Page 90 of His Treasured Mate

What was I supposed to do?

We hadn’t planned on having a fifth child, let alone a sixth. After talking to Landon, Alpha of the British Columbia Pack, who had bestowed heir status to his daughter, Ella Jade, I had begun to come to terms with the fact that my daughter may need to step up as Alpha of Collier someday. I'd even begun to train her. While I didn't call it that or make a big deal out of it, clearly she had begun to have expectations of what it meant.

Now after five daughters, I have a son. Traditionally, he is my heir, but he's so small and fragile right now that it's hard for me to think about it. I didn't know what to do. Tommy may never be able to walk. He may have some permanent brain damage from the cord being wrapped around his neck. He very likely will have some long term breathing problems. While I understood that the human nurses and doctors were laying out all the worst case scenarios to us, these were valid concerns.

We had no idea what his future would look like. How could I put the pressure of Alpha heir on this tiny little creature?

I didn't know what to do, but I also knew that decisions didn’t need to be made just yet. There was still time for that. Others would naturally assume that Tommy would be the rightful heir, but I needed to protect my Pack too and had no plans to stop training Cammie, despite her outbursts and vocal claim as my heir.

But I also called Lizzy and asked her to come over and speak with Cammie in more detail. I knew there had been mention of things recently with the talk of hope for a boy. This couldn't have been the shock that she was making it out to be.

None of this was easy, but I knew it too would pass.

“Where's your mom?” I asked Audrey.

“Nursery. Terra's eating and then she has to pump and feed Tommy.”

We'd been home less than a day and already Audrey had the routine down. She'd make sure everyone stuck to it, too.

Life had been so up in the air these last few weeks that I was craving some sort of normalcy.

When Austin swung in to check on us, I begged him to stay and call the others, too.

You're crazy. You do know that right?

Are you okay with it?

It's fine. I'm tired, but they'll all understand that.

Thanks, I think I just need some time with the guys right now.

I feel that. I've had Peyton and Sydney at least helping me through some of this craze.

How's our little man doing?

He's wonderful and so sweet. Want to hold him? Sam is encouraging me to physically connect with him more.

But I thought he was still connected to all those machines.

It's not so bad. Come on back and I'll show you.

I walked down to the nursery to find my mate topless, cradling our son against her chest. Slowly the girls trickled in to join us as they got to see Tommy out of his bed for the first time.

“He's so tiny and cute,” Audrey cooed over him.

Cammie reluctantly smiled. She wanted to resent him for even being born. I could understand and appreciate that. We all knew this wasn't going to be easy on her.

She leaned down and kissed his head.

“Don't worry. I'm never going to let anything bad happen to you.”

For a moment I just stood there and stared at them all. I had always loved seeing Lily do skin-to-skin time with our children, but this was my son, my boy, my tiny little heir and there was something so powerful in that moment as it was starting to really sink in.

I had a son.

I wouldn't love him any less than Cammie, Audrey, Willow, Lilah, or Terra, but it would be different. I loved them all unconditionally and wouldn't trade even one of them for anything in the world. But I was raised in a house full of women and it had only ever been just me and my dad. Now, it would be just me and my son in this crazy house full of women. No matter what the future may hold for him, or any of them, this was my family. They were the most important things in my life, and I couldn't imagine living without every single one of them.

No one could possibly know what the future would hold for us, but as long as I had them, I knew it was going to be the greatest ride of my life and I would treasure every second of it.