9. Maxim

9

MAXIM

O ne month later…

There are some traditions that we skip, when it comes to celebrating our child. The egg reveal, the tinsel outside our door, and the Blood Ceremony. As two alphas, it's hard to know how much of that we should do. Especially because my alpha dad is still acting distant. He hasn't shown any interest in meeting Eli.

My omega dad has never been a big part of my life in the first place, so he hasn't shown any interest either.

But there is one thing that Ansel insisted that we do: have an egg-hatching party. Apparently this is not a penguin shifter thing. According to Ansel, it's a BBPS Squad thing. According to Otis it's an Ansel thing.

Either way, there are a lot of people at our apartment.

The hired fists are in the kitchen, including the handful of new recruits The Gentle Stork has enticed into our fold. Francis and his hired heart friends are sitting at the table, picking at the hors d'oeuvres. The BBPS Squad has commandeered the entire living room. Ansel and Daniel have six children now, and combined with everyone else's kids, there is a very loud level of mayhem going on in there. Daniel is scolding everyone, and someone must have decided it was a good idea to bring Scooch because the coffee table is screeching against the hardwood floor.

This isn't exactly the ideal scenario for Eli's parents to be here. But they're in the bedroom, standing right next to the nightstand where we keep all of our sex toys. In a way, his alpha father looks a lot like an older version of him, but there are key differences. His alpha father is a quiet, reserved man with hunched shoulders. He has none of Eli's easy confidence. His omega father is soft spoken as well, with hair that has gone completely gray.

Eli offered to fly them out to Anchorage for the hatching and they accepted, much to his surprise.

"Uncle Heller," as he wants to be known, is having a very awkward conversation with Eli's parents about their work on the Slope. Eli is lying on the bed, watching our little one try to peck their way out of their egg. I sit next to him and rub my hand along his back.

"How are you?" I whisper.

"Heller is talking to my parents. How do you think I'm doing?"

I chuckle. "He grew up in a Gentoo family. He'll do okay."

Sometimes it's hard to remember where Heller came from. He wears a white wig most of the time, and he's so comfortable with his sexuality, I'd never guess he wasn't a polar bear shifter.

"So you're the omega father," Eli's alpha father asks Heller.

"Not exactly. I'm the surrogate. Or the adopted father. Or Uncle Heller. Take your pick. I think you'll find that I'm very versatile," Heller says.

Eli covers his eyes with his hand. "Oh my God. Tell me when it's over," he whispers.

"So you were, um, artificially inseminated? Is that how this works?" Eli's omega father asks. "Forgive us, we're new to this whole alpha/alpha thing."

Heller winces. "Not exactly." He's been pretty honest with our friends about how he got pregnant. But he blushes as Eli's omega father narrows his eyes in confusion.

"Heller was already pregnant when we met him. He thought we'd be good fathers for his egg." I try to explain, because Eli is frozen in fear, and Heller clearly needs a little support.

Eli's fathers both nod politely. I hate the way they're looking at Heller now, like he's a fallen omega or something. Suddenly I understand why Heller wanted to be honest about how he got pregnant.

Being judged by other people is a lot better if they know you don't give a fuck about what they think.

"Heller's a hired heart," Eli says. "Like the companions on the Slope."

That doesn't improve the situation at all. In fact, it makes it worse.

Heller drags a hand through his hair and glances at the door longingly. If our chick wasn't trying to peck their way out of their egg, I'm sure he'd leave.

"I'm a hired fist," Eli tells his fathers.

He wasn't going to say anything to them about his job. He was certain his fathers would never accept our family or our child if they knew.

"But you sell insurance," his omega father argues.

"I told you that because I knew you'd judge me the way you're judging Heller right now."

His alpha father stiffens. "What else are we supposed to do? Be happy about it? Or about your relationship with an alpha? I suppose you ended up with this polar bear shifter because no penguin shifter would have you."

Eli swallows hard. He'll never understand how incredible he is. Which is why a comment like that cuts deep. He thinks it's close to the truth.

"We're fated mates," I say.

His alpha father lets out a breathy laugh. "Sure you are."

"Ronnie, our grandchild is here. Eli was nice enough to pay for our plane tickets—" His omega father starts.

"With money he earned as a prostitute!"

Eli cringes at the word.

"I imagine that's where he got the money to pay off our debt as well. This is our son, and this is his mate. We can't change that with angry words."

Ronnie's neck muscles are bulging with anger, but he doesn't say anything more.

"Your son is the kindest person I have ever met," Heller says. "I was careful about who I gave my egg to. I'm sorry that you can't see how wonderful he is because of his job."

Eli gives Heller a sad smile. "It's okay. I should have told them earlier. This isn't the time."

Our chick chooses that exact moment to crack their shell in half. Everyone watches in silence as our little one kicks off the bottom half of their shell. Their fur is wet, and they're so tiny. They peek out from the top of their shell, and I fall in love with them instantly. They're more beautiful than all the jewels in Heller's nest—more precious than the songs in mine. And I don't want the first words they hear outside their shell to be angry ones.

"Please leave and only come back when you're willing to be nice," I tell them firmly.

Eli's omega father nods and leads Ronnie out of the room.

Heller reaches out and squeezes Eli's shoulder. "You didn't have to do that for me."

"I didn't do that for you. I did that for me," Eli says.

Heller smiles, then leaves with the others. It's time for us to shift into our animal forms for our chick. Today isn't about Eli's dads, it's about this amazing little one who just hatched.

Before today, Eli and I asked Heller to give our chick their childhood name. Like all of the rest of the BBPS Squad, we're raising our chick with gender neutral pronouns until their gender reveal ceremony when they turn thirteen.

He chose the name Lark. Eli wasn't one hundred percent sure he liked it. He said he'd have to see when the chick hatched.

Before Eli begins to shrink into his penguin form, he kisses the top of our chick's head and says, "I think Lark is perfect for you."

The last guest shuts the door behind them just as Eli pulls off his clothes. He shifts faster than I've ever seen, until he's waddling in his penguin form toward our chick. Lark cheeps at him as he lowers his beak to peck off a bit of eggshell.

I'm a little slower to get my clothes off and grow into my polar bear form. A part of me is scared that little Lark won't recognize me as their father. After all, there isn't any kind of genetic tie between us, and I'm not even the right species for their current form.

But everything is simpler once my fur comes in and my body is big enough to wrap my family in warmth. I take them both in my arms and hold them.

It isn't up to Lark to figure out who I am. It's up to me to show them.

I lick the black feathers on their head and wings, making them smell like me. I do the same for Eli. Little Lark huddles against my bear chest, tucking their beak into my fur. And God, I melt. This little one has me wrapped around their little wing.

Lark closes their eyes and their breathing slows. I simply watch them. Somehow, nothing in the world is more fascinating than our little one sleeping. They make high-pitched grunting noises and wriggle a little bit. I notice that Eli is watching them too. We are completely enamored with the newest member of our family.

Outside the door there is chatter and laughter as our friends and family celebrate Lark's emergence into the world. A year ago, I wouldn't have thought any of this was possible. Being a father and having a mate were both things I thought I'd never get to experience.

Then my gentle stork showed up, and everything changed.

It doesn't matter that my alpha father didn't show up or that Eli's parents are freaking out. This is our family—the one we have with Lark. They can't touch this.

In the distance Heller calls out, "Oh my God! No one told me there was a turtle!"

He's in this family too, in all the ways he wants to be.

It's funny. When my relationship with Eli was sanctioned by the Guild, I thought we'd have to explain ourselves more—that people would make assumptions about the nature of our relationship or be shocked when we told them that we were adopting a baby. Sometimes people do give us a second glance, but I'm not sure if that's because we're both alphas or because we're a penguin shifter and a polar bear shifter.

Either way, it doesn't bother me as much as I thought it would.

In the past I cared so much about what people thought because a part of me worried they might be right. But when I'm with Eli, all of that worry fades away. I'm not anyone's fury mate. I'm not weak, the way my alpha father seems to think either. And I'm certainly not a welding genius, the way the other welders in the BBPS Squad seem to believe. I'm just a man who loves my mate and my child.

Here in this bed, that's enough.