Page 16 of A Clutch for Hutch (Omegas of Animals #16)

Hutch

Five! We had five eggs. Five.

And every day that we got closer to them hatching, my anxiety grew. We were outnumbered, not only by numbers of people…two parents to five children, but we also had fewer hands than children. I had no idea how we were going to make this happen, and it was starting to really wear on me.

I tried not to let my mate see it, but that wasn’t fair either. He turned to me when he was stressed. He deserved the same respect back in return. So, when he came in what we now called the nest room after his shower, I spit it all out. “I’m scared about the eggs.”

“The midwife said they’d hatch anytime in the next two weeks. There’s no need to worry.” He sat behind me.

I leaned into him. “No, that’s not what I meant.

They’re fine. If you put your hand on them, you can feel how safe and happy they are.

” I found myself doing it often, especially as I read to them.

“I just… I’m worried about when they get here, how we’re going to handle it.

It’s not like your brother and his mate can really help. They have a clutch of their own.”

“What do you think about hiring someone?” My mate’s words were soft.

“Hiring someone?” I hadn’t considered it, but now that it was on the table, I was surprised I hadn’t.

“Yeah. Maybe someone could…like…be a manny and help us out.”

“I don’t want a stranger.” That sounded terrifying to me.

My phone rang, and when I looked down, it was Burns. “Want me to ignore this?” I hadn’t heard from him in a couple of weeks, but this conversation was important.

“Answer. He probably just wants to see the clutch.”

And sure enough, as soon as I answered, he asked me to turn the camera around so that he could see the babies.

“They are so adorable.”

“I thought they were majestic last time,” Dirk teased.

“They are majestically adorable. I don’t know why I assumed they would look just like big old chicken eggs, but they don’t. Each one’s so unique. I-I wish I could see them in person.”

“Good. Quit your job and come here and work for us,” I blurted out, not really teasing.

“What? You start another company?”

“Not a company as much as…you know…our own little flight here.”

“So, if there’s no company, what job are you asking me about?” He was honestly considering coming here. I knew that just from the tone of his voice.

“I’m not. I was just teasing.”

“He’s not teasing, Burns.” Dirk took the phone from me. “We were just talking about maybe hiring a manny to help us out when the babies came. But the idea of having a stranger here didn’t really work for us.”

“I’m in,” he said without hesitation.

“You’re in?”

“Yep. I’m in. I was looking for an excuse to come out there. And honestly? I’m good at what I do here, but it’s not the same without you. You have room in that place for me?”

“We’ve got room in this place for everyone, including the five little ones.”

And that was how Burns decided to move across the country to help us out. He wouldn’t be there right away. He needed to give his notice, deal with his lease, all that good stuff, but he was coming, and that gave me so much relief.

“Is he still gonna keep calling you boss when he’s here?” My mate was amused by the way he still addressed me that way.

“Yeah. I think at this point, it’s my name.” I’d come to accept that I’d never be Hutch to him.

“He won’t call me that, too, will he?” Dirk was dead serious.

“Knowing him, he’s gonna call you Daddy, just like the kids will.”

“Do you think I’m gonna be the daddy, not you? I kind of saw myself as a papa.”

“Do you want to be Papa?” I wasn’t married to a particular name.

“Maybe. As long as I’m something, I don’t care.”

“Well, then, something it is,” I teased. “Are you okay with Burns coming? He’ll understand if we were just speaking too quickly and brainstorming. He won’t take it to heart.” Burns was great like that.

“Honestly? I’m so relieved. I know you trust him completely, and every conversation I had with him was great, and five is overwhelming. I was trying not to let you see how nervous I was about it.”

“Same,” I said. “We probably shouldn’t do that anymore.”

“No. We definitely shouldn’t do that.”

He snuggled back into me. At least until we both woke up, seemingly for no reason. It was nearly two a.m. But when we looked in the papasan, one of our eggs was moving. And then another. And then the other. And then another.

It was egg time. It was baby time.

“What do we do? What do we do? What do we do?” Dirk said. We’d gone over the plan a million times, but knowing a plan and then acting on it when it was happening were two very different things. The bassinets were already here, ready to go, as were their clothes and diapers. We had it all set up.

“We just wait, my love. We just wait.”

Slight movements turned into rocking, turned into a crack, turned into another crack. They were all moving at pretty much the same pace until a huge chunk fell off the yellow one…and then another chunk and another chunk—and out came our first baby dragon.

“So beautiful.” My mate snapped a picture of him and then reached over and held him.

He shifted into human form, and we wouldn’t see his dragon again until much later in life.

I was glad we had the wherewithal to take a picture.

We wouldn’t keep it on film or any hard drive anywhere, but we decided to hire an artist to paint them.

I couldn’t wait to see how beautiful each of them were on the wall.

The green egg hatched next, our first beautiful baby girl, and then another son, and another son, and another daughter. Our children were here, and they were absolutely perfect. Luckily, they were sleepy, giving us time to adjust.

We took turns holding them, my mate feeding them, me diapering, and we got in a pretty decent rhythm. But it was going to be rough until Burns showed up. And even after that, we were still outnumbered, but it was doable…I hoped.

We called Burns to give him the good news.

“What did you name the sweet babies?”

“Alina, Cadmus, Adelina, George, and Arrow.”

“Well, they’re all beautiful.”

“Wait until you get here and we can show you pictures of them in their dragon forms.”

“Really?” His eyes were wide.

“Really.”

We hung up with him, and once each of the babies was fed and asleep, the two of us snuggled in close, watching them so carefully.

“Thank you for our beautiful family.” My mate kissed my cheek. “I love you so much.”

“Not as much as I love you, alpha mine. Not as much as I love you.”