31. An Unusual Birth
31
AN UNUSUAL BIRTH
“I read a weird book the other day,” Nat said, rubbing his swollen belly.
Duke looked up from rubbing Nat’s belly too. “Yeah? What kind of book was it?”
“It was about a man who got knocked up by a weird baker.” Nat shuddered and made a face. “His body was mostly flesh, but his cock was made of dough. Do you know how he made himself hard?”
Warily, Duke asked, “How?”
“He put it into an oven and baked it!” Nat cried. “That’s how his dough cock got hard! And—You haven’t heard the weirdest part yet. His cum is frosting .”
Duke made a face. “Why were you reading a book like that?”
“Because it sounded like nothing I’d ever read before.” Nat buried his face in his hands. “So... the other guy had buns in his oven, right? Literally.” Nat waited for Duke to groan. “Except it wasn’t exactly buns, it was gingerbread babies. And when they were born, they didn’t get squeezed out—they climbed out of him. ”
Duke looked incredulous. “Who would even write a book like that?”
“I don’t know! Some Anna Winecart person.”
Duke’s forehead furrowed. “I’m not sure I want to read that.”
“I read it so you don’t have to,” Nat said.
“Thank you,” Duke said dryly. He kept rubbing Nat’s belly, until something kicked.
Nat grunted. Duke’s eyes widened, just like the very first time he had felt their baby kick.
“Did you feel that?” Duke asked, sitting upright.
“No,” Nat said flatly, then laughed. “Of course I did!”
“Our baby.” Duke’s entire face went soft. He shuffled onto the floor and pressed his face against Nat’s belly, only for their baby to kick him in the mouth.
Duke grunted.
“Duke!” Nat squawked. “You knew there might be another kick!”
“That’s entirely my fault.” Duke was grinning, though. “That’s a feisty baby.”
“You just got kicked in the face!” Nat cried.
Duke shrugged. “Occupational hazard. Needs a bit more strength in that kick.”
Nat rolled his eyes so hard.
“I can only hope that my family doesn’t all want to be there during your labor.”
Nat squinted suspiciously. “They... want to be there? Oh, gods, they don’t want to watch the birth, do they?”
“I’ll draw a line at that,” Duke said firmly. “They might want to listen in though.”
“I’m not sure there’s much to listen to. It’s a lot of waiting.”
“Then they’ll probably grow bored and wander off,” Duke said.
“I hope so.”
They exchanged a look. Nat only felt calm and happiness. Over the past few months, Duke had given Nat everything he could think of—several more sets of comfortable clothes, his own credit card, piles upon piles of baby clothes and toys, lots of which Wanda had appropriated for herself.
It was a lot more than Nat had ever seen himself getting.
“I have something for you,” Duke said suddenly.
Nat blinked. “One of your trophies?”
It was Duke’s turn to roll his eyes. “No. Something else. Something much more valuable.”
“But you’ve already given me so much.”
Duke’s smile was all secretive and barely-concealed excitement. He scooped Nat off the couch and carried him upstairs to their bedroom. There, he set Nat gently on the bed, and retrieved something from their closet.
It was a small package, wrapped in deep blue satin wrapping paper, with a silver bow.
Nat frowned. “What’s the occasion?”
“No occasion. I just wanted to give that to you.”
Nat carefully picked apart the wrapping paper. His fingers brushed several thin, stiff edges... Paper? There were things between the pages.
He peeked through a hole in the wrapping paper, and his breath hitched.
It was a photo album. The photographs looked yellowed.
Nat’s hands shook as he tore apart the rest of the wrapping paper, only to find the photo albums of his Gran that he had thought he’d lost forever.
The photos inside were the ones he remembered, too. Gran holding him up in front of his birthday cake, Gran filling in coloring books next to him. She looked so happy in these pictures, and Nat had been so young back then.
His voice broke. “H-how?”
“I hired some people to rummage through the junkyard near your old Colorado apartment,” Duke said with a small smile. “It took a while, then another while to get the albums clean and restored.”
Nat burst into tears. Duke’s smile fell off his face.
“Nat?”
“I love you,” Nat blurted, hugging the photo albums to his chest as he flopped against Duke.
Duke rumbled, strong hands cradling Nat close, brushing his hair and rubbing his back. “I wanted to do something for you, sweetheart. I had the means. It would’ve been terrible if I didn’t try.”
Duke dropped kisses all over the top of Nat’s head and continued softly, “I love you too. Part of me thinks I’ve been in love with you ever since you showed up as a raccoon in your resume. You just kept bringing laughter into my life. Like a bright spark that lights up my days.”
Nat’s heart swelled. He nuzzled up Duke’s throat, and they shared a soft, sweet kiss.
“I was thinking...” Duke began.
Nat raised his head, swiping at his wet eyes. “What?”
“I want to drop the sex clause from your contract.”
Nat’s stomach plummeted. “Why?”
“You’re my mate. I don’t feel right paying you for sex,” Duke said. “I want it to be something freely given.”
“Oh.” Nat breathed out his relief, nodding. “I guess it doesn’t really matter. The sex part never felt like a job to me, anyway. I just want more of it, all the time.”
Duke grinned and kissed him deeply. “Ask, and you shall be stuffed.”
“Now?” Nat asked hopefully.
“Now,” Duke promised.
Nat’s pants were gone in an instant. Duke squeezed Nat’s cock with his fist and rubbed his hole with his other hand. The moment he was wet enough, Duke pushed in. Except Duke went slow these days, afraid of hurting their baby.
“Mine,” Duke whispered, pressing kisses to Nat’s shoulders.
“Let me bite you, too.”
Duke gave Nat his wrist. Nat found a good spot and sank his teeth in hard, breaking skin.
“Fuck!” Duke’s next thrust ground against Nat’s sweet spot, sending him over the edge. Nat screamed and shuddered; Duke held him through it all. “I’m yours, sweetheart.”
Nat clutched Duke’s arm against his chest, amazed that this was all his now.
* * *
“We’re not having a gingerbread man birth,” Nat said firmly to Duke, who was in his Hell-skin.
Duke scrunched his eyebrows together. “What makes you think I want that?”
“You brought gingerbread men here!” Nat said indignantly.
“That’s because I got a hankering to eat gingerbread men, after you kept talking about it,” Duke said dryly.
“What’s a gingerbread man birth?” Mallie asked, bouncing into the room. “I wanna see!”
Nat cringed. Why was Mallie here, when there were so many adults milling around in Duke’s family’s mansion? Duke’s parents and siblings had all wanted time with Mallie, Teddy, and Wanda, and Nat had assumed that she would be preoccupied through his labor.
Instead, she bounded over to where he was sitting on the edge of the guestroom bed, her face aglow with excitement.
Hubrie stepped in and cleared his throat. “Gingerbread children happen when a man falls in love with a special baker who puts buns in people’s ovens—”
“What’s wrong with putting buns in someone’s oven?” Mallie asked, confused.
Hubrie opened his mouth to speak.
Ever so calmly, Duke rose to his feet, crossed the room, and dragged Hubrie out.
“Wait! What was Hubrie gonna say?” Mallie raced after them, narrowly missing Duke shaking his butler just out of sight.
Hubrie shifted into a sparrow and flew away; Duke shook his fist at him.
“You’ll understand when you get older,” Duke said.
Mallie folded her arms and pouted. “I’m older than I was a second ago!”
Duke laughed. “Nice try. But I meant when you’re eighteen years old.”
Mallie scowled.
As Nat tried to think of something to distract her with, Duke’s brother Onyx walked by, with his omega Liem perched on his shoulders.
Onyx was an ink-black demon, Liem was a wolf shifter, and there were two small pups in Liem’s arms.
When Onyx saw them, he smiled. “Need some help?”
Before Nat could answer, a contraction rippled through him. It hurt.
Duke exchanged a look with his brother. The next thing Nat knew, Onyx was stepping into the room, grinning at Mallie.
“Looks like Nat and your Papa need a little time to themselves. Why don’t you come play with Liem and our pups?”
Mallie rolled her eyes. “My dads are always needing time to themselves.”
Nat froze, glancing at Duke. My dads?
Duke seemed just as surprised; they hadn’t planned on making him Mallie and Teddy’s official dad so soon.
“I’m—your dad, Mal?” Nat asked.
Mallie rolled her eyes. “Duh! You’ve already bonded; that means we’re all family, right?
They hadn’t told the kids that, either, but Nat and Duke hadn’t made any effort to cover up their bonding marks.
Duke grinned, his eyes bright. “Yeah. We’re all a family. Guess you’ll just have to deal with Nat and me taking a bit of time for ourselves, kiddo.”
“Hmmph! Fine.” Mallie sniffed indignantly, but then she smiled. “You’ve been a lot happier since you met Nat. Teddy and I weren’t sure what to think at first, since we thought you might kick us out, but if you’re both our dads, then I guess everything is fine.”
“Yeah, I would love to be your dad too,” Nat said, his heart swelling.
Mallie grinned and rushed over to wrap her arms around him. Then she hugged Duke too, and followed Onyx and Liem out of the guestroom.
Duke pulled Nat into a hug. “I guess we didn’t need that conversation with them.”
“Well, we should still tell them that all our children will be treated equally no matter who their biological parents are, but that’s a conversation for another day,” Nat said.
Duke rumbled. He tipped Nat’s face up for a sweet, lingering kiss, his gaze smoldering. “You’re amazing.”
“You’re—” Nat’s words cut off when another contraction hit him. “Fuck!”
Duke frowned, rubbing Nat’s belly and back. “Sweetheart.”
“It won’t be as long this time,” Nat panted. “This isn’t my first.”
He lay on his side, clutching his belly. Their baby had been kicking less lately because there was just not enough space in there for much movement at all.
“I can’t wait,” Duke murmured, climbing onto the bed to spoon Nat from behind.
Hubrie popped his head into the room. “Need a distraction?”
“Yes!” Nat said before Duke could stop him.
Hubrie glowed. “Have you seen the painting? Of Lil Hell Master crawling around like a horsie?”
Duke bared his teeth. Nat bit down his smile.
Yeah, he’d seen it. The painting had dramatic lighting and deep shadows, immortalizing the time when Duke had crawled around his family’s living room with three hell puppies on his back.
Nat had almost missed the painting when they passed it in the hallway, except Hubrie had nudged him and pointed it out.
“Oh! What about a trophy? ” Hubrie waggled his eyebrows.
Duke stiffened. “There are no trophies here—”
“There is. Your dads kept one.” Hubrie produced an old, tarnished trophy from behind his back.
“I want it!” Nat said before Duke could leap off the bed. “It’s mine! I’m the one in pain!”
Duke scrunched up his face, growling low in his throat. “Fine.”
He sat stiffly while Nat accepted it with grabby hands. Nat turned the trophy around and read the inscription.
Extreme Ironing World Championships
First Place: Duke Brimstone
“Extreme... ironing?” Nat said in disbelief.
“It exists,” Duke muttered.
“How extreme are we talking?”
“I brought an ironing board out to sea and ironed a towel while windsurfing off a wave onto the railing of a boat,” Duke muttered. “It’s really nothing to write home about.”
“But that’s... amazing!” Nat cried. “And incredible. It would never have occurred to me.”
“You haven’t even told him about the crazy one,” Hubrie said.
Duke looked like his teeth were being pulled. “I climbed a rock wall while bent backward ironing a pair of pants. In the rain. With two birds sitting on my knees and a radio hanging from the ironing board playing the national anthem.”
“That doesn’t even sound possible,” Nat whispered.
“That’s why they call it extreme.” Duke grimaced. “I stopped after a while, but I can’t bear to throw those trophies away. But I also can’t bear to tell anyone about the crazy, pointless things I’ve done.”
“You can tell me; I won’t laugh,” Nat said. “I’m glad I found out about this. It’s amazing.”
Duke stared at him in disbelief. Then he gave a helpless laugh, and gathered Nat against himself. “You’re so perfect for me, Nat.”
Nat grew warm all over.
Another contraction struck. Nat gasped and clutched at Duke, his body pushing hard.
Except this time his body released the baby.
Completely.
Their baby shot out like a ball in a professional sporting game, hurtling toward the end of the bed.
“Duke!” Nat yelped, pointing past his feet. “Catch!”
Somehow, he had wriggled too close to the mattress’ edge.
“Fuck!” Duke dove for their child like a footballer saving the ball. Their baby flew off the mattress.
Nat’s heart stopped.
Duke threw himself off the bed, his arms outstretched.
For a split second, all Nat could see was Duke’s hunched back beyond the bed. Then Duke lifted his hands, cradling their baby.
Nat breathed a huge sigh of relief. “Fuck, that was close.”
Duke chuckled and bit off the umbilical cord. “You just birthed a child, and those are your very first words.”
“My heart almost stopped!” Nat flopped against the sheets, reaching for their squirming, wailing child. She was so tiny in his arms, bedraggled and flushed pink. “But that’s behind us now.” Nat cradled his little girl close. When she heard his voice, her wailing quieted. “So glad you’re all right. Welcome to the family, Amelie.”
Duke rumbled and wrapped himself around Nat. When he peered over Nat’s shoulder at their daughter, his breath hitched. “She’s beautiful.”
“She’s ours.”
“You did so good, sweetheart. I’m so proud of you.” Duke showered Nat with kisses. Then he carefully kissed their baby on the side of her head—she had Nat’s nose, and when her eyes opened by a slit, Nat realized that her irises were a pale gold, like Duke’s. “Amelie. You’re dearly loved by all of us. I can’t wait to introduce you to your siblings.”
“And What Cart, and Hubrie. Oh, gods, I’m not ready for her to meet Hubrie.”
Duke laughed. “Fuck, I love you, sweetheart.”
Nat blushed all over, his heart swelling. “I love you too.”
It had been a crazy journey, getting to this point in their lives. But as he settled back into Duke’s arms, Amelie nuzzling into him sleepily, all Nat felt was a sense of peace, and great happiness. Duke had shown him that amazing things could happen to him. He had shown Nat that he could be accepted completely, loved completely.
And Nat loved his little family very much in return.
“After the kids get to hold her, do you think What Cart would like to rock her to sleep?”
“I’ll bet it does,” Duke said, kissing his bonding mark on Nat’s shoulder. “Whenever you’re ready, I’ll get Hubrie to send in our family.”
Nat nodded. “Give me five to rest, and then you can.”
Duke grinned.