Page 42 of Rogue If You Want To
“I…” he panted. “I feel something.” He put his hand down as I kept hold of him. He let out a cry. Oh shit, no. No, the universe couldn’t be so cruel to make him go through what he had then… and then…
“The head, Torin. I can feel it.”
My eyes welled with tears at how proud I was of him and thrilled the baby was almost here.
“Icando this.”
Pushing the head out took an age, but I could hear the determination in his voice. He bore down again and squeezed my hand while I whispered how much I loved him.
He panted, and I panted with him. When he pushed, I pushed too. We repeated that routine until with one huge push, the baby’s head emerged. He brushed his fingers over our little one’s damp head, and my face was wet with tears.
More pushes and the shoulders emerged. Otto was hovering just inches over the mattress as the baby was born with a loud cry. With one hand balancing my mate, I scooped up our son and lowered Otto to the mattress before placing our son on his chest.
“I know it’s scary out here, but you’ll grow to love it, little one,” my mate murmured to our son.
I covered them both with a blanket and gave Otto water with a straw, as his mouth was so dry. But my attention was on our son, squirming on his omega dad, his eyes closed as tightly as Otto’s had been during the contractions. But he stopped crying as my mate spoke to him, probably because he recognized his voice.
Our baby had such dark hair, and I stroked his tiny palm and counted his fingers. How was it possible he was so small and yet so perfect? He opened his eyes, and my wolf and I both awwwed.
He’s beautiful. I would cry if I knew how.
“You were right about this place. The transformed root cellar made the best den.”
We didn’t have to decide on a name because whether the baby was a boy or girl, we’d chosen a name as soon as we found out Otto was pregnant. I’d laughed when he suggested it, pitying my poor pruney toes and fingers.
“I suspect River will spend a lot of time in the stream as he grows up.” Considering the pack name, River fit right in. “Welcome to the Stoney River pack, River.”
The baby cooed, so maybe he recognized his name.
My mom would have loved being a grandmother, but I liked to think she was watching over me and was proud of me becoming a dad.
“It’s so cozy in here. Maybe we should live here year round.” Otto grinned as he munched on crackers.
“What?”
“Kidding. But let’s spend the night here, and in the morning, we can show him his namesake.”
Our first night as a family.
EPILOGUE
OTTO
“All right, my sweet boy, it looks like we’re good to go.” I picked up River, put him in the baby carrier, snapping the straps behind me, and held him close. “We’re gonna go see our family.”
He was already starting to doze off again. He just finished having his meal, and if he hadn’t needed a diaper change, would have already been asleep.
I bounced from left to right, helping to lull him to sleep as I headed out to join the others. It was the first pack run since River was born, and we were having an all-out celebration, because it happened to hit a full moon and a weekend and was River’s first all rolled into one.
Torin had already gone ahead to help set up, and I was just waiting for River to be ready.
In some ways, our lives had changed so much since he was born. We didn’t have as much sleep. Our lives revolved around our sweet baby. And I had more love pouring out of me than I thought was possible. But also, so much stayed the same. I wasstill Otto, Torin’s mate, one of the newest pack members of the Stoney River pack.
Although that was going to change. A couple of shifters had been asking questions and were coming by to meet the different people in our pack. It still shocked me how much word got out about us and how many shifters were longing for what we were building here. At our last pack meeting, we discussed adding some more buildings. All of our current ones were fixed up, with the exception of the place that my mate and I stayed in, and that was in pretty good shape.
I was one of the last ones to reach the river, and many people were already eating. A few were singing a song that was about the history of our pack. Noel had been working on writing it, and it was getting pretty good. It wasn’t there yet by any stretch, but I could see us teaching it to the little ones… so much better than having to memorize the books of old and getting beaten if we made a mistake. That was for sure.
My mate stood with Creven. The two of them had become really close, and while neither of them said anything about it, I suspected my mate was being considered for a position as pack Beta. And if that time came, we’d discuss it and work from there. But for now, they were just friends, and he helped out when he could.
