Page 17 of His Innocent Omega
The door opened, and a nurse pushed a clear bassinet in and my giraffe pranced in anticipation. A chubby, pink cheeked baby wrapped in a pink blanket was sleeping peacefully in it.
“I thought you might like a visitor,” she greeted me warmly,scooping Julianna up and placing her gently in my arms, making sure my IV line didn’t get tangled.
Oh, my Goddess, I’d known Julianna would be pretty, but she was absolutely stunning. And she looked just like her alpha father. Dark hair, high cheekbones, button nose, and perfectly bowed pink lips. Already her skin was tinted a shade darker than my perpetual pale, mostly because I spent my days locked in a lab or classroom and seldom saw the sun.
She stretched her little body, hands fisted, and blinked open the darkest brown–nearly black–eyes I’d only seen on one other person. Weren’t babies supposed to have blue eyes when they were born? Leave it to my daughter to do her own thing. She had so far. But really, couldn’t she look the tiniest bit like me? Grayson Beckett’s genes were as dominant as he was.
“Chelsea, please make a note to keep the baby in the nursery tonight,” Dr. Sinclair was saying, and I opened my mouth to protest. It was hospital norm to let the baby stay in the room with the new parent all night. I needed to scent her and bond. “Mr. Cooper needs his rest.”
“I’ll make a note, Finn,” she smiled, typing the instructions in the laptop that contained my chart and records.
“But…”
“Not happening, Wyatt,” Dr Sinclair’s–call me Finn–gentle but stern tone told me not to argue. “You are dangerously anemic. You should have been on supplements and a special diet, and monitored throughout your pregnancy. Frankly, I’m annoyed with your previous doctor for not doing so. While Julianna is healthy, you are not. And you’ve just given birth. A little early and in less-than-ideal circumstances. Your body went through a tremendous ordeal. You’ve lost blood you couldn’t afford to lose. It’s going to be a little while before you’re back toone hundred percent, and a newborn can be taxing. Believe me, I know firsthand. I’d prefer for you to have some kind of help, at least for the first week you’re home, possibly two.”
Any protest I was about to voice was cut off by the large alpha who strode into the room like he had every right to be there. Grayson Beckett filled the doorway with his broad shoulders, big thighs and oh Goddess, that masculine scent of musk that was so intoxicating. That scent of his was half the reason I was in this hospital bed now. Not that I regretted any minute of it.
“Becks?” Dr. Sinclair stood up from his chair. I’d forgotten how tall the man was. Six foot five at least, and Grayson was every bit as tall as him. Maybe even an inch taller. They both took up a lot of space in what was starting to feel like a very small room. “Is there a problem?”
“Not a lawful one,” Grayson moved closer to the bed, his eyes pinned on Julianna’s face. Taking in every inch of her. He’d seen her of course, he’d been the first to hold her. But then she’d been wet, and covered in blood and goo. Now cleaned up, her dark eyes stared back at him, fascinated, even though logically I knew she couldn’t even see him yet. He was just a big blur to her.
But there was no mistaking the uncanny resemblance to him, or those matching eyes. “But this is my pup and this is my omega, so I want to be kept in the loop on their health.”
Fuck, fuck, fuckity fuck. And what nonsense was he saying? Was pregnancy brain still affecting my otherwise off-the-charts I.Q.? It sounded like he said I was his omega.
“I’m not his omega,” I wheezed out, as my mind whirled with the knowledge that he knew exactly who Julianna was. Not that I thought he was stupid enough not to figure it out. Naively hoping, more like.
“Becks?” Dr. Sinclair raised one brow at him, his face a maskof annoyance, that also spoke of a more than casual acquaintance.
Grayson ran a hand through his disheveled hair. “He’s my mate, okay? Myfatedmate. I have a right to be here.”
“The fuck I am!” The words burst from my suddenly dry lips before I could catch them. The alpha was delusional! Was this some ploy of his to take Julianna from me? “We…you…no.” I shook my head at his declaration. “You’re just saying that because you’ve realized the baby is yours.”
Grayson’s dark eyes burned a hole in me, his lips a tight line. “You are. We are.” It didn’t escape my notice that he ignored my statement about the baby. “I knew it that night in the hotel room. I thought you did too, and we were both just choosing to ignore it. But now I’m guessing you were just…too inexperienced and innocent to know what it was.”
I gaped at him, wide eyed. “You’re delusional. Fated mates aren’t even a real thing.”
“Mmmm,” Finn breathed under his breath, “kind of are.”
“Are you going to tell me that you didn’t feel that spark–that shock–between us when we touched?” Grayson demanded, moving closer to the bed. So close that I imagined I could smell his scent washing over me, wrapping around me, muddling my brain.
Shaking my head to push it away, I stuttered, “That was just…”
He waited, silent, then nudged, “Just?”
I glanced at Dr. Sinclair whose eyes were flicking back and forth between Grayson and me. At the mention of that shock, like lightning zapping my skin, his head gave a quick nod, his blue eyes knowing.
“It was just the thrill of…being with an alpha,” whispering, I stared down at Julianna, her dark eyes staring back withcomplete trust. “For the first time.” My cheeks felt on fire. “That’s all it was, the excitement.”
This was so embarrassing to be talking about in front of a virtual stranger, doctor or not. It wasn’t like I had a long-standing patient history with Dr. Sinclair. In a matter of seconds, he found out I had basically had a one-night stand with a stranger–who he was obvious friends with–and had been a virgin. If the ground could open up and swallow me, that would be great.
Grayson growled low in his throat, and Dr. Sinclair–Finn–shot him a warning glare from his piercing blue eyes and gave him a sharp shake of his head. They seemed to have some kind of silent conversation that I didn’t have the mental spoons to try to decipher.
Finally, Grayson said quietly, “No, it wasn’t, not all of it. Wearefated mates. That’s what that shock was. I felt it again when I touched you, when…” his eyes fell to Julianna, “but you were probably too busy to notice.”
Had I been? My body had been wracked with so many different feelings while giving birth, and I could barely remember half of it. But there were things about our night together that I couldn’t forget. Feelings that refused to go completely away. Scenes that played out, over and over, in my dreams night after night. I had assumed I was just wrapped up in my first time, of experiencing so many things on my list. My list full of sexual things and kinks I wanted to try.
“You knew?” my voice was stronger now, demanding. “You knew that night that we were fated?”
