EPILOGUE
Kade’s POV
I was shaken awake by my husband at around 2 :30 that the alarm clock says, but I turn onto my stomach, not wanting to deal with his hard dick since that was usually what he woke me up for in the middle of the night. I was shaken again, still ignoring it since he usually gave up eventually. Kade, I know you don’t want to get up, but Harper just called and she’s in labor so we gotta go to the hospital.
I immediately shoot up in bed as he tells me the news and I’m instantly way too excited now that I knew that my baby boy is coming today in possibly just a few hours. Joey chuckles, throwing a pair of sweatpants and a t-shirt at me as he changed into real people clothes for the first time in a few days since we’ve just been relaxing before we were elbows deep in diapers and formula. Is she already at the hospital ?
He nods his head. Yeah, it took a while for me to answer my phone because I was dead asleep. She’s been there for about an hour already.
I nod my head, way too excited to even be mad that she’s already been there for an hour. Our boy might be here soon ! Joey and I decided that we wanted a baby about 11 months ago and we were going to do surrogacy until we heard about Harper, who had sex with an alpha wolf and accidentally got pregnant. She decided to put the baby up for adoption since she was still super young and we swooped in to offer to take them. It was a huge thing with Joey that he wanted to have a baby that had alpha genes since they would take up the position one day.
Harper was an amazing woman, who just happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time. She didn’t mean to have sex because she really wanted to wait until she met her mate, but things happen and she wasn’t able to wait. When she told the alpha that she was pregnant, she was told that he wanted nothing to do with the baby and she was to take care of ‘it’ by herself. Once she heard that, she talked to the elders about how to deal with adoption since the baby had to go to wolves and that’s when Elder Collins told us about some girl from another pack that was pregnant with a genetic alpha.
We’d been very close with Harper throughout her entire pregnancy and we even asked her to pick the baby’s middle name because she had gifted us with a baby that we never thought we would have so soon. She has been wonderful with dealing with us since we really wanted to be hands-on with our baby and she even said that we could be in the delivery room, but Joey and I decided not to since we thought that was way too overbearing.
I finish getting dressed, grabbing the diaper bag that we packed about a month ago before following Joey out of our bedroom. He walks to the kitchen to quickly grab a travel mug before handing it to me. When I smell that it’s coffee, I almost attack him to tell him thank you for thinking about my addiction so early in the morning.
I love you, thank you, I tell him, taking a sip, promptly burning my tongue, but it was so worth it. We rush out the house to get into Joey’s car, speeding towards the hospital that was a 30 minutes drive away. I see the note on the coffee table that Joey probably wrote to tell everyone that we were going to the hospital and they can come by whenever they wake up. Since it might take hours before our boy’s delivered, we don’t want to wake everyone up and make them rush since nothing’s happened just yet.
Are you ready ? Joey asks as he turns the radio down as he tries to keep 20 under the speed limit because the last thing we would want was to get a ticket while we were on the way to meet our baby.
I nod my head. I’ve been ready for six months. Our boy just hasn’t wanted to come out just yet.
He chuckles, nodding his head. I know, it’s like he wanted to stay in there forever.
The past two years have been amazing but crazy. I had been taught everything about the pack and even started talking at pack meetings about things that I had thought of since Joey really wanted everyone to know that I wasn’t just sitting there doing nothing while he and Cody did everything. Melissa had done the same because we both needed something to focus on since we no longer had school to cure our boredom.
Melissa and Cody got married last year and have been trying to get pregnant for a bit since we wanted our kids to be close in ages since they were going to be leading together. Isaac and Oliver were also adopting a baby, but that’s definitely a story for another time. They’ve had some crazy times in their relationship that I don’t even know how to talk about.
Joey reaches over, grabbing my hand in his, holding it close to his chest as I could feel his nerves by the way his heart beats against the back of my hand as the butterflies started to grow in my stomach at the fact that my husband and I were going to become dads today. Like, today, soon, we were going to have a kid and be known as fathers. How crazy is that ? It was just yesterday that I was being pushed against a car and scared for my life because of my homophobic mate at the time.
We’re going to raise this kid so good, you have nothing to worry about, I tell him.
He nods his head. I know, we’re going to be great fathers.
We let the radio play softly in the background as we both get lost in our thoughts the entire way to the hospital. When we get there, we rush out of the car, making our way to the maternity ward, which we already knew where it was since Joey wanted to take a tour of the hospital since we would have to stay there for a few days while the doctors make sure our baby is okay and healthy.
When we get to the floor, we go to the room that Harper told us she was in. Before Joey knocks on the door, he turns to me with a nervous smile. You ready ?
I nod my head. More than ready.
He knocks on the door before pushing it open to reveal the mother of our child. She has beautiful brown hair that’s packed into a tight bun on the top of her head along with round glasses that were starting to fog up due to the sweat that was covering her face. When she saw that we were there, her lips turned into a smile, reaching out to give us hugs.
Good morning, guys, she tells us as she holds onto her stomach, closing her eyes shut as her breathing gets more intense and we assume that she’s having a contraction. We turn to her mom that was sitting in the chair next to her daughter’s hospital bed and she smiles at us, giving us separate hugs.
Hi, Athena, how are you this morning ? Joey asks, handing her a cup of coffee that we picked up at the little cafe before coming in here.
Doing well, it’s been a bit rough. We thought it was false labor again, but it turned out to be real after it lasted more than three hours, so it’s been a little hectic, Harper’s mom tells us with a small laugh as she takes a sip of the black coffee.
So you’ve been in labor for four hours now ? I ask Harper, who was done with the contraction and was now listening to us.
She nods her head. Yeah, it felt the same as false labor, so I just assumed it was that. I went to sleep thinking that everything was good and then I woke up three hours later because my water broke and was immediately like, ‘oh, yeah, this is definitely real’.
We all let out a small laugh as the door opened and a woman in a white lab coat walks in. When she sees us, she gives us a big smile, reaching out to shake each of our hands. You must be the adoptive fathers, it’s so wonderful to meet you. I’m Dr. Criss and I’ll be the one delivering your baby today.
It’s so great to see you, I’m Joey, my husband says before motioning to me. and this is Kade.
Like I said, I’m Dr. Criss, but you can call me Amelia, now let’s see how close you are to holding your baby for the first time, the doctor says, pulling up a stool to sit at the edge of the bed before pulling on a glove and sticking her hand under the blanket that was covering Harper. She starts to have another contraction, squeezing her eyes shut before letting out slow breaths like she learned from a delivery class that she took. Joey wraps his arm around my shoulder as we wait to hear what the doctor says and after a few moments, she takes her hand back to strip it of the glove.