“Did you make this?” I looked at Harlan.
“We all did. We figured our little one would want a piece of us nearby.” He wrapped an arm around both Roan and Benji’s shoulders.
“You welded?” I looked right to Roan, who had tried a couple times and…it hadn’t gone well.
“No, I painted. But Benji did something too.”
Benji went over and gave a long pet to the nose of the metal wolf and it started to play the most beautiful lullaby.
My mates had worked together to make a special present for our baby. My eyes blurred, the emotions so high. Maybe from the pregnancy, maybe from the beauty of it all, but all I could give them was a broken, “Thank you,” because the words weren’t coming.
“I think we broke her,” Roan said, wrapping his arms around me from the back. The other two did the same from each side, and I was officially the center of my mates’ embrace, one of my favorite places on this planet.
“No, you didn’t break me, alphas mine. You made me whole.”
Chapter Thirty-One
Lily
Whoever said omegas will know when they’re in labor was a liar. I’d already been wrong twice. After no baby came, I didn’t trust myself anymore. I needed backup.
I called Rumor and asked her if she could stay with us until the baby arrived. It was a huge ask, between Bernadette being in hertoddle everywhere and get into everythingstage, and Evander still adjusting to being on this side of the womb, and Rumor still adjusting to being the mom of two.
Her answer had been an immediate yes. Her mates brought her over an hour later, her little ones with her, along with everything she would need for at least a week. My mates were never far behind, but they understood something was telling me I needed to be around Rumor. So that’s where they wanted me to be. They were so understanding like that.
Sylvia stopped by a couple of times. She very much stayed to herself, and that was fine. Whatever made her happy was exactly what I wanted her to do. The kids loved her, and they always had her smiling, so I was thrilled each time she showed up at the door. Learning about her had taught me so much about her brother’s kindness and loyalty.
That morning, when I woke up, something had changed. I didn’t feel it as much as I could smell it. My scent had morphed…again. I woke Rumor, and she noticed it instantly.
“I don’t think that happened to me,” she said, which wasn’t instilling confidence. “Go get your mates.”
I didn’t have to go far. They were all asleep in wolf form on the porch, protecting the house from imaginary foes, I imagine. When I came outside, they too noticed right away, shifting and coming in close. They asked if I needed the midwife, and I didn’tthink I did. But also, I was scared not to have one, in case the scent thing was an issue.
We sent for her, and Rumor had her mates come and get the kids because we were pretty sure it was go time.
I’d only met the midwife a couple of times. There were not many who acknowledged our pack, partly because we still hadn’t named it, and mostly because there were those who thought us less than. We were a bastard pack, after all.
I still didn’t understand how our world could be so cruel to anyone, much less men as kind as my mates.
Two hours later, I still didn’t feel any contractions, but my scent morphed another time, making it the third scent in less than as many days: my pregnancy scent, my wake-up scent, and now this one.
Rumor held my hand tightly, telling me it was fine and that if there was something to be concerned about, the midwife would be here soon.
And finally, the midwife showed. She was old and not justcould be my grandmotherold, but possiblythe oldest person I had ever metold.
“Why do you look so worried?” she asked when she walked up to me.
And before I could even explain, she smiled, her eyes falling to my belly. “You probably should have told me there were three in there.”
“Excuse me? Three babies?” Three babies. How had I not known that? I mean, I was a lot larger than Rumor ever got. I’d attributed it to mates who fed me every chance they got, not growing an entire litter. Three babies? Whoa!
The looks on my mates’ faces were priceless. It was Harlan who said, “Good. Three mates, three sets of arms, three babies.”
“There are four sets of arms,” I reminded him.
“Nope. You’ve already done the hard work. You need to be spoiled from now on.”
Rumor made a gagging sound, and rightfully so. As if I wasn’t spoiled twenty-four hours a day.
