All it Takes is Love
Chapter 24

“Anyway, so then I talked to your mom. She told me the same thing: boys are bigger but that a baby with the alpha gene is even bigger and will come earlier. She remembers having to tell your dad that she knew you weren’t going to be an alpha and how she cried because she hadn’t given him an heir to his alpha-ship. He told her it was okay because he loved her. He also told her that you had a special place in his heart, and he had a feeling that you were going to do great things. He also told her that the world needed more than alphas, so it was fine with him that you weren’t one.”

“Wow,” Byron whispered. “She never told me this.”

“No, she said she planned to tell you when you met your mate,” Lynn stated. “Then everything went crazy with you ending up here. Oh, and she wants you to call her soon.”

Byron nodded, looking deep in thought, his chin propped on her shoulder.

Softly, she continued, “This baby is hefty, has been for a while now. I also measure big for just six months. The Pack doc says I wouldn’t be as big as I am if I wasn’t carrying an alpha baby. It’s okay to have hope, Byron.”

He looked down at her then, his blue eyes capturing hers and holding. He began to rub once more on her belly, and she felt the baby kick.

“Trust me; this baby is an alpha, Byron. However, I think he may have a bit of the delta in him too.”

“Why do you say that?”

Lynn laughed. “I know you’re going to think I’m crazy, but yesterday I got upset when I realized all the ice cream was gone.”

“Ah, I remember that. You called me to pick up more on my way home.”

“Yeah, but I had a pity party and a crying fit before that call,” she admitted. “However, as I sat there crying, yet feeling stupid, I felt something. So, I pulled up my shirt, and there on my belly was what looked to be a little hand, and I’d swear it was moving.”

“Moving?”

“Yeah, you know how you always rub my back when I’m upset? It always calms me because it’s almost like you have a rhythm, and I replace myself calming almost instantly when you do it.”

“Sugar, I’m just rubbing your back in comfort; there is no rhythm to it.”

“You may not realize it, Byron, but there is. My mom rubbing my back never soothed me as fast as you do. But the baby was doing the same thing, Byron, and suddenly I didn’t feel like crying anymore. I know it sounds crazy, it does, but there it is all the same.”

Byron sighed. “Well, I suppose we’ll know when he gets here.”

“Yes, we will, and I’m telling you, it’s going to be soon,” Lynn reiterated just as the baby kicked again.

It turned out; Lynn was right.

“Sugar, I’m going to the training grounds,” Byron said as he stepped into the kitchen. “James is out of school today, and I promised I take him, let Nick teach him a few things.”

Leaning up, Lynn kissed him as she handed him his plate of pancakes. “That’s fine. As long as I know where you are because last night I woke up with some pain in my lower back.”

“Isn’t back pain one of the first signs that a baby is coming?” James questioned as he looked up from his breakfast.

Lyn smiled at him as she answered, “Yes, sometimes, but sometimes it just means it is getting close.”

James nodded and continued to eat.

Byron frowned. “You have a couple of more weeks until you’re due.”

Lynn shrugged and replied, “He’ll come when he’s ready. The mom’s told me that.”

Byron huffed at her answer, and Lynn laughed at him even as she kissed him.

When they’d finished breakfast, Byron, James left, and Lynn cleaned up the kitchen before stepping outside. She walked over and sat down on the porch swing to gaze out over the Pack grounds. She could see some of the Pack members, human and wolf, going about their business and smiled. She was happy here, so much more content than she’d ever been because now the Pack was happy, so the whole atmosphere was different.

“Good morning, Lynn!”

Looking over, Lynn waved at Gerald, a pack guard. “Good morning, Gerald.”

He walked over and sat down on the porch step. “Are you feeling alright?”

Lynn rubbed her belly as she said, “As well as expected. I have a feeling it won’t be long now. My back hurt all night, and I had a hard time letting Byron go this morning. In fact, all I want is for him to be back here, but I know it isn’t fair to James, who is so looking forward to training with Nick this morning.”

Gerald chuckled. “I think I’d better take you to that mate of yours.”

Lynn frowned, puzzled. “Why? I just said I was fine.”

“My mate was like that with our first pup. She wanted to hang on me and not let go that morning, but I insisted the Alpha needed me and had to go. Two hours later, she rushed herself to the clinic and had that baby without me.” He shook his head. “She still hasn’t let me forget that our first was born without me. So, nope, I’m going to take you to him right now.”

“But James really wants—”

“The boy can train without his Alpha breathing down his neck. Now, up you go,” Gerald said as he took her hand and pulled her out of her seat.

He then helped her as she slowly made her way down four stairs. By the time Lynn made it halfway across the yard, her back was aching even more.

“Maybe I should just let you go get him, Gerald. I’m not sure I can make it,” Lynn whispered.

Gerald patted her hand where it lay on his arm but never stopped walking. “You’ll be fine and ready to have this baby by the time we get there.”

So, they continued slowly across the field.

Lynn felt her wolf began to pace inside as she begged for her mate. She wanted him something desperate, and Lynn told her they’d soon be with him.

By the time they reached the training field, Lynn was out of breath, and she had a pulling feeling in her belly. As Lynn glanced across the field, her eyes found her mate, and she stopped walking to stare at him in awe. He was shirtless, his muscles gleaming with sweat, and if she hadn’t been in so much pain, she would have been ready to jump his bones.

A sharp pain moving through her reminded her of her baby’s impending birth. She had no plans to have it here, though, not in the middle of a bunch of sweaty men. So, she did the one thing she knew would get his attention.

She screamed, “BYRON!”

As if shot in the butt, Byron jumped and turned toward her, a snarl on his face. Then he began to run.

Now let me tell you, all wolves are fast, but Byron? Byron is the fastest of them all. So, before she even had time to blink, Byron was standing in front of her. Then he was swinging her into his arms.

“The baby is coming, Byron,” Lynn told him between pants of pain.

“I know, sugar. I know,” Byron murmured to her calmly.

And just like that, Lynn was calm, and all was right once more in her world.

Byron moved as quickly as he could toward the Pack clinic. I may look calm on the outside, but I am anything but calm inside.

His wolf was pacing and howling in his head to move faster because their mate was having his pup. I know, I know, Bryon soothed as he strode into the clinic, calling, “Annie! Annie, are you here?”

Annie came from her office with a smile. Then she took one look at Byron and said, “The baby is coming, isn’t it?”

Byron nodded.

“Okay, take her into the first room and lay her on the bed. I’ll get a gown to put on her, and then we’ll check to see—”

“No time, Annie,” Lynn panted. “I already feel the urge to push.”

Byron was already headed for the room, and once there, he laid Lynn down as Annie came up beside him.

“Okay. It’s a good thing you’re wearing a dress then. Let’s have a look, and I’ll tell you if it’s actually time to push,” Annie said. Then she moved around the bed and lay a sheet over Lynn’s knees before she pushed her dress up. “Wow, you are more than ready, Lynn. I already see the head. So, on three, you’re going to push.

“Okay,” Lynn agreed.

Annie began counting, “One, two, three, push!”

So, the labor began. Five pushes later, Byron’s son was born and let out a squall loud enough to rattle the windows.

“If that isn’t the yell of an Alpha, I don’t know what is,” Annie teased.

“I told him our son was going to be an Alpha,” Lynn said quietly before yawning. “Let me hold him before I fall asleep over here.”

Annie laid the baby in Lynn’s arms after cleaning him up and weighing him.

Byron looked down on him along with Lynn. He was red and wrinkly with a dusting of white-blonde hair.

“He’s going to look just like you and your dad Byron, not a bit like me,” Lynn softly mentioned.

The baby opened his eyes to stare up at them, and Byron smiled. “He’s a big boy, sugar, and you did well.”

“He weighed in over eight pounds, Alpha. So, he truly was a big boy,” Annie commented before leaving them alone with their new baby.

“Byron, I want to name the baby after you, well, you and my dad,” Lynn said.

“Byron Joseph?”

“Yeah.”

“I like that,” Byron said as she gazed into his mate’s eyes. “Sugar, you, James, and now little Joseph, are my world. Without you, I’d be nothing. I felt like such a freak of nature until you came into my life, but you make me feel normal.”

Lynn reached up and pulled him down for a kiss before she said, “All it takes is love, baby. All it takes is love.”

And wrapping her and his son in his arms, Byron knew she was right.

THE END