Chapter 98

Renee’s POV

I suck in a sharp breath of air as my life force hits me like a truck. My eyes whip open but I don’t see anything except blinding light. I snap my eyes shut and sink my head back into something squishy.

I try to move my body into a protective stance and instantly regret it. Pain shoots across my body. Where am I? What’s going on? Then another thought hits me and causes my heart to get stuck in my throat. Where’s my baby.

Everything comes flooding back. The fight. My water breaking. Then what?

“Hey, it’s okay,” I hear Eric’s voice soothe just before I can enter into a full blown panic. His voice combats my nerves getting geared up and before they reach that boiling point, I calm down.

I try to speak, but no sound comes out. My throat feels like I’ve swallowed sand.

“Don’t speak,” Eric says and rests a gentle hand on my head.

“Mommy!” Another voice comes in and suddenly it’s like I’ve been hit in the face with a bucket of ice cold water. Debbie! I blink my eyes open and soon enough blurry images begin to clarify.

Debbie stands next to me and I realize I’m laying down on a bed. Debbie and I have spent plenty of our time in a hospital for me to recognize exactly where I’m at. Though I’ve never been a patient myself.

Even when I did give birth to Debbie, I didn’t want any public record of her being born, that feels like such a life time ago.

Debbie’s eyes are red and swollen and my heart crashes against my chest. Knowing my baby girl had been crying hurts more than anything I just endured in the last twenty four hours-or so I think it’s only been a day. How long have I been asleep?

Then I see Eric standing next to her holding something wrapped in a white fuzzy blanket. I gasp.

“He’s okay,” Eric assured me. He?

“We have a boy,” I say as tears fill my eyes.

“He’s tiny,” Debbie says. “Is he going to need all the medical stuff that I did?” Debbie asks innocently enough, but the truth is it’s likely he might. He was born very early.

Eric lowers towards me so I can see our newest member all bundled up and cradled in his arms.

When I see this precious boy, the tears fall. He’s perfect. He has a button nose and he’s sleeping like an angel. For a moment, everything else on the world melts away as I soak in my son.

Eric puts him into my lap and I stroke his soft cheeks. He is very small. Smaller than what Debbie was, but I have no concerns. After all, he is the son of the alpha.

“What should we name him?” Eric says, I look up at him pulled out of my face and see his own eyes are filled with tender love.

“I like Rufus,” Debbie chimes in. I laugh and a dull pain spreads across my ribs. I wince.

“The doctor said you have a few bruises on your ribs,” Eric explains.

I sigh. “What happened?” I ask. Eric asks Debbie to get me a snack out of the vending machine and Debbie happily obliges to be helping her mother.

Eric kneels down next to me and takes my hand in his. For a moment we don’t say anything. We just take in the time together with our son. I’ve always wondered what it would’ve been like to have him there for Debbie’s birth, and now I get a slight taste of that here. And I couldn’t be happier.

Eric clears his throat. “You lost a lot of blood,” he explains. “I was so scared,”

I suck in a sharp breath. I’ve never heard Eric admit to anything like that before. He keeps his eyes trained on me. “I thought I was going to loose you,” he says. “Again,” I give a weak smile.

“You can’t get rid of me that easily,” I say hoping to lighten the mood, because this is a beautiful moment but Eric doesn’t humor me. He keeps his serious gaze on me.

“Well I’m okay,” I tell him. He lets out a shaky breath and brings my hand up to his warm lips.

“I love you,” he tells me.

“I love you too,” I reply. Then I shift gears. “What about everyone else? Emily? Jasper? How are they?”

Eric nods. “Everyone is okay. A broken arm and some cuts but nothing they can’t handle. They’re somewhere in the hospital here too getting checked out. Mia ran off, as did my father, the police are looking for them,”

I want to ask Eric why he let his father go, but I don’t get the chance to.

Debbie walks back in and hands me a bottle of water and a protein bar. Eric swipes his thumb under his eyes. “I have to go make a statement,” Eric says.

“Now?” I ask. Our son shifts a little and I shush him back to sleep. He settled and my heart melts. Eric runs his fingers through his hair.

“Unfortunately the city is still, metaphorically speaking, on fire. The hospital was very reluctant to help us because of how angry everyone is at me,” Eric motions towards the windows in our room which have the blind drawn. “It’s only a matter of time before one of those gets broken and all mayhem gets loose,”

Eric’s right. The sooner he sets all this straight then the sooner everyone will leave us alone. I just want the four of us to go home in peace.

Eric hands me the remote. “You can watch us on channel 10,” he says.

“Us?”

“Debbie is coming with me,” he explains and I open my mouth to argue. I don’t like the idea of Debbie being on t.v, but Eric cuts me off. “Andrew will keep her away from the cameras, but you should have some alone time with our son,” and just like that, I no longer want to argue back.

“You mean with Rufus,” Debbie corrects him. Eric rolls his eyes.

“I’ll ponder about a name while you two are gone,” I say and settle back in my bed with my sweet baby boy laying against my chest.

Eric kisses me on the lips and I hear Debbie make a sound of disgust, but I know she actually loves to see it.

With that Eric and Debbie walk out the room, it’s only then I notice an awkward gait to Eric’s walk.

Here I am in a hospital bed and he said others were getting checked out but here he is walking about and going to make a statement to the public. He was covered in blood, he definitely is more injured then he’s letting on. I suppose he has always been good at hiding how he really feels.

It’s what makes him a good alpha.

I stay like this for a while, staring at my son and watching the rythamatic rise and fall of his chest. He has dark brown hair like Eric, but it’s curly like mine. He’s going to be a heart breaker for sure.

I run through names in my head and try to see what fits him best. But I just don’t know. I give up and flick on the t.v to channel 10 and see my genius husband stand at a podium with flashing camera lights and microphones thrusted in his face.

He has a couple cuts on his face from the fight, but it doesn’t take away his good looks if anything it makes him look dangerous and hot as hell. His hand is in a bandage that I didn’t notice from earlier when he was holding our son.

I watch in admiration of Eric as he assures the public all their funds will be restored and he apologizes for the chaotic mess. Sure enough the media will be all over this story if what happened in the warehouse, but Eric is declining to answer any personal questions about that.

He just says the police are handling it and he would appreciate some privacy fir their family at this time.

The early morning sun peeks through the blinds and the white tile floors sparkle. I get the feeling that we’re somehow getting a fresh start.