The pup was born a healthy girl. Alpha Lincoln decided beforehand that instead of having a separate nurse made I would halt all my other duties and focus solely on caring for his pup. I was ecstatic at the idea of being allowed such a privilege. That was until the pup finally came out.
I hid it well at first.
"Shhh, it's ok sweety. We are going to get you all changed up and into a nice clean diaper!" I tried to inject some glee into my baby voice, Lincoln was standing right there after all. He was finishing up a phone call as I removed the soiled diaper and replaced it with a clean new one. The phone clicked shut as i lifted the child of the changing table.
"I have to get going. Make sure to keep a close eye on her." He swept out if the room leaving the baby with a peck on the head.
As soon as the door closed my face resumed its new natural expression a hard scowl. I disdainfully placed it in its bassinette and ignored its fussing. I wouldn't need to deal with it until it's next feeding and for that I was grateful. It was getting harder and harder to keep up the happy appearance whenever Lincoln was around.
I didn't know what to do anymore. Every day i spent with it was worse than the last. I found myself crying for absolutely no reason this morning and while i had been changing it all i could think about was throwing it out a window. Even her fussing now was getting on u last nerve. I just wanted peace and quiet! I felt the tears fall once more as my stress rose with the baby's cries.
Just the as we both sat in misery the door opened and Lincoln was back all too soon. With no time to hide it, he saw everything.
"What's going on?" His face was hard as he went to the baby's aid and looked at me expecting an answer.
I felt such shame. I couldn't keep up this lie any longer! "I don't love her! I hate its guts and i can't stop crying!"
It was such a relief to finally say it outright that new tears formed.
Lincoln sighed. "Come on."
"where?"
"you need a doctor. I've heard about this." He didn't say anything more as we headed to the pack doctor.
She took one look at me, the baby, and an angry alpha and didn't even waste a breath. "Postpartum depression."
"I figured as much. Can you fix it?" Lincoln demanded.
"No can do. It has to go away on its own. Might take up to a year if it's really bad." she shrugged.
"Why can't you fix it? Humans do it all the time!" Lincoln looked pissed now.
The Doc just rolled her eyes. "In humans it has a variety of triggers and causes that can be fixed in various ways. In male werewolves, the only cause is a hormone imbalance. Humans can do hormonal therapy to help but the werewolf metabolism doesn't support that type of medicine so the omega will just have to live through it. I do not suggest leaving the baby alone with him. In many cases when untreated it has resulted on bodily harm or neglect to the child."
"I would never! I swear alpha, for the past month I've been feeding it on time and changing and bathing it without any issues! Yes I'm sad and i have some bad thoughts but i don't act on them!" I didn't want to stop being able to care for the child. If that happened i truly had nothing left to live for. My duty to the alpha had been carried out and the only thing i had left was taking care of his pup.
