Chapter Thirty-One
“What about Morgan?” Noah mused, staring down at the sleeping baby.
His mate made an unimpressed sound. “He doesn’t look like a Morgan.”
“You’re right. We could call him Ronan Junior?”
Ronan climbed onto the bed next to him. “I think one Ronan is enough for this pack.”
They both watched as their son stirred, his little hand grasping at the air before he settled again.
“What would you like to call him?” Noah wondered. His mate had been quiet on the subject of names, saying only that they’d name him once he was born. He got the impression Ronan hadn’t wanted to count their blessings until they had the baby in their arms. Even now, there was wonder and near-disbelief on Ronan’s face when he looked at their son.
“I-”
Noah glanced up to see Ronan looking uncertain.
“I’m not sure you’ll like it,” the alpha admitted.
“Why?”
“It’s a family name. Not my grandfather but my great-grandfather.”
“It’s not Icarus, is it? Or Augustus or Archibald? Or-”
Ronan pressed a finger to his lips, silencing him. “It’s Kieran.”
“Ohhh.” Noah glanced down at the baby, turning his head to the side as he considered. “He does look like a Kieran.”
“Do you think so?”
“Uh-huh. And I like the name. It’s strong.”
The baby woke with a cry, and Noah picked him up, shushing him as he held him close.
“Don’t cry, Kieran. Your daddies are here.”
“So, you’re happy with the name?” Ronan was smiling, stroking his finger across their son’s cheek. The baby turned his head, his mouth opening, searching for food.
“It suits him, don’t you think?”
“I do. He has the dark hair to match it.”
Kieran let out another cry.
“Someone sounds hungry,” Ronan suggested.
Noah sat back against the headboard, bringing Kieran closer so he could feed.
“Speaking of hungry,” Ronan said, “why don’t I get us some breakfast?”
Breakfast sounded good and Noah said so. Ronan went off to get them some, returning ten minutes later with a tray laden with food.
“Griffin says congratulations. Everyone’s excited to visit, but they’ll wait until we’re ready.”
“Maybe after breakfast,” Noah suggested, then grimaced, running a hand through his hair. “And after a long shower.”
“There’s no rush, we can wait until lunchtime.”
Ronan sat down on the side of the bed.
“I owe you an apology.”
“Huh?” Noah asked.
“I should never have taken you out on that job at the marketplace. It was too much of a risk. I won’t make that mistake again.”
Confused, Noah reached for Ronan’s hand, clasping it tightly.
“That wasn’t a mistake. We had no idea I’d deliver a full month earlier than expected. Besides, you said it yourself, the job was low risk. And it all worked out okay. So no, I’m not accepting your apology. You have nothing to be sorry for.”
Ronan didn’t look convinced, but Noah refused to break eye contact until the alpha conceded. “Okay, apology retracted. But next time…”
“Next time, I’ll stop doing jobs six weeks before my due date.”
The alpha smiled. “Exactly what I was thinking.”
“Why were we there, Ronan? What was in the marketplace that Griffin wanted?”
He expected his mate to tell him that it wasn’t important for him to know or that it was Griffin’s story to tell. But the alpha didn’t, his expression turning sad but serious.
“Finn had two younger brothers. Twins. An alpha and an omega. When Finn made his escape, he went back to find them, but his pack had already sold them both. He’s been looking for them ever since.”
“His pack were really poor, right?”
“Dirt poor, barely scraping by. He hoped he’d get to his brothers in time, but he was too late. Do you remember that job we went on, where we were looking for an alpha fighter?”
Noah frowned then his eyes went wide. “We were looking for his brother?”
“Not for the first time. From what we know, he was owned by an elite club and only fought in some of the more exclusive venues.”
“What did Griffin find out? Where was his brother?”
Ronan gave him a sad smile, a warm hand pressing against Noah’s thigh. “It seems his brother was killed in a fight not long before that.”
It all made sense now. “That’s why Griffin was so upset. That’s what he meant by being too late.” Noah turned his gaze to Kieran, struggling to hold back his tears. “What does that have to do with the market?”
“Griffin’s still looking for his other brother.”
“The omega?”
“Yeah.”
“What did he take from the marketplace?”
He hadn’t seen any omegas there or anything that would suggest why they were looking for Griffin’s brother there.
“A flash drive from a guy known to trade in omegas. A few months back, Griffin managed to locate the shifter his pack had sold his brothers to. He supplied omegas to training schools and upper-class packs, but he mainly sold to breeders.”
Noah shuddered. He knew about breeders, having heard more than once from Gregory that that might have been his fate if he hadn’t been scarred.
“What was on the drive?”
“Information. Trades, suppliers. Griffin’s trying to create a map of the network so he can find his brother. The breeders keep under the radar since no pack wants to openly associate with them and some of the middle- and upper-class packs want to shut them down. But everyone knows they exist, everyone knows what happens to omegas sent there.”
Noah cradled Kieran closer. “That could have been me if Dominic hadn’t attacked me.”
“But it wasn’t,” Ronan said, resting a hand on his shoulder. “And that won’t ever be you now that I’m here.”
“What if Kieran’s an omega?” They wouldn’t find out for sure until he shifted for the first time. “What’s to stop that happening to him if things go wrong?”
How would they ever protect him in a world that could be so dark and dangerous?
“Hey.” Ronan knelt in front of him, cupping Noah’s face in his hands. “Me, you, Quinn, and Griffin. That’s what. Nothing bad is going to happen to Kieran. If things go wrong, if the pack falls, we have plans to keep everyone safe. So, you don’t need to worry about that happening to our kids. They will always be protected.”
A few tears slipped down Noah’s cheeks, and Ronan brushed them away with his thumbs.
“Sorry, it’s just… he’s so small. I don’t want bad things to happen to him like it did to me and to Griffin and his brothers.”
“He has us,” Ronan said. “And a whole pack who’d die to keep him safe.”
“They haven’t even met him yet,” Noah said, calming in the face of Ronan’s confidence.
Both of them peered down at the baby who’d fallen asleep again.
“They’ll love him the second they set eyes on him. Come on, let’s eat.”
Breakfast in bed had never tasted so good. There were pancakes, fruit, oatmeal, and freshly squeezed juice.
Ronan took Kieran so Noah could eat with ease, happy to have a full stomach after the hard work of labor. Something Ronan had said earlier occurred to him, and he stopped with a spoonful of oatmeal halfway to his mouth.
“You said they.”
“Hmm?” Ronan asked, munching on some berries.
“You said ‘our kids’, that ‘they’d’ be protected.”
“What?” his mate asked, his eyebrows raised. “I always wanted a big family.”
“How many were you thinking?”
Ronan glanced down at Kieran with a soft smile. “I was thinking three, maybe four.”
He looked back up at Noah. “Why? How many were you planning?”
Noah grinned. “Three sounds good. Four, even.”
“We’re going to need more space,” Ronan mused. “We might even need to move out to one of the cottages in the woods. There’s a few that might be suitable-”
Noah pressed a hand to Ronan’s chest with a laugh.
“Not so fast. The future can wait a few days. Let’s just enjoy this.”
Ronan smiled back at him. “Sounds good to me.”
A knock on the door just before lunchtime heralded Quinn.
“Hey, are you up for some visitors?”
Noah, freshly showered and feeling more himself and less like a den omega, waved Quinn inside. “Sure, come on in.”
He’d settled Kieran into the bassinet but found himself sitting on the side of the bed watching him sleep. He didn’t think he’d ever get tired of watching their son. Who was their little boy, and what would he grow up to be?
“Ronan went to get Griffin, they should be back in a minute.”
They were and they didn’t come alone, Darcy and Mark tagging along. With perfect timing, Kieran woke, and everyone got a chance to meet him.
Quinn bounced him lightly when he started to cry. “Don’t cry my little nephew, Uncle Quinn is here.” He grinned at Noah. “I’ve always wanted to be an uncle.”
“Yep. Next stop, fatherhood,” Ronan joked.
Quinn’s eyes went wide with fear. “I don’t think I’m quite there yet.”
He handed Kieran over to Griffin. Noah watched with curiosity as Griffin held the baby in his arms. The expression on his face was unreadable but melted into a soft smile.
“He’s beautiful. Just perfect,” the omega said. “Welcome to Briar Wood, Kieran. Welcome home.”
He went to hand Kieran back to Noah but Darcy bounded over. “Can I hold him?”
“Sure,” Noah said.
“Ohhh, I love new baby smell,” Darcy said, cradling Kieran close. “So, little one, are you going to be an omega, a beta, or an alpha, huh? You’ve got your alpha daddy’s hair and your omega daddy’s eyes.”
“Is there a pool going?” Ronan asked.
“Uh-huh,” Darcy said. “My money’s on alpha.”
Ronan snorted, and Noah groaned. His mate had warned him when he first arrived that the pack liked to bet on things. ‘Things’ turned out to be everything of note that happened in the pack.
“Who won the pot for the birth?” Mark asked.
Noah’s due date had been the subject of much speculation, but he didn’t imagine anyone had accurately predicted it given how soon he’d gone into labor.
“Kitty did,” Darcy answered. “Her guess was the closest.”
“How far off was she?” Ronan wondered.
“Uh,” Darcy glanced at his watch. “I guess maybe eight hours. She guessed today rather than yesterday. The next guess was almost a week ahead.”
“Huh,” Noah said, not trying to hide his surprise. How had she guessed he’d deliver a full month before he was due? It made him wonder what else the woman knew.
That afternoon, he decided he wanted to know what Kitty knew. She had been the reason they’d been able to mate in the first place, had somehow known he would bring Kieran into the world early.
Ronan came with him down to the herb garden that she tended. He carried Kieran against his chest, a blanket wrapped around him to ward off the chill.
“I don’t see her,” he said to his mate, looking around. “Where could she be?”
“She is here,” a voice said from behind them.
They turned to see her crouched beside a bush, plucking leaves and dropping them into a basket by her feet.
“Hi, Kitty,” Ronan greeted.
She stood, wiping her hands on her pants before making her way over to them. She went straight to Noah, pushing back the blanket to see Kieran where he was huddled asleep against his chest.
“So this is the little one.”
“We’ve called him Kieran.”
She glanced up at them. “Ah, of course. The dark-haired one. It certainly suits him.”
“We wanted to ask,” Noah started to say then stopped. He wasn’t sure exactly what it was he’d come to find out.
“I’m no seer,” Kitty said with a laugh. “Just an old woman who’s seen a lot in her life.”
“But you knew we’d be able to mate, you knew Kieran would be born early.”
“Life is a teacher, and I have learned many lessons. What do you want to know?”
Kieran let out a small cry, and Noah hugged him closer, shielding him from the wind. “I want him to be safe, not like me, not like Griffin’s brothers. Not like so many others.”
Kitty was frowning down at the baby. She pressed a hand to his head.
“He’ll face challenges of his own.” She smiled. “But not those challenges.”
Pulling her hand away, she cupped Noah’s cheek. “You can’t parent from fear. You have to trust that you and Ronan can handle what’s to come. Both of you have overcome so much in your lives. Your trials have made you stronger. As children, your packs failed you both. Briar Wood will not fail you, or your family.”
Noah closed his eyes, nodding as a tear slipped down his cheek.
“Thank you.”
“Now, off with you. I have work to do.” Kitty went back to her basket and her herbs.
Ronan tugged at his sleeve.
“Come on, let’s get inside. Here, let me take the little guy.”
His mate effortlessly balanced Kieran against his chest with one hand and wrapped his other arm around Noah’s shoulders, steering him back inside.
“Do you feel any better now?”
They walked slowly back up to their rooms.
“Yeah. I guess Kitty said the same thing you were trying to tell me. That we have to trust that we can protect Kieran and each other.”
He glanced over at his mate and his son, loving how the strong alpha looked with their tiny baby cradled to his chest. It wasn’t such a leap of faith. From the moment he’d met Ronan, he had felt a safety he’d never known before. And, in that instant, he knew the alpha would give his life to protect their family. He knew because he felt the same.