from the baby. He already sounded stronger.
“You remember how beat up I was?” Saul reminded Elias. “Never saw a doctor.”
“Jasper hasn’t seen a doctor since he presented,” Alice said as she came back in to swab Jack Henry’s stomach clean. “You-all can go,” she told the EMTs. “Not that we don’t thank you for coming.”
Elias looked conflicted about the EMTs being dismissed, but Jack Henry was nuzzling into the baby as if he hadn’t just been torn open, and the baby’s little red face blinked up at him sleepily. The two of them couldn’t be more perfect.
“Maybe we can see Dr. Morris tomorrow,” Elias compromised. “But thanks for coming. You too, Alice. I couldn’t have done it without you.”
“I think you could’ve.” She bustled over to the stairwell with a pile of dirty linens in her arms, herding the EMTs in front of her. “Dad and I are going to sit ourselves downstairs, Jasper. You take as much bonding time as you need.”
And then they were alone—the four of them plus the newest member of their pack.
“You think he’ll be an alpha?” Saul asked no one in particular. The baby had a shock of dark hair framing his tiny red face. He didn’t look like any one of them in particular, except for that hair, which was all Jasper.
“I think he’ll be a hybrid of some sort,” Jasper said. “I can feel him on the bond.”
Saul had gotten used to feeling the baby as a subset of Jack Henry, like an extra beat of Jack Henry’s heart, but he searched for the baby’s pulse and found it. Small and indistinct, but there, and suddenly all the shock and confusion of the last half hour dropped away and there was only love. This was their baby.
“Hello, little guy.” He stroked a light finger across the baby’s cheek and felt the baby’s breath wash over it. “What are we going to call him?”
“How about Claw?” Jasper joked. “Or is that a little too on point?”
Saul laughed. “How about Talon? He’ll be as strong as a wolf and as free as a bird.”
“And a constant reminder that his father had to be ripped open so he could be born,” Jack Henry said, but he didn’t sound too put out about it. “I like Talon.”
“Talon it is, then.” Jasper hadn’t gotten very close to the baby yet, but he moved in now to trace a finger along the baby’s dark hairline. “Hello, Talon.”
“We should get you on antibiotics,” Elias said.
“Stop worrying and come sit with us,” Jack Henry said. “You did good.”
Elias shuddered, as if it was all catching up to him. He shuddered again, so strongly that he rippled.
“Elias,” Saul warned him. “I think you’re shifting.” He wrapped his arms around Jack Henry and Talon, shielding them from any sudden appearance of fangs or claws.
“I can’t shift,” Elias said, but his words were slurred through a mouthful of fangs. “I—” Whatever he was about to say next morphed into a howl as hair sprouted over his body and his limbs formed into new shapes. Now there was a wolf in bed with them.
“Looks like you can shift to me,” Jasper said with a strong current of approval in his voice.
Elias leapt off the bed, hitting the ground on all four feet. He dashed back and forth across the room, yipping and howling. Saul could feel his joy through the bond. He knew how good it felt to be in wolf form, to just physically be, but after a few minutes of capering around, Elias shifted back into human form with a slow struggle Saul sympathized with. He was a much better shifter now, but those first few attempts had been rough.
“That was wild,” Elias said as he got back into bed with them. “I didn’t think I’d ever be able to do that.”
“I doubt there’s anything you couldn’t do,” Saul said. “Operating on Jack Henry like that. You were amazing. No way I could’ve done it.”
“I’d have totally freaked,” Jasper said. “Even though I kept dreaming about it.”
“I dreamt about it too,” Jack Henry said. “It was like I knew it needed to happen.”
“But without Elias, I’d have killed you. No wonder uber-omegas died out.”
“Because it takes a whole pack,” Saul said. “Jack Henry needed a mate with claws and a mate with knowledge. And me too, I guess.”
“To build our nest,” Jack Henry said. “I needed the nest. So, yes. All of you. An uber-alpha isn’t enough.”
Jasper laughed. “I’m glad I don’t