“Can you get the door, Cole? I think Dylan and Kinnat are here for dinner,” Piper said, calling out from the other room.

“Got it!” I said, calmly walking toward the front door of our flat.

Peter had his arms clasped around me. He was fast asleep. As soon as I opened the door, I smelled something funky. “Oh shit,” I said.

“Well, hello to you too,” Dylan said. Kinnat smirked and quickly walked up to the baby, only to recoil in horror.

“I’m going to have to deal with this,” I said. “Uh, just make yourselves at home. I’ll be right back.”

Piper peeked his head from the room. “Did he go number two again?” he asked.

“I think he went number one, two, and three, all at once,” I said, plugging my nose.

Kinnat stayed far away, but he affectionately gazed at our stinky baby. “With a face like that, he can do anything he wants,” he said.

“That’s right,” I cooed. “Because he’s our spoiled little baby boy angel.”

It had been less than a week, but it seemed like I had already changed over a hundred diapers. Piper and I barely got any sleep anymore, but it was more out of choice than anything. If anything went wrong, I wanted to be able to act within seconds.

Of course, everything was excellent, and I had nothing to worry about. The feeling that I carried was just my new “dad paranoia,” as I called it. Growing up, my father didn’t have that at all. It blew my mind that anyone could exist without it.

I quickly changed Peter’s diaper and brought him back out into the main room. Piper was already sitting with our friends. They were talking about finally having a baby of their own.

“You need to!” Piper said with excitement. “It’s the best decision we’ve ever made.”

I agreed with my fiancé. Having a child had completely changed my worldview. “Honestly, I’m tired as hell, but I wake up every single day with a different type of excitement every single day,” I said.

“It’s like Christmas,” Piper said. “Except, you have to wrap all the presents every night before bed.”

Kinnat looked at Dylan longingly. “I want one, Dylan,” he said.

“I told you that I’m ready when you are,” Dylan said, laughing.

“I guess I’m mainly scared about pushing a whole baby out of me. The physics… well, they scare me,” Kinnat admitted.

“Well, you can ask Cole about how it went,” Piper said with a knowing grin.

“It’s not easy for the omega, but nothing good in life is easy,” I said. And then, looking at Dylan, I added, “As crazy as the situation is, your alpha instincts kick in on the spot. I don’t know if it’s the chemistry or what, but something inside you changes. It becomes easy to stay focused.”

Dylan and Kinnat listened to our birthing story with great interest. By the end of it, I noticed that tears were in my eyes. “Jeez, sorry. I get pretty emotional when I think about it. Peter is literally my whole world now. It’s as if my life makes sense, finally,” I said.

Piper leaned his head against me, smiling pleasantly. Peter immediately reached for him. “Milk time,” I sang.

“Ugh,” Piper groaned. “Okay. Come here.”

I handed our wriggling baby to Piper, who then began to nurse him. “When did you start nursing?” Kinnat asked.

“Well, yesterday, actually,” Piper said. “He wasn’t latching at first, so I was getting pretty worried. But I guess Peter is a boy who likes to take his time. When he was ready, he was very ready.”

“I swear, it’s all he does. Poop and drink milk. He’s a total animal,” I said.

“Our cute little milk pig,” Piper cooed.

“Are you really going back there, to your hometown?” Dylan asked.

I glanced at Piper. He knew I didn’t want to, but ever since Peter was born, I had grown more optimistic. “We’re not moving there,” Piper said. “We’re just going back to speak with Jacob. He needs to know that the relationship is over, that I’ll always be with Cole.”

Dylan nodded. “It was never a real relationship to begin with,” he said. “Love isn’t forced, you know?”

“That’s what we want to show him. Even if we can’t change his mind, we’ve filed a restraining order against him. Those people need to know they have no power here,” I said. “I just don’t want him near our baby. I can handle that prick to an extent, but he went too far when he came here and threatened us.”

“Language,” Piper said.

“Sorry. I just get so riled up when I think about Jacob,” I said.

“But then what?” Kinnat asked. “You’re going to come back to the city?”

I shrugged my shoulders. The city had been okay for a while, but it wasn’t a place to raise a family. We both wanted to settle down in a child-friendly home.

“We’ll be here for a few months,” I said. “But we’re going to move up north, where the pace is a little slower.”

“Yeah, and the rent is a little lower,” Piper added. “I don’t know how you guys survive here. It’s nearly triple the rent price of everywhere else!”

“It’s a problem,” Dylan admitted.

Kinnat pouted. “You’re our new friends. I don’t want you to leave,” he said.

“We’ll visit,” I said. “And our house is open to you whenever you want to come by.”

“Don’t worry. You’re both invited to the wedding,” Piper added. “In fact, we wanted to ask you…”

“YES!” Kinnat yelled. Peter started to cry. “Oops, sorry. That was a little loud.”

Piper calmed our baby down and said, “So you’ll be in the wedding party?” he asked.

“Heck yes, we will,” Dylan said. “We’d be honored.”

Piper was pleased, but there was a severe look in his eyes. “You helped save me,” Piper said. “When I was at my lowest, when I thought it was impossible to leave, you both helped me.”

“It was Cole who told us,” Dylan said.

“Yes, but you came,” I said. “Piper’s right. You played a huge role in this. I still feel like I owe you a lot.”

“We both do,” Piper said. “As far as I’m concerned, you’re a part of this family.”

Our friends hugged us tenderly. After a few minutes, Piper finished nursing Peter. I walked into our room and grabbed the big fluffy, purple blanket from his crib. I wrapped it around his small, fragile body. I kissed his head, and he closed his eyes.

“Oh my goodness,” Kinnat squealed. “Okay, I brought a Polaroid camera. I absolutely need to take a picture of this moment.”

“Please do,” I whispered. I loved having memories we could look back on, but so far, we hadn’t had much time to think about that.

Kinnat took out the Polaroid camera and aimed it at us. “Say cheese,” he said.

“Cheese,” Piper and I said in unison. Snap!

The picture printed out, but we had to wait a few minutes for it to adequately dry. When it did, we gathered around to look at it. Peter’s scrunched face looked so cute, and he was holding two fingers in the air.

“He’s making the peace sign,” I said, laughing hysterically. “Okay, we’re making shirts out of this picture.”

“He’s been obsessed with making shirts out of family pictures,” Piper said.

I glanced down at the shirt I was wearing. It was a big picture of Peter’s face with a photoshopped cigar in his mouth. “It’s my duty as a father,” I argued. “At least it’s not a tattoo.”

Everyone smirked. “You’ve always been a creative person, darling,” Piper said.

We spent the rest of the day with our friends, drinking coffee and spending time on our terrace. The sun was shining bright, and the world seemed like a better place.

We would be going back to our old town to face the worst people I had ever come to know. But I knew that we would beat them at their own game. Once we proved that this could work, the wave would spread. No one would say anything to us about it ever again.

When our friends left, we headed toward our room. Our new bedtime was at eight at night, with an abnormal wake up time of four in the morning. We’d stay up for a few hours, feed Peter, and fall back asleep.

But at this hour of the night, we always made sure that we made the time for each other. I curled up with my handsome Piper, admiring his body. “I still have stretch marks,” Piper groaned.

I lowered my head and kissed his soft belly. “You’re going to think I’m sucking up to you, but I’m not. Is it weird that I get turned on by them?” I asked.

“So you’re saying that I do have stretch marks?” Piper asked.

Uh oh. “Shit. No, I—”

But Piper ran his gentle hands through my hair, curling his palm around my cheek. I leaned my face into his hand and kissed him. “I’m just joking, Cole. Sometimes, I don’t know how you love me so much, but I’m grateful that you do. You’ve never once faltered in this. You’ve always been so strong,” Piper said.

“So have you, Piper. I think we both compliment each other in the best way possible,” I said. “I can be strong in ways you can’t. And you can be strong when I’m weak. I love our bond so much, which is why I wanted to take you on a special trip.”

Piper’s eyes darted open with excitement. “A special trip? But we don’t have money for that!” he exclaimed.

I laughed. I had been holding back one significant detail from him. “I got a call from my agent this morning while you were asleep,” I said. “I got a movie deal.”

“What?” Piper asked.

“They want to tell our story. It’s up to you, though. We don’t have to take it,” I said.

“Are you kidding? We have to take it!” Piper said with great enthusiasm. “A movie deal… like, a really Hollywood movie?”

“Yep,” I said, trying not to smile too big. “It’s a huge budget. They want to film next year.”

“Am I dreaming?” Piper asked.

“Nope. And we’re going to Prague, together as a family. We’ll hire a nanny, so we can go out on dates. It’ll be perfect,” I said.

“Oh, Cole. I feel guilty. You’re too good to me,” Piper said.

“Don’t feel guilty. All I want is to make you happy,” I said. “This is our life, and it should be perfect.”

Piper took in a deep breath. “Gosh. It’s already been so perfect,” he said.

“And it’s just going to get better from here,” I added.