He found himself awake one night, listening to the patter of rain on the cottage roof. Shifting back to human form, he sat up against the headboard, watching Cole sleep next to him. In some ways, it felt like he’d fitted seamlessly into the alpha’s life. Like there’d been a Joshua-shaped hole, and he’d just fallen right into it. For someone who, as a child, always felt like a spare part, like a piece that didn’t fit, it was a revelation to have such easy acceptance. And not just from Cole, but from the whole pack. They all knew the worst things about him, and yet it didn’t seem to matter one bit. It wasn’t desperation or that they had no other choice. They valued him highly. It made Josh take a good, hard look at how he saw himself. He’d slowly started to give himself a bit more credit for all that he’d achieved, for all that he’d survived. He’d been lucky, sure. But it wasn’t just luck that had gotten him where he was.
He glanced at his phone on the nightstand but didn’t reach for it. Since he’d become the official ‘unofficial’ pack spokesperson, he’d made sure he had a prominent presence on social media. Enough to raise awareness, to raise the pack’s profile so that the military couldn’t move against them without people taking notice. It was starting to lead to some debate over the place of packs in modern society. The debate was still marred by the misinformation that seemed to be everywhere, and the warped view of packs that had grown up around it. But people were listening to Josh. Getting someone to listen was a start.
He sucked in a breath as his stomach tightened painfully. His body had been doing that on and off, practicing for the cubs’ arrival. When the pain grew sharper instead of easing off, he blew out a breath and gritted his teeth, sitting forward to try to ease the pressure on his back.
“Josh?” Cole asked, awake and alert next to him.
“Just a Braxton Hicks,” he said, scrunching up his face as the pain dragged on.
“Are you sure? From where I’m sitting, that looks like a contraction.”
It finally eased off, and he sighed with relief. “Well, I guess we’ll know soon enough, won’t we?”
Cole sat up next to him, and Josh leaned his head against the alpha’s shoulder.
“Can’t sleep?” Cole asked.
“Just thinking.”
“About what?”
“Me, you, the pack, the future.”
“You’ve got a lot on your mind.”
He murmured sleepily, dozing against the warmth of Cole’s body.
“Ow, fuck.”
The pain was back, with a vengeance.
“Josh?”
“Contraction,” he panted. “Definitely a contraction.”
Cole’s arms tightened around him. “Okay, just try to relax. Do your breathing, like you practiced.”
“I don’t think any amount of breathing is going to make this pain bearable,” he said, gritting his teeth.
“That’s what my hand is for,” Cole replied, placing it in Josh’s palm. “Squeeze as hard as you need to.”
Josh laughed at that, distracted from the pain. “Do I have to add self-sacrificing to overprotective?”
Cole snorted. “Probably. If I could take this pain for you, I would.”
“I know.” Josh patted him on the shoulder as the contraction eased. He let his eyes close again. “I’m going to try to sleep while I can. This might be a long night.”
He sighed happily as Cole’s fingers threaded through his hair, scratching lightly at his scalp. This felt nice. He could stay like this forever. Of course, the next contraction would be there any minute, and on its heels would be babies. It might be a while before they had a quiet moment like this one. He’d enjoy it while it lasted.
“They’re three minutes apart, Josh. It’s time to go to the packhouse.”
“No.”
Josh was adamant. He wanted to stay right where he was.
“We talked about this, remember? About having all the pack around us, having Brax’s clinic right there, it being the safest place…”
“I don’t care,” Josh gritted out as another contraction built to its peak. “I want—I need—to stay here.”
He saw Cole glance helplessly at Oliver and Brax.
“If here’s where you need to be, then here’s where you stay,” Oliver said finally. “You feel safe here.”
Relieved, Josh nodded, a few tears escaping down his cheeks. Cole was back by his side a second later, wiping them away.
“We’ll be right here with you the whole time,” Cole promised.
“I’m holding you to that,” Josh said grumpily. “No sneaking out for pizza and beers with the guys.”
Cole grinned. “Never.”
When the next contraction hit, he felt a sudden, unmistakable urge to push.
“Showtime,” he called. “Places, everyone.”
Cole laughed. “I don’t know how you can joke at a time like this.”
“Joke or cry,” Josh insisted. “Pick one.”
“All the jokes,” the alpha decided. “I’ll start. Knock-knock.”
Josh tried to laugh and groan at the same time, curling his face into Cole and breathing through the pain. The alpha’s arms wrapped tightly around him and stayed that way as the hard work of labor began.
To Josh, it seemed to go by in a flash of images. Cole’s hand stroking his face, holding a cool cloth to his forehead. Oliver’s wide eyes, his face breaking into a smile as he held up a tiny baby for Josh to see.
When that baby was placed in Josh’s arms, time slowed to almost nothing.
“He’s beautiful,” he said with a sob, adding, “He has your ears.”
“They are handsome ears,” Cole agreed softly, his voice hushed.
When the pain began again in earnest, they handed their firstborn off to Kira.
The second and third of their triplets came almost back-to-back, and Josh found himself with a baby in each arm, staring down at them in bewildered confusion.
“How are we ever going to tell them apart?” he asked plaintively.
They were identical in every way he could see, from their omega scents to their tiny noses.
“We can put a little ink mark on each of their feet until you learn which is which,” Kira said softly, peering down at them with a smile. “Identical twins are rare in a pack pregnancy. How special.”
She handed their alpha son to Cole, and Josh let his eyes roam from baby to baby. They were theirs—his and Cole’s. And the pack’s. Loved, cherished, and very much wanted. The tears came unbidden, but he couldn’t push them back. As one, the pack members in the room crowded forward, surrounding him and Cole, hugging them, hands patting them.
“Welcome home,” Cole whispered, and though Josh knew he was talking to the cubs, he couldn’t help feeling that it was him who’d found a home among this lonely pack.
Epilogue
Cole lowered Zach into the bath, watching the baby’s face as he took in the warm water surrounding him. There was a pause where Cole knew it could go either way, prepared for screams to fill the air. And then Zach wriggled, waving his arms and kicking his legs.
“We have a winner,” Cole said. “Bath time is now officially your favorite time of the day.”
Zach stared up at him, wide-eyed.
“Okay,” Cole conceded. “Second favorite. Maybe third.”
On the mat next to him, Tyler cooed loudly, kicking his legs in the air.
“Your turn next,” Cole promised. “I’ve only got two hands.”
And with three babies, two was never enough. Still, every time he saw his sons, every time he touched them, he was amazed that this was his reality.
Josh joined him, carrying a fussy Connor in his arms.
“He didn’t go down for a nap?”
“No,” Josh said. “I think he smelled the bathwater. You know how much he loves the bath.”
He walked the fussing baby up and down the room while Cole got Zach clean.
“There we go,” he said, reaching for the towel and wrapping Zach in it. �
��One clean baby.”
“For how long?” Josh said darkly.
“Oh, I think the record so far is seven minutes. Don’t worry, we’ll beat that sooner or later.”
He lay Zach down on the mat next to Tyler, ticking him under his chin. Josh knelt beside him, leaning his head against Cole’s shoulder.
“Some days, I look at them, and I can’t believe they’re ours,” the omega said, echoing Cole’s thoughts.
“I know how you feel,” he said softly.
“Your sleep’s been restless these past few nights,” Josh added. “Want to talk about it?”
Sleep had been eluding Cole, who found himself musing on the past a lot as he sat watching their sons sleep.
“I’ve just been thinking. About Dutchy, Jackson, and Andy.”
Josh stayed silent, waiting for him to continue.
“They gave up their lives, just like I would have done. Except it wasn’t me, it was them. For the longest time, I thought that was the problem. It was all in vain, all meaningless, because I couldn’t pull myself together and actually live the life that their deaths gave me.”
“And now?” Josh prompted gently.
“They didn’t die for nothing. They died so kids like ours could have a future. So I could have a future. I’m going to make it one they could be proud of.”
“You are far braver than you know.” Josh hugged Cole and kissed his cheek. “One day, when they’re older, we’ll tell them. About how you saved the world for them and how you saved me.”
“We saved each other,” Cole said. “I was headed down a dark path before I met you. You turned my head, and here we are.”
“And here we are,” Josh echoed.
It was as good a place to be as any Cole could have dreamed of.
Josh sat on a blanket in the paddock, surrounded by baby hedgehogs, watching Cole. The alpha was on the other side of the field with Eric and Zane, helping Eric ride Thunder. They’d decided on a breakfast picnic, since rain was forecast for later that day.
The rest of the pack were gathered on blankets nearby, the sound of mewling cubs and laughing babies intermixed with all the chatter. The only person missing was Thorn, on his way home from a night shift at the firehouse.
“I can’t believe how much they’ve grown,” Kira was saying, stroking Connor’s spines with her fingers.
“They eat like horses,” Josh said with a grin. “Must be Cole’s influence.”
The alpha looked over on hearing his name and smiled.
Brax’s phone rang, and he wandered off to answer it. Oliver came to sit next to Kira, a sleeping fox cub in his arms.
“At least you’ll only have one foal to deal with when the time comes,” he said, nodding to Tyler.
“One will be more than enough,” Josh agreed. “Hedgehogs are tricky as it is. You take your eye off them for one second, and they’ve disappeared.”
They were so small, they could fit into any nook and cranny in the cottage.
“You need eyes in the back of your head,” Alice agreed, flopping down next to them. “Speaking of, Brax is trying to get your attention, Oliver.”
Oliver glanced over his shoulder, handed the sleeping cub off to her, and went to talk to his mate.
A few minutes later, Cole carried Eric across the paddock on his shoulders, the little boy triumphant after his first horse ride.
“He’s a natural,” Cole declared. “Took to it like a duck to water.”
Oliver and Brax walked back over, deep in discussion.
“Problem?” Josh asked them. They all sensed a shift in the mood to something more expectant. Was danger headed their way?
“Thorn found a cub up a tree,” Brax explained.
Josh blinked, assuming he’d misheard. “He rescued a cat?”
“Is he going for firefighter of the year award?” Cole joked.
“No,” Oliver clarified. “Cub. As in shifter cub. Leopard, he thinks, and an omega. Poor thing sounds traumatized.”
“He’s bringing him here, to the packhouse,” Brax added.
“Here?” Josh asked, surprised. He was sure there were procedures—police, hospitals, social workers. Thorn couldn’t just bring a lost cub home with him.
“We’re technically the closest safe haven for minor omegas, and we’re still officially government-contracted so, yeah,” Oliver said. “I’m actually surprised something like this hasn’t happened before now. I think they were sending local omegas further afield once our pack status became public. Not anymore.”
“Then I guess we’re up,” Kira said, getting to her feet and helping Alice up.
“They’ll be here in ten,” Brax said.
The others started packing up and getting ready to head back to the house. Cole and Josh helped pack away the food and toys and fold the blankets, waving the others off. Then Cole stretched out next to Josh on their blanket, the cubs clambering all over him.
“Never a dull moment in this pack,” the alpha remarked.
“Just the way we like it,” Josh agreed with a laugh.
Dark clouds rolled overhead, and they gathered the cubs up into their arms.
“Time to go home,” Cole said, wrapping his free arm around Josh’s waist.
“No place I’d rather be.”
Josh knew there’d be trials and excitement to come, but it would never change the fact that here, he’d found love, a pack, and a home.
Author's Note
Thanks for reading Keeper, the second book of The Lost Pack series. I hope you enjoyed Josh and Cole’s story. If you have a moment to spare, reviews are always appreciated!
If you’d like to hear about new releases in this or other series, you can sign up to my mailing list here or visit clairecullenbooks.com.
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Copyright © 2019 by Claire Cullen
All Rights Reserved
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents are either the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, business establishments, events or locales is entirely coincident.
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