“Want to cut the cord, dad?” the doctor asked softly.

I dragged my eyes away from Chris’s daughter to look at the doctor, then drew in a surprised breath as I realized that her question had been directed at me.

My eyes were huge as I looked from Chris to the doctor.  “Oh, I—I’m not the—” I stammered, feeling my stomach do a flip.  We hadn’t exactly stopped to explain anything about our complicated parental situation, and even though the doctor had been right there to hear Chris trying to get me to leave earlier, she’d had slightly more important things to focus on than what we were saying—like making sure this beautiful little girl wasn’t in any danger as she was being born.

“It’s okay,” Chris said.  “I don’t want to let her go, and I’d rather it was you.  Um.  No offense,” he added, glancing momentarily at the doctor.

“None taken,” I heard her say, but I couldn’t seem to look away from Chris.  His pale blue eyes were like twin stars in his face, bright and shining with love as he held his newborn daughter in his arms.

He was the most beautiful thing I’d ever seen.

“All right,” I answered, because what other choice was there?  My heart beat for this amazing omega; his wish was my command.  

It took a little maneuvering since I didn’t want to get off the bed—I could have sat there forever with Chris and Charlotte in my arms—but I managed to shift aside slightly and accept the scissors from the doctor as she told me where and how to cut.  I hovered the scissors over the cord for a moment, heart in my throat, as I looked at Chris again.  He was smiling softly down at his child, off in his own little world, and I felt a smile grow on my own face.  

Holding my breath, I cut.

The cord was surprisingly tough, and it took longer to get through than I expected.  But when it was done and I settled back down behind Chris, gently tugging him back slightly so he could rest his weight on me, I couldn’t seem to stop smiling.

“I did it,” Chris breathed, leaning against me as both of us stared at his daughter.  Other things were happening around us as the doctor and a nurse bustled around, cleaning up, putting a band around Charlotte’s wrist, doing a hundred other little things that neither Chris nor I paid attention to unless we were specifically asked to do something.  

“You did,” I agreed.

“I made her.”

“She’s just as beautiful as her father,” I whispered around the lump suddenly forming in my throat.  Charlotte’s eyes were pale like his; there were a couple tufts of dark hair on her head, suggesting that she would have his same hair color.  Her cries were quieting down a little, replaced by all sorts of gurgles and other little noises.  Every breath I took was filled with the scent of them, Chris and Charlotte both.  She smelled so much like him it was almost impossible to tell them apart; over time, her scent would change and become her own, but for now, it was all Chris.

“She is,” Chris agreed, stroking a finger down one of her shoulders.  “She’s amazing.”

“You’re amazing, too,” I reminded him, unable to resist pressing a kiss to the side of his head.  It didn’t matter that it was the middle of the night, or that if I was exhausted, Chris had to be a thousand times more so.  All that mattered was sitting here, savoring these first moments together. 

For all that I prided myself on being able to control my emotions, I felt happy tears bubble up, impossible to stop.  All the heartache and pain of the last weeks was worth it and then some, just to be here sharing this beautiful moment with Chris.

Wait a minute… 

My internal clock definitely agreed that it was the middle of the night, which I confirmed after carefully working my phone out of my pocket to check.  Sure enough, the clock read 2:37.

“Hey,” I said softly, breaking the silence that had fallen for the last few of minutes as both of us stared at Charlotte, lost in our own happy little worlds.

“Hmm?” Chris asked, glancing up at me.  

Oh, I could spend the rest of my life looking into those blue eyes.

“Guess what?” I teased lightly.

His brows drew together.  “What?”

I smiled at him, etching every single moment of this into my memory: how beautiful he was, even with dark circles under his eyes and sagging shoulders; the little noises Charlotte made as she waved her arms and legs; the way I felt happier and more at peace right now than during every other happy moment in my life combined.  This was the most incredible gift I could ever have asked for, and my heart swelled with love.

As I spoke, my smile grew; and when he heard, Chris beamed right back.

“It’s Christmas.”

“Do you want to hold her?” Chris asked me.

“Yes,” I replied immediately, heart leaping.

Beaming at me, Chris held out his daughter.  I took her, careful to support her head like I’d seen the doctors and nurses do whenever they needed to check something.

If I’d thought I knew what love and happiness were before, it had nothing on holding her for the first time.

Somewhere outside the walls of the hospital, the sun was climbing in the sky.  Charlotte had been born hours before and I was half ready to fall asleep where I stood beside the bed, but now that she was in my arms, sleep was the last thing from my mind.  We’d stayed in that bed for hours, and when I’d had to move so Chris could sit up properly to breastfeed for the first time, and then again when he had to be helped out of the bed so they could change the sheets for fresh ones, I hadn’t gone far. Chris had even nodded off for a while when they briefly took Charlotte to the nursery for some tests, but I’d stayed awake the whole time, protecting him while he slept.  There were no threats here, but it didn’t matter; I wanted to spend every moment of the rest of my life protecting the two of them through anything and everything the world might throw our way.

Then after he’d woken up and fed her again, Chris said those six magical little words, and now here she was, in my arms.

“Shhh, shhh, little one,” I hurried to say when she started to fuss.  “I know I’m not Chris, but you remember me, don’t you?  We had some talks, you and I.”  I rocked her gently, absolutely awed by the little bundle in my arms.  

There was a strange noise, but this time it came from Chris, not from Charlotte.  I looked up at him to find him watching us with a strange expression on his face, one that almost looked like he was about to tear up.  

“Do you want her back?” I asked quickly, assuming it was from being parted from his daughter.

“No… I—I love you,” Chris blurted.  His eyes widened a little after he said it, as though the words had surprised him, too.

“Oh,” I breathed, feeling like I could have burst into laughter and song but mindful of the half-asleep newborn in my arms.

Chris bit his lip, searching my eyes.  “You… you didn’t leave,” he said softly.  “Even when I told you to go.”

Sensing that he needed to hold his daughter again even though I could have stood there for hours with her, I carefully passed her back to the omega.  He immediately settled her against his bare chest, relaxing, yet his gaze only left mine for a moment to make sure she was settled before he turned his eyes back to me once again.

I carefully settled down onto the edge of the bed, resting a hand on his thigh through the thin blankets.  “I told you I wouldn’t,” I reminded him.

“Why?”

Resisting the urge to lean forward and kiss him, I gently squeezed his leg.  “Because I love you, too,” I said.

Chris drew in a breath, chewing on his lip again.  “But—but you can’t have meant… what you said.”

My heart squeezed at the uncertainty I saw flicker in his eyes.  I’d told him more than once now that I meant every word of my promise, yet he still struggled to believe me.  Even if their relationship had been over in everything but name long before the fight that had led to my brother leaving, it was clear that Chris was still deeply hurt by it—and by a thousand other things from their relationship, no doubt.

“I meant it,” I assured him.  It didn’t matter if I had to tell him this a hundred times or a thousand times; I’d say it every day for the rest of my life if I had to, so long as that life included Chris and his daughter.

“But—”

I reached out and cupped his face with my other hand.  “Chris, I want you to be mine.  I want to be your alpha, and I want to be Charlotte’s father.”

“You don’t know what you’re saying,” Chris whispered raggedly, eyes brimming with tears.  “It’s not all sunshine and rainbows.  It’s stress and fighting and raising a baby.”

“I know that,” I assured him.

Chris shook his head, brows drawing together.  “Why?” he asked, voice tiny.  “I’m nobody, just a random omega off the street.  How can you say such amazing things, when she’s not even your child?”

I carefully wiped one of his tears away before it could fall, and both of us glanced down at Charlotte as she woke up from a brief nap and started fussing.  “Because they’re true.  I don’t just want to be a father—I want to be her father.”

His lip wobbled.  “You—you’d really mark me?” he asked, searching my eyes.  “What about your family?  They don’t want anything to do with me.  They’d be happy if they never had to see me again.”

“You’re right. They might not ever come around…”  I trailed off, deciding not to tell Chris that about my father’s threat to cut me off, at least not right now; he didn’t need anything else to worry him and there would be time later, when he hadn’t just been through an emotional and physical gauntlet.  “But if there’s one thing I should thank my parents for, it’s showing me what a family should be.  My brother may have been the one to start Charlotte’s life, but that doesn’t make him her father.  And you’re not a nobody; you’re the most amazing man I’ve ever met.  I want to spend the rest of my life showing you just how incredible you are, if you’ll let me.”

“I…”  Chris stared at me, visibly teetering on the edge of saying yes.  There was still something holding him back, though, and I wasn’t sure what it was.

“Talk to me,” I told him.  “Whatever it is, you can tell me.”

“I… don’t want to take advantage of you,” he said slowly.  As soon as he was done speaking, he swallowed hard and looked down at Charlotte.

That threw me for a loop.  “Take advantage of me?  What do you mean?”

He opened and closed his mouth twice before managing to find his words.  “How is this different than my reasons for staying with Ethan?” he asked.  “I was afraid to face all this alone, so I stuck with him even when I shouldn’t have.  Your parents were right: I was using him.  And I… I’m worried I’m doing the same thing to you.”  Chris spoke slowly, carefully choosing his words, and it was visibly difficult for him to say these things out loud.  At the end he fell silent, cradling Charlotte as he waited for my reaction. 

“You want to know what the difference is?” I asked.  “The difference is that I love you and you love me.  The difference is that we want to be together—we want to make a family.”

“But—”

I shook my head to cut him off.  “You’re not trapping me or tricking me into anything, Chris.  You’re not using me.  I know what I’m promising.  It won’t be easy, because life isn’t easy.  But we can do it.  Together—all three of us.”  One of Chris’s hands was supporting Charlotte’s head; I reached out and cupped his hand with my own. With my other, I ran the pad of my thumb across Chris’s cheek, heart pounding.  

He stared into my eyes for a long moment while I waited for his answer, hardly daring to breathe.  “Okay,” he whispered, the word so quiet it was nearly lost among all the other sounds of the hospital.

My heart jumped.  “…Is that a yes?” I asked carefully.

Chris’s lips twitched.  “Only if you ask me properly…”

I didn’t waste a single second.  “Chris Hale, will you give me the best Christmas present a man could ever ask for and be mine? Will you let me be your alpha and a father to your beautiful baby girl, for this Christmas and next Christmas and every other Christmas to come?”

Eyes shining with tears, Chris beamed at me.  “Yes. Yes!”

There was no doubt in my mind that I was grinning like an absolute idiot, but I didn’t care.  “I don’t have a ring…”

“That’s all right,” he said softly.  “Just kiss me.”

I did.