Page 231 of Omega's Heart

Kaden kissed his temple. “I love you. Not long now and then we’ll have our son.”

“Yeah,” Felix gasped and gave a low whine of effort.

“Just a couple more pushes,” Holland encouraged him. “You can do it!”

Felix gritted his teeth like he was rushing into a hailstorm of bullets and pushed, and pushed again.

“One more,” Holland told him. “Here we go!”

And then a loud wail filled the air and Holland was carefully lifting their little boy into the air. He put him on Felix’s chest, still covered in goo and other stuff, the long cord trailing away from his belly still pulsing in time to Felix’s heart.

Felix collapsed against Kaden’s chest, his arms already coming up to cradle their baby. “Oh, he’s beautiful. He’s going to have your hair.” He stroked the dark strands where they were plastered to the baby’s scalp.

The baby’s cries wavered, then faded. He seemed to Kaden to be more confused than anything else. You and me both, bud. His mother looked… well, he wasn’t sure what that expression was. Good, though, he thought.

Kaden barely noticed the omegas still buzzing around Felix’s hips, until Holland came to him with a knife and some string. “I understand from Jesse that human fathers are allowed to cut the cord that links the baby to its bearer, once the baby doesn’t need it anymore. If you want to.”

“How do I…?” he started to ask, but Holland had already handed him the knife and was wrapping thread around the cord close to the baby’s belly, and then again a little farther out.

“Right here, between the threads,” Holland said and showed him where to cut. So Kaden got to be the one responsible for making their pup completely independent of his bearer, which was exciting and frightening, because now they had to figure out how to keep the little fellow alive without the safety net of Felix’s body.

The baby had a line on his belly, just like Felix’s. So, omega. Kaden didn’t care, but he threw a glance toward his mother, wondering what she thought. Her expression was impossible to read, unfortunately. And that was a trap to be sprung on another day—right now, he had his mate and his pup to look after.

Bax led Julius up to the side of the bed, carrying a bowl of water and some clothes. “Felix, is it okay if Julius washes him? He’s never had the opportunity before.”

“Oh. Uh, yeah, sure.”

Kaden could hear it in Felix’s voice that he didn’t want to give their baby up, didn’t want anyone else touching him but them. The way Felix’s eyes hungrily followed Bax and Julius as they took the baby and gently washed him made Kaden realize that alphas weren’t the only ones with a set of primal, ferocious urges. He’d lay credit on it that if someone tried to walk out the door with that baby right now, Felix would be on them, regardless of just having given birth. There was nothing gentle about the emotion he felt coming off Felix right now, just a fierce bearer’s determination to protect their pup.

“Damn, I picked a good mate,” he murmured in Felix’s ear. “Don’t bite them, okay?”

Felix huffed a laugh, but he did dial it down. “I knew I’d want to protect him, but I didn’t think it would feel like this.”

“Fierce omega,” Kaden joked and kissed him. “Congratulations. You made a perfect pup.”

“We made a perfect pup.” Felix leaned back in his arms, then sat up again to take their pup, now clean and wrapped in a soft blanket. “We absolutely have to pick a name now.”

The pup’s eyes were a smoky blue, which made Kaden blink. “Are there blue eyes in your family?” he asked his mate.

Felix shook his head. “All pups are born with blue eyes. They’ll change color later. I hope he has yours.”

“I hope he has yours,” Kaden countered. He reached around his mate’s shoulders to cradle the pup’s head. “I don’t know, what should we call him?”

“We could name him after the senator,” Felix said, but his tone was doubtful.

Kaden shook his head. “No, I don’t think so.” He could already see the problems that would come out of that. “I suppose it’s back to the baby websites again.”

“I suppose.” Felix laughed softly. “Well, little no name will probably let us know what he wants anyway.”

Julius came to kiss his cheek. “I’m going to go home now, you need to rest. I’ll come down in the morning to help.”

“Thank you for being here,” Felix told him. “It was good to have friends around me for this.”

“I’ll see you in the morning,” Julius promised and peeked at the baby. “He’s cute.”

“He is,” Felix agreed and then Julius left.

The rest of them slowly drifted away, even his mother, though Kaden had to push her a little to get her to leave them alone. The last one to go was Holland.