Page 29 of Steadfast Alpha

Locke rumbled. “I like it. Strong name for a strong boy.” He brought our babe to his face and kissed his forehead. “Theodore Locke, you are so loved.”

“Does that mean I’m Sheppard Locke?” I asked, knowing where this conversation was headed. I’d been mated to this alpha and had his child but still didn’t know his first name.

“Yes.” Locke smirked.

“Good.” I decided not to ask. His name might’ve been something atrocious that he didn’t want to tell me or perhaps he simply preferred Locke.

“I’ll let you put the names on the birth certificate, then. Keep your secrets.”

“Thank you, omega.” He put Theo in the bassinet and came over to sit next to me. I wanted a shower desperately but didn’t quite have the energy yet. “I ordered you some dinner.”

“Thank you.”

He chuckled and moved to nuzzle his face into the crook of my neck while he inhaled deeply. “There is no need to thank me, love. You’ve given me life—twice. Once with your love and the second time with our son. You don’t need to thank me for anything ever again.”

Chapter Twenty-Four

Locke

Once we got home with Theo, life took on a whole new rhythm. Despite my responsibilities, I was on paternity leave as well. While I had somehow had the impression that it would be slow and maybe a little boring to hang around the house all day—especially with a baby who would probably be sleeping nearly all the time—I could not have been more wrong.

First, while Theo probably did sleep most of the hours of the day and night, he did it in short stretches, meaning neither of us got to sleep longer than three hours at a time, either. We started to look bad, big bags under the eyes, and we went from cuddling the baby and each other to still cuddling the baby but mostly mumbling at each other, incoherent phrases that all had something to do with diapers.

Then, two weeks into this, Shep’s dads blew back into town on a breath of sanity. They had come to see us right when Theo was born but had to leave to take care of some things. Now they were back. The first thing they did was make their son pump enough milk to fill a few bottles, then they shut us in our bedroom with orders not to come out “no matter what you hear.”

It sounded ominous to me, but they had raised Sheppard to an adult and managed to keep him alive. And since I was hearing strange ringing in my ears that frightened me a little, and since I didn’t have the strength to argue, I obediently marched into the bedroom and fell face-first on the bed. I did feel the bounce as my omega landed beside me, but that was the last thing I remembered until a baby’s cry woke me. Shep was curled into my arms, and I started to get up, but then I heard soft voices and gradually the cry stopped.

No matter what you hear.

We slept nearly around the clock. At least I did. Shep got up once or twice, he told me later, to express more milk because he needed to, but for that whole day and night, we rested, and when we emerged to eat waffles and eggs with Shep’s dads, I felt like a person again.

“We’re staying for two weeks, at least,” Abe informed us.

“And then maybe two weeks more,” Bryan concluded.

And I couldn’t argue. I had been working eighty hours a week or even more until recently, and my mate was an Olympic-gold-medal-winning athlete. Yet, when it came to taking care of one little baby, we needed help, and I was not ashamed of that.

How could I be when they had such joy in the whole thing? Theo already adored them, and I hoped they’d be able to visit often or we’d visit them. They were family, something I hadn’t had in a while, and they treated me like a son, too. After that first twenty-four hours, they didn’t try to take over again, but hung out, there ready to help with anything we needed. They cooked a lot of the meals and cleaned up and sat with us watching TV or cuddled the baby when we asked for a break.

I was in love with my in-laws.

But once we were out of our sleep-deprived trance, things were better, and we were able to enjoy the baby as well as Bryan and Abe and each other. That’s when things became more like what I’d expected and less like a coma. Every day, Theo changed, and I was so glad to be there to see it. I planned even more home-office days once I was back to work. I would not be as productive, but I didn’t care. I had a lot of money sacked away and a new baby to enjoy.

Life was amazing.

Epilogue

Sheppard

“He’s still in diapers, Shep.”

This argument had been going on for months.

“That’s why they make swim diapers. I want him to be comfortable with the water as soon as possible.”

Locke pursed his lips. “He is. They’re called baths.”

“You don’t trust me to take care of our son in the swimming pool?”

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