2. STEFANOS DE VESILIOS

Duke Michael de Vesilios was the Duke of the Vesilios Kingdom. The Vesilios family were huge, but it had been ages since the duke had reached out to any of his family members. The only one he had in his huge manor was his wife and Omega, Duchess Imelda de Vesilios and his staff who were all members of his pack. The Alpha had left his family when he had turned into a real Alpha and set out to create a pack of his own.

A pack he created indeed,  but there was no heir to it. Until that fateful day when Imelda gave birth to their first pup, but dying herself in child birth.

Well, it is safe to say, nothing has ever been the same after that.

The Duke would look after his new born son, but it was never enough. The baby would always cry, day and night in complete clockwise movement. A number of nannies had been changed in the last few weeks that had passed, but none stayed longer than fortnight, for they claimed the pup was insufferable and annoying. Claiming they never met a baby this whiny.

The Alpha was furious. A baby was a baby, he thought. It was its nature to be whiny. But little did the Duke know that babies are whiny yes, but his pup in particular, was just a real handful. The pup liked none of his nannies, and would often cry in his father’s arms too.

The Alpha grew weary and desolate, for the loss of his mate was already hurting him from the inside, and he did not know what else to do for the baby. He had promised Imelda he would protect their son, so why was it proving so hard? Why was the baby making everything more difficult?

He thought that it was merely his fate, for he had lived a lavish life full of pleasure and happiness, so it was time for payback, until one fateful day, when something different happened.

Lord Mikalis, the uncle of the Duke had decided to pay his nephew a visit as a means to offer his condolence for the loss of his Omega and congratulate him on the birth of his first pup.

But alas! The Lord hadn’t come alone. For with him were his wife, Lady Leubort, and his unmarried daughter, Lady Sofia.

Sofia was a beautiful lady for her age, but her beauty wasn’t the only thing that had caught the widowed Dukes attention. It was her wolf, calling out to his own. With heart swelling in new found love and happiness, the Duke boldly embraced his new second chance mate, right there in front of her parents. But neither of them questioned the man’s atrocity, rather they Lord smirked to himself, as if he had gained victory over something.

Perhaps he did. Because right after that encounter, the Duke was married to the lady, who had now become Duchess Sofia de Vesilios.

The Alpha then introduced his new Omega to his first born, and to his delight, Sofia had seemed to love the baby. She adored the little Alpha, and smiled fondly at him like his biological mother would. She and nursed him and sang lullaby’s to him when he had to sleep. Duchess Sofia had accepted the baby as her own, although it wasn’t hers at all.

It was one eventless night, when the couple were preparing for bed, Sofia asked the question she should have asked the Duke when she first met the baby.

‘'I never asked this before, but pray tell me, what is the child called?'’ Sofia looked at her husband with confusion in her face, but the Alpha had gone ashen as he stared at his hands. ‘'I-I don’t know. He isn’t called anything.'’

That wasn’t the answer Sofia was looking for. ‘'Nonsense! Of course the baby has a name! It has to! It’s been more than a month or two since he was born! Surely there is a name he goes by!'’

When the Duke made no attempt to correct her, Sofia’s eyes grew wide as she neared her husband. ‘'So...you mean to say...you haven’t even named him? He doesn’t have a name?'’

Reluctantly, the Duke shook his head, making his wife gasp in horror. ‘'How could that be? He is your first born! You should have named him!'’

There was a lot in the Dukes head, a lot he wanted to say. That he was too occupied with his wife’s death that he forgot. Excuses like, the baby was always a crying mess that he never had the time or his busy state affairs that were too much in his head to let him spare some time for his baby.

So many reasons, but they all sounded like futile attempts at making lame excuses. He could not possibly tell that his wife, so he stuck with that one response he was honest about.

''I am sorry. I had been a very neglectful father. Imelda would be ashamed of me.’’ He fidgeted with his hands like a lost lamp, making his Omega feel his vulnerability. She smiled at him softly before sitting beside him on the bed and patting his back.  

‘'It is alright, for it is not too late to make amends. We shall hold a ceremony tomorrow for the baby if it is okay with you.'’

The Duke looked at his wife with love and pride in his heart, thankful for this second love that he found. ‘'What would have I done without you?'’

Sofia giggled. ‘'I wonder too.'’

-----

The baby no longer cried from day to night. He no longer was called a whiny baby. The manor was no longer filled with the cries of the baby and no tension of the Dukes wrath was in the air. The pack had their new Luna to put things in the right place, same goes for the child, who looked at Sofia as his own mother. It seemed like what the baby was missing, was a mother. He cried from day to night because he wanted to be near his mother, he whined because he wanted to be fed by his mother. It wasn’t the baby’s fault. He was just...lonely.

And now, the baby finally had a name. A name Sofia had given him.

His name was Stefanos.

-Zohara