“Give me a minute to clean him up and measure him,” she said. “Which of you is going to cut the cord?”
We both held the scissors and snipped and a few minutes later, while the healer was still finishing up with our omega, I had a chance to hold our son. Gabriel. He had bright blue eyes, which the healer said would likely change, a cap of dark hair, and ten perfect fingers and toes. I wanted to look at him and cuddle him all day, but Bram had opened his hospital gown and was waiting for skin-to-skin contact.
There he was, in our omega’s arms. A whole person. A new family member. I pulled my phone out to call my dads, but they were already in the doorway along with Indy’s folks. There is noHIPAA among shifters, and someone, probably the nurse, had already told our families the baby was coming.
And I couldn’t mind. Gabriel would be so loved. He was a lucky baby and we were his lucky family. My heart swelled so big, I was afraid it would burst. We all looked down at the baby in his omega daddy’s arms and gave a collective sigh.
After all, he was perfect.
Epilogue
Indy
Gabriel looked up at me with his big brown eyes. Wolf eyes. “Daddy?”
“Yes, bud?”
“Am I still your son if I’m not like you?”
“What do you mean?”
“You’re a unicorn. And I’m a big bad wolf.” Gabriel was five now. He’d just started school.
“Did you hear that term in class?”
He nodded then picked up his glass of milk and sipped.
I sat down at the table across from him. He was having his afternoon snack. “Well, I don’t think you’re bad. Do you?”
He shrugged and reached for an oatmeal cookie. He loved them and always begged for more. “No. But in the story at school, the wolf was bad. And they chase sheepses and hunt deers and little red riding hood girls. Oh, and I almost forgot. They huff and puff and blow down houses.”
We’d kept those books away from Gabe. But there was no way to police every library and classroom and the homes of Gabe’s friends. Unicorns had all those kinds of kids’ books and loved stories about wolves as predators.
“But you don’t do any of that stuff. It’s just a fairy tale. A made-up story.”
“But unicorns are always good, aren’t they?”
“Hmm. I think people decide. We all have choices. We can make good decisions and bad ones. That’s why we stop and think before we say or do things. Especially if we’re angry or upset. Right?”
“You mean like when I threw my teddy on the floor because I didn’t want to go to bed last night?”
“Yep. Just like that.”
“I’m sorry. I was bad.”
“Teddy forgives you.” I tried not to chuckle. Gabe was a great kid. We’d had almost zero problems from him.
Our new little one, however, a unicorn shifter we’d named Forest, kept us awake all hours of the night. He was three months old and already a handful. The complete opposite of Gabe.
At the mention of little Forest, Seth came into the room. He had the baby in a front pouch tight against his chest. The little one was fast asleep against his father’s warmth.
“If you let him nap like that, he’ll be up all night again.” I tore my eyes away from the cute sight.
“I can’t help it. Into the pouch he goes and then he’s asleep.”
“If you’d get up and use it at three in the morning, maybe he’d sleep then, too. But Bram and I can’t ever get you to budge.”
Seth held up his hand. “I vow to get up tonight and use the pouch. You two deserve your beauty sleep.”
