Page 20 of Highland Heat

“Because at some point you need to push, and if you can’t feel the labor, you can’t feel when it’s time.”

I squeezed my mate’s hand as another contraction ripped through me. Each one felt longer, and the time between them shorter.

“I need someone to pat me on the back.” Cora looked up at me. “I’m getting so good at this.”

Exactly ten minutes in, and it was time to push. She was enjoying herself being right far too much, and I couldn’t find the ability to care. My body was now burning, and even if I wanted to disobey her directions to push, I couldn’t. I needed to push as hard as I could. My alpha praised me, telling me how good I was doing, as I was wondering if I would make it through.

When she told me to take a break, I did, and then she had me pushing again. We went through that cycle four times before I heard the most glorious sound of my life—the crying of our son.

“Congratulations, dads.” She set him on my chest, where he started rooting around for his first meal. “You have a beautiful baby boy. Do you have a name for him?”

“We do.” My mate kissed my cheek. “We’re going to name him Stanford.”

“Like the college?”

“No,” I said, still partly out of breath, “like my grandfather.”

“Grandpa Stan was Stanford?” Micah asked. I hadn’t even been aware that he was in the room. I was too focused on my baby and my mate.

“Yeah, his dad thought if he named him that, he’d quote ‘be big-brained.’ He was one of the smartest men I’ve ever known, so maybe it worked.”

“I’m going to step outside and give you two a few minutes to bond, and when I come back in, I’ll help clean things up and make sure you are both still doing well. Until then, I’m go steal some of that chili.”

“I swear you all only ever think about your stomachs,” Graham said.

“Yeah, that’s pretty accurate.” She walked out.

When I looked up, my mate’s eyes were glued to our sweet baby boy. “Thank you, omega mine. Thank you for coming in my life and making me a father.”

“I should be the one thanking you. You are the one who bought me.”

“How about we don’t tell our kid that you’re technically my property. On second thought, it is a pretty good story.”

I reached up and put my hand on his cheek. “It’s my favorite story.”

“Mine, too, mate. Mine, too.”

Epilogue

Ewan

“Let’s go, Stanford. Your daddy’s outside waiting for us.”

He grabbed his toy dragon and ran across the living room to me. It was hard to believe our little one was already three. When people teased us saying not to blink because they grew so fast, they weren’t wrong.

“Where’s Daddy?” he said using his dragon voice.

“He is waiting for us at the goats.”

That had Stanford jumping up and down. He and the goats were besties. They’d been best buddies from the beginning. At first, they loved him and always called my mate over when he was carrying our newborn. As Standford grew, the feelings became mutual. It was adorable.

Despite his uncles often being here in their animal form, our son always started with the goats. Micah used to tease that my mate was part goat shifter and just didn’t know it yet. He rationalized that no one would pick a goat over his gorgeous self, so that was the only possible reason.

The real reason was because they loved Graham and they could sense that Standford was important to him. In so many ways, Stanford was a mini-me of my mate. We didn’t know if he was to be an alpha or omega yet and wouldn’t until his first shift, but I had a feeling he was going to be an alpha like his daddy.

I hadn’t even shut the door when Stanford was already off the porch and racing across the enclosure Graham and my cousins had just finished building. The old one had been fine, but we were thinking of expanding our garden, and moving the goats over would make it easier to expand our current beds.

“Daddy!” he said, using his dragon voice. “I’m flying over to you.”