Two months later…

I brought the axe down with all my strength and chuckled as the thick log split into three pieces.

“Perfect,” I grinned, placing another log on my cutting slab. Nate had asked me to split some more wood for our fire, but I was feeling so energized I’d gone on to split more for the entire camp.

My pile was growing and every few minutes Charles would come over to pick up an armload and drop it off at another cabin. It was the end of February, and we’d been hit with an awful cold spell that was driving everyone nuts. We were all fine in wolf form, which was how many of us were spending our days, but there were things to do we just had to be in human form for, and that meant we needed heat.

But today, my body was a raging inferno of determination and life. I was thrilled to be alive. Snow melted instantly against my skin as I swung my axe, shirtless, defiant against the winter’s chill. I was literally steaming as I cut wood, feeling like I could take on the world.

My wounds had healed fully. Nate, my omega, had nursed me back to health with Osana, and I’d met his baby boy.

Mira, that’s what he’d chosen to name him. Short for miracle.

“Because that’s what he is, Tyler,” Nate had told me. “A miracle.”

“I love you,” I’d told him as we lay together in the cabin.

“I love you too,” he’d said.

Those were the only words that mattered to me anymore as I swung my axe in the falling snow. The wood split and fell to the ground as I grabbed another log. It was from a fallen pine, and was dry and ready to burn.

Matias had filled me in on what happened that night at the warehouse after I’d lost consciousness. There had been more omegas than just Nate’s son – many more. The pack had cleaned up the best they could, then made an anonymous call to the police after they’d left.

It broke my heart to think of all the pain those omegas had suffered. Such horrible things shouldn’t exist in this world, but I couldn’t help but think that my pack and I had put a big dent in that dark, bleak underground. Maybe not, but that’s what I told myself.

Swinging the axe again, I heard Charles coming up behind me.

“You gonna start selling that stuff by the truckload?” he laughed. I turned to see him shirtless as well, a pair of torn blue jeans with a pair of red suspenders pressed against his hairy chest.

“You posing for a magazine?” I joked back.

“Guys and gals would come running if I did,” he grinned, slapping a meaty palm against my back. “I wouldn’t wanna steal all the attention.”

“Can you believe it, Charles?” I asked him.

“What?”

“Everything we went through,” I replied, thinking back to the time when I was still pursuing Nate, doing my best to win his heart. The box of roses I’d given him. “Everything that got us here.”

Charles grinned, putting both hands on his hips. Nothing seemed to get Charles down. He was a big hulking bundle of positive energy, and I could see that he really understood and appreciated everything I’d gone through.

“Was it worth it?” he smiled.

I looked at him, feeling the snow melting down my shoulders. “You’re goddamn right it was.”

“Tyler?” It was Nate’s voice from inside. I looked and saw him gazing out the window toward me. He was ready to pop. Every day was another day of anticipation as we waited for our baby.

“Yes, love?” I asked him.

“Are you almost done?” I could hear in his voice that he was missing me. I hadn’t been out here that long, but we were both obsessed with each other, and even a little space between us was more than we were willing to tolerate for long.

“I can come inside, babe,” I told him, leaning my axe against the cabin and bending down for an armful of firewood.

“I’ll leave you two alone,” Charles said, turning away. “Don’t enjoy those curves too much!”

I chuckled as I got to my feet and walked back to the cabin. My mate opened the door for me and I stepped inside and set the firewood down on the brick hearth, tossing another log onto the flames.

“Nice and warm in here,” I said with a smile. As I stood, Nate pressed his body against mine and tilted his chin back to kiss me. “Just like you.”

Ever since he’d really started to show, his body temperature was always through the roof. He didn’t seem to notice, but I sure did. Sleeping next to him was like sleeping next to a rock plucked from somewhere deep in the Earth’s core. I’d wake up sweating sometimes, but it didn’t bother him.

“I like when you sweat,” he told me one night, burying his nose in my armpit. “It brings your scent out.”

Life couldn’t be better, I thought as we kissed by the fire. But that wasn’t true. Life was about to get better when our baby came.

I reached down and gently caressed his swollen belly.

“You’re getting big,” I whispered.

“You calling me fat?” he giggled.

“Oh, stop,” I said with a smile, lifting his shirt over his head. “Do we have any coconut oil left?”

“We sure do,” he said as he backed away from me. With care, he lay on his back on the bed. I kicked off my boots and found the jar of coconut oil on the bedside table, reached in and coated my hands. This was one of our favorite rituals since Nate had gotten pregnant.

“You’re so good to me,” he said with an expecting smile.

“I dunno,” I replied, placing my slick hands on his skin. “I think I enjoy it just as much as you do. Maybe more.”

Nate closed his eyes and arched his back off the bed as I started to massage the oil into his skin.

“I’m getting stretch marks anyway,” he complained.

“I don’t care,” I told him, leaning down and kissing him on the faint pink lines that were forming on his sides. “They’re signs of our love. There’s no happiness without struggle.”

“Do you always know the right thing to say?” he asked. I smiled and ran my hands all the way up to his chest, which was starting to swell too.

“What can I say?” I shrugged. “I’m just perfect.”

“Yes, you are,” he replied.

My hands moved easily across his stomach as I massaged his belly with the coconut oil. There was something so sensual about touching him this way. It was turning us both on, but it was a pure expression of my love for him and his trust for me.

He’d let me in – finally.

Whatever walls he’d put up had come down and we were a family.

Mira was sleeping in his crib in the corner. Tate had built one for us in a single weekend. Apparently he was an incredibly talented carpenter, and the boys up at the Scarlet Mountain Lodge were always out getting new wood for him. It turned out he’d provided a lot of the stock for the repairs here at the camp, and even some of the furniture, including the main dining hall table.

A real family, I thought as I gazed down at my mate, his eyes closed as I caressed him.

“Is Osana still coming over later?” I asked him.

“Unless you don’t want her to,” Nate replied.

“No, I want to know. Don’t you?”

“Yes,” he replied, reaching out and stroking my forearm. “Have you settled on any names yet?”

I finally understood why couples trying to name their children had become such a cliché as being a huge pain in the ass – it was. Mira had seemed so natural, and the name made perfect sense. But now, we had a child on the way, and there were just so many names to choose from!

“Ugh, I dunno,” I groaned, pausing my massage for a moment.

“Well, I had a really good idea,” he replied, opening his eyes to look at me.

“Yeah?”

He nodded. “Mmhmm.”

I waited. “Well? Don’t hold out on me!”

“Well, if it’s a girl,” he smiled. “I was thinking – Rose. For obvious reasons.”

Rose, I thought. It’s perfect.

“How did I not think of that!?” I said, dumbfounded.

“You’re big and handsome and strong,” Nate joked with me. “But I’m the brains of this operation.”

“What!?” I roared, tickling the shit out of him. “What did you just say!?”

“Oh, no! Stop, stop, stop! Uncle!” Nate cried out. I laughed and brought my lips to his, pushing my tongue into his mouth.

“You think we have time for a quickie before Osana gets here?” I asked him coyly.

“I dunno,” Nate replied. “Can you be quick? Or do you want to wear me out for an hour like usual?”

My dick swelled under my pants and I pressed it against his crotch, reaching underneath him to cup his ass, which had grown into quite the bubble butt over the last two months.

“You feel so good, baby,” I told him. “I’m fighting not to cum most the time. I’ll just fight less this time.”

Grinning, I got up on my knees, let my pants slide down and pulled my cock out for him. It was swollen and almost at full mast. A little attention from Nate was all I needed.

“Now come on, baby,” I said with a smile. “Come get this alpha cock nice and hard for you.”