Page 41 of What's Rogue Got To Do With It

“What about the tea?” Giving birth was thirsty work.

They boiled the kettle as my mate wrapped us in the quilt.

“He has healthy lungs.” Creven kissed our son’s damp head, “But despite the noise, he’s oh so perfect.”

“Better get used to more crying,” I told him.

“Him or me?” he joked.

Colin and Auden brought tea and snacks but before they could slip away, the mountain erupted in howls.

“The mountain packs know he’s arrived. He’s the Alpha’s heir and that’s a big deal in any pack, but especially so in ours.” Auden nudged Creven and told him he had to respond.

My mate gave me a look before tearing into the snow and responding to the congratulations with a howl of his own.

“We need a name.” Creven was shivering and slipped under the quilt with me and the baby.

I yawned. “Let’s think about that tomorrow. I’ve done enough for today.”

EPILOGUE

CREVEN

I never thought that naming our child would be the difficult part of having a baby. My fear had been I wouldn’t be strong enough to stay by his side with his pain running through me. When I pulled the midwife aside, they assured me I’d be fine. What they didn’t say was that the Alpha bond shut down during labor. It felt like cheating at the time, but allowed me to be the mate he needed when he needed me most.

In the back of my mind, I’d convinced myself that we’d see our baby’s beautiful face and instantly know their name. And our sonwasbeautiful and perfect, already looking so much like his father. But as to his name? Nothing popped out at my mate or I the day he was born.

It took two days before we found one and the second we heard it we knew. My mate had asked how Oak was doing. He meant the tree that we were drying out to become our son’s crib, but I misunderstood, thinking that he was calling our sonOak. We both instantly agreed it was his.

Oaks were strong, powerful trees, and he was going to be a strong, powerful shifter. And I knew this without a shadow ofa doubt because he already had all three of his pack mates wrapped around his finger. Even now that he was beginning to crawl, he was the one in control. How could we deny his adorable smile?

The moon had already been rising when Auden called a pack meeting. Larkin swayed from side to side, encouraging Oak to fall asleep. He’d been having a grumpy evening thanks to a combination of teething and skipping a nap.

Oak paid attention to everything and often fought sleep when something interested him. Auden said it was a sign of intelligence and that it’d suit him well. And maybe it would, one day, but it wasn’t suiting our sleep habits now.

“Did Auden say why we’re meeting?” I asked.

Larken shook his head.

In my old den, the Alpha called the meetings, but I was Alpha here and power had never been a goal of mine. From the beginning, we had an open policy that anybody could call a pack meeting at any time. It wasn’t as if there were fifty of us and we had to worry about being in non-stop meetings. If we ever decided to grow, that rule might change, but for now, it suited us.

Larkin and I went out to the fire, the place that had become our pack meeting spot, where we found Auden holding a stick in the flame, toasting a marshmallow. The old man always kept us on our toes.

“Ah, you’re here. I picked those up in town,” he said, pointing to the bag of candy. “Reminded me of sitting around the fire during the pack meetings of my youth.”

“Did you call us here to eat sweets?” Larkin sat down, Oak finally asleep in his arms, snuggling in close. “I’m not saying I mind. Just curious.”

“Yes and no. Yes, I called you to eat the marshmallows, but also I wanted to talk about whether or not we should open the pack to others.” It was a topic we’d tiptoed around since forming and it was time we hashed it out.

We spent the next hour eating more sugar than anyone should as we talked about our goals. We all agreed that we didn’t want to grow too quickly, but had to balance that desire without squashing who we were, shifters who cared about shifters, rogues, lone wolves, and all. It was productive and important and with the candy, far less painful than it could have been.

“Auden, is there a reason why you picked today to bring this up?” Larkin rocked back and forth, Oak still continued his peaceful sleep.

“There’s been some rumbling,” he told me. “There’s an increase in traffic around here. Shifter traffic… both rogues and lone shifters alike. I’m thinking that people are checking us out from a distance, and that we might have some requests soon.”

It made sense. I’d been reaching out to local packs, and I met with the Shifter Council on a couple of occasions. There had been a common theme that ran through all of those discussions— our pack was unique, and there were other people like me out there… shifters who were displaced as rogues, not because they caused harm to their pack, but out of fear that they someday would come into power. Many were very young and had done nothing wrong.

And sure, there were some who were marked as the Alpha’s way of not giving the ultimate punishment… pushing their problems onto the community at large, but those were rare.

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