nest. Both doors on the right lead to the walk-in closet.” I push off and follow her.

She makes the left into the open bathroom and spins around, taking everything in. “This is really nice.”

“It is.” I slide up behind her and take the change of clothes from her hand before tossing them onto the massive counter next to the towels. I pull her hair away from her face and kiss her cheek. “You’re dead on your feet, and I don’t want you to slip and hurt yourself, but I also don’t want to push you into anything you aren’t ready for. We can do this one of two ways. One, I help you into the shower and come back when you’re ready to get out.”

“What’s the second?”

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