Page 33 of The Brooding Alpha's Mate
“I think you need to explain a whole lot here,” he said, then faced me and grabbed my hands. “But in a minute.”
Another contraction hit.
This one was definitely stronger, and there were no three minutes between these. He was doing some kind of new math or something, because it was definitely less than two at this point, possibly less than one.
“Quick. Explain before I have another contraction.”
“I’m buying the plot of land next door, from the city. And the one next to that is a farm. And the person retiring from therereally wants it to be with someone who loves it. And I know you will love it, so I bought it. And now, you don’t have to feel guilty about moving in order to get your farm, and I don’t have to feel guilty about staying here. So when you really want a farm—”
I talked a mile a minute, which was good, because the next thing I knew, he was begging me to carry him to the bedroom. “I can’t stand anymore, mate. Please, just—”
“I know. I got you, mate. I’ve got you.”
I scooped him up and brought him to the bed, helped him get rid of his shirt.
“And by the way, alpha mine, up until this very moment, it’s the best present ever.”
“I’m glad you like it.”
The contractions were pretty much continual now. He got on his hands and knees, pushing his head to the mattress the way the midwife had taught him. She said it would help ease the delivery, because apparently cubs were a challenging birth. Not that we knew if it was going to be a cub or a pup, but we were going to listen to the expert.
I coached him through his pushing when he said it was time. Telling someone what to do when they were already doing so beautifully felt wrong, but it’s what he asked for, what he needed.
I could never deny him anything.
Watching our baby come through was amazing, but holding him for the first time, listening to his cry, placing him on my mate’s chest so he could drink his first sip of milk, that was everything.
Those were memories I was never, ever going to forget.
“Thank you, omega mine. I love you so much.”
“No. Thank you, Alex, for giving me the best gift I could ever ask for…a family.”
And suddenly his weird thank-you from before made sense.
“It’s I who should be thanking you.” I snuggled beside him, watching our sweet boy suckle. “What do you think we should name him?”
We’d been playing around with quite a few names, but none of them felt right.
“What do you think about Bruen?” he asked.
“Bruen. Hmm.” I tasted the name. “Are you a Bruen?”
He didn’t answer, but it felt right. “Yes. I think this is Bruen.”
“I do too.”
We stayed that way for a long time, just bonding as a family, before sharing the good news with everyone. We promised to let them know when we were ready for visitors.
But we didn’t leave the house again, enjoying our time as a family of three, until it was time for the signing.
It was hard to believe that once upon a time, I’d been a seventeen-year-old trying to figure out how to do life on my own, how to keep a job or pay a mortgage. Looking into a future that wasn’t.
And now, here I was, watching the future being held in my mate’s arms.
