I woke up in the bedroom with my baby cuddled to my chest and Max nowhere to be found. I pursed my lips, feeling a bit sad, because it had been happening a lot ever since the baby was born.

Well, I’m partly to blame about that.

Just like Alphas were territorial with their mates, Omegas were territorial over their children, even when it came to their Alpha. It had been fine at first, because I was so exhausted I slept for most of the first two days, but then it started.

I knew Max wouldn’t try something with the baby, but it went against my instincts to let him near the baby for prolonged periods of time. I didn’t tell him, but his Dad must have let him know, because he’d been giving us space. He waited until I was asleep before joining us on the bed, holding the both of us close for warmth, but he’d be off the bed when I woke up.

“Good morning, sunshine.”

I looked over my shoulder at Max as he walked into the room with a tray, feeling relief flow through me, then happiness.

“Morning,” I answered back happily. “What’s for breakfast?”

“Something healthy and full of plenty of iron and protein, and other vitamins.”

I hadn't left the bed much since the birthing. Mostly because I had lost a lot of blood then, and my body was at its weakest so I wasn’t bouncing back so quickly. It happened a lot, or so I’d heard, especially with male Omegas with their first babies, which was why the old ways of dealing with things was no longer done. When I’d heard that if I’d been born a century or two earlier, or even half a century ago, I would have had to lock myself in my room and give birth on my own, I’d been trembling for hours in horror. It had taken Max laying down with me and the baby and holding us both to calm me down in the end.

Only, when I regained my senses again, I unconsciously growled at him, and he’d left.

I sat up against the headboard with some pillows supporting me behind my back. I held the baby in my arms, and Max sat beside me and fed me. This had happened before, too, and at least when I was eating, my instincts weren’t going wild around Max. I knew he gave me space entirely for my sake. I didn’t like that I couldn’t be relaxed with him around, so whether he was around or not, I was bothered, but I was slowly growing used to it, and he seemed to know when to give me space, and when to invade my space so I wasn’t left depressed.

This would go on for a month or so, and I couldn’t wait for the first month to be over.

“What are you doing today?” I asked once I’d eaten everything and Max had put the tray away.

“Well, today, I delegated some work to my people, and I’m going to look after you the whole day.”

I gave him a look. “Isn’t that what you’ve been doing the past two weeks?”

I wasn’t really annoyed, though, and while I was still relaxed, I leaned against his shoulder to savor his warmth.

“There isn’t anything too important that needs my attention at the moment, delegating it all is fine for now. Once it gets really busy, I’d be leaving you alone more.”

I sighed, because that wasn’t really what I wanted, either.

After a long moment of the two of us just enjoying each other’s company and watching over the baby as he slept, there was a knock on the door that made Max’s body jolt. I pulled away to look up at him.

“I’d almost forgotten. You have a couple visitors today.”

I felt curious. “A couple?”

In the time since I’d given birth, the only visitors I’d had was Amelia, the Omega that helped me give birth, and Max’s dad, to see and coo over the baby with me. Because I couldn’t be that carefree with Max yet, I loved it when he visited.

The two of them had never visited me at the same time before.

“You’ll see,” Max said with a grin on his face, sliding off the bed.

I watched him leave, wondering what the secrecy was all about. I listened intently, and heard when he opened the front door, then some voices murmuring. They got clearer the closer they moved, and I realized they were both familiar. I was staring wide-eyed at the door as Max’s Omega father stepped into the room, followed by mine.

“D-dad?” I stuttered, surprised to see him.

He smiled at me, eyes wet with tears as he rushed around the bed to sit in the space Max just vacated, pulling me into a hug. I couldn’t remove my arms from the baby to hug him back, but I buried my face in his shoulder, my body wracking with shivers as I tried not to cry.

It had been months since I’d seen anyone from my old pack. Of course I still talked to Dad over the phone, and I’d told him about it when the baby was born. To see him there, though, felt so much more different from just talking with him on the phone.

“We’ll give you both some space,” I heard Max’s Omega father say.

“You don’t have to,” I murmured, pulling away from Dad and looking over at them. “We’re all family here, so there’s no point in that.”

Max’s father smiled at me, then moved to sit on my other side. Max just watched the three of us while keeping his distance, though I wouldn’t have minded if he got closer in the current situation. With the soothing scent of other Omegas around, I was the most relaxed I could ever be.

“Dad, how are you here?” I asked, looking up at me with a frown.

The smile he gave me was sad. “How could I not be here for you, Evan? If I’d known the day you went into labor, I could have been here with you.” He pursed his lips, looking a little distressed. “It was a big moment in your life and I missed it. But I wanted to at least see your baby before he grew too much.”

“Does…” I started to ask, only for my voice to trail off because I didn’t know how to refer to him now. Whit was still my father, but he was no longer my Alpha, and I didn’t feel like addressing him either way.

Dad shook his head. “No, Whit doesn’t know. You could say I came here in secret. It won’t cause me any problems, though. He won’t ask me a thing when I go back, even if he catches your scent all over me. Now, why don’t you let me see my grandchild now, hmm?”

Carefully, I handed the baby over to him. He’d had four children of his own, so I didn’t need to be so cautious, though. He held onto the baby with one arm, the other pulling the thick blankets away from his face to see him properly. The look on his face was almost nostalgic, but he definitely looked happy.

“He looks so much like you when you were a baby,” he cooed, touching one of the baby’s closed fists. “Well, you and your brothers. What color are his eyes?”

“They’re blue, like mine,” I said. “Though his hair is black like Max. He’s too young to know who he resembles more right now.”

I hoped he would look more like Max, but when I said that, Max said he hoped the baby would look more like me instead. We couldn’t reach an agreement, so then Max had said we could just have more children, and so they could look like the both of us. I’d blushed when he said that, and even with the pain I’d gone through, having more kids didn’t sound like such a bad idea to me.

“Do you have a name for him?” Dad asked.

I shared a glance with Max. “Uh, we didn’t know whether we would be having a boy or a girl, so we were looking for names for both. There, uh, were too many choices so we haven’t really decided yet. So we decided to give it some time. He’ll just be the baby, or our baby, until he’s one month old. Then we’ll give him the name we decide on then.”

“Hmm. Would you mind if I gave you some options, too?” he asked hopefully.

“Of course not,” Max’s father quipped from my other side. “Like you said, we’re all family here. I gave a few choices myself, but they’re both so indecisive…they’re really going to make the baby wait to have a name.”

I flushed, but Max just looked on in amusement. We’d narrowed the names we wanted down to about twenty from nearly a hundred, Max’s father added five of his own. A few more wouldn’t be too much trouble.

The biggest reason we hadn't decided yet now that the baby was born, came back to my reaction when Max was around the baby. We couldn’t exactly have conversations when I wanted to hiss at him to keep his distance. I hadn't left the bed much so I couldn’t do a lot of research, either.

“It’s fine,” Dad said with a chuckle. “Names are an important thing for your children. For me, I started thinking up names the moment I realized I was pregnant, coming to a decision a day or two after birth. I had your names at the ready when I gave birth to you, though, unlike with your siblings. If you’d been born a girl, I would have called you Evelyn.”

I wrinkled my nose at this piece of news that I’d never heard before, and was glad he hadn't given me that name anyway. I was definitely going to take my time picking the perfect name for my baby.

“How are things back home?” I asked tentatively.

Dad sighed heavily. “Oh, you know what Whit is like. With the other attacks that have been coming, he of course brought our pack into the fight, and he’s spear heading the whole campaign. Well, it’s actually doing some good and he has other pack Alphas helping him. If he manages to solve this problem, he might just be invited to join the council. Which would be a good thing, because your older brothers are more than ready to take over succession. They’ve already decided among themselves who it’s going to be.”

I nodded slowly, hoping that meant my brothers were no longer fighting. They might not have cared for me much, but they were the family I’d grown up with. As for Whit, he seemed to be on the way to achieving his dreams.

Dad sighed and raised the baby to nuzzle his little face with his nose, looking like he was in love. I felt the same, so I could only smile as I watched him.

“I’m so proud of you, Evan,” he whispered, sounding a little chocked up. “Super proud of you. And I always have, and always will love you, and your baby, too, okay?”

I nodded again, sniffling as my eyes stung with tears. “I love you too, Dad.”

I moved to lean against his shoulder, and he rested his head over mine as we gazed at the slumbering baby. If only he could open his eyes and know that he would be so very much loved, and in no way would it be lacking. Unlike me, I was determined that my own child would have a lot of people that cared for him, including both his parents.

“I’ll be here for you whenever you need me,” Dad continued. “But… Whit…unfortunately I don’t think he’ll come around.”

Dad looked a little guilty as he said that, I just barely saw as I rolled my eyes up to see his expression without moving away from him, but I just nodded some more, wiping at my eyes. Of course I knew he wouldn’t come around, it would be a surprise if he ever did. Whit was single-minded, and at the moment, he had a clear goal in mind. He won’t allow anything to distract him from it, even if that was his son having a child.

Still, it stung a bit. To know that my own Alpha and father didn’t care about me to this extent… was disheartening. I took a deep breath and calmed my insides down, until I could smile and mean it.

“It’s okay,” I said sincerely. “It’s a bit sad, but I have a family in my new pack: Max and my baby. I don’t think I’m losing out at all.”

If anything, I was the happiest I’d ever been in that moment, surrounded by people that cared about us, and it could only get better.