Page 45 of Claiming Xan (Shifters of Greymercy #7)

XAN

I came around to the steady beep-beep of a machine somewhere nearby, and the soft hush of voices talking in low tones.

My first thought was that my body felt…strangely heavy. I shifted, prying first one eye open and then the other, and glanced around groggily.

The room was white. Sunlight streamed through the blinds, hitting the floor in pale bars. I closed my eyes against the assault on my senses. It smelled too clean. Bleach-y. It made my nose hurt.

Was I in the hospital?

“Xan?” I heard a familiar voice say, and I slowly fluttered my eyelids open once more. River sat at my bedside, his hand gripping mine. He looked exhausted, like he hadn’t slept in weeks.

At the bottom of the bed stood my mother, in rainbow-printed scrubs like she’d left the clinic and came directly here. I frowned.

“Mom…?” My tongue felt fuzzy in my mouth. I swallowed, but it didn’t make the weird dryness go away. “What happened?”

“How are you feeling, honey?” she asked me instead, and I blinked a couple more times, trying to figure out how I felt.

“Tired,” I mumbled. “Everything is kind of…hazy. Did I wreck the car?” The last thing I remembered was driving home after work on Valentine’s Day, excited to surprise River and then…

I touched my stomach and gasped, struggling to sit up in bed, but pain rippled through me. “The baby!”

Everything flooded me at once—Sky approaching me with a knife in his hand and booze on his breath, running for my life, being tackled from behind, fangs ripping into my gut.

My baby. Oh, no.

“Xan, it’s okay,” River assured me, but I was already panicking.

“My baby! Is he?—”

“He’s doing just fine,” Mom told me in that soothing, calm Alpha tone she always used on uneasy packmates.

My heart skipped a beat. I stared at her, blinking away tears.

“Just born a little premature, that’s all.

” She patted my leg. “Strong set of lungs on him, though. Echoed through the entire NICU.”

I sank back into the pillows, breathing heavily. River stroked hair from my face and smiled. His eyes were soft and loving. “Everything’s gonna be okay, baby,” he assured me. “Just rest and heal.”

I frowned at him. “Rest? Rest?! I was nearly killed by your psycho brother and you want me to rest? I want to see my baby!” I cried out, feeling like a petulant child not getting his way, but inside, my wolf was freaking out.

Mom nodded. “I’ll talk to the nurses and see what I can do. Please, honey. Relax. You’ll pull out your stitches. Don’t make me put you in the cone of shame.” She winked at me, then left the room.

I took a deep breath, trying to calm down. River threaded his fingers in mine, then kissed the back of my hand before pressing his forehead to it.

Suddenly, his smile was gone.

“You scared me,” he said, hushed. “There was so much blood. I thought I was going to lose you.”

“River.” My chest ached. I cupped his stubbled cheek in my palm, my thumb caressing his cheekbone. “You can’t get rid of me that easily—and it’s not for lack of trying.” First Nevin’s crazy ex, and now River’s crazier brother. What next? A giant meteor?

“I just love you so much, it hurts,” River murmured. “I never thought it was possible to love someone this much, but when I came face to face with the realization that I could lose you? I wasn’t sure I could keep going.”

“Don’t talk like that,” I told him. “I’m okay. Mom says the baby’s okay. Everything’s going to be fine, just like you said, right?” I squeezed his fingers in mine.

He smiled tiredly. “Right.”

As if on cue, the door swung open and a nurse came in, wheeling a small cart. My heart skipped a beat when I saw the tiny baby nestled in the blankets of the warmer.

My son.

The nurse smiled brightly. “Ready to meet your baby, daddies? We’ll have to keep it brief, but I know an Omega’s bond with his child is a strong one, and since you’re a special case…”

She gently placed the small infant on my bare chest, so that we were skin to skin, before covering him up with the blankets. The baby made a soft noise and nestled in, and the air seeped from my lungs, leaving me breathless.

He was perfect. Every single fingernail. Every single thread of silvery-blond hair on his head. My heart could barely take it as I gently cradled the newborn in my arms. Tears filled my eyes.

“Our baby,” I whispered. “He’s beautiful.”

River leaned in to admire the infant, stroking a single fingertip down his flawless cheek. “So tiny. So fragile. We’ll keep him safe, though. He’ll need a name…”

I stared at the living, breathing porcelain doll nestled against my skin, feeling his warmth soak into me, and I smiled. “I was thinking… What about Canyon?”

River rolled his eyes. “You just gotta have an earthy name, don’t you?”

I stuck my tongue out at him. “What? I think it’s cute. What do you think, Mom?”

“Oh, no. I’m staying out of this one,” she said around a soft laugh. “Whatever you name him, I will love him all the same.”

River looked thoughtful for a moment, then leaned in to kiss my temple. “Canyon River Howell. It has a ring to it, doesn’t it?”

I beamed at him, then down at the baby, whose dark eyes stared up at me. “Canyon. It’s perfect,” I breathed.

River only smiled. “And so are you, Xan. So are you.”