My One and Only Alpha

Chapter 16

When the sun did rise, Louis was in way worse shape than he was last night. Even with Harry’s help, Louis barely made it out of the teepee in time before he was hurling onto the grass. It was concerning because he hadn’t even eaten anything between the last time and now, so he was heaving almost nothing. Harry decided to keep a stone bowl by the bed so his mate didn’t have to move so far every time—it looked like this would happen a lot.
Harry carried his weakened mate back to bed and was now kneeling beside his miserable self, stroking the side of his head in what he hoped was a soothing gesture. Alas, Louis couldn’t seem to find comfort in anything his stomach was in so many knots—and not the good kind. “Be strong for me, baby. Be strong for our puppies. They need your courage. I’ll have Niall come over now and he can spend time with you—give you some tips. How’s that sound?” he asked the groaning Omega, bending down to kiss his pregnant stomach at least ten times before he left.
We-Ota bounded over to cuddle up against Louis’ back, and Harry bunched up a large quilt for Louis to hug around his midsection, tucking it in under his hips and petting his hair. Louis' inner Omega was thriving from all the doting attention his mate was bestowing, but not even that could give him the energy or tranquility he wanted. “Niall. I want Niall,” he mumbled, rubbing at his puffy eyes.
“You’ll get him. Anything else before I go?” Harry asked, slipping himself in his breechcloth and grabbing his tribal necklace, dropping the piece over his shoulders and then lifting his deadly tomahawk from the innocent corner wherein he usually kept it.
“No… Just come back as soon as you can? I will miss you every second,” Louis sniffed, pouting at his prepared-to-leave Alpha and trying to use his Omega charm to lure him back in bed.
“No puppy eyes, Louis. You know I have a pack to lead,” Harry chided with a smile, lowering himself onto one knee to speak closely to his mate. “I can promise I’ll be back as soon as possible. I have a few meetings to attend throughout the day, and I must oversee one particular patrol for a bit, and then I will be back the instant I can. I have an excessively pregnant mate at home—you can bet I’ll be running faster than an arrow,” he vowed, giving his mate a lengthy parting kiss to satisfy his needs.
Louis reached a hand out from under his blankets and held the Alpha’s face, thumbing at his cheekbone as he breathed in his scent, sighing into the kiss and then letting him go, with the least amount of pouting he could manage. “I am excessively pregnant, thank you. I’ll be cursing you for it later,” he snorted, curling into the bed and closing his eyes so he didn’t have to watch Harry walk away.
“I can’t wait for that,” Harry chuckled, straightening from his crouching position and very reluctantly leaving to do his job. If he had been in a lower position of leadership, he could have gotten away with spending more time with his mate after their bonding, but he had the entire pack to lead.
So much of the word ‘crucial’ floating around his situations; the rogue attacks were crucial to combat, and the new sightings of Cassian were crucial to understand, and his mate’s pregnancy was crucial to protect until he was around the first moon cycle mark—too much excitement could do the four harm, and Harry couldn’t let that happen.
Just as he was passing his Beta’s teepee, the inhabiting mates popped out and greeted him with a respectful containment of glee. Zayn jumped right into the topic that was to be addressed at the upcoming meeting, along all the new information he had, but it was far too early for Harry to listen when he was only going to listen to it again in ten minutes. “Zayn,” he groaned, shutting his Beta up and flicking his eyes to his Omega mate.
For Niall, on the other hand, was perfectly polite but he almost shaking with boundless excitement, obviously waiting for Harry to give him the go-ahead, and Harry simply couldn’t make the Omega wait any longer. “Yes, Niall, go. He’s expecting you. Just don’t touch anything, and take his bowl out every time he is sick. Give him anything he wants, and only Camila is allowed to come in as well, you got that? I don’t care how close you all are. Only two at a time. Today is Camila’s day. Are you going to remember that?” he asked, crossing his arms and ensuring that Niall understood the importance.
“On Chehalis, I swear,” Niall vowed with an ecstatic nod, immediately power-walking after stealing a kiss from Zayn toward his best Omega brother so they could finally gossip about proper things together.
Zayn and Harry simultaneously chuckled and continued their walk to the meeting hall, both sets of minds swimming around the same topic.
“Pregnant Omegas,” the Beta muttered with an overload of fond opinions on the matter.
“Couldn’t have said it better myself,” Harry snorted, trying pointlessly to contain his grin. “They’re going to be fiery, Beta. Are you ready for it?” he asked, snorting when the other Alpha looked at him like he was insane.
“It’s all I want out of this life,” Zayn said, nodding his head at every Chehalis wolf that bowed in respect to their Alpha and Beta walking side by side.
“Triplets, Zayn. He’s having triplets,” Harry said incredulously, his spine jolting from the blast of fatherly devotion that coursed through him. A father of three—on his first go. That kind of thing didn’t happen anymore.
“Incredible. That’s rare these days, I’m so happy for you,” Zayn responded, leaning into Harry and scenting his shoulder to show his pride for him.
Zayn was right. It was rare—and Harry will explain why.
The discovery of conception blockers around fifty years ago in Chehalis by the previous Healers (and then shared to all the Great Fifteen) had made wolves flock to the remedies eagerly to have as much fun as they wanted before deciding to settle down and start their family. This had been a beneficial and enjoyable innovation to the unavoidability of breeding from mating, but it had brought with it another effect—it had drastically lessened the number of pups Omegas conceived when they finally did.
It wasn’t necessarily common knowledge that the blockers were causing this decrease, Harry just knows everything about the pack from his position, and has read the scrolls passed onto him. None of the wolves seemed to be paying attention to this gap in population speed, so he hadn’t felt the need to make an announcement of it. If Chehalis ever encountered endangerment, blockers would be banned, no doubt about that—but Chehalis was thriving, so the need simply wasn’t present.
To get back to the Omega pregnancies on blockers, in the place of litters, they had begun to carry one or two at most, leaving their ancestor Omegas with ginormous wombs in the whispers of history. Harry himself was a result of this; his mother had only had him, and most of Harry’s friends were single cubs as well. Niall was another example of this effect, and he’d carried it with him when he conceived.
Louis, on the other hand, had never taken conception blockers in his life. Because of his seemingly broken Omega, there hadn’t been a need, since no wolves (luckily for Harry) had taken interest in him. So…why didn’t Louis have five? Harry has a theory for that as well; the heat suppressants had probably damaged his hormones in a similar way. It wasn’t that far-fetched to think that Louis denying his heats for so long had messed with his body in a way that Harry was going to carefully reconstruct as time went on—but still, through all the odds, he’d won himself three puppies. And he loves them.
 
~~~
 
Louis rolled over with a groan to face his giant bunny and cuddled into him for warmth—warmth that was getting harder to find. The air of Chehalis had been getting cold lately, which meant the ice times were upon them, and it was probably the worst timing to be pregnant ever. Louis was going to have to find a way to keep his body temperature stable, especially for three puppies, because they needed it dearly. Louis wouldn’t have cared about himself before, but there was so much more to him than just him now, and his concerns by default encompassed things he’d never before needed to consider.
“Louuuu!” Niall suddenly called from the entrance, quickly shutting it behind him and shuffling over in a giant wad of blankets and robes.
“That actually took longer than I thought,” Louis mumbled, rolling himself over and giving his bunny his back, scooting further into him while Niall carefully plopped down on Harry’s side of the bedding. “Niall, you have no idea how glad I am to see you. You have to tell me how to live through this,” he whined, holding his stomach and reeling from the nauseating act of just rolling over.
Niall rubbed at his own stomach and laughed, nodding in understanding and painting a look of sympathy. “Oh, how I don’t miss being where you are now… You remember when you walked in on me and Zayn? Missing for like six days? Skin green? That was this,” he stated, shivering just to remember how every breath had felt like an invitation to hurl.
“How long is it?” Louis grumbled, his eyes closed as he shoved his face into his blankets and took deep breaths to steady his dancing midsection nerves.
“It’s different for every mother. I was six days, like I said, but Andreius was about...three weeks?” he said unhelpfully, scratching at the corner of his lips while Louis came out of his blanket hiding.
“Andreius…that’s Lucian’s mate, right?” he asked the blonde, who nodded in response. “Then good,” he spat bitterly, having had nothing but horrid encounters with the Alpha. He didn’t mean to slander the Omega of him, but he automatically didn’t really trust him.
“I wouldn’t be so salty, Lou—you could be longer,” Niall reasoned through giggles that had Louis clenching his teeth in irritation. “You do have three after all, and that’s uncommon. Maybe it’ll be three times as long…”
“Okay, you’re not helping,” Louis barked, finally breaking a smile when Niall busted up in a short cackle of guilt. “And three. I know. Gods, how did that even happen?” he asked rhetorically, knowing for a fact that triplets were more of a miracle these days than an expected happenstance. “It is just because I’m with the Pack Alpha? Does he have super substance or something? He did say I had ‘at least’ two when I asked him...” he mused, that little memory coming back from the last day of his heat.
Niall tilted his head in thought and scrunched his lips to one side, considering it for a while before shrugging. “I’m not sure, Lou. Maybe both of you are just freakishly fertile. But honestly, Louis, how come I only get one, and you get three puppies? Where’s the fairness in that?” he complained, no ill will harbored whatsoever—he loved his little single.
“Please tell me what’s envious about this, Niall,” Louis bade with a glare, a wave of unnerving grossness coming and then going. “Ugh, I can’t…I can’t even… This is going to be the hardest thing ever,” he finally huffed, every sentence he tried to form getting interrupted by icky pains and prickles.
“Nonsense, brother. Remember the litters of old? Yours really isn't all that big,” Niall reasoned, remembering the stories of Ianalfto’s great-grandwolves having six brothers and sisters from one litter. Unfortunately, those wolves had been killed in the attack, as they’d been Elders, and were targeted as specifically as Des and Anneya had been. Wretched days, those had been.
“Yeah, but I never thought I’d be anywhere near the old Omegas’ ranks,” Louis emphasized, smiling fondly through his hopeless attitude at his non-showing tummy. “I just want to feel them. Right now, I’m just being abused with none of the positive reinforcement. It’s like they hate me,” he whined, resisting the urge to shift his legs to a new position because that could precipitate another one of those said hateful attacks.
“Classic Omega issues,” Niall seconded, picking at his nails and trying to find things that would cheer his brother up. “Well hey… I’ll only feel mine moving after probably five moon cycles. But you, yours will be dancing around at four, just watch. I’ll bet you,” he pointed out, knowing that kind of thing would undoubtedly work in the cheering-up department because all Omegas wanted to feel their puppies.
Louis got too excited at that knowledge and sat up to gush with his brother, but as soon as he did, he cursed himself for his stupidity. A hand flew to his mouth, and he snapped his fingers for the bowl beside Niall, only having mere seconds before the explosion. Niall acted quickly and thrust the bowl under his chin, and he took it with two clammy hands, miserably puking into its condescending bottom.
When Louis finally stopped, after a barrage of encouragements from him, Niall hastily took the bowl from Louis’ shaking hands and emptied it outside, washing it off with a water pail that Jade had probably dropped off, and then walking back inside. He sat upon the bedding and took one of Louis’ hands in his own, tucking his brown hair behind his ear and cooing sadly to show he cared. “I know it’s awful, Lou. It’s terrible. I’m sorry. But you’ve got me, and I won’t leave unless someone else is here. At least you’re not alone,” he rambled, just hoping to break through some of that torture and reach a place they could both hang onto.
That sentence, in actuality, led Louis to a shameful train of thought, and he nearly cried from the harsh revelation (only his stomach stopped him). “I wasn’t there for you, Niall. You were going through this too, and I wasn’t there—what kind of brother am I?” he whimpered, his eyes stinging with the violent resistance of sobs.
“Oh, Louis no, no, no. Please don’t cry. You were doing warrior duty, and then you dropped at the council meeting, and you were just really busy. It’s okay. I had Zayn most of the time; and when he couldn’t be there, I had Jade and Peeta to keep me company. I was alright,” he assured, kissing Louis’ hand excessively to maybe quell his guilt.
Louis fought hard to accept Niall’s words—he still felt so neglectful to his brother, but he knew crying indeed wouldn’t change anything, and Niall had made it through just fine. Like he would, someday. Someday. “I’m still sorry,” he pressed stubbornly, still feeling like Niall should at least take the apology, and then they could be done with it.
“It’s still okay,” Niall asserted, wiggling himself under the covers for a much-needed cuddle session to mend the negative emotions. “Just wait. When we have our puppies in our arms, if you can even carry all of yours, this stage is going to seem so inconsequential.”
Louis barked out a laugh and huddled into his brother, shaking his head against his neck and sighing in defeat. “Yeah…you know what else is gonna make hurling seem inconsequential?” he goaded, peering up at the curious Niall.
“What?”
“The birth,” Louis stressed, taking the pessimistic route once again because there was indeed a much worse stage to endure than this one—one that blew it out of the water.
“Ngh! Don’t remind me,” Niall whimpered, groaning into the teepee in unfiltered terror. “Let’s not think about that until we have to.”
“Still want three?” Louis chuckled with his iconic sass, wrapping his arms around his brother and grinning to find the contact seemed to calm his stomach.
“… Maybe one is fine.”
 
 ---
 
Following that, conversation went all over the place with the two Omegas. They had a lot to discuss and they never seemed to run out of topics to touch on, hardly ever stopping to breathe, except for when another blast of nausea dominated Louis’ poor stomach. Aside from the puking breaks and the overall shaky weakness, Louis had no complaints—he loved how easy talking was between them, and as tired as he was, he knew with Niall, he could keep going forever.
The blonde hadn’t allowed that happen, however, because when he’d noticed Louis had gotten drowsy, he had tucked the Omega under his chin and gradually stopped responding to the conversation. Within two minutes, both Omegas were fast asleep, cradling their flat but undeniably pregnant bellies.
They ended up sleeping all day because their bodies were in such delicate conditions, and rest was essential for them to thrive. Camila had come in at one point to visit with them, but after discovering they were snoring with Wewe, she merely set their food down beside them to eat when their nap was over, and tiptoed back outside.
When the sun had set, Zayn had veered from his stroll with Harry to enter his teepee, fully expecting Niall to be in it. When he learned the Omega wasn’t, he quickly jogged back out to go to Harry’s home with him, having a pretty good idea that’s where he’d find his Niall.
The Alphas reached their destination and entered quietly, having not heard any noise from their usually loud mates, and guessing they were asleep. And what they found inside made them both slap a hand over their mouths to keep from ‘aww’ing out loud.
There, under mountains of quilts and fur, lay their two perfect mates, curled into each other with interlocked hands and foreheads pressed together, and the Alphas never wanted this sight to end. It was a painfully adorable vision to behold, and they stood immobile for several minutes just taking it in, committing it to memory.
The time came that Harry wanted his mate in his arms too much to remain still, and Zayn felt quite the same, so they both crept to the bedding and got in behind their Omegas, wrapping their arms around the tiny-bodied beacons of perfection and breathing them in. The Alphas had assumed the movement would have woken the Omegas, but instead they gave happy sighs and continued to bask in their dreams.
Zayn looked to Harry questioningly, at a loss for the course of action they should take. ‘What do we do?’ he mouthed at his Pack Alpha.
Harry just shrugged his shoulder and snuggled in closer to his Omega. “Louis? Baby, can you wake up for me?” he whispered into his ear, petting his hair and kissing the back of his neck.
“Hakan,” Zayn murmured, using the same approach to rouse his mate. “Wake up, my love. We’ve gotta go home,” he urged, snickering when Niall only grunted in distaste.
“You call him ‘fire’?” Harry asked in bemusement to his Beta, grinning when Zayn nodded his head. “That’s perfect.”
Both Omegas groaned disapprovingly at all the noise floating around them, but they gained enough consciousness to slowly open their eyes, seeing only each other and then closing them again.
“Lou, stay awake for just a minute,” Harry pressed while his Omega was temporarily awake, pulling Louis’ limited attention span from Niall to regard his Alpha mate.
“Harry, you’re home,” the Omega drawled gleefully, a smile breaking out as he flipped over to snuggle into him.
Zayn also heard his name faintly mumbled from his mate, and he concluded Niall was awake enough to be moved. He effortlessly lifted the blonde off the bed and into his arms, ready to be transported home.
“Goodnight, Niall,” Louis croaked, sparing him a parting glance and then closing his eyes again, lulled to an immense degree by being pressed up against his Alpha’s warm chest.
“I love you more,” Niall said randomly through a yawn, not quite cognizant enough to realize what he'd said made no sense.
Zayn and Harry shared a look of equal delight, elated their brotherhood had connected their mates to each other in much the same way, and then the Beta exited the teepee, arms full of the already snoring Niall.
“Bowl,” Louis groaned despairingly as soon as they were alone, his stomach waking him all the way up, much to his disgruntlement. With a devoted quickness, Harry procured Louis’ bowl and held it before him, smoothing his hair back preemptively. Louis tried to turn away so his Alpha wouldn’t have to see it, but it came up too fast, and thankfully Harry didn’t mind in the slightest.
“Did you eat today?” the Alpha asked in reference to the sight of Louis’ sick, not finding much to suggest he had.
“Oh shit,” Louis replied, looking at the fruity platter Camila had apparently left that hadn’t been touched. “No.”
“Louis,” Harry chastised heatedly, insistently presenting the selection for Louis to snack off of. “You have to eat, Louis. Cami should have woken you up. I’ve gotta tell Zayn that Niall didn’t eat either, wait here,” he rushed, taking the sick bowl with him to empty out on the way.
As if I could even go anywhere, Louis mentally retorted, popping berries in his mouth and grimacing at the discomfort it brought to him.
The Alpha dashed outside and quickly cleaned Louis’ bowl, then crossed over the pathway to arrive at Zayn’s home, and fearlessly poked his head in. “Niall hasn’t eaten,” he blurted, instantly rushing back out and hearing a muffled, "Dammit, Niall!" coming from their teepee.
Harry snatched the bowl into his hands and slapped his teepee entrance aside, shutting it behind him and striding to his shared bed, situating his Omega onto his lap and taking over the feeding duties. “You need to eat. I cannot stress this enough, Louis. The ice times are just around the corner, and your body is going to spend all the energy from food on keeping you warm. You’ll run out of reserves a lot faster than usual, and then you’ll get too cold. I can’t always be here to make you eat, so you have to—”
“I understand, Alpha,” Louis muffled around squash, holding a hand before his mouth so he wouldn’t spit all over the place. “I’m sorry.”
“Don’t be sorry, Omega, just take care of yourself,” Harry sighed, guiding more squash to his Omega and chuckling along with him when he struggled to fit it all in his mouth. “Good little chipmunk.”
 
***
 
The next moon cycle was agonizingly spent over that same damn bowl of misery, as Louis calls it, and Louis warned the Gods that if they made him suffer any longer, he would stop believing in them.  Harry had been worrying about him incessantly because he couldn’t keep anything down, but Jade had worked up some supplements to try and keep the nausea at bay, and it had been the only thing to save his food from coming back up. She had explained that only some Omegas get hit this hard with their early pregnancies, Andreius being one of them, and Louis was unfortunately just one of those wolves who couldn’t get over it. Grand.
Jade had also announced a few days ago that all of Louis’ pups are Alphas, which Harry had practically squealed at, and that Louis was carrying two males and one female. Louis had barely been able to outwardly celebrate that news without hurling, but his excitement spoke for itself—he was over the moon.
Louis had finally passed the notoriously iffy part of his pregnancy during his moon cycle of bedrest, and Jade had assured the new parents they had made strong puppies that were not going anywhere, so physical movement was now encouraged on the Omega’s part. This meant Louis could finally get back to work in just a few short days, and he couldn’t wait—he missed his omkin dearly.
Most importantly, tomorrow was his pack bonding ceremony. Along with the commemoration for the mating and bonding of the Pack Alpha, and the creation of the Alpha’s heirs, tomorrow was also a ritual to add Louis into the Spirit of Chehalis. It promised to be an enormous day for the pack, but most of all for Louis, whom everything would revolve around. The Omega has no doubts it will be an amazing and unforgettable day, but he’s still uneasy about having so much attention on him, so he firmly kept himself in the present until he had to face it.
Louis was currently sitting on his bed with Niall, Draco, and Camila, since Harry had gotten over his two-person rule, and the small reunion of four of them in one place at one time was like a drug to his social Omega. “So, you really stopped taking blockers when I got here?” he inquired to Niall, who was braiding Draco’s hair, raising his eyebrows when the blonde snorted at the question.
“Yeah, I was so upset,” Niall admitted, shooting Louis an apologetic glance before turning back to his braiding duties, two that started on both top sides of Draco's head and hung just below his shoulders. “I stopped taking them pretty soon after that and then well, got pregnant. So technically, I have you to thank for Miri,” he said to lighten the story that owned a negative start.
“Miri?” Draco and Louis asked at the same time, that string of syllables having never entered their ears.
Niall blanched and shrunk his head into his shoulders in guilt, biting at his lips and then erupting into excuses. “I can’t believe I didn’t tell you guys! Things have just been so busy, and we haven’t been all together in a while, and I just didn’t want to spread it around before we could talk about it, but…oh, whatever. We’re having an Omega puppy! And Zayn and I finally decided on a name last night. Since it’s a girl, we’re naming her Mirima, or Miri for short,” he gushed to a web of consequent excitement so contagious it could be a plague.
The Omegas screeched and shrieked in joy at the happy news, and Louis had the passing thought of how impressed he was that Alphas could discern good Omega screeches from bad. They sounded the same to him, but obviously Alphas knew the difference, otherwise they’d be frantically running around checking statuses every five minutes.
Getting back to the present, though, Niall looked above the clouds to be one step closer in his pup journey, and Louis realized with a grimace that he hadn’t given any thought to that concept—names. Gods, I have three names to come up with…
“Do you have any names picked out, Lou?” Camila asked after all the Miri talks had died down, taking the thoughts out of Louis’ head like she always does.
“No, I don’t. I wish I knew, but they haven’t given me any clues yet,” he said with a shrug, rubbing his belly like he always does.
“This whole pregnancy thing is really kicking my arse, guys. I want puppies so bad, but I’m not sure that Parsel would want to right now,” Draco mumbled, a forlorn look on his pale face. He didn’t mean to drag down the happiness of this Omega time, but honesty always prevailed, and all were quick to support him.
“Why? What’s the reason?” Louis inquired softly, reaching out to hold Draco’s thin wrist.
“Well, if you ask him, he’ll tell you it’s not safe with the rogues attacking and whatnot. But honestly, I think he’s worried he won’t be able to see his pups like I do; that I’d always be the only exception. I keep telling him I think fate gave him sight to see me with for a reason. We’re soulbonded, I mean he’d definitely be able to see our puppies, right? But he’s terrified that he won’t. He won’t admit that to me, but it’s Omega intuition. Alphas really can’t hide jack shit from us,” he chuckled humorlessly, running a hand through his hair and blowing a sigh out of his lips.
“Aww, Dray,” Louis cooed, pulling the distraught but held-together Omega into his arms. “It’s okay, he’ll come around. They always do,” he reasoned, not needing to mention that Harry had been one difficult fish to catch. If he hadn’t had his heat—meaning that damn rogue hadn’t tried to force-mate him—who knows if they’d have come together yet or not?
“I hope you’re right, Lou. I want my damn puppies,” Draco snorted, backing away from the hug and accepting a mirrored one from Niall.
“You’ll get them,” Louis promised, prepared to demand the breeding from Parsel if he didn’t. He’d use his status as a Pack Omega, anything he had to hold over him; all Omegas deserved puppies. He knew this now.
 
---
 
By the end of that day, Louis was feeling almost back to normal. His puppies had been pronounced strong enough to hold on through exertive motion, which had quelled the majority of his concerns, and his violent stomach was finally being decent to him. Now all that was left was for his Harry to get home and fully cure him with his mere presence. The Omega settled down in bed with Wewe—who was now concerningly Louis’ wolf’s size—to wait patiently for the telltale opening of their teepee signaling his mate’s return, and patiently is a relative term.
He hadn’t heard it when it had happened because Wewe’s snoring was so unreasonably loud, but Harry had indeed returned, and Louis yelped in happy surprise when the Alpha plopped down on the bed unannounced. “Alpha,” he greeted melodically, hands coming up to hold his mate’s face as the Alpha licked at his hands and rubbed his face on his wrists.
“Hello, my love, are you doing alright? You smell divine as always,” Harry said first, cooing as he scooted himself down to his Omega’s midsection “And how are my puppies?” he asked like they could answer, nuzzling the stomach they were concealed in with his nose.
“We’re all fine, Alpha—especially now that you’re here” Louis, stroking as much of Harry’s upper body he could get to. “We just missed you.”
“I miss you every second I’m away,” Harry said reverently, giving a few more loving licks with his tongue over Louis’ navel before scooting back up and taking his Omega’s right wrist in his hand. He held the delicate wrist up to his nose and scented the pack bond mark spot, overcome with gratification that it wouldn’t be so empty soon.
It was intensely joyous for Harry because as Pack Alpha, he’s obviously the only wolf who has the ability to form pack bond marks, and the ritual just so happened to be a spiritually pleasurable experience for him and the member. The sensation of the member’s spirit joining the sacred connection that was his pack—his home, family, and loved ones—was indescribably powerful, and it blew Harry’s world every time.
But this was Louis. Harry’s most cherished wolf alive—his mate for life and beyond—and that made a huge difference. He was also pregnant, so now Harry’s Omega and his puppies would become part of what Harry was, even more so than they already were and— Calm yourself, he chided his inner Alpha, steering himself on track before he shifted to his animal on the spot.
“Are you okay?” Louis chuckled, having noticed the unmistakable scent of Harry’s wolf creep up to the surface and heave its heavy breaths onto his wrist.
“Fine, I’m fine,” Harry said gruffly, clearing his throat and smiling sheepishly at his amused Omega. “Tomorrow, this empty wrist will bear my second unbreakable mark to your body. It is exceptionally rare that an Omega shares a pack bond mark and mating bond/soulbonding mark from the same Alpha, but that’s exactly what’s happening here. You are more mine than most of our entire species are to their mates. Am I making any sense?” he asked his raised-eyebrowed but smiling mate.
“I think so,” Louis giggled, carding his fingers through his Alpha’s hair and thumbing at his eyebrows for fun. “If you’re trying to say how yours I am, look no further than my own confession. I will be yours for the rest of time. There is no future, no world, and no plane of existence where I am not yours,” he said, his fingers having landed on his Alpha’s jaw as he ran a thumb down the mark he’d made.
To Louis’ undoing, Harry’s mismatched eyes grew glassy at his words, and almost all at once there were tears rolling down the Alpha’s face. “Oh Gods, please don’t cry, I can’t handle it,” he begged, voice thick with emotion he couldn’t ever hope to control thanks to his wild hormones.
“I’m sorry,” Harry laughed with a sniff, rubbing at his nose as he took off his tribal neckpiece and set it beside their bedding, secondly slipping out of his breechcloth and leggings and settling down with a tear-free face. “I know we Alphas aren’t supposed to. I just love you so much, Louis. My Kimimela, the other half of my soul, the mother to my puppies, my Omega, my life mate, everything. You are everything,” he stressed, his tone wavering as more tears threatened to force themselves into existence.
Louis had lost his shit six statements ago, and he pulled his Alpha in as close as they could get to each other. “I love you, Harry. Ever since I laid eyes on you, you ruled my world. You took my breath away, and you took my heart away with it, and I never want them back. Keep them both. I will do everything for you. I will give you as many puppies as you want, make our family as large as you want—I will move the stars, Harry. I will stop time. Just ask,” he sobbed through never-ending layers of tears, his Alpha’s efforts to brush them away proving useless.
The emotional mates held onto each other with mirrored passion (that didn’t need any more words) for a long time, kissing their romantic meltdowns away before finally deciding to blow out the candle and settle in for sleep.
“Can I tell you again how much I love you, Kimi?” the Alpha whispered into his Omega’s ear, who was still in danger of overdosing on love, softly caressing his stomach and licking at his collar bones.
“Please do,” Louis giggled as he angled his head to kiss his Alpha’s temple, knowing he could never hear it enough times anyway.
“I love you.”