Page 79 of Omega Hunted

I didn’t say anything. I just held her, and in the early morning light, I couldn’t look at anything else.

“Don’t forget this,” he whispered, placing Yannick’s stuffed wolf within my reach.

Tears welled in my eyes. Had Yannick met his twins at all? Had he held them? Had he been given even this one perfect moment before he died?

“Thank you,” I whispered, setting the little wolf beside Asha on my aching belly, my fingers brushing its worn ears.

I smiled. “Hey Asha, this is your first real friend… his name is…” I frowned. “You should give it a name.”

“Me?” Cassian glanced from me to the toy and frowned. “I’ve got nothing.”

“You’re a wolf,” I said. “You must know hundreds of wolf names.”

He pretended to consider it with great seriousness, studying the stuffed toy as though the answer carried enormous importance.

“Wolfie.”

I blinked. “Wolfie?”

“Mm-hmm.”

“That’s the best a wolf can do?”

He grinned, looking entirely too pleased with himself. “It’s tradition.”

I laughed, the sound catching me by surprise. “You’re making that up.”

“Absolutely.” Cassian’s smile was gentle. “Looks like a Wolfie to me.”

I looked down at Asha, and the little stuffed wolf that had survived almost as much as we had.

“Hello, Wolfie,” I whispered. “Welcome to the family.”

At some point, Asha finished the bottle and drifted off to sleep on my chest. One minute she was determined to stay awake, tiny fists flexing on the blanket; the next her eyes closed, and her breathing settled into a steady rhythm. The room had gone quiet around us. Brec had finally disconnected after making Cassian promise to call again if anything changed, and the adrenaline that had carried me through the night was fading fast, leaving me heavy and exhausted.

Cassian was still standing at the end of the bed.

He hadn’t sat down yet. He’d cleaned up the room, gathered towels, checked on me, checked on Asha, made sure I drank water, and somehow managed to keep watch over both of us at the same time. Now he stood with his arms folded, as though he was waiting for the next emergency to arrive.

“You can hold her again,” I said quietly.

His eyes lifted to mine. “I’ve held her.”

“Not really.”

For a moment he didn’t move, but when I shifted Asha toward him, I saw something I’d never expected to see from Cassian—hesitation. The man who’d helped deliver a baby in a bedroom with nothing but Brec on speakerphone suddenly unsure of himself. He slid his arms beneath her with extraordinary care and settled her to his chest as though she were made of glass.

Asha mewled and wriggled once before relaxing completely. Her tiny body seemed to melt against him, and Cassian went still.

I watched him stare down at her, and something changed in his expression. It wasn’t dramatic. There were no tears and no visible crack in the armor he’d worn since the day I’d met him. But grief, relief, wonder, and something dangerously close to happiness flew across his face before he could hide it again.

His thumb brushed over the edge of the towel near her cheek. Asha was asleep, and Cassian stood beside my bed, watching her as though she were the most precious thing he’d ever seen.

“You are ours to protect,” Cassian murmured to her, his voice rough with absolute certainty.

“Cassian?” I asked, and he met my gaze, and there wasn’t a trace of doubt in his eyes.

His voice deepened and grew compelling, as if he were pulling something ancient from his soul. “My wolf has claimed that duty, and so have I. No one will ever lay a hand on you or your omega father while we’re still breathing. I swear it to you both. If anyone comes for you, they’ll have to come through me first. Through my wolf. We stand between you and the world until our last breath.”