“You sure this is the place?” the driver asked skeptically.
I tried to fill my voice with confidence as I said, “Yeah, this is it.” I knew there were places I could drop off my baby, no questions asked, but there was no guarantee Victor wouldn’t find her there, and a simple DNA test would show he was her father. I couldn’t risk it.
I went to shove the cash through the partition’s window, but the guy didn’t take it right away.
He sighed, taking a moment to look at me properly, gaze lingering on the blood caking my fingernails. I tried to tuck my hand into the towel, but it was too late, he’d seen it. “Look, are you sure you don’t need a hospital? I won’t even charge you. If you’re in some kind of trouble…”
“Really, I’m fine,” I said firmly, waving the cash at him. When he still didn’t take it, I dropped the wad on the front seat and pushed open the door. “Thanks for the ride.” A fresh gush of blood spilled out of me when I stood up, but I tried my best to ignore it. I was almost home free.
I had to go around the side of the house, out of sight, before the cab driver finally drove away. I took the opportunity to glance through the house windows, and I liked what I saw. It was like a scene out of some family movie. A quaint country kitchen, dishes stacked in the drying rack. Books on the table, artwork and pictures stuck on the fridge with magnets. There was a pile of shoes by the door, some big, some smaller, belonging to a kid. This man had a family, and I knew in my heart that this was the right place. The people here would take good care of Mia.
As if she knew my plan, she began to squirm against my chest, fussing, and I shushed her, rocking her gently as I headed for the barn. “Soon, sweetheart, but let me have a little more time withyou. I’m not ready to say goodbye just yet.” I wasn’t sure if I ever would be…
It was warm inside the barn, and I made myself a nest in the corner. I could hear the soft cooing from some chickens in their coop, but they didn’t seem bothered by us. “Shh, here we are, sweetie.” I unwrapped the towel and changed Mia’s diaper, before I brought her to my chest, trying to feed her again, but something was still wrong. I’d thought maybe the first time I tried, it was just stress and an awkward position that made it impossible, but even now, she couldn’t seem to latch on. A few drops of milk formed on my nipple, but it didn’t seem like enough.
Exhausted, we both fell asleep sometime around dawn, and I didn’t wake up until I heard the grumble of a diesel engine. Panic left me disoriented, and for a second, I had no clue where I was. Clutching my baby, I crawled so I could peek around the barn door and saw a teenager, maybe 13 or 14, running to catch a bus that had parked at the end of the driveaway. When the boy turned back to wave goodbye to his dad, he was wearing a beaming smile, and I found myself smiling in reply. It was so… wholesome. The boy’s attention turned to the barn, and I sat back, hoping he hadn’t seen me. When the bus rumbled away, I finally risked a glance back at the house, where I saw the man from last night disappear back into the house.
Tears burned at my eyes, because I knew it was time. Mia needed more than I could provide for her, and even though it broke my heart, I knew this was what she needed. Jerry could get her medical attention without it leading back to me. He was a good man, I knew it. He would help her. “Please forgive me, my sweet girl,” I whispered, slipping out of the barn. “You’ll be safer this way, you’ll be happy.” I instilled as much of my heart into that promise as I could. It had to be true.
Setting her down on the porch, I knocked on the door and then quickly limped back to the barn where I could watch to make sure he brought her in. He didn’t answer the door, though. “Come on,” I hissed, my legs growing too weak to hold me up, and I sagged, gripping the wood hard enough to get splinters. This was taking too long, and I could see the towel moving as Mia kicked inside the poorly wrapped swaddle. “Come on, answer the door!”
Mia’s reedy cry broke the silence, and my breath froze in my lungs, instincts demanding I go to her. The guilt was like a rusty knife through my ribs. My baby needed me! I’d taken three wobbly steps back toward her when the door finally opened. I just barely managed to fall back into hiding when Jerry stepped out. He looked around once, scanning for whoever might’ve knocked, before bending down to pick Mia up.
“Hey there,” he cooed softly. “Who might you be?” He was so careful with her, his large hands easily cradling her to his shoulder with the practised ease of a man who had experience with a baby.
Tears spilled down my cheeks as I watched him take my baby inside. This was what I’d wanted, right? What my baby girl needed. But that didn’t make the decision any easier. I knew I should leave now, but I needed to know that she would be okay, that he would get her the care she needed.
I would stay just a little while longer… just to make sure…
4
Lazlo
Istared,stunnedspeechlessat the huge alpha currently taking up space in my clinic’s waiting room. He was clearly trying to keep his calm, but his broad chest rose and fell at an alarming pace. “Please, can you help me?” he asked, his eyes a bit crazed, though I suspected this was a man who was quite used to handling everything himself. He had an air of competence, but it struck me how he had no problem coming to me, a beta, for help when he needed it. I felt my own chest puff up a little in pride that I could have anything to offer him. “I’m sorry, I don’t have an appointment, but the baby…” He gestured to the bucket car seat he was carrying in one hand like it weighed nothing. “She needs help, and you were closer than the hospital, but it’s not an emergency and—”
I held up a hand for him to save the explanation. There would be time for that later. “Of course. I’m sure nobody minds letting the baby go first?” I asked the waiting patients, eyebrow raised.Nobody did, because only an asshole would demand to be seen first.
Leading the way through to the back of the clinic, I dumped my jacket and bag in my office then brought the man into exam room one. “What’s your name?” I asked. I couldn’t simply refer to him as “alpha,” though I had to admit there was a certain appeal to it. The man was the physical embodiment of every stereotype of his classification.
“It’s Jerry—uh, Jeremiah Scott,” he said, carrying the car seat over to the exam table and working on the buckles. “I don’t know the baby’s name, but I’ve been calling her Ladybug for now.”
Surprised, my arm missed the sleeve of my white coat as I went to slide it on. “You don’t know her name? She’s not your daughter?”
He turned and watched me with those deep blue eyes, missing nothing. “Someone left her on my doorstep this morning. I know I should call CPS, and I will, but I wasn’t sure if she could wait that long. She’s obviously brand-new, probably born in the past 24 hours. She has a section of the umbilical cord attached, and she’s still covered in afterbirth.” He dragged a hand over his face, rasping against day-old whiskers. He looked exhausted, and the day had only just begun.
“And the omega parent?” I asked, a pang of protectiveness washing through me. I’d helped deliver hundreds of babies, and I knew the toll it took on the body, not just fatigue but the potential for complications. Blood loss, tearing, infection…
He shook his head, looking devastated. “No sign of them. I wanted to look for them, but she needed my help first. I tried feeding her, but she didn’t seem to be getting any formula from the bottle.”
“You had what you needed already? Do you have kids of your own?”
“No, I’m single, and my foster son is a teen, but I’m an emergency contact for CPS. I keep everything I need on hand just in case I need to take an infant on short notice.”
“And it’s a good thing you did. She couldn’t have been in better hands,” I said, grabbing my stethoscope.
I struggled to remain calm, while my heart was beating hard in my chest. Jerry was watching me, almost pleading for me to handle this situation for him, and I forced a bright smile onto my face. “Okay, let’s take a look at little miss Ladybug, shall we?”
He lifted her from the car seat, and the baby curled up on instinct, knees to chest, arms pulled in tight, and let out an angry bleat. She was dressed in a tiny pink onesie, and I could see what he meant. Her fine dark hair was plastered to her scalp with dried afterbirth. “Was she dressed in this when you found her?” I asked.
