2. Thirty- five

~ Harper’s POV ~ 

It has been a week since Katelyn was delivered and everyone has settled into a routine after the shock and pleasure subsided.

Mom suffered through severe blood loss during the C-section so she hasn't yet been discharged from the hospital. Dad took up the responsibility of taking care of his mate, staying in the hospital, making sure she was taking her meds and not surprising us by coding or something. You could easily see that he wasn't satisfied or relieved even when the doctors told him that she was finally out of the woods three days ago. He has been vigilant in taking care of his mate and I couldn't be prouder and understanding for him. 

Seeing his mate like that, bleeding profusely, clutching her pregnant belly must have been traumatizing for him. If it had been Zara, I don't know what I would have done, or how lost I would have felt. These days, I feel my thoughts running back to her more and more and they feel like a welcome distraction because, in the absence of my father, all the pack duties and lives have come to rest on me.

Not that I am complaining.

I have already been acting as the alpha behind the scenes, so acting as the alpha and giving out orders wasn't exactly any different than how I have been living this past year and a half. 

The first order I had out after Katelyn was born was to implement the patrolling plan suggested by Samantha. The new patrolling duties were explained to everyone in a pack meeting and roles were assigned to everyone according to their abilities. The system has been in place for five days now and has been working efficiently. There haven’t been any new sightings of these mysterious rogues till now, but I was optimistic that we would detect the presence the moment they chose to come near the pack boundaries.

Since both of my parents were mostly busy, caring for Katelyn became my responsibility. I had two small cots delivered and placed one in the Alpha's office, and the other in my room. 

She was already the apple of my eye and I refused to let anyone touch her. I bathed her, clothed her, changed her dirty diapers, fed her, and let her sleep on my shoulder. Well, she drooled more than she slept and left my shirts with a very wet patch. I had to constantly change my shirts because I didn't want her to catch a cold from her drool. I didn't expect babies to be this messy.

I quickly got a crash course on how to care for a baby from Aiden's mom and I was proud to say that I had quickly got the hang of everything in the first two days and didn't need any more assistance after that. The most cringe-worthy thing was to change her diapers. I couldn't wait for her to get potty trained already.

I was juggling work and my baby sis efficiently, trying my best to not mess anything up. My respect for mothers increased a thousandfold as I went through the same thing they do.

In the morning, I took her with me to the pack dining room, where I let everyone awe and coo at her, while I had my breakfast. That was probably the only time I let someone take her from me. I made sure only Samantha, Aiden, and Natalie held her; I wasn't going to take any chances with anyone else.

During the day, when I was busy in the office, I had her placed in the cot in my office, keeping her in my sight all the time. She was still too little to play with silly children's toys and slept most of the time. In the evenings, I took her out for a round around the pack grounds, which also worked to my benefit because that way, I was also able to check the pack exercises. I wasn't able to preside over the exercises anymore, so I handed them off to Ajax.

During the nights, I visited the hospital to check up on my parents. They looked exhausted. Mom was recuperating and started to look alive the moment I walked inside her room with Katelyn in my arms. Earlier, mom was too weak to hold Katelyn in her arms but in the last couple of days, she has been playing and spending more and more time with her. 

She has also started breastfeeding my little sister as she is off the pain meds. That was one sight I didn't want to see and so, this was the moment of the day where I spent with my dad. I caught him up with all the pack details and the solutions I came up with. 

Dad couldn't stop about how well the doctors were treating mom in the first three days. All that praise stopped when the doctor forced dad to take a fitness exam and prescribed him some anti-stress meds to shake off all the worrying and stressing, he had been doing. 

As I traveled to the hospital daily, I realized that it wasn't one block away from the pack house as I had thought in the frenzy to get my mom to the hospital as soon as possible. I was so numb to everything that was happening that I ran thirteen blocks, crying at everyone to step out of the way but it was still nothing because Dad carried Mom for thirteen blocks in her arms, not slowing down once. 

We hadn't yet had a celebratory party for the newborn baby because mom was indisposed. We were waiting for her to get discharged and then a party would be organized where all of the pack members would come and rejoice for the newest member of the alpha family.

Only the first child of the mated couple of the white wolves turns out to be the next white alpha. So, Katelyn wouldn't be a white wolf. There would be no guarantee what the color of her wolf was going to be. Most probably, she will have the same coat as my mom's wolf. Her shift was still too far away in the future and I wasn't going to worry about that right now.

What I was going to worry about right now was the preparation for the celebration of Katelyn's birth. My mom was going to be discharged today so Dad and I had decided to give her a surprise party.

I had asked Samantha to come with me and help get my mom discharged from the hospital. I figured she would be more comfortable if a girl was caring for her than her very male son. I had asked Aiden to care for my baby sister for the time being. I threatened to castrate him if even a single strand of her hair was harmed.

I turned off the ignition of my car and turned to face Samantha who seemed to be deep in thought. "How weird is it to have your sister and son to be born at the same time?"

I scrunched my nose. I hadn't thought about that. "This didn't even come to my mind. Mom was almost thirty-one weeks pregnant when she gave birth and Natalie is 25 weeks pregnant now. She has an alpha kid side her which will probably mean she will have a shorter gestational period."

"You're terrified, aren't you?" She inquired and smiled genially at me.

I gulped nervously. "I don't think I'm ready to be a father."

"You're already caring for Katelyn like a father, how's this baby going to be any different?"

"I don't know. I'm just really nervous. It's going to be my son. I mean, that's a big deal."

She sighed, "I have a feeling you will shine through. For now, let's make sure your mom gets to her party in time."

I sighed and nodded. Today's my Mother’s Day and I wasn't going to spoil it by thinking and panicking about me and my coming son. 

With that, I got out of the car and made my way to my mom's room with Sam by my side.