8. Chapter Eight

“Do you have someone who can help you when you get home?”

Dr. Finn Sinclair looked at me sternly from the chair he was occupying next to my hospital bed. It had been a few hours since I’d given birth, and I was now snuggly situated in my hospital room. Cleaned up, stitched, and some lovely pain relief administered.

Having Julianna had caused a bit of tearing that I really didn’t want to think too hard about. The throbbing of my backside was kept at bay by the lovely drugs that were in the IV line in the back of my hand. Along with some antibiotics. Seemed giving birth in the back of a car, in the middle of a construction zone, came with the possibility of picking up germs you didn’t want.

“It’s just me.” Leaning back against the pillow, I tried to decipher if the doctor was judging me for being a single omega, though I hadn’t sensed any judgement from him at our first appointment. “I was supposed to start work at the daycare on Monday. I left movers at my house this morning. I didn’t plan on having her yet.”

We hadn’t really discussed much personal stuff the other day at my appointment with him. He’d come highly recommended and usually had a wait list, or at least he did according to the nice receptionist who had answered his clinic phone when I had called. Since my pregnancy had been so advanced, she’d kindly given me a list of available doctors who were taking new patients.

I had called a couple of them when I’d been in town looking for houses and finalizing the sale of the business, and even met with two of them, but I didn’t feel comfortable with either of them. There wasn’t any particular thing wrong with either of them, just a general feeling that they weren’t right for me.

Realizing I was quickly running out of time to find a doctor, I had mentioned to Rose–just call me Miss Rose, sweetheart–the omega whose daycare business I had purchased, that I was having trouble finding a new OB/GYN in town. She’d immediately made a call, talking rapidly to someone. She must have been some kind of fairy Godmother, if you believed in those things–which I did not–because shortly after I had gotten a call that Dr. Sinclair magically had an available time slot for a new patient and would I like it. I hadn’t asked too many questions about what had occurred to cause this, and had gladly taken the appointment.

Since I was of above average intelligence, I could only conclude that Miss Rose had somehow had a hand in the doctor’s sudden availability.

Miss Rose was a lovely older omega, who I had liked instantly. She was ready to retire from running her daycare business and teach crochet and knitting at the local craft store. She was a tough old bird with a spine of steel, and I would think twice about crossing her. She clearly had some pull in the town of Sweet Alps. But she also exuded warmth, and gave out hugs like they were candy, something it had taken me a bit of time to get used to. She was like a grandmother who you knew baked the best cookies on the block, but also the one you didn’t want to cross.

I immediately liked Dr. Sinclair when we had met, even if he did have a very frowny face. Oh, it was a good-looking face to be sure, but he was very serious looking. He had pretty blue eyes though, dark hair, and a gentle bedside manner. When my appointment had ended, he had finally smiled. And holy hell, his smile had completely transformed his face into one of warmth and…yeah, the man was sexy as sin, there was no getting around that. I just tried not to think about him that way since he was the doctor who was going to be delivering my baby.

The doctor frowned, his face growing more severe at my answers, little lines appearing in the middle of his forehead. “I’ve gotten your blood work back and received your records from your previous doctor. You’re extremely anemic.”

He wasn’t exactly telling me anything I didn’t already know. My last doctor had mentioned it at the start of my pregnancy, but hadn’t seemed all that concerned. Just something likely caused by the pregnancy that would go back to normal when I delivered the baby.

“But is Julianna healthy?” I demanded, not concerned about my health. I’d been in this hospital for hours, and had yet to see my newborn, and I was getting agitated. The need to scent her was almost overpowering, and my giraffe was unhappy with the whole situation. I hadn’t been able to properly hold her, scent her, in the ambulance. The paramedics had been taking care of us both, and once at the hospital, she had been hurried away from me, both of us needing looking after.

If for one minute I thought I could actually climb out of the bed I’d do it, and start combing the halls until I found her. But even I knew that was a bad idea. The shaking in my legs hadn’t stopped completely. Being stitched up, and just the entire giving birth thing, had zapped me of all my energy. Standing up would probably result in me falling right back down, and that just seemed like a generally bad idea. Especially with those stitches Dr. Sinclair had put in.

Dr. Sinclair raised a sharp brow at me. “Julianna is healthy. Dr. Asher Pierce, the pediatrician on call, had looked her over. She doesn’t appear to be in any distress and is a healthy birth weight and passed all her newborn tests with flying colors. She’s on the large side for a month early, which might be why you went into labor now. I’m not sure you would have been able to deliver her naturally in another month.” Biting my lip, I decided to keep the furniture moving I had done that morning to myself. “But she’s not my patient, at least not any longer. You are, though. I’m keeping you overnight, and we’ll discuss options in the morning for some help for you when you’re released. I’ll make some calls and get Bennett working on it.”

Calls? What calls? Who was he going to call? And who was Bennett? I literally knew no one in this town except Miss Rose. And Dr. Sinclair, of course.

For the last week I had been staying in a hotel in Sweet Alps, getting the house cleaned while waiting for the moving truck to arrive with my entire life in it. I had this day meticulously planned. How long it would take the movers to unload everything, exactly where I would have them place my furniture. A weekend to unpack my boxes. Monday I would meet my new employees and go over last minute details with Miss Rose. A month to get the nursery put together and my boxes unpacked, before I went on paternity leave. I would take two weeks off and then pack up the baby and go back to work, for a few hours each day. I could work on all the admin things, payroll, paperwork, nothing strenuous.

That had been my plan, but nothing had gone as planned. I didn’t do well when things went sideways. The thought of having someone come to my house to stay with me–someone I didn’t know–made my heart pound and anxiety tighten my chest.

“We’ll be fine on our own,” I assured him, because we would. I’d gone to college when I was twelve for Goddess sakes, with nothing more than a goodbye from my parents, and a hired chaperone that had virtually disappeared my first week of classes. I could handle taking my child home and taking care of her. I was used to relying on myself. Besides I had read practically every book written about pregnancy, infants, and what to expect.

He ran a hand through his thick, dark hair, the overhead light glinting off the silver wedding ring on his left hand. Miss Rose had mentioned that he brought his kids to Little Cubs, so his omega must work outside the home also.

The door opened, and a nurse pushed a clear bassinet in and my giraffe pranced in anticipation. A chubby, pink cheeked baby wrapped in a pink blanket was sleeping peacefully in it.

“I thought you might like a visitor,” she greeted me warmly, scooping Julianna up and placing her gently in my arms, making sure my IV line didn’t get tangled.

Oh, my Goddess, I’d known Julianna would be pretty, but she was absolutely stunning. And she looked just like her alpha father. Dark hair, high cheekbones, button nose, and perfectly bowed pink lips. Already her skin was tinted a shade darker than my perpetual pale, mostly because I spent my days locked in a lab or classroom and seldom saw the sun.

She stretched her little body, hands fisted, and blinked open the darkest brown–nearly black–eyes I’d only seen on one other person. Weren’t babies supposed to have blue eyes when they were born? Leave it to my daughter to do her own thing. She had so far. But really, couldn’t she look the tiniest bit like me? Grayson Beckett’s genes were as dominant as he was.

“Chelsea, please make a note to keep the baby in the nursery tonight,” Dr. Sinclair was saying, and I opened my mouth to protest. It was hospital norm to let the baby stay in the room with the new parent all night. I needed to scent her and bond. “Mr. Cooper needs his rest.”

“I’ll make a note, Finn,” she smiled, typing the instructions in the laptop that contained my chart and records.

“But…”

“Not happening, Wyatt,” Dr Sinclair’s–call me Finn–gentle but stern tone told me not to argue. “You are dangerously anemic. You should have been on supplements and a special diet, and monitored throughout your pregnancy. Frankly, I’m annoyed with your previous doctor for not doing so. While Julianna is healthy, you are not. And you’ve just given birth. A little early and in less-than-ideal circumstances. Your body went through a tremendous ordeal. You’ve lost blood you couldn’t afford to lose. It’s going to be a little while before you’re back to one hundred percent, and a newborn can be taxing. Believe me, I know firsthand. I’d prefer for you to have some kind of help, at least for the first week you’re home, possibly two.”

Any protest I was about to voice was cut off by the large alpha who strode into the room like he had every right to be there. Grayson Beckett filled the doorway with his broad shoulders, big thighs and oh Goddess, that masculine scent of musk that was so intoxicating. That scent of his was half the reason I was in this hospital bed now. Not that I regretted any minute of it.

“Becks?” Dr. Sinclair stood up from his chair. I’d forgotten how tall the man was. Six foot five at least, and Grayson was every bit as tall as him. Maybe even an inch taller. They both took up a lot of space in what was starting to feel like a very small room. “Is there a problem?”

“Not a lawful one,” Grayson moved closer to the bed, his eyes pinned on Julianna’s face. Taking in every inch of her. He’d seen her of course, he’d been the first to hold her. But then she’d been wet, and covered in blood and goo. Now cleaned up, her dark eyes stared back at him, fascinated, even though logically I knew she couldn’t even see him yet. He was just a big blur to her.

But there was no mistaking the uncanny resemblance to him, or those matching eyes. “But this is my pup and this is my omega, so I want to be kept in the loop on their health.”

Fuck, fuck, fuckity fuck. And what nonsense was he saying? Was pregnancy brain still affecting my otherwise off-the-charts I.Q.? It sounded like he said I was his omega.

“I’m not his omega,” I wheezed out, as my mind whirled with the knowledge that he knew exactly who Julianna was. Not that I thought he was stupid enough not to figure it out. Naively hoping, more like.

“Becks?” Dr. Sinclair raised one brow at him, his face a mask of annoyance, that also spoke of a more than casual acquaintance.

Grayson ran a hand through his disheveled hair. “He’s my mate, okay? My fated mate. I have a right to be here.”

“The fuck I am!” The words burst from my suddenly dry lips before I could catch them. The alpha was delusional! Was this some ploy of his to take Julianna from me? “We…you…no.” I shook my head at his declaration. “You’re just saying that because you’ve realized the baby is yours.”

Grayson’s dark eyes burned a hole in me, his lips a tight line. “You are. We are.” It didn’t escape my notice that he ignored my statement about the baby. “I knew it that night in the hotel room. I thought you did too, and we were both just choosing to ignore it. But now I’m guessing you were just…too inexperienced and innocent to know what it was.”

I gaped at him, wide eyed. “You’re delusional. Fated mates aren’t even a real thing.”

“Mmmm,” Finn breathed under his breath, “kind of are.”

“Are you going to tell me that you didn’t feel that spark–that shock–between us when we touched?” Grayson demanded, moving closer to the bed. So close that I imagined I could smell his scent washing over me, wrapping around me, muddling my brain.

Shaking my head to push it away, I stuttered, “That was just…”

He waited, silent, then nudged, “Just?”

I glanced at Dr. Sinclair whose eyes were flicking back and forth between Grayson and me. At the mention of that shock, like lightning zapping my skin, his head gave a quick nod, his blue eyes knowing.

“It was just the thrill of…being with an alpha,” whispering, I stared down at Julianna, her dark eyes staring back with complete trust. “For the first time.” My cheeks felt on fire. “That’s all it was, the excitement.”

This was so embarrassing to be talking about in front of a virtual stranger, doctor or not. It wasn’t like I had a long-standing patient history with Dr. Sinclair. In a matter of seconds, he found out I had basically had a one-night stand with a stranger–who he was obvious friends with–and had been a virgin. If the ground could open up and swallow me, that would be great.

Grayson growled low in his throat, and Dr. Sinclair–Finn–shot him a warning glare from his piercing blue eyes and gave him a sharp shake of his head. They seemed to have some kind of silent conversation that I didn’t have the mental spoons to try to decipher.

Finally, Grayson said quietly, “No, it wasn’t, not all of it. We are fated mates. That’s what that shock was. I felt it again when I touched you, when…” his eyes fell to Julianna, “but you were probably too busy to notice.”

Had I been? My body had been wracked with so many different feelings while giving birth, and I could barely remember half of it. But there were things about our night together that I couldn’t forget. Feelings that refused to go completely away. Scenes that played out, over and over, in my dreams night after night. I had assumed I was just wrapped up in my first time, of experiencing so many things on my list. My list full of sexual things and kinks I wanted to try.

“You knew?” my voice was stronger now, demanding. “You knew that night that we were fated?”

He hesitated a second longer than he should have, and I saw the truth.

“Yes.” One word. One tiny word that held so much implication.

My chest hurt, my lungs felt like they were working overtime. Staring down at the beautiful baby in my arms, that this man had been partially responsible for creating, I ran a finger along her tiny hand. Her skin that was incredibly soft. Watched as her finger curled around mine, holding tightly, with complete trust.

“You knew and you didn’t say anything to me.” It wasn’t a question, just a statement of fact.

“Yes.” His voice was quiet, deep, raw.

“You left me in that hotel room, and you didn’t say one word to me about what was happening? What we are to each other?” The words spilling from my mouth seemed foreign to my ears, and my brain.

His broad shoulders were tight with tension, and he briefly glanced away from me. Looking at my I.V. stand, the wall, the empty bassinet. Anywhere but at me. He finally met my gaze, his cold and unblinking.

“Yes.”

In that instant I was sure my brain short circuited with an emotional overload. Looking away from him, I blinked away the prickling heat welling behind my lids. Hormones. Nothing more. It absolutely wasn’t the pain of knowing this alpha had rejected me. Had walked away, without even a goodbye or his fucking name, knowing we were fated mates. Without saying one word. Without even telling me.

Fated mates weren’t something I even believed in. It was fantasy, fiction, folklore. Nothing more. It wasn’t supported by any scientific facts. I didn’t even believe in fated mates. And I certainly didn’t want, or need, a mate. I had an entire life planned that didn’t include this alpha in it.

But seeing him now, being this close to him, hearing him say the words…I somehow knew he was telling the truth. Fated mates were real. They existed. And this alpha was mine.

Something inside me shifted, my giraffe calmed, and I knew this man was supposed to be my future. My destiny. The missing half of my soul.

And he’d known and he’d walked away. Left me alone in that hotel room that he had paid for. He hadn’t even stayed the entire night with me.

It hurt. Incredibly so.

It shouldn’t have, but it did.

Coldness washed over me, followed by the burn of anger.

He must have seen it on my face, because he started to speak. To say something I had no desire to listen to. Nothing he could say would make any of this okay. “Wyatt–”

“Get out.”

Turning back to glare at him, I instinctively held Julianna’s tiny body closer to me, my grip on my daughter tight. “Get. Out. You didn’t want me then, and you’re not going to have either of us now. You made the choice for both of us, and I’m good with it. We don’t need you. You’re off the hook, don’t worry. I won’t bother you with anything she might need. I’m perfectly capable of taking care of my child, on my own.” I sniffed haughtily, channeling my mother in a move she’d probably be proud of, my chin raised in the air. “I don’t want or need a mate, and if I did, it wouldn’t be you.”

Our eyes held, neither of us backing down, for the absolutely longest minute of my life. I could see the flash of anger in his dark orbs, the slight raise of one brow and the crinkle between his eyes, at my words. Then Grayson gave the slightest nod of his head, his shoulders drooping just a bit in his new clean, crisp tan uniform shirt that he had changed into before invading my hospital room.

“This isn’t over, Wyatt,” he warned. He looked fierce and imposing, his face unsmiling, intense, and a bit scary. His dimples were nowhere in sight today. “I’ll be back for what’s mine.”

I had no idea if he was talking about me, Julianna, or the both of us.