Feral | ✓

FERAL: chapter forty-five

Gray looks over at Layne who's in awe at the sight of a new baby.

"You'll learn. You got this," he assures Foster.

Quinn moves to pull Foster into a hug and I move past them, towards Taylor who looks exhausted.

"Congrats, Taylor. How do you feel?"

Taylor smiles slightly and looks down at the baby. "A mixture between happy, tired, and downright terrified."

"You're going to be a great dad," I tell him.

His gaze remains on the baby. "I hope so."

"What name did you decide on?" I ask the both of them.

Foster returns to his mate's side and Taylor looks up at us. The two share a glance before they both smile.

"Ocean," Taylor says and I immediately know which of the two came up with the unique choice.

Foster glances down at his son and a tear finally falls. Wiping it away, he looks up and gestures for someone to come to him. When I turn around, I see that he was gesturing to Onyx who had been standing by the door beside Layne. Onyx moves to shake his head, but Foster rolls his eyes and stands up before making his way towards him. He grabs Onyx's arm and leads him to the bed.

I watch as Onyx freezes at the sight of the baby. At first, he seems almost scared to breathe or he'd hurt the baby, but a smile slowly makes its way onto his face and I hear him whispering quietly.

"Welcome to the world, Ocean."

...

Once the visitation hours are over, Onyx, Quinn, Layne, Gray, and I walk out the hospital together. Layne had fallen asleep and was being held by Gray. Taylor would stay in the hospital for at least another day, but when he was discharged, they planned to have a small get together for close family and friends who couldn't make it.

When we get outside, he stops to hand Layne over to Quinn and gestures for Onyx and I to stop also. Quinn takes Layne to the car and Gray turns to Onyx.

"Did something happen?" Onyx asks worriedly.

Gray shakes his head. "No, nothing's wrong," he sighs. "Look, Onyx, I know you can't remember the memories of before you shifted, but I owe you an apology. When you first arrived, I unfairly judged you. I made you out to be some kind of monster when, in reality, you're far from being one. Hell, you saved Layne at one point. So, I'm sorry for my prejudice towards you."

Onyx blinked before a smile broke out on his face and he waved Gray off. "It's fine, really."

Gray shook his head. "No it's not. Part of my job as the alpha is to make sure everyone is safe and that doesn't just mean from outside threats, but that they also feel safe to talk to me when something is wrong without being afraid. Over time, I've realized that's something I still need to work on."

"It's really okay, Gray. I'm not even one of the pack members, you shouldn't feel bad," Onyx said.

I opened my mouth to argue otherwise, but Gray beat me to it.

"That's actually another thing I wanted to mention. How would you feel about joining the pack officially? Becoming the second beta?"

Onyx's hazel eyes widened and he glanced over at me as if he was trying to figure out if Gray was being honest or not. I offered him a reassuring smile and he turned back to Gray with one of his own.