Chapter 34
Chapter
Thirty-Four
The hospital waiting room smelled of disinfectant and anxiety. Steel Protection was gathered in uncomfortable plastic chairs, waiting for word about the baby.
Hunter and Brie had brought treats for everyone. The cinnamon rolls Valeria had abandoned at the festival, sugar cookies for the crew, and a box of snickerdoodles for Sophie.
Valeria’s brother Gabriel paced near the vending machines, his detective shield clipped to his belt catching the fluorescent lights.
Axel typed on his laptop in the corner, probably hacking something he shouldn’t.
Siren read a medical journal with the focus of someone memorizing every word.
Ryder bounced his knee in a rhythm that made Hunter want to pin him to the floor.
“It’s going to be a while,” Axel told them.
They left the cookies with Blaze and made their way to the third floor where Sophie was located. It was quiet as they walked down the hall to Sophie’s room. Hunter knocked softly.
“Come in.” Sophie’s voice was hoarse but strong.
They walked inside. She looked small in the hospital bed, bandages wrapping her wrists where the zip ties had cut deep. The bruises on her face had shifted from purple to green-yellow. When she saw them, her eyes filled with tears.
“Brie! How is the festival going?”
“It’s perfect.” Brie opened the box, revealing golden cookies dusted with cinnamon and sugar. “Snickerdoodles with extra cinnamon.”
“This is exactly what I need right now,” Sophie said with a smile.
Hunter stood back, watching his mate tend to her friend. Sophie took a small bite of a cookie, closing her eyes as she savored the flavor.
“Thank you,” Sophie whispered, then looked directly at Hunter. “Both of you. I thought... when they grabbed me, I thought that was it.”
“You’re safe now,” Hunter said. “Brennan’s in federal custody. The others who were holding you are facing serious charges.”
“You saved my life. All our lives.”
The words sat heavy in his chest. He’d saved lives before, more than he could count, but this felt different. This was his community, his mate’s friend, someone whose absence had left a visible hole in Brie’s world.
“We should let you rest,” Brie said, but Sophie held on.
“Tell me about the festival. Please. I need something normal to think about.”
Brie described the gingerbread mountain, the way the lights reflected off the icing snow, how Mrs. Whitaker had come back three times for sugar cookies. Sophie smiled through it all, nibbling snickerdoodles.
Hunter’s phone buzzed. Text from Blaze: “It’s a boy!”
“The baby was born,” Hunter said in a choked voice. “It’s a boy.”
“The baby,” Brie gasped, jumping up.
“Go!” Sophie waved them toward the door. “Give Valeria my love. I hope I get to meet him soon.”
They rushed back to the maternity ward to find the waiting room in controlled chaos. Axel was smiling like an idiot, Siren had abandoned her journal, and Gabriel was on the phone, probably calling their parents.
The delivery room door opened, and Dom emerged, looking like he’d been through combat.
His hair stuck up in twelve directions, his shirt was soaked with sweat, and his hands shook slightly.
But his face... Hunter had never seen his alpha look so completely undone and perfectly whole at the same time.
“Adrian Steel,” Dom announced, his voice cracking. “Seven pounds, nine ounces. Perfect in every way.”
The pack erupted. Backslaps and embraces. Ryder whooped loud enough to draw a nurse’s scolding. Brie pressed herself against Hunter’s side, and he could feel her joy radiating through their bond.
Later, after Valeria had been moved to a recovery room, Dom invited them inside. “You want to meet him?”
Valeria was propped up in bed, looking exhausted but radiant. The bundle in her arms was impossibly small, wrapped in a blue blanket with a tiny knit cap covering his dark hair.
“Hunter,” Valeria said, her voice warm despite her exhaustion. “Come here.”
He moved forward. Dom carefully lifted his son, and suddenly Hunter was holding Adrian Steel.
This tiny person, barely hours old, was the future they’d all fought to protect. Those impossibly small fingers, the delicate shells of his ears, the way his chest rose and fell with each breath. This was why they did what they did.
Adrian’s eyes opened, unfocused but alert, and one tiny hand escaped the blanket. When Hunter offered his finger, the baby gripped it with surprising strength. The wolf in him recognized his pack, recognized the future, recognized something worth dying for.
He looked at his mate, seeing the way she gazed at Adrian with such natural maternal grace.
The longing sucker punched him. He could see it so clearly.
Brie round with their child, their own cubs and pups running through the bakery, covering everything in flour and frosting.
Teaching them to track, to bake, to be both warrior and nurturer.
“He’s perfect,” Hunter managed.
“He’ll grow up safe,” Dom said, and it wasn’t a hope but a promise. “Whatever comes, whatever threatens this community, we protect our new home.”
Hunter nodded, still mesmerized by the tiny fingers wrapped around his pinkie. Looking at Adrian, at the next generation of Steel Protection, he understood what Dom had been building all along. Not just a security firm. Not just a pack. A future.
“Your turn,” Hunter said to Brie, carefully transferring Adrian to her arms.
She took him like she’d been born to it, adjusting his blanket, humming something soft and wordless. The sight of her holding a baby, the ease of it, the rightness of it, made his chest tight with want.
“Oh, the cinnamon rolls!” Brie remembered suddenly. “Valeria, we saved them from the booth.”
“You’re an angel,” Valeria said, making grabby hands at the box Hunter pulled from Brie’s backpack. “I’ve been craving them all through labor.”
The room filled with laughter, with family, with the kind of warmth Hunter had never thought he’d be part of. Adrian was passed carefully from person to person, each member of Steel Protection taking their turn to meet the newest member of their pack.
Snow drifted outside in the darkness. Standing there, surrounded by his pack, holding the future in their arms, he knew with bone-deep certainty what he wanted. A life with Brie. Children of their own. The kind of love that lasted decades, like her parents had.
Hunter looked at Brie, who was holding Adrian again.
She hummed a wordless lullaby. Hunter made a silent vow then, watching his alpha’s son in his mate’s arms. Adrian Steel would grow up in a world where Steel Protection stood between him and the darkness.
Where the bakery was always warm and safe. Where community meant something.
Where the monsters couldn’t reach.
The vow settled into his bones, becoming part of him like his wolf, like his training, like his love for Brie. This was his purpose now. Not just the hunt, not just the mission, but this. Protecting the future, one tiny perfect life at a time.