Page 232 of Omega's Heart

“Thank you,” Kaden said as he walked him to the door. “For putting up with Mom.”

Holland nodded, his expression thoughtful. “I’m going to talk to Quin and see what we can work out. She wasn’t bad tonight.”

Kaden wondered if Holland even realized that some of what had changed had been him as well. Not that he was going to say it. But it might be worthwhile sitting down with big brother Quin to have a talk about how he’d apparently found himself a mate just like his mother.

Quin was going to have kittens.

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T he baby had hardly made more than a warning yawp before Kaden had jumped over Hunter, jammed his leg on, and headed for the cradle.

I propped myself up on my elbows and watched in mild bemusement. “You know, soldier, it’s not a call to arms.”

“Oh, yes it is,” he said with feeling as he carried our little boy across the bed. “I don’t know how you don’t melt when he won’t stop crying.”

Truthfully, I didn’t know either, except that when the baby cried, Kaden got anxious and it didn’t do him any good if I let my own first-time parent nerves show. “He just usually needs a cuddle. Or food.” Our as of yet still-unnamed son was rooting at his Da’s chest, ready for breakfast.

Kaden handed him over. “You’ll have better luck over here, bud.”

I cradled him in my arms and let him find his way to my nipple. The discontented grunting stopped almost immediately as he latched on and I felt the odd heaviness that was my milk dropping. “What about Bud for a name?” I asked.

Kaden made a face. “Not a chance.”

I sighed. “Did you know anyone in the Army who wasn’t an asshole?”

“Some. No one I’d name my son after. We could name him after your Dad.”

“Dad would disown us.”

Kaden grinned and crawled over Hunter again so he could lean against the headboard, his chin propped on my shoulder. “We could name him after my Dad.”

I opened my mouth to say, not in a million years would I cater to Veronica’s ego that way, then stopped. “Well, why not?” I reached over to scratch Hunter’s forehead. “You okay with sharing your name, a little?” It wasn’t really a name, just his breed.

Kaden snorted. “That’s not his name. But we could spell it like that. Dad was Sheppard with two p’s, so it wouldn’t exactly be his name if we spelled it Shepherd with a ph.” He grabbed the baby’s toes and wiggled them. “What do you think? Shep? You wanna be Shep?”

The baby ignored him, having more important things on his mind.

“I don’t think he much cares.” There was one small worry. “What will the pack think if we name him after his big brother the German Shepherd?”

Kaden shrugged and leaned in to nibble a few baby toes. He’s so cute when he’s being Da. “We can change the e to an a and I’ll just tell them we named him after the video game character. That should confuse them long enough for us to get away.”

“Video game character?” I asked, confused.

“Something Fan said. Science fiction game, where you shoot your way across an alien planet. We’re going to play it together one of these days.”

“Oh.” Well, okay. I could look it up later and see what it was all about. But at least our little boy had a name now. I stroked the cap of black hair, so much like his sire’s, and smiled down on him. It was a good name, a name for a leader, and maybe a name for someone who would have more than we did. I wanted that for him.

Kaden twisted to reach for his phone to check the time. “You hungry?”

I wasn’t yet, but I figured I would be soon. “He won’t be long, you can nap and I’ll call you when I’ve got breakfast ready.”

He grinned and poked Hunter out of the bed. “Naw. It’s our one week anniversary of being parents. You’re getting breakfast in bed. Come on, Hunter, let’s go raid the kitchen.” He slid off the side of the bed and pointed a finger at me. “Don’t argue. I’m the alpha.” He was trying to be stern, but his lips kept twitching.

I narrowed my eyes at him, then laughed. “Yes, dear.”

He blew me a kiss, then escorted our oldest out of the room to go to the bathroom and start breakfast.

I relaxed against my pillows and contemplated the perfection that Kaden and I had created together. Even at only a week old, our little boy was already so smart. He went to sleep easily, picked up on how to feed almost right away and when he looked at you, you could be forgiven for thinking he could really see you, his eyes were so sharp. We were all absolutely his slaves.