Surprised Daddy

by Liam Kingsley

  Stunningly attractive man aside, I was actually worried my blood sugar level had dropped or something, and there was only one thing that would help. “I'll be out of your way in just a moment,” I said, finishing off writing up Bryce’s vitals.

  I hurried out of the room and went about gathering up the paperwork I needed to dole out before I could take an early break and eat some much-needed lunch.

  3

  Linc

  I blinked hard to get the vision of the omega nurse out of my mind. As soon as he left the room, the intoxicating scent was gone and the hospital stink came rushing back. I tried to clear my head with a deep inhale of the roses and glanced around the room, looking for a window to open. Jaxon was holding the baby down low in his arms so Cole and Liam could meet the new arrival.

  I walked out of the room for a moment, just to see if the nurse was definitely the source of the delicious smell, but when I looked up and down the hallways, he’d gone. A little confused, I walked back into the room Bryce was in.

  “Anyone else overwhelmed by the smell in here?” I asked, scrunching up my nose at Jaxon.

  He raised his eyebrows and cocked his head to the side. “Are you saying my daughter stinks?”

  Bryce chuckled and Cole let out a laugh that was more like a yelp. I groaned and rolled my eyes.

  “The hospital smell. I can't be the only one grossed out by it,” I mumbled, taking another deep sniff of the roses.

  “The medication they gave me dulled most of my senses,” Bryce said as he wrapped an arm around Liam who was sitting on the side of his bed.

  “It is a strong smell,” Jaxon said. “It's not unusual for shifters to have certain smells that throw them off more than others. Maybe hospitals are yours, Linc. I knew someone who couldn't handle the smell of Tony's Pizza.”

  “You're kidding me.”

  “Yeah, couldn't set foot it in the place. Never ate a pepperoni pizza in his life.”

  “No way!” Cole said, sounding heartbroken at the idea of it.

  “Yes way,” Jaxon said solemnly before turning to me and gesturing to the newborn baby in his arms. “Here, take this bundle of joy. She'll take your mind off it.”

  Jaxon reached out and placed Lori in my arms as I handed the bouquet of flowers to Cole to hold. The moment the newborn babe landed in my arms, my heart started racing. Her tiny body seemed simultaneously fragile and powerful. Slowly, her eyes opened and she looked up at me with bright, star-filled eyes.

  “Wow.” I gazed down lovingly at her puffy cheeks and tiny button nose.

  Jaxon was right. She did take my mind off it. Any feelings of nausea and repulsion from the smell of the hospital had been replaced by a strong, undeniable surge of longing.

  “She's pretty special, isn’t she,” Bryce said with a glowing smile.

  “Is she ever.” I smiled back, but my heart was aching. I was happy for my best friend and his mate, but I couldn't help but feel a searing, grumbling ache of jealousy deep in my guts.

  As if picking up on my inner longing, Cole let out an impatient sigh. “I want a little sister!”

  “I know,” I replied stiffly.

  Lori closed her eyes again and opened her mouth to take a deep yawn and I felt like my heart broke into a million pieces from how cute it was. It was undeniable that Cole wasn't the only one who wanted another addition to the family—I was clucky as hell and frustrated beyond belief that I still hadn't found true love, a mate. I’d loved Cole's mom, Nicole, but she wasn’t my mate, and soon after we'd had Cole, we realized we worked better as friends and co-parents than a couple, and we’d split amicably. My own parents hadn’t been particularly pleased about that, insisting I should have stayed with Nicole. I think it was because I’d disappointed them that I hadn’t actively sought out anyone afterward, hence it being more than eight years since I’d been with anyone. During that time I’d dedicated my life to looking after Cole, to raising him as a good alpha father should.

  Suddenly, I felt my wolf pawing at my chest. At first, I put it down to my thoughts on finding a mate, but then that same head-spinning, intoxicating scent flooded into the room just as the nurse came back into view. Our eyes locked. My wolf practically lunged forward and it took all of my might to stay standing. I clutched Lori closer to my chest where my heart pounded.

  His eyes held mine. His lips parted. I took a deep breath and bathed in the scent as it moved through and around me. Hair stood on the back of my neck and goosebumps broke across the skin of my arms.

  And then, as quickly as it happened, it ended.

  “Alright, Bryce,” he said as he turned to look at the exhausted man in the hospital bed. I blinked hard to clear my head as he continued talking. “Everything is looking good. The doctor has signed off on your discharge paperwork, so as long as there are no complications, you'll be able to get out of here with your newborn tomorrow morning.”

  “Thanks, Shawn,” Bryce smiled sleepily.

  “We just need you to sign off some consent forms, and then I'll take you through the care information for leaving tomorrow.”

  “Can't he leave sooner than that?” Jaxon asked as he took Lori from my arms.

  The nurse looked up and, again, our eyes locked for a moment, but then he looked away to address Jaxon.

  “No, I'm afraid not,” he said. “It's procedure to keep new babies and their parent at least overnight for monitoring. Didn’t your midwife talk to you about this?”

  “Uh…” Jaxon glanced back and forth between the nurse and me. I looked at Greer and then at Bryce, and found that they and the kids were also looking between the nurse and me. Our wolves were hyperaware that something was going on, though to be honest, I don’t think any of us knew exactly what it was.

  “It's just to give your system time to clear out the anesthetic,” the nurse explained, a touch of nervousness in his voice. He glanced between the six of us and must have assumed our silence was in resistance to Bryce having to stay overnight. He swallowed and glanced around.

  “Well, alright,” Bryce said, breaking the tension. “Is the food good here, or what?”

  “Oh of course. It's great,” the nurse said before giving Bryce a grin. “And the snack machines are well-stocked.”

  “Can't wait,” Bryce replied. He signed the paperwork and handed Shawn back the pen. I felt my chest clenching. I watched as the nurse put the pen in his pocket, gave us all a polite smile, and left.

  “What the fuck was that?” I whispered, glancing at Jaxon with wild eyes. “Did you feel…”

  “Go,” Jax said, putting his hand on my shoulder and urging me forward. I didn't have to be told twice by my pack alpha to follow my intuition.

  My wolf sniffed at the air, and I followed the intoxicating scent; followed the nurse. He walked quickly down the halls, long-legged and with confidence. His white sneakers gripped the slippery linoleum, while my boots had me skidding around corners and almost falling over myself in an effort not to lose him this time.

  I watched the way his dark blue scrubs clung to his ass. My mouth filled with saliva as I gazed at the way the fabric moved back and forth across his hips as he walked. I rushed to keep up with him, my breath rasped as my throat tightened with desire. I took a sharp inhale, desperate for another hint of his scent—just as he rounded a corner and disappeared into a doorway. I followed him without thinking, and immediately smacked against him, barely stopping myself from falling over.

  “Oh, hey!” he said, grabbing my shoulders and keeping me upright as I stumbled sideways.

  “Oh geez, I'm sorry.” I quickly righted myself, just about melting into the feeling of his hands on my shoulders when he let go.

  “No problem. It's fine, but are you alright?” he asked, looking over my face. He peered into my eyes and I felt another rush of awareness, stronger now I was so close to him, but his expression wasn't reflecting anything of what I was feeling. He looked concerned, as if I might be sick or something.

  “Yeah, I'm alright.�
� I ran a hand through my hair, trying to act cool, but in reality I was shaking inside, all my senses on full alert. This man was special to me.

  “You were just in Bryce’s room, weren’t you?” he asked, stepping back and cocking his head to the side.

  “Oh, yeah, I'm close friends of Jaxon and Bryce. I'm Linc.”

  “Nice to meet you, Linc. I'm Shawn.”

  He held out his hand and I immediately took it. I inhaled sharply as his fingers curled around my hand, and that’s when I knew for definite what was going on. Who Shawn was to me. A shiver raced up my spine, and my wolf yipped in barely contained excitement.

  It was unmistakable. It was what everyone had told me it would be like—a deep knowing, a clawing need, an intense desire to claim. This nurse was my fated mate.

  “I'm just about to take my break so…” He let go and motioned to the room behind him, which I realized was the nurses’ break room.

  “Oh, yeah, of course.” I smiled and motioned to the snack machine on the wall behind him. “I'm just here to grab some snacks for Bryce.”

  “Careful of anything on the second row,” he said as he wandered over to a couch. “It's been known to jam the machine up pretty bad.”

  I plunged a hand in my jean's pocket, searching for change as I wandered over to the snack machine. “But that's where all the good stuff is,” I said as I glanced through the glass at the paltry selection on offer.

  “You like buffalo jerky and cold salami sandwiches?” he asked skeptically.

  “Actually, I do,” I said, hoping it might provoke further conversation. However, when I looked over at where Shawn was sitting and unpacking a lunch bag, he wasn’t paying the slightest attention to me. He was clearly a human, which was just my luck. Human’s didn't have the capacity to pick up on the same signs as shifters. They didn’t sense their mate or detect that unique fragrance their mate gave off. To him, I probably just smelled like my Dior Homme cologne and wood smoke from the heater at home. He probably thought I was a complete lunatic chasing after him down the halls, but if he just knew what I did we wouldn't have to do these ridiculous human mating rituals that took so long.

  I took a deep breath and turned back to the snack machine. The least I could do was actually get Bryce something to eat while I pretended nonchalance. Avoiding the second row, I chose an egg salad sandwich for Bryce, and a bag of potato chips each for Cole and Liam. I glanced over at Shawn as I fed quarters into the machine and watched as he completely ignored me.

  I grabbed the food from the tray at the bottom of the machine and took my time standing up. What the hell was I supposed to do now? Leave and miss my chance at connecting with my fated mate? No way. Not a chance. Plus, I had alpha orders. Even if I did manage to drag myself away from Shawn without so much as his phone number—what would Jaxon have to say about it?

  Jaxon… That gave me a great idea. I made my way over to Shawn and was a second away from inviting him to hang out with me and my baseball superstar best friend when I was rudely interrupted.

  “Dad!” Cole rushed into the room with Liam hot on his heels. “I've been looking for you!”

  “Shh,” I hissed. “There are sleeping babies in this ward!”

  “Lori just slept through me kissing her face a thousand times,” Liam said.

  “Well, Lori's special,” I remarked, before turning to Shawn. “Sorry.”

  “It's quite fine,” he said, wiping his mouth with his napkin. “Most newborns can sleep through anything.”

  “See?” Cole insisted. I growled under my breath and was resisting the urge to disown him when he looked right at Shawn's lunchbox. His eyes grew to the size of dinner plates and he exclaimed, “Hey, what is that?”

  “It's uh, well it's an official NASA lunchbox,” he said. He glanced up at me and I swore I caught a slight blush move across his cheeks.

  “What?” Cole exclaimed and clambered onto the couch to sit beside him. “That is so cool.”

  “Cole, Shawn is on his break.” I frowned, but couldn't help appreciate the extra time this was buying me with the nurse.

  “Mm, no, it's fine,” Shawn replied as he placed his sandwich down onto a small plate before wiping his fingers with a cloth napkin. He smiled at Cole. “Do you like NASA?”

  “Hm, well… I like space,” Cole said, his eyes fixed on the lunchbox.

  “Really?” Shawn asked, his eyebrows raising. I caught more than a hint of excitement in his voice.

  “Uh, yeah, I'm a total space nut,” Cole said before running his mouth off. “And not just like, the moon like other stupid—”

  “Cole,” I warned him.

  “I like the planets, but also outer galaxies and I'd love to see a blackhole one day,” he said while I watched Shawn's face, his eyes set on Cole and his head nodding in agreement. “Dad got me a telescope but I'm not great at using it yet.”

  “Well, it sounds like you’ve got a very nice dad,” Shawn said, and I caught his eye for a second before he looked back at Cole.

  “How'd you get an official lunchbox?” I asked, in a not so subtle way of inserting myself into the conversation.

  “I won it, actually,” Shawn said. Again his eyes met mine, and I was struck dumb. They were the most unusual hazel I’d ever seen. Green and gold flecks were interspersed with what I could only describe as silver, and if I looked closely, I could almost say I was spotting stars in his eyes. Galaxies. Funny, considering the conversation he was having with Cole.

  “How?” Liam asked, shyly moving over to the couch and looking at the lunchbox in question.

  “Oh,” Shawn said, and then started laughing nervously. “It was from a dog show, actually.”

  “You have a dog?” Cole bounced excitedly on the couch.

  “A show dog?” I asked.

  “Yes and no. It was just a silly little dog trick contest. LuLu isn't show material, not like some of the dogs who win blue ribbon prizes, but she knows how to do some cool tricks.” Shawn smiled, and Cole stared at him like he was talking nonsense.

  “Do you have to walk your dog all the time?” Cole asked. “Mom makes me walk Paco all the time.”

  Shawn chuckled and shook his head. “How big is Paco?”

  “He's huge,” Liam interjected.

  “Yeah, he's huge,” Cole said.

  “He's a medium husky,” I remarked to clarify.

  “Ah. Well, he probably needs more walks than my LuLu does. She's a corgi, so she only needs a short walk in the afternoons when I get off my shift. She loves the dog park, though.”

  “Paco hates the dog park,” Cole announced. “We just let him out into the woods and sometimes he runs with us on the full moon and—”

  “No he doesn't,” I said with a warm smile, annoyed I’d now have to steer Cole away from saying something about shifters. Usually the best way to do that was to distract him with something else. “Cole, we need to take this food to Bryce before he starves to death. Shawn, it was nice to meet you.”

  “Nice to meet you,” Cole and Liam repeated as they hurried out of the room.

  “Maybe we'll see you later,” I said to Shawn, feeling completely defeated by the sudden ending to our conversation, but I didn’t really have any real choice if I didn’t want to take the risk of Cole blurting out the truth of our existence. That was one of the issues in a shifter finding a mate in a human; it was having to explain about shifters and mates and knotting… I swallowed at the thought of knotting Shawn, feeling my skin heat.

  “I hope so,” he said with a small smile, his gaze still focused on me. I gave him a stiff grin and forced myself to walk away.

  “You're welcome,” Cole said as I met up with him in the hallway.

  “For what?” I asked, handing him one of the bags of crisps and giving the other to Liam.

  “For getting the intel,” Liam said.

  “For getting you the hookup,” Cole said as he ripped open his bag.

  “What the heck are you talking about?” I was not in the mood
for their cheer. “Where did you hear about intel?”

  “Jaxon,” they said in unison.

  “He told us to follow you and get the nurse guy talking about himself,” Cole said.

  I grumbled and silently cursed Jaxon for assuming that I needed help from a couple of eight-year-olds.

  “Well, thanks.” I sighed as we rounded the hall toward Bryce's room, but I had to admit I hadn't gotten any information out of Shawn myself, while Cole had discovered some key intel that he likes space, and has a dog that he walks every afternoon…

  Suddenly, it dawned on me. I grabbed my phone and dialed Nicole's number.

  She answered after one ring. “'Sup?”

  “I need to borrow Paco.”

  “Oh my god, is that LuLu?” Cole asked as we drew closer to the dog park. Paco strained on his lead and threatened to pull the kid flat onto his face as we got close to the fence. My wolf started tugging just as hard as soon as my eyes locked onto Shawn who was throwing a toy for his brown and white corgi on the other side of the park.

  “She's so short,” Liam said, giggling while opening the dog park gate. Paco shot forward, and Cole let out a yelp as his arm was practically ripped out of its socket.

  “Paco, sit,” I growled low and menacing. The dog immediately cowered and sat down with his head bowed. I was pleased that a real alpha growl still had some power. Cole rubbed his shoulder and handed me the leash. I unclipped Paco who looked up at me with a cautious expression in his bright blue eyes until I nodded, and then he immediately dashed across the grass. I looked up and grinned as I watched Paco sprint straight for LuLu.