It was crazy just how busy the lodge was now. We were bursting at the seams and Tate had already started discussing adding onto the place. Seth and Carlos were already stacking up wood in preparation.

Our beautiful baby Bruce was a whole month old now and growing fast. Shifters grow much faster than human babies, and he was already doing his best to crawl around, which basically meant pulling himself across the floor with his forearms while kicking his legs around aimlessly. It was adorable.

What astonished me about the pack was how we’d all formed together on our own. None of us were family before this, and when I think back to the journey that led me into town and my job at The Love Knot, where I met Martin and Tate, I can barely believe where I ended up.

Would any of us be together if Tate hadn’t saved Kyle from Lucas that night in the alley? Would I have found Clarence if I hadn’t met Tate, gotten a job at the club and been with here when Red found Jeremiah’s scent? Where would any of us be if we hadn’t found one another?

Kyle and Chrissie made dinner every night and we all ate together, spilling out of the kitchen into the living room, or sitting outside on warm evening nights. It was really like something out of a movie or a happy ending to a book.

We never really told my fathers what happened. They didn’t need to know all the details, it wouldn’t help anyone at this point anyway. All they knew was that Jeremiah had taken a liking to Clarence and forced him to join his pack and didn’t let him contact them. I’d rescued him, and of course they loved me for that.

“Ready for another one?” Andrew asked me as we sat on the back porch watching the pups out back.

“Oh, I dunno about that just yet, Andrew,” I chuckled. Clarence had baby Bruce in his arms and was doing circles around the back yard as Scarlet scampered around in wolf form at his feet, along with the horde of pups that had come along with Peter and Timmy. Seven. There were seven of them between the two omegas. Kyle and Clarence had become close. They were both omegas with pups and had a lot to discuss.

“Come on,” Will chimed in, stepping outside onto the porch. “We like being grandfathers. You gonna make us wait for another chance to celebrate? What’s it gonna be – years?”

“I don’t know about that,” I laughed. “You’ll have to ask your son. He’s the one who has to go through it all, not me.”

“Yeah, that’s true,” Will said, watching his son and his grandson walking beneath the setting sun. “You know, watching them there, really takes me back to the day you gave me Clarence.”

He slid his arm around Andrew who let his head rest on his shoulder. I actually felt my eyes start to well up with tears as I looked at them. I only knew one of my fathers – the other had left when I was too young to remember. It hadn’t really scarred me, but it had always left me wondering what life would be like if I really belonged to a complete family. And now I had one.

“You wanna hold him, daddy?” Clarence asked me as he came up the steps toward me, my beautiful baby boy in his arms.

“Oh, you bet I do,” I smiled, taking my little of bundle of joy from my fated mate, who leaned down and kissed me gently on the cheek. Bruce’s warmth in my arms always startled me. He was like a little baby furnace, putting off so much heat we used to joke about using him to heat the room at night.

“You’re getting big, aren’t you?” I asked him, not even embarrassed by my little baby voice I used to speak to him. He looked up at me, with beautiful green eyes and giggled, that little baby laugh that went right to my heart.

His hair had come in and was a warm chestnut brown. I still hadn’t gotten used to his smiling little face when he looked up at me with the trusting eyes only a child can give their father.

Bruce was an alpha, like his father, and I knew he’d grow to be a big strong member of our pack before he went on to father his own children. It made me warm inside to think about his future and all the things we would do together.

Those days at the mill seemed like a distant memory now, almost like they’d happened to someone else. The joy of our new life had completely washed away the horrors Clarence had gone through with Jeremiah.

The pack was growing, and I had a feeling that we were going to keep growing if things went on like this. There’d been rumors around the lodge that Tate and Kyle were talking about having another baby, and Chrissie was getting ready too.

The more the merrier! I thought. Family is all that matters in this world.

“You guys want to join us for some dessert?” I heard Chrissie say and turned to see her licking chocolate from a spatula.

“I see chocolate,” I grinned as my stomach growled.

“You sure do,” she laughed. “We have brownies, and Kyle’s putting the frosting on some cupcakes now. Of course, if you just want to lick the bowl, we’re fine with that too!”

“We will be right in,” Clarence said, getting to his feet.

I looked out back as Scarlet leapt into Tate’s arms and shifted back into her little toddler’s body. They were just adorable.

“Did I hear something about dessert?” He asked, stepping up onto the porch to join us.

“Kyle’s making cupcakes,” I told him. “And I hear there’s brownies too.”

“Ohhh, Scarlet loves cupcakes, don’t you, sweetie?”

“I love cupcakes!” She exclaimed, tossing her hands out like it was a celebration.

The wind blew gently across my cheeks and I took a second to relish my new life. I had my omega, my fated mate, and I had my first child – a baby boy. He’d grow up to be strong like his father, and I’d fight to give him everything he could ever possibly want.

The sun dipped over the trees finally, casting the back yard in a blue-purple glow as we turned to head inside where the rest of the pack was waiting.

Holding my new child, I slid my arm around Clarence and took a deep breath of his scent, the scent of my fated mate.

Now this is Heaven.

The End