Rescuing His Captive Mate: Saving The Future Luna

Chapter 206 - Star - Our Family

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Star

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A few moments later, Doc came back over with the baby wrapped in a soft white blanket. My baby wasn't crying anymore; instead he was making little tiny noises while he laid in Doc's arms, his eyes closed.

"Here is your little boy." He handed him first to Artem whose face lit up like he had just been given the biggest prize ever. "I have to help you deliver the after birth now, Star. So you will feel a little uncomfortable, but it will be over soon."

"Can I look at him while you do that? Can I hold him?"

"Yes, you can hold him."

Artem came close to me and kneeled next to the bed. He laid the baby on my chest and put his arm around the two of us.

"Look at him, Star. Look at how adorable he is."

"He looks so cute." I cooed as I looked at my son. "Oh Artem, he looks perfect."

We just sat there looking at our baby for a few minutes while Doc did what he needed to. I didn't even notice what he was doing in all honesty. My attention was solely focused on the baby.

When Doc was done, he walked to the side of the bed and got my attention.

"Come on, let's get you cleaned up and into a new bed. We can move you upstairs in a little bit and I will check on you there throughout the night."

"OK."

Regretting that my baby was being moved away from me, I let Doc start to pull the sheets away. Artem came back a moment later to help, having put the baby in a small rolling crib. Between the two of them, they cleaned me up and put me in a fresh gown. I didn't take my eyes off the crib the whole time. When they were done, Artem picked me up and moved me over to another bed, right next to where my baby was.

"Brayden." I sighed. "Let's name him Brayden."

"That sounds good to me." Artem smiled. "Hello Brayden, I'm your daddy."

"Hello little baby boy. I'm your mommy." We looked at him together, smiling.

I wanted to see everyone, but I wanted to do it in my own room and not the clinic. I thought it would be better that way. I was cleaned up, and Artem was going to be there with me and the baby the whole time.

Before I was taken up the stairs, Chay was sent to get a few things ready for us. The blankets on the bed were pulled back and a thick quilted sheet was placed over the spot that I was going to be laying in. This was to catch any residual fluids that might be coming out of me.

I was told that there would be blood and a lot of it. I was going to be wearing some very special pads that helped with swelling and caught all the blood. It was going to be embarrassing, but until I was capable of moving around normally Artem, Chay, and Mom were going to be taking care of me.

Once the room was ready, and I was taken up stairs to my own bed, I just wanted to hold my baby boy. The rolling crib had been brought up, and we also had the bassinet in our room that Brayden would be sleeping in until he was old enough to go to his room.

I was holding him in my arms when Mom, Dad, Gabby and Aries (Artem's parents) came in to see us.

"Oh look at him." Gabby cooed excitedly. "He is too precious."

"Oh my Goddess, he is." Mom agreed with her immediately.

"How are you feeling?" Dad asked me as he kissed the top of my head. "Are you OK?"

"I'm fine Dad, thank you."

"I am so proud of you, of both of you." Dad (Artem's dad) hugged the two of us at the same time, and I noticed that he had a slight tremble in his voice like he was about to start crying.

Our parents stayed for a little while, but they knew there were others that wanted to see the baby as well so they left the room and allowed the others in. Aunt Criztie, Chay, Bailey, Kent, Nico, Ella, Reed, Criztie, Dakotah, Sydney, Grandfather, Toby, and Morgan came in next. They were the next group of family. They all gushed over the baby and gave us hugs to congratulate us.

Lastly, we brought the boys in. They had been waiting, not so patiently, for their turn to come around. We had intended for their visit to be the longest, which was why they had come in last. We wanted them all to see their baby brother and have the time to get to know him a little.

The younger boys ran in first, excited to see the baby. They all knew that the baby had been in my belly, but most of them didn't understand how he had gotten in there, or how he was going to get out.

Cohen and Dalton, like usual, were the first ones to get to me.

"Oh wow, it really is a baby." Dalton cried out when he saw the bundle that was in my arms.

"Mommy, did it hurt to get the baby out?" Cohen had a slight more practical response to seeing the baby.

"It did. But I'm fine now, and the baby is here to be with us all, so I am happy."

"Are you feeling better now?" Zack asked, he was the one that had been worried about me this morning after all.

"I am sweetie. The baby was getting too big to be in my tummy anymore."

"Did you eat the baby?" Dalton asked me, an excited note in his voice.

"No, she didn't eat him." Benton laughed as he pulled Dalton back.

"Then how did he get in there?"

"That's a little hard to explain. We will tell you when you're older." Artem did his best to deflect that question.

"Can I hold him?" Julian was the first of them to ask.

"Yeah, I want to hold him too."

"Me too, me too."

"And me."

"I want to hold him."

"No me, let me hold him."

The cries for being able to hold him started to ring throughout the room.

"Well, I don't know about all of you, but I want to know his name." Flint, the second oldest and one of the most practical, was the one to bring this up.

"Yeah! What's his name, Mommy?"

"I want to know too."

"Tell me, tell me, please."

"What's my baby brother's name?"

The new set of yells and cries rang through the room, and I saw Brayden scrunch up his tiny little face as the sounds woke him up.

"Shh, shh. Remember, we need to be a little quieter around him. Brayden needs his rest just like Mommy does." Artem had noticed it as well and corrected the boys' behavior.

  "Brayden?"

"Oh, that's his name."

"That's a nice name."

"Hi Brayden."

More repeated talking, but it was marginally quieter than before. I could tell that they loved the baby already.

"Here Julian, you can hold him first." I motioned him forward.

"Really!?" He looked a little shocked, but he smiled nonetheless.

"Mmhmm, here you go. Support his head like this and put your other hand here." I helped him to hold the baby like Doc had told me earlier.

"He's so little." Julian's voice was filled with awe, and he had tears in his eyes. "I can't believe that I am here for this."

He was full on crying now, and I noticed that the four youngest boys went over to make sure he was OK. They hugged him around his waist and looked like they were going to cry as well.

"Why are you sad, Julian?" Cohen finally asked him.

"I..it's just that, a year ago none of us even had the hope for a real family and now, here we are. We have parents, we have each other, we have grandparents, aunts, and uncles. And now we have a baby brother. I..I..I just can't believe that we're here. I mean, I..I went from worrying that I was going to die to being able to live."

Julian lifted his head and looked at me, then Artem. There was joy in his eyes even though he was crying.

"I never thought that I would meet an Alpha, and that he would become my family. I never thought that I would ever have a life that I was able to look forward to every day. And all of this, all this happiness, joy, and love that we have in our lives, it's all thanks to the two of you. We're lucky to have you, we really are."

I was crying now, and based on the slight sniffle I heard, I knew that Artem was crying as well.

"There is one thing that you have wrong in that statement, Julian." Artem walked closer to his side as he spoke. "It's not you guys that are lucky. It's me and Star. We get to be your parents. We get to watch you learn to be happy. And that, in my opinion, makes us the luckiest people in the world. I count myself as the luckiest man in the world, for my mate and for all you children that were meant to be mine. I went from being a lonely man to being someone surrounded by constant love and joy. Thank you.. Thank all of you."