Alpha Ever After (Midnight Liaisons Book 5) (21 page)

“
I
can’t believe
you kicked Dr. Lamb out,” I tease Connor as he puts a diaper on one of the babies and hands her to me. The other’s resting on my stomach, and he trades me, picking up our
other
daughter before gently carrying her to the changing table set in the corner of our bedroom for convenience.

“He’s a fucking idiot,” Connor growls. “And I’ve read enough books to know how the birth goes. I think we did just fine.”

“We did,” I say contentedly, holding the elder — by all of two minutes — daughter to my breast. She’s tiny and wrinkled and red and the most gorgeous thing I’ve ever seen. Her twin is equally beautiful, but with a head full of dark hair, while this one’s bald. “We did really well.”

My heart is bursting with love. It doesn’t matter that I’m exhausted and parts of me that I didn’t know could ache feel as if they’ve been turned inside out. Our babies are here. Our family is complete.

The baby latches onto my breast and begins to suck, even as I can’t stop touching her. Her tiny fingers, her small, but long little body. A moment later, Connor crouches next to the bed with the other twin, offering her up to me.

“They’re beautiful,” he says, and there’s a catch in his throat. “I’d say I’ve never seen anything so perfect in my life, but they look just like their mother.”

I blink back happy tears. “Two girls. Are you sad?”

He gives me a look of complete astonishment. “How could I ever be sad? They’re gorgeous and perfect in every way.” He runs his thumb over a teeny tiny hand and then kisses a wrinkled forehead. “You’re amazing, Savannah.”

I give him a tired smile. I like seeing him with the smaller, darker-haired one. “She’s a wolf,” I tell him, my mother’s instinct kicking in.

The look of joy on his face makes my heart squeeze. “Really?”

I nod and touch the baby at my breast, her older sister. “This one, too.” The cat - and the mama - in me can sense the difference. It was muted in the belly, but now that they’re here? It’s as clear as day to me despite the fact that they haven’t shifted yet. They will, and they’ll be the cutest, roly-poly-est wolf cubs. And I’m thrilled with that.

Connor’s look of joy changes to shock. “Both?” He reaches out and grazes a knuckle over the tiny bald head of the one at my breast.

“Both,” I agree.

He blinks repeatedly. “Damn.” That catch is back in his voice. “I’m going to have to get a gun,” he says gruffly, but the smile on his face is beautiful to see.

“Okay if we name one after your mother and one after mine?” Maybelle and Dakota aren’t the most matching of names, but I think they’d be perfect.

Connor’s eyes become curiously shiny and he gives me a quick, jerky nod before handing the baby in his arms to me. “My mother had dark hair,” he says as he hands the smaller twin to me.

“Then this one’s Maybelle,” I say as I settle her at my other breast.

He nods again and then presses a kiss to the top of my head, and I know he’s feeling a bit too much at the moment to be chatty. That’s all right. I know just how he feels.

I nurse the babies in quiet for long minutes as Connor cleans up the bedroom and answers texts that are coming in a mile a minute. I’m too tired to talk, but I do take the glass of water he brings up to me and let him fluff my pillows. At some point I’m going to want to get up and shower (again) and eat something substantial, but for now I’m happy to just hold my newborns and bask in the love of my mate.

Connor pulls a chair next to the bed and leans in to kiss me, then kisses the heads of both babies. “I just texted the pack. Gracie wants to come by and see them. I told her not yet.”

“Tomorrow,” I promise. “We’ll let everyone come over tomorrow.” Today is just about us.

He nods. “She’s with Buck and several of the Primordials so that wouldn’t work anyhow.” He rolls his eyes. “I’m not letting any of those chuckleheads near my girls until I know how they’re going to react.”

I give him a soft smile, loving his protective streak. The Primordials - and the pack, too - have been getting better with every month that’s passed. They’re becoming experts at construction, drywall, and painting, so much so that Connor’s been flipping multiple houses at once. There’s been enough paperwork - we pay everyone a salary so they can learn to manage their money - that I’ve had to leave Midnight Liaisons and help Connor run his business. But the pack’s happy and has a ton of work, and the Primordials are becoming more and more used to the world, even if they all chase women a bit more than they should.

“Might as well text Craig, too,” I tell Connor. “He’s been asking when the babies would get here because he wants to bring me a present.”

Connor just snorts. He still doesn’t approve of Craig but now that Craig is no longer trying to kidnap me? He’s a sweet guy. He’s been on probation with the cougar clan for months now, and the moment we let him start dating through Midnight Liaisons? He hooked up with a bossy were-jaguar that treats him like he’s garbage and he loves every damn minute of it. Yesterday when I saw him, he was holding Jayde’s purse for her and buying her jewelry, and completely content. Go figure.

“Anyone else we need to update?” Connor asks, texting busily. “Your clan?”

I nod. “Tell them it’s two girls, both wolves, and utterly gorgeous.”

“I should send them a picture,” he says, turning on the camera app and angling the camera at me and the babies in my arms. “You’re fucking gorgeous, Savannah. I’ve never seen you so beautiful.”

I snort. I just gave birth a few hours ago, I’m sweaty and exhausted. Beautiful is probably not anywhere on the radar. But…I feel so utterly happy. “If you send a picture, you have to get the entire family in there.”

“I’ve got you and my girls,” he says, angling the phone.

“Yes, but if we’re doing a family portrait, I want all of us in it,” I tell him, and gesture at the bed beside me (with my chin, because my arms are full). “All of us. We’re not a family without you.”

The smile of pride and happiness he gives me makes me get all weepy with joy. I’m still weepy when he crawls into bed on the other side, squeezes in next to me, and kisses my cheek in the photo. The angle’s weird and my nose is a bright red cherry, but it’s perfect.

Everything’s perfect. My family’s complete, and my life’s complete with Connor at my side.

M
idnight Liaisons Novels
(published by Pocket Books)

Beauty Dates the Beast
— Beau & Bathsheba’s story

Desperately Seeking Shapeshifter
- Sara & Ramsey’s story

Must Love Fangs
- Josh & Marie’s story

Wanted: Wild Thing
- Hugh & Ryder’s story

Undead in My Bed
- Ruby & Michael’s story (novella)

M
idnight Liaisons Novellas
(all available for free via Kindle Unlimited)

Single Wolf Female
— Alice & Jackson’s story

Vixen
- Miko, Sam & Jeremiah’s story

Speed Mating
- Estrella & Vic’s story

Bear Naked
- Nikolina & Leif’s story

Claws & Effect
- Lily & Ellis’s story

Tiger by the Tail
— Adrian & Mandy’s story

S
tand-Alone Works

Between a Vamp and a Hard Place

C
opyright
© 2016 by Jessica Sims

This book is a work of fiction. The names, characters, places, and incidents are products of the writer's imagination or have been used fictitiously and are not to be construed as real. Any resemblance to persons, living or dead, actual events, locales or organizations is entirely coincidental.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced, scanned, or distributed in any manner whatsoever without written permission from the author except in the case of brief quotation embodied in critical articles and reviews.