Chapter Twenty-One

Jeremy

"Everything okay?" Clay asked quietly as Jack cleaned up the baby. Jack had been amazing. He was gifted at this kind of healing, and I was honored to be the father of one of the first babies he'd help deliver.

We were now in our room, and Jack was taking care of everything. His skills as healer and now doula had worked out well since our team filled the compound with children. But to see it in action like this and have it be our son, was awe-inspiring.

"Tell me how you are," I asked, swiping some wet hair from his forehead. He'd done so well giving birth to our babe. After being kidnapped and witnessing what he had.

What an omega. Strongest one I knew.

"I'm just so glad you heard me and came to save us. You came to save our family."

Tears slid down my cheeks. We hadn't had much of a chance to process everything, but overwhelming joy filled my veins. My omega was okay. Our child was okay. And we'd done a damned fine job taking down a breeding house before it got started.

What a day.

"I will always come to save you if I can. Always."

Jack handed us our son swaddled in a blanket probably handed down from one of the other babies. We hadn't gotten a chance to shop or do all the baby things with the frantic nature of my job lately.

"What's his name?" I asked my sweet mate who looked exhausted, his eyes drooping.

Jack checked him over once more then stood up straight and smiled at us. "I'll leave you two to it. Call me if you have trouble latching the little one for chest feeding. But, for now, I think we all need some rest."

"Thank you, Jack," I choked out. He still had a black eye. "For everything. For trying to save Clay."

He nodded. "You're welcome. We're all family now."

Jack left the room, closing the door behind him. Clay's eyes closed and I sat close to him, our babe in my arms. He had Clay's strawberry-blond hair. He didn't have freckles like his daddy, but I figured once he was playing in the sun with the other kids, they would come in.

We would have a mini-Clay running around, and that was fine with me. If Clay wanted to, we would have a dozen little ones to raise.

"What do you think about Dixon?" Clay asked. His eyes were still closed, but a smile played on his lips.

"Not my favorite," I said. "But if that's what you want…"

"Then how about Dean?"

I looked down at our son. "He looks like a Dean."

"Good. That's settled. We love you, Dean."

Our babe had settled into a deep sleep. Both he and his daddy had gone through a lot.

After a few hours, a knock on the door woke us all up. Clay had fed our babe flawlessly. Dean drowsed with a drop of milk dotting the side of his mouth. Hammer opened the door and poked his head in. "Are uncles allowed?"

Clay chuckled and managed to sit up. "Uncles are very much allowed. Come on in, Hammer."

My big brother came over and nodded at me. His approval without words. "What's his name?" he asked, sitting down on a rocking chair that someone had brought in while we were sleeping. I didn't even know who. "Can I hold my nephew?"

At some point, I'd moved Dean to lay on Clay's chest after the feeding and I reached for him to hand him to my brother. "Of course," Clay answered. "We thought you would be here sooner."

Hammer took my babe in his arms with great care. He cradled his head and lifted Dean's little hand. "He's beautiful."

There wasn't a dry eye in the room. Our fathers weren't here, but Hammer had always been like another father to me.

"You both did well today," he said. His eyes were on our babe but he spoke to us. "I'm sorry we didn't protect you better, Clay."

Clay shook his head. "You went in and did your job. No one can be in two places at once. I feel guilty because I insisted on going."

"You didn't do anything wrong. None of us did. There is evil in this world, and sometimes they get the jump on us. We all did the best we could, and everything turned out okay." I wrapped my arm around Clay's shoulders.

Clay smiled up at me. "Still, I think I'm going to stick to mathing and being a daddy for a while. Not in that order."

We were visited by every team member and some of the other omegas in the compound, but once day turned to night, both of us were beyond tired. I made sure Clay ate while he fed our babe from his body, something that still blew my mind. He'd grown our child in his body and was able to sustain him out of the womb.

Omegas were amazing and a gift to this world.

And I had one of the best ones as my mate.