Pack Plus More

1. Nate

Nate

December 23rd

C hristmas.

In the past, I hadn’t particularly cared about the holiday. Sure, I would get my pack mates a gift and eat some dry turkey one of us would make, but there was no real cheer to the occasion.

It was an entirely different story once Daisy entered our pack. The adorable, heavily pregnant omega had flipped our world on its axis and now our home looked like a Christmas carnival every year, and I loved it.

Every hallway lined with garlands, and there was mistletoe everywhere—at the insistence of Jeremy, Devon, and myself. Any excuse to kiss our omega was a good idea in our books.

“There’re my girls,” I cooed as I rounded the corner into the kitchen.

On top of the decorations, every available surface in our house had some form of baby toys on them. The girls were a little over two years old now and were toddling around like little harbingers of adorable chaos. When she had first given birth, Daisy had insisted that all the toys would stay in the nursery. It was a cute idea, and she made it work to her benefit for a few weeks. But once the girls were mobile, there was no stopping the tidal wave of brightly coloured plastic toys from reaching every corner of the house.

It had taken a long time for Daisy to feel comfortable living here. She had done her best to keep it looking pristine and make her presence minimal. Having moved in when she was heavily pregnant, she didn't have much time to adapt to the new space before the girls were born. Thankfully, with time, she had truly made the space her own, and it made my heart fit to burst to see.

Before Daisy, the house was too sterile—and that was coming from me. I wasn’t exactly nice when Daisy joined the family. I had been belligerent, resistant and overall, not very pleasant.

But the small, sassy red headed omega had slowly but surely broken down all my walls, and now I was the happiest family man in the entire country.

Daisy was sitting at the kitchen table next to Poppy and Petunia, feeding them apple slices. She was wearing leggings and one of Devon’s t-shirts, her mass of red curls piled on the top of her head.

She had taken to wearing it up more often, because Poppy had been temporarily obsessed with tugging on her mama’s curls, and it was easier for Daisy to avoid the pain and constant yanking.

“Your daughters aren’t eating their fruit, they just want cookies,” Daisy frowned, her eyes not leaving the girls.

Walking up behind her, I planted a kiss on the top of her head, smiling at my girls, who were waving apple slices in their chubby little fists.

“That's because they're going to be omegas like their mama,” I laughed.

“Dada! Apple!” Poppy cooed.

“Yes,” I nodded. “You should be eating apple, sweet girl.”

Daisy huffed. “It doesn't help that there's enough Christmas candy in the house to fill several supermarkets.”

“What can I say, we're excited. It’s only two days away!”

Daisy shook her head with a small smile. “These girls are going to be so spoiled, aren't they?” she asked, looking up at me. I took the opportunity to plant a quick kiss on her lips. She tasted like apples and cinnamon, which was her normal scent anyway. But it was enhanced by the fact that she was cutting and munching on the apple scraps that the girls weren’t eating.

“They are,” I agreed. “We can focus on making them eat their fruits and veggies when it isn't Christmas time.”

Daisy snorted. “I'll make sure I give you your children back the minute they start having zoomies at 3:00 AM.”

“That’s Devon’s job,” I said, resting my hands on Daisy's shoulders, pulling her into me from behind.

A laugh escaped Daisy’s chest. “Oh no, you’re off from work Nathaniel. You can be back on nights with the rest of your pack mates!”

Her words trailed off, and we watched the girls in unison for a few moments, chewing on the end of their apple sticks, babbling in that adorable toddler language to each other.

“Just imagine having more of them,” I said wistfully.

We had made no secret out of the fact that we wanted more kids one day. Watching Daisy have children had been one of the most amazing experiences in my life. Technically, neither of the girls were biologically related to any of the alphas in the pack, but that didn't change the fact that they were our daughters.

In fact, not long after they were born, we had managed to solidify the legal paperwork to adopt them. So they, and their beautiful mama, were ours.

A wistful sigh escaped Daisy as she watched the girls. “I know. It would be adorable,” she admitted.

“Just say the word when you're ready,” I said, planting another kiss on top of her head.

If it were up to me or any of the males in the pack, we would have had Daisy pregnant months ago. As soon as Poppy and Petunia were born, our entire worldview shifted. Our lives had become about being dads. We wanted a whole pack of babies—but that wasn’t up to us. We would accept however many babies Daisy wanted to bless us with and in whatever time frame. After all, she was the one having to go through with the birth, and I knew that the early days of her pregnancy with the girls weren’t easy.

She had been completely on her own. Now that wouldn't be happening again, but I understood that it gave her some pause.

“It’s tempting,” she admitted.

Part of me wanted to push, but I didn’t want my excitement and desperation to grow our family to pressure her, so I just lightly rubbed her shoulders.

“Do you want to come last minute Christmas shopping with me and Jeremy tonight? We need to grab the last few things for Christmas dinner, and I think Jeremy wants to get a few more toys.”

“More toys?” She asked, turning to give me an incredulous look.

“You know Jeremy,” I laughed.

I didn't admit that I was probably the one who had gone the most overboard with the gift buying. Fortunately, we weren't addressing the gifts as being from individual dads. They were just from the dads or from Santa.

So hopefully Daisy wouldn't realize that I was a complete shopping addict and had spent probably the income of a small household on our daughters.

“If you don't mind taking the girls with you, I can take the opportunity to wrap some Christmas gifts,” Daisy suggested.

Gift wrapping is definitely not my strong suit. The girls' gifts had so many weird edges and shapes that wrapping them in paper was a gargantuan task for me. In the past, my solution would have been simply to put things in gift bags, but that didn't feel quite as magical as it should for the girls. This Christmas was the first time they were really going to be able to rip into wrapping paper and I didn't want them to miss out on that.

“That sounds like a plan.” I beamed down at her for a moment before turning to the girls. “Who wants to go out with Daddy?” I asked the girls excitedly.

The little chorus of “me!” made me grin.

I couldn't even remember what my life was like before them.