Opening the box, I glanced at the ring. It wasn’t fancy by any means; just a band with a little stone embedded in it, the birthstone for Graham. I needed him to be part of the promise, too. We’d be a family. No, we were already a family, but it felt symbolically necessary to somehow represent the fact.
“What’s that?” Sebastian’s words came from far too close.
“I thought you were taking a shower.” He was now standing beside me, naked and looking at the box.
“There are two in there.” He reached for the box, and I handed it to him.
“I didn’t want to marry myself, so I figured two was a good bet.”
“This is beautiful. I love how your ring includes Graham.” His finger ran over the gem. “He’s going to love it. I love mine, too, by the way.”
This was so very much not how I’d planned my engagement to go, but what in life did?
“The ring is for you.” I gently removed it from the box. “Sebastian, I love you with my whole heart, and I want to spend the rest of my days with you.” I dropped to my knee. “This ring is more, though. This ring is asking you to be mine and for you to be the father of our son, Graham. I want us to be a family for real.” I slid the band on his finger. “Pick up the cushion in the ring box,” I instructed, and he did, immediately finding the small piece of paper folded up there.
It was a Post-it Graham had left on my computer one morning. He often mimicked the letters I packed in his lunch. This one had been different though and had led to a very amazing and mature conversation with Graham, one I’d always treasure in my heart.
“Read it.”
He handed me the ring box then unfolded the little paper and read it to himself. “When did he write this?”
“After I fell in love with you, but before I admitted it to myself. So what do you say? Will you be my husband?”
“There is nothing I want more.” He brought the letter to his heart. “What was your answer?”
“I told him I’d let him know.”
“Maybe you should get on that, fiancé.” He mouthed the words my son had written: May I ask Sebastian to be my daddy, too?
“I most definitely will. Shower time?”
“Shower time.” Lunch was going to have to wait.
Chapter Twenty-Three
Sebastian
Despite the early panic of being a “high-risk” pregnancy, our brother doctors were working together to guide us to the birth. Technically, they did assign all twin pregnancies to Dr. Zaire, but Dr. Johnah saw us just as often, and according to both, we were sailing along with no issues and should be able to deliver “full term,” which for twins was thirty-seven weeks.
No issues might be a medical term, however, since I was bloated and gassy and about the most unattractive omega ever born. Everything gave me heartburn, as well. All those families I took care of, keeping the slight distance of being an employee, I’d focused on the children. More than one omega parent had been pregnant during my tenure, but I hadn’t spent much time with them. When they wanted to be with their kids, I made it a point to step back and not interfere.
So, while my nursing training had given me the facts of how pregnancy worked, and a list of possible discomforts, when they were happening to me, they were not just a list. I rubbed the recommended salves into my belly as it swelled to the size of a blimp, but the two inside were growing so fast stretch marks appeared anyway.
Walker insisted he found me every bit as handsome as before, more so because I carried our two children, but I took those comments to be kindness, and, instead of sleeping naked, skin to skin with my alpha, I wore flannel PJ bottoms and a baggy T-shirt. It had gotten harder for him to coax them off me as well.
Graham’s abilities soared. He still used the walker some of the time, especially if he was tired, but the muscle spasms were a thing of the past, for which we were both grateful. He and Ken’s friendship had grown to the point where they alternated Saturday night sleepovers at each other’s home, once in a while including another friend from school for video game marathons. His academics were improving along with his confidence.
While my self-confidence tanked.
With less than two months left of the pregnancy, every shift at the hospital felt longer than the one before, and the docs and my mate were all nudging me toward starting paternity leave early.
But this particular Saturday morning, as I trudged inside the house and kicked off my shoes by the front door, I tried to think which kind of a weekend I faced. With no more shifts until Monday night, I hoped for some quiet. Graham and his friend weren’t loud, but I didn’t feel well enough to be the fun Sebastian they counted on.
“Omega mine, you look like something the cat dragged in, stuffed in a box, and sat on.”
I thrust out my bottom lip, but a laugh escaped me anyway. “Well, thanks, hot alpha. It’s good to know I still make the cut. At least the cat didn’t poop on me in this scenario.”
Chuckling, he approached and took the bag I carried to work from my shoulder. “Seriously, you look good even if you are about ready to keel over. I thought we could have a special weekend together.”
“Special?” I stretched my neck, the tight muscles aching. “Like going to bed and not getting up until Monday with lots of sleep in between?”
“I was going to suggest dancing or maybe a hike…”
I studied his face for signs of mirth, but he was absolutely serious. “Uhh, I don’t know about —”
Then he broke out in a huge grin. “But instead, I sent Graham to Ken’s early, and they are keeping him until tomorrow night. We have to return the favor next week.”
“And we are going to…?”
“Go right to bed, watch movies, order takeout, and make love, but not in that order.”
I wanted to kiss him, so I did, and when his lips trailed to my ear and he sucked on my lobe then whispered very naughty things, my exhaustion fled, and by the time we made it to the bedroom, we were both naked. And hard.
Walker dropped to his knees and sprinkled kisses all over my belly, which led to a whole other kind of kissing. I cursed my inability to see what he was doing down there, but I had no trouble feeling it. He closed his fist around my cock then sucked delicately on the head, sending chills from my fingers to my toes and back up again. I braced myself with hands on his shoulders and groaned.
“Oh, Walker, how amazing.” I shuddered trying to stay upright, but my center of gravity did not make my balance the best, and holding on, I swayed. He worked me with lips, teeth, and tongue, and in only a few moments, my balls tightened, as did my grip on him, and I spurted down his throat, my knees wobbling as he lapped the last of my cum from my dick.
Then his head bobbed up. “Let’s sit you down, omega, before you fall and break something.” He guided me backward toward the bed.
“Break you probably, then you won’t think I’m so sexy.”
“Omega! If you don’t stop putting yourself down, I won’t do this.” He rolled me onto my side and lay behind me. He delved his fingers into my crack, finding my slick and growling appreciatively. “You’re so ready for me. For this.” His cockhead replaced his fingers, probing at the ring of muscles before thrusting inside. As always, the feeling of fullness brought me right back to steel hardness, and, knowing me well, he reached around to stroke my dick in time with his plunges into my body.
“Alpha,” I panted, “I’m going to come again.”
He bit down on my shoulder and tugged, snarling a little before releasing me and giving me one hard squeeze. “Come, omega. I’m…there.” His hot cum poured into me, and I joined him, his hand milking me of my second cum in less than a half hour.
His knot swelled, joining us as it had the first and nearly every time we were together. I closed my eyes, exhausted again but happy and peaceful and ready for a weekend of relaxing with my alpha. And maybe a few more sessions like this one.
“Alpha?”
“Hmmm?”
“W
hat kind of takeout did you have in mind?”
Chapter Twenty-Four
Walker
“Wakey, wakey.” I kissed the side of Sebastian’s head. How he was asleep perplexed me. I’d been up for four hours already in anticipation.
“Papa tired,” he grumbled as he snuggled in close.
“It’s baby day,” I reminded him, and he sat up faster than I’d seen him move in weeks.
“I’m up. What time is it?” he asked as he pivoted to get out of bed.
“You have time. We need to leave in a half an hour.” I’d have woken him earlier, but the rules were no food or drink, and it felt cruel to give him the normal amount of get-ready time when he couldn’t enjoy the morning cup of tea he’d grown accustomed to.
“Help me up.” He dropped his legs over the edge of the mattress, and I scurried off the bed to offer him my arm. He’d grown so, his belly no longer typical of an omega at his stage of pregnancy—no, he looked like he was about to pop, and I caught him more than once holding up our babes with his arm underneath his belly, the strain of their weight getting to be a bit too much for him.
“Thanks, love.” He kissed my cheek and squeezed my hand. “We’ve got this.” I wasn’t sure who he was trying to reassure more—probably himself.
“We have so got this.”
Three hours later, I couldn’t help wonder if there was truth in his words. After they botched the epidural so many times they gave up and then had him walk to the operating room in his hospital gown to go into a surgery I was no longer permitted to be a part of, I very much doubted I “so got this.” But just over an hour later, a nurse popped out to say everything looked amazing and he was being wheeled into recovery where our two sweet babes were waiting for us both. Longest. Hour. Ever.
Escorted by the nurse, I weaved my way through the corridors and walked into the little private room to see a very drowsy and highly medicated mate listening to the two pediatric nurses who were holding our children up for him to see, his smile big as the sun.
“And this little stinker,” the nurse began, “all she wants is her daddy and something to eat. You’d think she was starving, but given her almost six pounds, I think the evidence tells otherwise.”
“Is that our Madeline?” I asked, letting Sebastian know I was there.
I walked over to his side, bumping into a chair, my eyes glued on Sebastian and our new babes. “How are you, love?” I asked as I reached his side. I’d already been told the babies were doing amazingly well, and, in theory, so was Sebastian, but he had just had surgery and looked it.
“I told you we got this.”
“Yes, yes, you did.” I leaned in and placed the gentlest of kisses on his cheek.
“Would you like to hold your daughter?” The nurse was already handing her to me as if anyone could turn down the offer.
“She’s beautiful.” I spoke in a hushed tone, tears already building in my eyes.
“Your son is quite the looker, too,” a second nurse chimed in as she placed him on Sebastian’s chest, standing close as if making sure he was aware enough to handle it. And he was—barely.
“Be good for Daddy, little man.” I glanced at my sweet daughter in my arms and my son, already latching on like a champ, and my heart was so full, so content.
I had two babies, a man I loved more than anything, and an amazing son waiting for us at home with our fur babies. What more could an alpha ask for in life?
“We really need to settle on a name for our son.” Sebastian smiled down at him as he ate hungrily.
Graham wanted to name him either Sebastian or Walker so he could call him Junior. We put the kibosh on that one instantly. And that right there summed up the names we had selected. It was fair to say we were woefully unprepared in that arena.
“I do have one idea,” Sebastian singsonged. “But if you think it will be too— What about Harrison?”
Harrison after the man who I had loved with all I was, the man who gave everything the day he gave me my Graham, the man who always wanted a houseful of children and didn’t live to see his own son.
“You would be all right with that?” The name had crossed my mind a few times, but I always squashed it down. It couldn’t be easy for Sebastian to know I’d once loved another as deeply as I loved him, and here he was wanting to honor his memory.
“He gave us our son and gave the man I love years of happiness. Why wouldn’t I want to honor him?”
“I like it. I think it suits him,” his nurse interrupted as she took the sleeping baby from Sebastian and pointed for me to give him Madeline who was beginning to do the thing with her mouth Graham had always done when he was about to let us know he was good and hungry. I settled her on his chest, and she, too, began to eat greedily.
“I think it suits him, too,” I agreed.
“Then Harrison it is.” Sebastian looked over to our son who was now in a little plastic box they called a bassinet.
“After you eat, little one, I’m going to take your daddy to his new room You’ll like it there.” The other nurse came over and started moving some equipment around. “And then you can meet your brother.”
“He is allowed?” I hadn’t thought to ask, assuming he wouldn’t be. But, then again, my only experience before had included an extended stay at the NICU which was a child-free zone, so I never thought it possible.
“Your mate says he is over five, so all is good as long as he doesn’t have a cold.”
“He doesn’t,” I swore as little Madeline broke her latch as she fell sleep.
We were in Sebastian’s room by lunchtime, and Graham joined us by three, brought by his buddy’s Ken’s family. They had gotten to know him well and considered him family, as we did their son. Graham was so enamored with the babies and so understanding of Sebastian’s need, especially when he caught Sebastian wincing in pain as he tried to sit up a bit more. There was nothing better than to have my whole family in the same room together, if only briefly. Sebastian needed some sleep, and Graham went back to the neighbors’ where he’d be spending the night. I settled into the chair next to Sebastian’s bed and closed my eyes, more tired than I’d ever been but also happier. Our growing family would have challenges no doubt, but my gratitude at the healthy arrival of the twins and Sebastian’s gentle breaths as he recovered from his day made my heart squeeze with joy and relief.
Life was good.
Epilogue
Sebastian
The suitcases waited in the back of the SUV, since we’d be leaving for the airport as soon as we made one last stop—the courthouse. Shortly after the birth of the twins, Graham had asked if I was his little brother and sister’s dad, and married to his dad in a quick family-only ceremony, was there any way I could also be his father.
We’d talked about it, Walker and I, late into the night over a few weeks. Harrison was Walker’s first love and Graham’s birth dad. He’d given his life to bring him into the world and nothing could ever make him less than that. We’d honored him by naming our son after him, and his picture held pride of place not only in Graham’s room, but also in the twins’. He was a very important member of our family, an ancestor watching over us all.
To some extent, we feared that my adopting Graham might make Harrison seem less important in his life, as if he might be forgotten…until one day when Graham knocked on our bedroom door. “Dads, can I come in?”
My heart twinged. He had been testing out calling us both Dad since asking the big question. Hesitantly, but consistently. The boy did want me to be his dad. He’d never even known Harrison…
“Come in,” Walker called, and our son pushed the walker ahead of him, barely using it, but often later in the day, he wanted it for balance. Tired mattered.
“Dads, I figured out how I can be both your son.”
We were sitting on the edge of the bed, and I stood and stretched. “I think this may be a hot chocolate kind of conversation. Agreed?”
“Yes,” Walker replied, and Gr
aham nodded vigorously. Soon, we were seated at the breakfast table with steaming mugs before us and a plate of cookies in between. “Okay, Son,” Walker encouraged. “Tell us what you’ve learned.”
As we sipped the cocoa and dunked the cookies into the murky, creamy depths, we got the young man’s version of adoption procedures and “officialness.” He had a friend at school who’d been adopted as an infant, making their understanding less than 100 percent, but Graham had learned enough to know it made the kid “official.” And he said he was sure his other daddy would want this.
Heck, he didn’t even remember his other daddy, of course, but paperwork and an appearance in the judge’s chambers wouldn’t stop Walker from telling him about his late dad. It was very important.
“I want to be Sebastian’s son, too. I want him to love me like the twins.”
Oh my god. “Graham, I love you all the same. And I knew you first. You’re my first kid in this family.”
We explained that my love for him couldn’t be any bigger if we went through official channels, but his pleading eyes told us the decision could only go one way. Cocoa done, we tucked him into bed and promised to start the proceedings as soon as possible.
So, we contacted a law firm that specialized in adoptions like ours, new stepdad situations, and found it was much easier than we’d thought. There were no relatives on Harrison’s side to object. His parents had passed long ago, and he had no siblings. My background of caring for children made me a great dad candidate, and, in only a few short months, we had our final interview with the judge scheduled. The courthouse in our county was one story, and, although surrounded by attractive, lush landscaping, not very grand. The waiting room could have been in any medical building, and people came and went in a businesslike manner, heading into the inner sanctum and emerging with a variety of expressions.
Although I had no reason to anticipate any problems, the judge was running about a half hour late, according to his clerk who sat at a small desk outside the chamber doors. So I had time to worry they’d found out about the time I got drunk on spring break and woke up in an embarrassing situation. Or maybe another of my college-age peccadillos. Heck they could even think working as a nurse and caring for two other kids was all I could handle.
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