“I love you so much,” he told me. “You’ve got this, baby. You’re almost there.”
I closed my eyes, lying back and trying to push back the nausea. Still, without the pain clouding my thinking, I couldn’t help but feel a little underwhelmed. After all the birthing horror stories I’d heard, I was practically expecting something to go badly wrong. So far, this had all been silky-smooth.
So much for having a horror story of my own to tell.
I fell into my own circle of focus, nodding along with whatever I was told or asked. I only needed Vaughn’s hands in mine. They could get on with the task at hand; it was better if I didn’t think about it.
When it finally began, I felt like I was in another space entirely. Vaughn’s eyes were wide as he looked at the sheet of white separating us from the doctors and midwives, and then moments later we both vanished, recreated into entirely new versions of ourselves.
We heard our baby cry.
“Congratulations,” said the midwife, putting my child into my arms with a warm, kind smile. “You have a brilliant baby girl.”
I was already sobbing, and I could feel Vaughn shuddering beside me as he leaned to join our embrace. I cradled our daughter against my body, staring through tears at her tiny, beautiful face. She was both of us, and an entirely new person, and somehow that simple fact of life only hit me properly right at this moment.
“She’s perfect,” said Vaughn, voice rough with tears. “She’s absolutely perfect. Fin…”
Our heads tipped together, and we looked down at her together. Our miracle.
“Elizabeth Jordyn Bennett,” I said. My voice sounded raw and ragged, but I didn’t care. It was the first time I had spoken this name out loud. Deliberately, it was a name all her own — a name that didn’t belong to anybody else, or come with any expectations. We’d made our selections weeks ago, picking out names we both loved, but we’d shared them solely on paper. The first time we spoke our child’s name, we wanted it to be a greeting. Now that she was here, I loved the idea even more.
“Elizabeth Jordyn,” Vaughn repeated. “Wow, Fin. Just… wow.”
I’d never heard him so ineloquent, but I could fully understand. This impossibility that we’d both always wanted so badly was here in our lives, after so many weeks of waiting and hoping, and all these hours of pain.
She was worth every single second that had led to this. And the next, and the next, and every other blissful second we had to follow it.
21
Vaughn
For saying I had never been able to picture myself as a father, I sure took to being Lizzie’s. Overnight, I had turned into a storyteller and a clown and… well, whatever else I thought she might need or be entertained by. The list grew every day.
Today, the list also grew to include another title I’d never expected: Thanksgiving host.
For the first time, Fin’s parents and mine would be coming to meet each other and spend Lizzie’s first Thanksgiving together. To my surprise, every host since the dawn of time had not been exaggerating or worrying needlessly. Throwing a party like this was actually extremely stressful, especially with a little baby to juggle between me and my mate.
Not that we’d have it any other way, of course.
“Okay,” Fin said, hanging up the phone and reaching out to take Lizzie off my hip. “Mom and Dad are nearly here. They’re just driving past the outer limits now.”
“Already?”
“Seems that way,” he said. “Any clues about yours?”
“I… honestly have no idea,” I admitted. “They told me they were landing from Tokyo, uh… two hours ago. And that is the full extent of the travel information I got.”
“Jeez. Veronica sends me every confirmation email she gets, and several reminders.”
“I know,” I said, grinning at him over my shoulder. “She’s started copying me in. Hey, uh… does this turkey look right to you?”
“Yep.”
“You didn’t even look.”
He threw me a playful look, straightening the tablecloth with one hand. “Okay, let me put it this way. Was last week’s practice turkey ‘right’?”
“...Yes.”
He hummed. “Uh-huh. And the one before that?”
“I’m feeling very attacked right now.”
Fin beamed, crossing over to plant a loving kiss on the back of my neck. I turned to return it, and to give one to Elizabeth too.
“Honestly, Vaughn. It’s going to be fine.”
“I have your father and mine coming over in… well, however many minutes. If I end up serving meat that’s not exceptionally done? That is not going to be fine. I will never live it down. My masculinity is dead.”
“Oh, stop.” He turned as the doorbell rang, shifting Elizabeth to his other hip. “I guess that’s mine. Let me go and let them in; at least they can take Lizzie for a while.”
He puttered off through the house, and I carried on working on dinner — but when Fin opened the door, it was with an awkward noise of surprise.
“Oh!” he said. “Hello! It’s so lovely to meet you at last. Please come on in.”
Typical. Of course our parents would all arrive within a couple of minutes of each other. Why wouldn’t they?
I wiped my hands on a cloth and made my way out to assist. When I got there, Fin had just reached the point of passing over Elizabeth to my dad, who cradled her in his arms like a precious stone.
“She’s really something,” he said. “And she looks like the both of you, too.”
“Speaking of trouble,” said my mom. “Here comes a whole bunch of it.”
I made a face. “Ugh. Who let you guys back into the country?”
“They didn’t want to,” said Mom, accepting a kiss on either cheek, “but they’d had just about enough of us in Japan. Darling, Elizabeth is absolutely gorgeous.”
“Yup,” I agreed. “She is. Stacked full of Fin’s genetics, I guess. Anyway, you’re kind of early and we’re definitely not ready for you yet, so… why don’t you make yourselves useful and get familiar with your gorgeous granddaughter through that way?”
Fin’s jaw dropped. Clearly, this kind of playful back and forth was not something he ever did with his parents, but I barely spoke to mine any other way. At least it might explain a lot to him about the way I’d grown up.
“I know,” said Mom, nudging Fin with her shoulder as she went past. “We raised a monster. It’s all right. I’m his mother; I can still shift and swat his nose with my paw if he gets out of hand.”
I grinned at Fin, kissing his cheek as I steered him back to the kitchen.
“Are they going to be okay in there?” he said, baffled. “I mean. Shouldn’t we sit and talk to them, or…?”
“My family’s kind of relaxed,” I said. “Not sure if you’ve noticed. Anyway, they’ll have James and Veronica to distract them in a minute. They can all coo over how gorgeous Lizzie is together.”
Sure enough, the Kings arrived just a few minutes later. Fin disappeared to go and shepherd them inside, being a far more admirable host by taking their coats and offering them drinks as they headed through to mingle with the Bennetts.
“Oh, here’s our baby,” I heard Veronica saying. “Isn’t she just the most precious?”
Fin’s mom, it turned out, had a pretty good coping mechanism in situations like this. Much like an introvert who built up their confidence by meeting other owners at the dog park, Veronica could quite happily speak on the subject of her granddaughter for hours. She’d still be nervous, of course, but you’d never see it.
Not that our daughter was a dog, of course. Not until she shifted for the first time, anyway.
When dinner was finally ready, we joined them all at the table. Elizabeth took the seat of honor at the head — and like a queen, she was taller than everybody in her high chair, too. Still only a couple of weeks old, she wasn’t quite ready to appreciate the prestigiousness of this, but I liked to imagine her looking back on it fondl
y as a teenager, being told how easily she’d captivated all of our attention.
Would she be quite confident, I wondered, and sass back at us like I did with my parents? Or would there be more of the friendly, reverential warmth that existed between Fin and his parents? It was difficult to say. These were still such early days — but after everyone had left, phone numbers exchanged so that adorable pictures of Elizabeth’s first Thanksgiving could be forwarded around, Fin and I finally had a little chance to think about it between ourselves.
If we could stop yawning, that was.
“I’m not sure how we got through today,” I admitted. “I think I might actually be dead on my feet. If she wakes up in the middle of the night and I go to pick her up, I’m just going to go right through her. It’s going to freak her out.”
“Is this your way of reminding me that it’s my turn?”
I grinned, ruffling his hair. We didn’t actually operate in shifts. Maybe that would be wise, a little down the line — but so far, it was working out perfectly well to just see who could rouse themselves first. We were a team, after all. Mates didn’t abandon each other to unpleasant chores. Mates competed to see who could complete them more quickly.
For one thing, I was absolutely committed to beating Fin’s diaper-changing record before the year was out.
Right now, however, she was fast asleep, and all I could think about was climbing into bed and following suit, Fin cuddled up by my side. Sharing a bed with him was still a novelty, even after all these months, and I was beginning to believe that the feeling would never wear off.
“I don’t want to jinx it,” I told him, cuddling up behind him, “but I think we kind of did a good job today.”
“Mm-hm. Agreed.” He wriggled back against me, reaching back to grab my arm and wrap it around his middle. I was happy to oblige. “Who’d have thought, huh?”
I pressed three kisses on the back of his neck, gradually lower and lower. “Certainly not me on the first day I met you. I think I’d have vanished into the sunset if anybody told me that. Being a commitment-phobic idiot, and all.”
“Well… you were my commitment-phobic idiot.”
I snorted, nuzzling into his shoulder. There was still a lot we had to do and learn about parenthood and each other, but against all odds, it really seemed like we’d made a decent start. The universe had conspired to give us a blessing that we’d both given up on, and we intended to honor that with the best life we could possibly build together.
After all, finding happiness was amazing, but it was just the beginning.
Now, we could go ahead and live it.
Epilogue
Finley
I absolutely loved my job, but it did have a terrible habit of making the days feel long. In truth, things weren’t that bad. The school day finished well before most adults were done with their jobs, and while I definitely still had grading and planning to handle, I could do it from the comfort of my own home — and with the company of my beautiful family.
Now that he’d started his own architecture firm in Blackwater, Vaughn could work from our place most days of the week. I loved that for him, and for Elizabeth; they could play together all throughout the day, and keep each other company in peace and comfort.
Still, it did make things a little harder for me. When I looked out of my classroom window and wished to go home, it was difficult not to picture exactly what was going on back there. Were they finger-painting? Was Lizzie chasing Vaughn’s wolf around the yard? Maybe they were taking a nice midday nap.
Not that I’d ever judged him for it, but I definitely understood Lukas’s desire to take a year off work now. After the sheer joy of paternity leave when Lizzie was born last year and spending my days absorbed in that vital business of bonding with my family, I knew exactly what I was missing out on.
Still. Today, I was planning on speaking to Vaughn about something important that might make a few changes in our lives.
In any case, it was finally time for me to head home from school. As I lifted the stack of homework papers into my car, breathing in the musky fall air, I was comforted by the countdown in my head. Only ten minutes until I got home. Only ten minutes until they greeted me with smiles and hugs, and regaled me with stories about the way their day had been.
Well. Vaughn would do the regaling, but Elizabeth would provide a very charming silent partner.
I glanced at my phone before I set off, and caught sight of a text from Sutton.
When I called V earlier about a spec for one of our clients, I heard a) giggling and b) splashing. So either bathtime happened today, or… your entire house is flooded and occupied by very amused mermaids. Good luck.
I beamed, slipping it back into my pocket. I’d text him back later. Right now, I had a potential mermaid situation to deal with.
Or just… very damp bathroom tiles.
I had a smile on my face all the way home. I wasn’t even thinking about that conversation I meant to have with Vaughn later. These seconds were so golden that I could quite happily exist only in the present without needing the promise of future treasures to lighten me up.
What really made my heart sing was the sound that came from inside the house as my key began to turn in the door. On the other side, I heard a delighted baby shrieking, and smiled as wide as my face would allow as I swung it open to reveal her beautiful, happy face. She was crawling down the hallway towards me. It seemed that bathtime couldn’t have been all that long ago, as she was still wriggling around in her sweet little duckling bathrobe.
My other kind of smile was reserved for her daddy, poking his head around the corner of the room and shooting me his trademark wicked grin.
“Honey, you’re home.”
“I’m home!” I agreed, reaching down to scoop up the fidgety, soft ray of sunshine that was so excited to see me, and bouncing her on my hip. “I’m home, and it’s so lovely to see you! And the house isn’t flooded!”
My eyes flicked to Vaughn, who gave me a sheepish grin.
“I don’t know how you heard,” he said, “but… yeah. Bathtime may have gotten a little out of hand.”
“Is that right?”
“Every affected piece of fabric is already hanging out to dry in the backyard,” he promised, “and until you inevitably walk in there and immediately spot some surface I forgot about, I am at least 80 percent sure I mopped it all up.”
“Well, it sounds like a lot of fun,” I said, leaning to give Lizzie’s tiny soft cheek a plethora of kisses. “Did Daddy happen to turn into a sea monster, at all?”
He gave me an innocent shrug, holding up his hands. “Daddy couldn’t possibly say. But he is very happy to see you.” Vaughn crossed the hallway to kiss me, cupping my cheek with one hand and leaning carefully not to crush our pride and joy. “You know what else? Little Miss Pixie has been full to bursting with energy today, so… I’m pretty sure she’s going to sleep well tonight.”
I laid a hand over my heart. “You really know how to make me happy.”
He grinned, and took my bag for me. “Well, I’m going to be an excellent mate and put this away for you. You two catch up. What do you want to drink?”
“Oh, I’m fine; I-”
“Hydration, Daddy,” he said cheerily, heading off with my bag. “Pick something or I’ll pick for you.”
I smiled after him, bouncing Lizzie gently on my hip. “See, he pretends to be a monster, but he’s really a big old teddy bear, isn’t he?”
“Grizzly bear, if anything,” Vaughn called from a distance. “I could rip your legs off.”
He said it in an equally lighthearted tone of voice so as not to alarm the baby. I rolled my eyes, looking down at her to smile. “I guess I’d better let him get it out of his system now, huh? Because there’s no way he’s going to be allowed to talk like that once you can understand what we’re saying. Is there? No, there isn’t. Or he’ll be in deep trouble.”
I wandered through to the kitchen after him, with Lizzi
e burbling and clutching at my shirt collar.
“I wonder if you know how ominous that sounded,” said Vaughn, taking a couple of glasses down. “Did you choose?”
“Just water, please.”
He wrinkled his nose at me. Instead of just pouring out some water from the filter, he insisted on adding three star-shaped ice cubes and one very well-sliced strawberry.
“Have you broken something? Is that why you’re being so sweet?”
Vaughn tutted at me, stealing another kiss before he handed the water over. “I’m being sweet because you are perfect, but… if you really feel like there has to be a reason, I’m open to accepting a back massage.”
“Bad posture at the computer today again, old man?”
“It’s quite hard positioning yourself at a desk with a wriggling baby on your lap,” he said. “For some reason, she didn’t seem all that interested in my calculations. Wouldn’t stop fidgeting.”
///
By the time Lizzie finally fell asleep, I had a far greater insight into what he meant. It turned out that all her excess energy during the day had, far from tiring her out, instead carried over until bedtime. Several stories later, Vaughn and I finally shuffled into our room at 8:45.
It felt like three in the morning.
“I was going to suggest Game of Thrones,” said Vaughn, “but I think I’d rather sink into oblivion at this point.”
“I know the feeling.”
He kissed the back of my neck, lifting my pajama shirt up over my head for me with gentle hands. It had become something of a ritual for him to undress me now, even when there was nothing sexual on the cards. It was just another form of intimacy — a last skin to shed before we could be entirely by ourselves in bed together.
“Y’know,” he said, slightly muffled as I pulled his shirt over his head. “There’s something I wanted to talk to you about, actually.”
Claiming My Omega: Blackwater Pack Book Two Page 19