21. Walter
WALTER
Once upon a time, my dream had been working for The New York Times with my name on the front page.
How my goals had changed. Today, I was finishing up my interview at the smallest paper to ever exist. That was an exaggeration, but it was tiny.
It came out once a week, cost fifty cents, and was everything I never realized I wanted for the job.
I was nervous going to an interview when I was the size of a house. No one could see me and not know I was pregnant. More than once, I’d had people at the grocery store ask me if it was twins. That was how large I was.
But the position was open now, and I didn’t want to risk missing out because I was worried they wouldn’t like me being pregnant.
“I think you’re a good fit,” Sally, the woman who was currently the solo employee of the paper said. “I’ve been doing this by myself a long time, so I don’t want you to think you have to rush back to start work after your baby. We can start you when you’re ready.”
“Thank you so much. Do you want me to do some orientation now?” I suspected there was going to be a pretty large learning curve since the job included all parts of the process and all sections of the paper.
“Oh, honey. You see how you keep grabbing your side?”
I hadn’t, but now that she mentioned it, I did.
“My guess is if you're at the start of your labor.”
My jaw dropped.
“It’s fine. I don’t think you have to rush home or anything. But you’re gonna have this baby within the next day or so. Trust me.”
I thought she was reading too much into it. I wasn’t going to tell her that. She was a sweet, older woman and was offering me a job doing what I loved that would work well with my family life. She could tell me I had a funny nose and I’d been fine with it.
I responded with a thank you very much, and promised her I’d let her know when the baby was born. Whether she was right or not about today, it would be any time now. The midwife had been surprised I’d gone this long.
Our lives had been going really well at the pack, but everything was happening so quickly.
The pack helped us build out a nursery. My mate and Coach came to an agreement that he might not be able to guarantee that Archie could go right back into professional hockey, but he’d do everything in his power to help when the time came that he decided to.
That was all my mate needed to hear to decide to “retire.” His teammates were disappointed. The fans were very disappointed.
It wasn’t just myself or the pack who was thrilled by the decision.
Once the news broke out, the youth hockey charity reached out to him and asked if he’d be willing to run a soon-to-be-started youth program nearby.
It was an underserved population, and they could really use someone who loved the sport as much as he did to head it up. Archie loved the idea. So did I.
It would be another year before this one got started.
There were all sorts of logistics that had to go into play, logistics that the main charity was in charge of.
That gave us time to adjust to becoming a family of three, me figuring out how to balance my new job and being a father, and for some of the changes the pack was planning to happen. The timing couldn’t be more perfect.
I called Truman on my way home to tell him the good news.
He was happy for me and told me he had expected me not to sit idle for too long.
I hardly called being the Alpha’s omega being idle.
There was a lot more to it than I thought there would be.
In some ways, I was like the BOGO employee that came with the Alpha.
I didn’t mind. I picked all of the tasks I did, and I enjoyed them.
I found my mate quickly when I got home. I wasn’t sure if it was because I was pregnant or because we’d been mated for a while or because I was living on pack lands and wolfiness rubbed off on me, but I could scent my mate like a boss. I didn’t care why. I loved it.
I found his wolf back by the river, and when he saw me, he came over and licked my face. I would’ve thought I’d hate that if someone asked before I met Archie. I’d have been wrong. It was one of my favorite forms of affection from my sexy wolf mate. He shifted back.
“Tell me how it went.”
“You expect me to form coherent sentences with you all sexy and naked?”
“I could be persuaded to do something else.” He winked.
And that was when my new boss’s premonition came true.
My belly tightened, and I had to bend over to ease the pain.
“I think I’ll pass tonight.”
“Are you okay?” He was already squatting in front of me.
“Yeah. I’m just—I think I’m in labor.”
“I’ll call the midwife.”
“No. Have your wolf walk around with me, and I’ll tell you all about my new job.”
The midwife had told me that walking during labor was good. She said it made everything easier, and I was wanting easier.
Archie shifted back and walked along my side.
It wasn’t long before the pack members started to figure out what was happening.
I had offers of casseroles, doing housework, coming to sit with me, and running errands.
Anything and everything they thought they could do to help.
It was sweet. But, eventually, it got to be too much, and we went home.
That was when I did have my mate call the midwife, despite knowing that we were probably looking at a few more hours at least. Archie was getting too antsy watching me in labor, and if calling made him feel better, calling it was.
It turned out to be pretty good timing because the midwife arrived just as the intensity and frequency kicked up a notch. I could no longer continue walking while contracting. She was great, talking me through what was happening, and more importantly, helping my mate not be too overstressed.
It shouldn’t have surprised me that this was harder on him than me at this point. He was very overprotective of me on a good day. Seeing me cry out had to be difficult for him. It would be for me if this was in reverse.
It was close to midnight when the midwife determined that it was time to push.
I’d had so many plans of how I wanted to deliver.
Being on my knees, squatting, being outside by the river were just a few.
But now that it was time, I had no energy for any of that and ended up on my back, because it was all I thought I could handle physically.
My mate reclined behind me, and I settled my back against his chest. He wrapped his arms around me, and I held onto them as I pushed and pushed and pushed. And then when I didn’t think I could push anymore, the midwife told me to stop and breathe.
The break was short and she had me pushing again. It was when the burning sensation hit that I knew it was time.
“You’ve got this, honey.” My mate kissed the top of my head, which was now drenched in sweat.
He’d been praising me the entire labor, but this was exactly what I needed to hear. I doubled my efforts and gave the final push.
The screams of our little one filled the air.
“He’s beautiful,” the midwife said. She cleaned him up enough to set him on my chest.
I looked down at our little one.
“What are you gonna name him?” the midwife asked.
“Joseph,” my mate and I said in unison.
“Is that a family member?”
“No.” I chuckled at the ridiculous way I knew this was going to sound. “He was my coworker who needed his appendix out and made me cover his story while he had surgery.”
She didn’t know what to make of that and instead asked Archie if he wanted to cut the cord. Which he did.
After she left, the three of us lay on the bed together, our little one having an early-morning snack.
“He’s so perfect.” It wasn’t the first, nor did I think it would be the last time he’d said that. “Thank you for making me a father.”
“Thank you, for protecting me when I didn’t know I needed it and keeping me safe until it was time to start our life together. I love you, alpha mine.”
“Not as much as I love you.”