15. Jerry

15

JERRY

O ne month later…

I wake to the sound of two men snoring loudly next to me. Jack and Chris are entangled in each other's arms while I snuggle with the newest member of our family: a tiny egg.

Revv and Gray wanted a night off, so I got to cuddle with the egg all night.

I grab the sling for the egg and climb out of bed. "You and I are going to find some breakfast."

Puffin shifters talk to their children while they're still in their eggs. It helps our pufflings know who we are when they hatch, even in our human form. As I carry our little one down the hall and to the upstairs kitchen, I tell them about Papa Jack's passion for croissants and how I used to buy them before each of our dates, just in case he spent the night.

"Romance is all about little gestures like that," I say. "I swept Papa Jack right off his feet. He didn't know what hit him. He thinks he's in charge, but you and I know the truth."

I chatter on as I cut up fruit and set out the morning's croissants on a lovely serving plate Jack's dads gave us when we bonded. They've been calling me every four hours now that the egg is close to hatching. They want to know the second our little one starts pecking at their shell. It doesn't matter to them that they're technically only the secondary grandparents. They are eager to be any kind of grandparent.

"A lot of people are eager to meet you, little one. Lots of different kinds of people too. Puffin shifters, penguin shifters, polar bear shifters, humans. Lots of mixed shifters too, like you. Did you know my alpha grandfather was a mixed shifter? Half bison shifter."

Warm arms slide across my stomach. I turn my head to see Jack smiling at me.

"Already telling the poor kid your family secrets?" he teases.

"Best they know now why they have so many second cousins. Grandpa Sam was quite promiscuous while in rut."

Jack chuckles and presses a kiss to my neck. "Because that sounds like a kid-friendly conversation."

"What's a kid-friendly conversation?" Revv asks, ambling into the kitchen wearing nothing but a pair of sweatpants and a compartment locket. His new tattoos—a gray bear below his belly button and a puffin on the top of his foot—are still raised and pink.

"Nothing," Jack says. "Is Gray up yet?"

A voice calls from the other room, "I'm up."

Jack kisses my neck again before leaving the kitchen. I love how there is always someone around our living space. I grew up in a large family, so it makes the living quarters above the education center feel more like a home than it ever has to me before. I knew living here was a part of being bonded to Jack, and I accepted that, but I'm looking forward to living in the adorable house we'll be leasing in Anchorage.

Revv wanders into the kitchen and starts on the coffee. I'm halfway through the kitchen with the plate of croissants in tow when I feel it.

The egg is moving.

I drop the serving plate in surprise, and it shatters on the kitchen floor. Jack rushes back into the kitchen with Chris trailing behind him.

"Is everything okay?" Chris asks.

"Yes! Stay over there. You aren't wearing any shoes." I scoop the egg out of the harness, and sure enough, it wobbles back and forth in my hand. Now that I'm listening for it, I hear a tap, tap, tap from inside the egg.

Gray dashes into the kitchen too. "What's going on?"

"The egg!" Jack says. "It's hatching! We need to call everyone. Now! Hurry!"

Chris and I glance at one another in amusement. Jack has already pulled out his phone and is fumbling around to unlock it. All the composure he normally exudes is completely gone. He's going to be adorable as a father. My heart swells as I realize that I finally get to have children with him after all the years of waiting.

Gray is texting someone with a grin on his face. "The whole BBPS squad is coming. And my dads! They can come too!"

Leave it to Chris to be the one who gets a broom and starts cleaning up the broken plate. "We have twelve to twenty-four hours, right? Where is Revv? He needs to call his moms." Chris's fingers tremble as he sweeps the ceramic shards into the dustbin.

He's nervous too. Hell, we all are.

During the next thirty minutes, everyone else rushes around, calling the people they love and trying to figure out how we're going to feed the army of people coming.

I just sit on the couch and listen to our little one pecking at their egg.

"That's it. You can do it. You're so strong." I keep my voice soft and soothing, the way my omega father did with my younger siblings. I'm the oldest of eight kids, and most of my siblings have children of their own by now. I've seen a lot of hatchings in my day.

Eventually, Revv pops his head in. "How are they doing?" He's wearing a shirt now and has combed his hair.

"They're just pecking away. Everything is normal."

He watches the egg closely as he walks across the room and sits next to me. "I can hear their little beak." He smiles wide and lowers his head closer to the egg. "You're ready to come out now, huh? Ready to be a part of our family? You have five dads all to yourself." Revv rambles on and on to his chick about each of their dads and how wonderful they are. He's so goddamn earnest.

Gray peers in next. "Has anything happened yet?"

I shake my head. Hatchings are a slow business for puffin shifters, and since Revv's gestation period was closer to a puffin shifter's than a penguin shifter's, the doctors predict the hatching will be the same.

"My moms always saved naming the chick until the hatching," Revv says.

Gray sits next to him and wraps his arms around him. "That's right. We finally get to name them."

"Well, we should wait for Daddy and Jack."

Revv goes on to explain the penguin shifter tradition of giving a child a gender-neutral name until they come of age. I'm familiar with the practice. When the child turns thirteen, they'll have a gender reveal party to tell everyone both their primary and secondary gender. At that time they'll take on their adult name.

Chris wanders in eventually and Jack comes in last. I don't need to ask if he called my parents or if all of the arrangements are made. I am absolutely certain he's taken care of it. Jack is the kind of man who takes care of things completely, without anyone needing to check in on him or ask him about the particulars.

Back when we were young, he was the only alpha in the world to me. Even as we've gotten older, and I enjoy sharing our bed with other men, he's still the person I trust more than anyone. Some of the scenes we've done together have been extreme and had the potential to be very dangerous for me, but I didn't worry. When I let Jack take control, I am always safe.

He joins me on the couch, sliding his arm across my shoulders. "We're in the second hatching room at city hall. Our reservation starts in six hours."

"That should give us time to come up with a name, right?" Chris says.

We all look at Revv. While each of us will technically be a father to this child, Revv has been making a lot of decisions about the chick. When I'm pregnant, I imagine I'll do the same. I think it makes sense with our current dynamic.

"Well, I was named after my grandpa. At least with my adult name. I really liked knowing my namesake."

"I think a family name would be perfect. What were you thinking?" Chris asks.

He shrugs his shoulders. "My moms are pretty great. But their names are Lexi and Alice. Not very gender neutral."

"What about a combination of their names?" I suggest.

Revv's lips quirk up. "Alex."

"I like Alex," Gray says.

We think up a few other variations like Lexus and Celi, but eventually settle on Alex. By now, Revv, Gray, and Chris are huddled together, and I'm resting peacefully in Jack's arms. I love this part of a hatching—when we can just enjoy each other's company while we wait.

I hold out the egg to Revv, who takes it from me gently. We all simply watch in peaceful silence as the egg jerks with every peck. Our chick is a strong one.

Suddenly, the egg splits down the center with a loud crack.

That isn't supposed to happen yet.

Revv laughs with joy as the chick wriggles around slowly until the shell falls off their head. They're wet and tired and very, very blue.

"Oh, look at you!" Revv squeals. "Making a surprise entrance. Welcome to the world, little Alex."

Alex kicks the bottom of the shell, and that falls too. Jack picks up each half of the shell and sets them gently on the coffee table. Meanwhile, Chris only has eyes for Alex. It makes me a little emotional to watch this intimate moment. At a regular hatching, this would be the point where the immediate family would enter the privacy pod to meet their child in their animal forms while the rest of the family got the birthday cake ready.

Chris shrinks down into his penguin form and hops out of his clothing, scurrying over to Alex. Little Alex cheeps at Chris. It's a tired, content cheep, and so cute, I wish it was appropriate to film this moment. Gray retreats behind the edge of the couch and yanks off his shirt and pants before expanding into an enormous gray bear. Revv sets Alex down on the couch and gives them a little kiss before he shifts.

Jack is next. I know it's customary for the secondary parents to share this moment, but it's still a bit of a shock to see Jack shift in front of someone outside our immediate families. His regal striped bill and the way he carries himself as a bird has always taken my breath away.

Now it's my turn, and I have to admit, I feel a little shy. Jack is the only one here that I consider to be my mate.

Gray takes Alex into his enormous paw and licks a stripe down their back. Alex cheeps in alarm until Gray lets out a chuff, then Alex relaxes.

Gray mentioned that he enjoyed warming Alex's egg in his bear form. Alex probably remembers what Gray sounds like in that form.

"Welcome, little one," I say, hoping Alex will remember me too. They turn toward me, bleary-eyed and bedraggled. I chuckle. "Hatching is such hard work, huh? You must be tuckered out."

Jack nibbles at my jeans. I know what he wants me to do. I should shift. It's important that little Alex knows my animal form too. And I will shift. Eventually.

But there's something really important to me about meeting Alex as a human too. I don't just want to be the dad who's only there to teach them about being a puffin shifter. I want them to come to me when they've skinned their knee and need someone to kiss it better. I want them to know how much I love their penguin shifter side too, which is the first one they've decided to show us. So I hold out my hand to Gray. He understands and lumbers over, outstretching his hand.

I give Alex a kiss on their wet head. They squawk. Not cheep, but full-on squawk in what appears to be annoyance.

Jack nibbles at my jeans again.

I think they all want me to shift.

Gray lumbers back to Revv and Chris, who demand to be picked up by Gray with squawks of their own. I'm suddenly glad we aren't doing this in some privacy pod where I'd feel pressured to shift so we could return to the party. Instead, I shift because I genuinely want to.

Jack rubs his striped beak against mine in the traditional puffin courtship dance. We do it every time we take our puffin forms together. I rub back, and we walk around in a circle. It's a comforting ritual that centers me before Jack scurries across the couch on his webbed feet to stand in front of Gray.

Gray is sprawled on his back, holding his mates and little Alex in his bear arms. Jack squawks as if to say, We would like to cuddle with Alex now!

It's kind of cute. When he's bossy as a bird, he's not as commanding as he thinks he is.

Gray gives Alex another lick, then deposits them on the couch cushion in front of Jack. Alex still seems very tired, but they peer up at Jack, then over to me.

Their shift is almost invisible at first. Their feathers remain blue, and their beak remains black, but their legs lengthen, their eyes shrink, and a divot forms on their beak.

They've shifted into their puffling form. They know we're the same species.

Jack gives them affectionate nibbles on their back to praise them for a job well done. I crouch down and let them take wobbly steps toward me. It takes a few minutes, but they huddle in and relax their little head against my neck. I let out a calming puffin call. It's our way of singing to our young. Alex reacts to it instinctively, tucking his beak into my feathers.

Without warning, Gray scoops us both up in his arms. If he had done that in the beginning I would have balked, but now it's easier for me to understand that little Alex needs each of us, especially in this moment. Alex continues to tuck his beak into my feathers, even as Gray lies on his back.

Jack comes scurrying over, his webbed feet flapping against the leather couch cushions. Chris and Revv climb across Gray's body to greet us too, probably curious about their son's other form. Revv is so obviously delighted that he holds up his flippers and puffs out his chest. If I could laugh in my puffin form, I would. Chris circles around Alex, wanting to see his child from all angles.

Alex closes his eyes and goes to sleep. They've had a long day, and the day is only going to get longer when we have to join everyone for the party. I'm relieved when Revv decides to huddle in next to Alex and close his eyes too. Chris cuddles with Revv and Jack perches on Gray's arm next to me.

Family is all about little gestures like this. Moments where you show each other your love. I allow myself to rest in Gray's arms as I realize that he's become my immediate family during the last month, and sharing this with him is actually very nice.

I hope this will be the first of more hatchings to come.