Chapter Text
“Where the hell is he and what the hell happened?” Kyuhyun snapped in the most bratty voice that had ever come out of his mouth towards the others but for once, none of the older alphas had it in them to actually reprimand the youngest. They were all far more concerned with the health of their one and only precious omega and really, they all understood Kyuhyun’s outcry towards them. He wasn’t the first to shout out in a panicked state about what was going on and it was fairly probable that he wasn’t going to be the last either, as there were still two other members of the pack to arrive at the hospital but for just a moment it was silent.
Shindong stepped up to the youngest alpha, “He’s in the theatre at the moment, having an emergency operation.” He stated in a calm, soothing voice, tempted to reach out and brush some of the strands of hair out of the others eyes as the long lengths had gone just a little crazy in his run up here, “We don’t know what’s wrong with him, he just collapsed at work with sudden pains in his stomach.”
Kyuhyun grimaced and shook his head, “But he was perfectly fine this morning when I left.”
“We know that,” came Eunhyuk’s voice as he appeared from down the corridor, “None of us have been able to account for anything strange with Leeteuk as of late to begin to explain this.”
Hugging his arms around himself, Kyuhyun blew out a breath, though whether to keep himself calm or to just not start throwing punches was anyone’s guess. “But they should know why, right, they should tell us.”
“Hey brat, cool it,” Heechul said as he approached, boldly wrapping the youngest alpha into a hug and holding him tight. “I get it, we all get it. We’re all worried sick about him but there’s nothing we can do but wait until they get him out of the theatre to get him sorted out.”
Kyuhyun looked like he was a moment away from really lashing out as usually he didn’t even try to accept hugs from anyone but Leeteuk, despite being the baby of the group but then he released a sob which had been building up and clung to the older. “It’s not fair!” Kyuhyun sobbed, “He’s a fucking angel and bad stuff keeps on happening to him! Why hyung, why is it always our angel?”
Eunhyuk sighed and stepped back from the pair, tugging Shindong away as well because it was clear that Heechul was going to be the best one to deal with this little situation. Even though Kyuhyun was a brat at times and got generally on everyone’s nerves with his rude attitude and abrupt nature, they all understood that he was still just a cub who was trying to find his way in the world. Having grown up in less that favourable circumstances, where he was basically neglected and abused most of the time, he was rough and a fighter and seemed to have a hatred against the entire world. But once you broke through that hard outer, protective shell, there was just a terrified cub under it who wanted to be loved, to be at peace with himself and be able to do everything that was expected of him without flying off the handle.
But changes like that were going to take time and Kyuhyun had made so much progress since the day he had turned eighteen and they had dragged him to live with them. Leeteuk had met the youngster whilst on a case with Siwon and had known instantly that he was meant to be part of their family, but the road to gaining the others trust was not an easy one in the slightest and there was still fight or flight syndrome in him. Thankfully Heechul was more than capable of dealing with the temper tantrums most of the time, seeing as he was their biggest diva by a mile and if worst came to the worst then Shindong could easily step in to be the muscle needed to bring the youngest alpha down.
Even with his dramatic weight loss over the last few months, Shindong was still one of the strongest out of all the alphas and frequently became the one who would deal with any fights that broke out. Mainly by sitting on whoever was causing the situation until they gave in because there was no moving of the big wolf once he got a hold of whoever it was causing problems.
Sighing, he retook his seat next to Donghae who was sniffling into a handkerchief once again, but this was a normal situation because Donghae would cry at any given moment. He cried when Leeteuk confessed to him, he cried when the other alphas accepted him, he cried when there was a cute puppy on the tv, he cried at sad endings to television shows, he cried at happy endings to televsion shows, he cried whenever anyone was arguing. He was just a big cry baby and a clingy sod who many presumed automatically to be an omega because he was such a soft hearted, gentle little thing that it was impossible to believe anything else. Until someone pissed him off and then they were in trouble. Donghae packed a heavy punch behind him and no one ever saw it coming because he would just see red and snap. Arguing with him was a bad idea most of the time though it took a lot to get the alpha angry. Eunhyuk could only count on his hand the number of times that he had actually seen the other get angry and they were all more than enough.
Gently he petted the other’s head, smiling as he saw Ryeowook producing yet more handkerchiefs to give to their cry baby and smiling towards their eternal maknae. Ryeowook had been their youngest alpha until Kyuhyun showed up but since there was only a year between them, they shared the title. Not that either one of them liked it too much and rarely acted like the age they were supposed to be. “Just how many of those things do you own now?” Eunhyuk asked, indicating the handkerchief’s in the youngsters hands.
“They’re all Donghae’s,” Ryeowook replied back with a tight smile, “Cause it’s best that I carry them around.”
“Hey, I’m not that bad,” Donghae sulked towards the younger alpha.
Ryeowook rolled his eyes, sighing deeply as he glared at the other, “Yeah, just keep telling yourself that, you idiot.”
Letting out a sigh, Eunhyuk was just about to tell the pair to give it a rest before Leeteuk started having a go at them for arguing once again but found himself coming a stop when the words completely failed him. He didn’t know for certain if Leeteuk was going to even pull through from whatever was going on with him and it was a terrifying thought indeed.
Subconsciously he rubbed at his arm before pulling back the sleeve to stare at the mark on his right hand wrist. It looked like two letters making up a diamond and it always made Eunhyuk relax just a little seeing it. It was Leeteuk’s mark, his own unique signature imprinted on his skin that had been so faint for so many years. He could still recall the moment he met Leeteuk, when he was a fresher at university and had taken it upon himself to go to the freshers ball which was all well and good till the alcohol started flowing and some alphas started to act like jerks towards a group of omegas who were present.
Leeteuk had stood up to the idiots, who were all bigger than him in appearance and one of them took offence to being bossed about by an omega. He had made the mistake of hitting Leeteuk across the face and at that moment Eunhyuk had saw red. There had never been an actual confirmation of what had happened after that in the slightest, only that Eunhyuk had stepped in and managed to take the bullying alpha down, then gotten Leeteuk out of that ball and safely back to his own dorm. Where promptly he had had an argument with Heechul, who had caught the dreaded fresher’s flu and had been unable to protect his omega that night, before the omega had told them both off and burst into tears.
Eunhyuk stayed the night to ensure that the omega was safe and woke up the next morning next to his mate and his fellow alpha pack mate as if it were the most natural thing in the world. Then spent two weeks apart form the pair as inevitably he had caught the dreaded fresher’s flu from Heechul. It had taken them a little while to figure things out, but Leeteuk was always there to help settle down any situation and bring some form of peace back to the alphas whom he loved unconditionally. Except when he wasn’t in the mood to deal with them at all and would just let them go wild so that he could be there to patch them up with cute character plasters and call them all freaking idiots for worrying him half to death.
Now they were all worrying about their precious little omega and were angry that they weren’t there to help him when he needed them the most. It was frustrating and annoying, and he let out his own bitter sight. Which turned into a yelp when both Donghae and Ryeowook wrapped themselves around him in a tight hug. “Our omega is strong,” Ryeowook stated bluntly, “He’ll pull through from whatever this is and tell us all off for worrying about him. You know this, Hyuk.”
Blowing out a sigh, Eunhyuk nuzzled back at the second youngest and sighed, “I know, but it still doesn’t stop me worrying about him. I mean, it could be anything that’s wrong with him and it just makes me so worried. What if he’s been hiding his pain from us, what if…”
“You start thinking like that and it’ll never stop,” Shindong stated with a shake of his head, “Leeteuk will be fine, as Wookie said. I’ve got a feeling that we’re all in for a big change in our lives, but it’ll be a good change. One that we’ve needed for a while.”
The trio on the plastic chairs blinked at the other alpha in surprise but before anymore questions could be asked, there came the sound of running feet as both Siwon and Yesung arrived at the same time. Clearly, they were out of breath and panicking, as that was definitely the default setting for everyone right now.
“What’s going on?” Yesung wheezed, shaking his head to clear the spell of dizziness that had struck him, “Who put Leeteuk in the hospital?”
“We don’t know,” Heechul stated, rocking Kyuhyun back and forth even if he was still whimpering, “He’s in theatre at the moment. We haven’t heard anything in a while.”
“Got a call saying he had been rushed here after getting horrendous stomach cramps and prolonged pain,” Eunhyuk said, shaking a little as he approached the pair, “When I got here they were taking him straight down for an operation but that was the last that we knew.”
Siwon blew out an annoyed air, “Give me a moment, I’ll go see who I can ask.”
“No, you bloody well stay here,” Yesung snapped, “He could be due out any minute and it’ll be better for all of us to hear whatever’s wrong with him together.”
Siwon glanced towards the other, a slight challenge in his eyes but a cough from Heechul had him glancing at their youngest and he sighed before nodding. “Okay, I’ll stay put. Sorry, I’m just…”
“We know,” Yesung snapped, sounding more stressed and bratty than what Kyuhyun had done when he arrived, “Just get your detective head out of your ass and be Leeteuk’s bloody alpha this time will you?”
Shindong moved quickly, grabbing the black haired man and dragging him away from the group even though no one was really in the mood to challenge Yesung. He got this way when stressed or worried, much like Kyuhyun but for completely different reasons and it was best to just get him away from people for the most part so he could sit and sulk quietly in a corner. The only difficulty was in ensuring that the artist didn’t go relapse into bad habits like he could be prone to. Thankfully seeing as everyone was gathered together, there was hopefully only going to be a very minimal risk of something like that happening.
Letting out a sigh, though whether of relief or something else, Eunhyuk disentangled himself from Donghae and Ryeowook and moved over to Siwon, “I guess we’re all just strung out.”
“If we weren’t, I think something would be very wrong with the world,” Siwon replied, blowing out a long stream of air before shaking his head, “Though I swear if he’s been hiding anything from us.”
Eunhyuk shook his head, “We would have noticed, he’s not that good at hiding things from us.”
A raised eyebrow was his answer but before Eunhyuk could open his mouth to defend himself, the door to the waiting room they were in opened and a doctor walked in with a relieved looking smile on his face. “Well, good evening gentlemen,” he started before immediately getting hounded by eight different lots of questions.
“Where’s Leeteuk?”, “What happened to him?”, “Is he well?”, “Can I see him, like right now?”, “Why did he need surgery?”, “Who hurt him?”, “He better be okay else I’ll do something nasty to you!” and “Is there anything we need to do to ensure his safety.”
Thankfully the doctor seemed to be perfectly used to this sort of madness and just let it wash over his head as he had realised several different things the second that he had walked into the room. Firstly, he was dealing with all male alphas who were not blood related but were pack which explained the markings that his patient had displayed on his arms. Though he was rather surprised to find himself facing an alpha pack with only one omega in it, as they were quite rare, but he knew far better than to make any assumptions or to even question how it would all work out. Especially given that he had eight very distressed alphas to deal with, who would probably turn into seven annoyed ones and one super proud on once he revealed what he had to tell them.
“Leeteuk is now in the recovery ward and he will shortly be moved back up to the main ward. The operation was a success and both he and the baby are well and in very good health,” the Doctor said with a gentle smile.
There was a long pause.
“B-b-baby?” Kyuhyun was the one to break the silence, looking completely stunned and shocked, “What baby?”
Which confirmed the other aspect of this whole situation that the Doctor now had to deal with. “Your omega was pregnant, but as with the case with most omegas who have more than one alpha partner, their bodies will hide the pregnancy usually until the last trimester as a natural protection from our ancient times. Most alphas did not like accepting cubs that weren’t their own back in the day and even though times have changed, an omegas instinct is still to protect their unborn child. With there being so many of you, I believe the instincts were far stronger, so the cub was hidden until the point where he was ready to be born.” Taking a moment to breath, the Doctor did smile brightly, “However he is a very healthy baby and will grow strong and fast. If you want, I can perform a paternity test to confirm which of you is the father, though I will understand if you want to delay it for a little so that you can visit your omega and the new arrival first.”
Shock was still reverberating around the room at this news but Yesung was the first to stand up and approach the Doctor, “How many of us can visit him at once?”
“I shall get him allocated to a private room so you can all visit together, if you prefer?” the man replied with a seeming instant ability to just understand how everything worked. “Unless you would like to visit him separately?”
“No, we’re all in this together,” Heechul supplied, shaking himself out of the stupor that he had somehow gotten himself into, “How long till he’s up?”
“I’d say another thirty minutes or so, as long as there’s no complications but I very much doubt that there will be,” a soft smile crossed the man’s face, “I’ll admit gentlemen that I’ve seen all sorts of omegas through these doors for a variety of reasons, but yours is one of the most healthiest ones that I have ever come across. You’re all doing an outstanding job with keeping a pack like this running in such a good manner.”
Shindong grinned, “All Leeteuk’s work, we’d be at each other’s throats most of the time otherwise.”
Ryeowook nodded, “Yup, without a doubt.”
The Doctor smiled and nodded, “I’ll send one of the nurses to fetch you all once mother and baby are back up in the ward. You should be proud of yourselves gentlemen, very proud indeed.”
The door closed behind him and there was a long moments of silence before Heechul very gently unhooked his arms from around Kyuhyun and turned to the others. Gently he licked his lips, knowing that right now there was a lot riding on his shoulders because he was the first alpha, the one with the technical clout to deal out any form of justice that needed to should the situation arise but as he stared at the others, all he could think about was one very clear thing. They’re lives were all about to drastically change, that much was clear and there were going to have to be a lot of changes around the house and the dynamics of everyone’s actions and a whole bunch of other considerations.
Suddenly though he laughed aloud, a big blooming smile crossing his face before he covered his grin with his hands though it did not last very long in the slightest. The only thing that radiated out of his entire being was sheer joy and the uttermost feeling of relief. “Oh my god, you guys, this is…this is just…”
Yesung blinked, looking concerned, “Heechul?”
The elder alpha grinned happily towards the younger, “Do you realise how happy Leeteuk’s going to be? One of us has given him a cub, the one thing that he was always told that he could never have.”
Eunhyuk stepped closer, “What?”
Shaking his head, Heechul tried to be serious but couldn’t stop the sheer elation and joy from seeping out of his very being into the others. He could feel their confusion but also the joy that was filling their hearts. “Leeteuk was always told from when he was young that he would never be able to have a child of his own, because he was destined to have an alpha pack that would never agree on who had the right to father a child with him and if he did get pregnant then he would attacked by one of his other mates because alphas are supposed to be possessive bastards like that.”
“You most certainly are,” Kyuhyun stated, crossing his arms over his chest.
“Hell, we all are,” Shindong replied, knocking the youngster on the head, “But think about it. Leeteuk has a child now, his own child, one that has lived despite everything that he was ever told.”
Heechul nodded, “He’s going to cry for months because he’ll be so happy.”
“I don’t have enough handkerchiefs to deal with two cry babies’,” Ryeowook supplied unhelpfully, digging Donghae in the ribs who was grinning like an idiot but also crying.
A glare was sent his way but Donghae shook his head, “I’m not going to be as bad as that.”
“Bets on how long it will take Donghae to start crying once he see’s the baby?” Yesung snarked playfully before ducking a knock on the head from both Eunhyuk and Shindong, “Yah! It’s the truth and you all know it. Though horrible question coming up?”
“I’m not hurting a cub or anyone else,” Eunhyuk stated immediately, shaking his head, “If my mate is happy, then I’m happy.”
“Me too,” Donghae said, “I’ll just be happy to see him happy with a cub and I’ll raise it as my own regardless.”
Ryeowook grinned, “Babies are hard work so we’re all going to have to support Leeteuk through everything and since I have to put up with you lot anyway, I’m not going to complain at all.”
“Leeteuk’s happiness is the most important thing,” Yesung said, letting out a sigh as he glanced at the others, “and cub’s happiness to. I don’t want him growing up in an environment of arguing alphas constantly having a pissing contest. It’ll do him no good in the slightest.”
All eyes shifted to the last remaining four, Kyuhyun shifting unsteadily on his feet as he looked down to the ground, “I know nothing about cubs or how to raise them…I hope you idiots can teach me how…how to be…a good…”
“Don’t worry Kyuhyun, you’ll be the bestest uncle out of all of us,” Heechul grinned, ruffling the youngest alpha’s hair just to get a familiar scowl back on his face, “It’s a good thing you bastards are Leeteuk’s world cause otherwise I would come in to knock some sense into you brats. Cause any of you didn’t treat him right…”
“I’d be the one to punch you all in the nose and set you back in your proper place,” Shindong finished off, a cheeky grin on his features but no one dared to comment back against the other alpha. “I guess we’re all agreed then, no jealous behaviours or rough claiming’s or anything like that right?”
There was another long beat of silence for a moment and slowly everyone turned to the alpha who hadn’t spoken a word. Siwon was standing with his back to everyone, facing the door so it was impossible to see the others expression or really read his aura. A sense of dread passed through all the alphas as almost telepathically they shared the thought that the silent alpha had been raised on certain principles that had in the past caused issues. Mainly when said alpha had first shown up and wasn’t used to the polygamous life that he now lived with everyone, but they really hadn’t had the conversation about what to do should a cub turn up in their lives.
The silence continued on for nearly a minute before Kyuhyun let out a little growl as he stepped towards Siwon.
The other alpha raised his head towards the youngster, blinking several times in question before rolling his eyes and shoving the youngest alpha away with his hand over his face. “Cool it cub, I’m fine.”
“You didn’t say anything towards us,” Kyuhyun growled again, his anger almost palpable which caused Siwon to sigh in exasperation and thrust his phone towards the others face. Kyuhyun was thrown by the move and blinked a couple of times in confusion as he tried to figure out just what was being shown to him before taking the others phone into his hands. He blinked again and let out a chortled sound then looked back at the other alpha. “That’s how much baby stuff costs?”
“What?” Eunhyuk said, moving to grab the phone off Kyuhyun to see that it was open on a shopping site with an basket that was already filled with nearly fifty thousand won’s (£328/$415) worth of items ranging from baby grows to bibs, a car seat and a push chair plus bottles and formula and then additional items like blankets and bedding and toys and the list was just endless. Eunhyuk blinked and turned towards Siwon, “You were just going to buy all of this stuff?”
Siwon nodded, “Yeah, I’ve had a savings account going since I got with you guys in case something like this happened. Sorry, I just went into auto pilot to sort…”
The next second Siwon found himself on the floor under a literal dogpile of all the other alphas which robbed him of his breath for a good twenty seconds and his hearing for another minute as there were just so many words being shouted at him. When he eventually got a chance to sort out the mess that was above him, he just grinned up towards the others as they got up off him. Shaking his head, he blew out a sigh, “You seriously thought I was going to go all possessive alpha on you guys?”
“It was possible,” Yesung shrugged, “I mean, you were brought up totally traditionally and all that jazz.”
Siwon rolled his eyes, “I may have been, but you forget my line of work right now.”
Shindong laughed and locked his arm around the taller man’s neck, nearly sending him toppling to the floor once again. “It’s hard to imagine you not being the goodie two shoes that wouldn’t do anything against any code is all.”
Ryeowook sighed, “Right, now that we know that no one is going to eat the baby, can we find out if we can go and see him yet?”
Eunhyuk was already at the door and literally jumped out of his skin when a nurse happened to open it at the same time. She smiled charmingly up at them all, having been previously informed of what she was going to find and bowed a little bit, “Mother and cub are in their private ward right now, though both are sleeping. Follow me.”
There was a clamour to follow the nurse out, but they managed to straighten themselves out and walk decently along to the room like some form of respectable alphas that they were supposed to be. The private room was larger than the others and lying on the bed, curled up on his side in a very deep sleep was their beautiful omega Leeteuk. There was a gently glow to his skin and hair, making him appear far more angelic than what he normally did and there was just the softest smile on his lips.
Heechul pushed through in order to press a kiss to Leeteuk’s head and then moved back to allow the others to get in their own hug and kiss. A few playful grumbles came his way but Heechul just ignored them, instead turning his attention to the cub that had suddenly landed in their lives. Only to be mildly surprised when he found Siwon holding him close and scenting the tiny cub. Surprise gave way to joy as he stepped closer to the other, “Well, they do say that the father knows his cubs from the second they arrive. Congratulations, Siwon.”
Looking up startled, a blush crossed Siwon’s face for a second before he smiled back, “Thank you.” He looked down at the baby in his arms, “He’s beautiful.”
“Oh? It’s a mini horsey,” Donghae playfully jibed, leaning closer to get a better look, “Though I think he’s going to look far more like his Mama.”
Shindong snorted, “Nah, we’ll have a mini-won running around soon, just you wait and see.”
“Oh great, two idiots to deal with,” Yesung sassed, though his eyes were shining with pride all the same, “Can’t wait to fight the photographers off him.”
Ryeowook grinned and poked lightly at the cub’s nose, “Hehe, he’s got his Daddy’s scrunched up expression.”
“Quit it, you,” Siwon said, pushing the hand away from his cubs’ nose, “He’s just been born, at least give him some rest.”
“Boop,” Kyuhyun said, pushing at Siwon’s nose before doing the same thing to the baby though far more gently. “Hmm, he does. Okay, you’re the Daddy, no question about that.”
Eunhyuk sighed, “Don’t get jealous, shrimp, you said you knew nothing about cubs before.” Hugging around Siwon, he grinned at the other in a wolfish way before gently petting the baby’s head, “Don’t worry, sweetie, Uncle Eunhyuk will keep you safe from Devil Kyu and his naughty ways.”
“Cheers, jerk,” Kyuhyun said, stepping away though there was too big a smile on his face.
“Guys,” a tired voice called out to them, sounding as though it was still caught in the realms of sleep, “No fighting in the hospital.” Leeteuk blinked sleepily at them all, a smile on his face as several hands grabbed for his, whilst someone moved to spoon him from the back and nuzzle into his neck. He was far too tired to really pay attention to who was who at the moment, but he was glad that he could feel all of his alpha’s love right now.
“Don’t worry, Mama Teuk,” Siwon’s dee voice penetrated the haze of sleep as the alpha approached with the bundle in his arms. “We’re just playing.”
Blinking a bit more, Leeteuk seemed to almost fall back asleep before coming sharply to his senses as the cub was placed next to him. He was confused for two seconds and then let out a happy little squealing noise as he pulled the baby as close to his body as he could do. Tears brimmed over his eyes as he stared at his son, but there was the most beautiful smile on his face ever. Silently he raised his head to look directly at Siwon who nodded in return. “A father knows his cub, but we’re getting a paternity test just to be one hundred per cent sure.”
Leeteuk hiccupped and nuzzled against his baby, “I don’t care who the father is, just…just thank you…thank all of you. I have a baby, a cub of my own. My own son.”
Very gently Leeteuk was engulfed in a big eight way cuddle from all his alphas as he sobbed his heart out in joy and excitement. All his dreams had come true and he couldn’t have felt anymore elated about it. Well until the exhaustion of the operation reclaimed him five minutes later but no one bothered to move in the slightest from their position of protecting both the omega and the pup. They shared their love and affection together as their pack grew just a little bit more.