Chapter 33
Chapter Thirty-Three
NOVA
An excited Kane comes to the door as I drive into the parking garage. He grins as I grab my medical bag and get out of the van.
“Need anything else?” he asks.
“Not yet. I may ask you for help later though. Is that okay?” I ask, walking inside with him. At his nod, I continue. “How is Adira doing?”
“I saw a head,” he announces, making my legs walk faster. Handing him my bag, I begin to wash my hands.
“Is she pushing yet?” I ask conversationally. It looks like I’m getting here just in time.
“Not yet,” Kane says. “Morris looks worried though, and Demon keeps asking if she wants to get in the tub. Why would she want that?”
My lips twitch at his words, trying not to laugh.
“Remember how we discussed a water birth a few appointments ago?” I ask, drying off my hands. Without thinking, Kane digs inside of my bag and pulls out gloves, helping me get them on.
“Yes, Adira said we had a big tub here and that she’d consider it,” he says. “She doesn’t want that anymore though.”
“Let’s save Damon from having his head bitten off then,” I suggest. “Lead the way.”
I can already hear Adira’s loud groans as she labors, and Kane jogs upstairs with my medical bag as I follow.
“I have to push!” she screams, and Kane and I run into the pack bedroom.
“I’m here,” I say, forcing my voice to sound calm. She’s on her hands and knees on the bed, and there is in fact a head on its way. “Someone is in a hurry. Let me check to make sure that you’re fully effaced and there’s nothing in the way. You don’t need to move at all.”
Adira complains as I check her quickly, but this baby is doing perfectly fine on her or his own.
“Little pushes now,” I remind her. “Do what feels right.”
“Can I stay like this?” she gasps, referring to being on all fours.
“Absolutely,” I say, lifting a blue chuck pad to slide a new one underneath her. Morris changes his gloves and takes the dirty pad to throw away while Jed crouches by Adira’s face.
“You’ve been doing so good,” he says, pushing away damp hair from her forehead.
“We’re going to have a baby,” Damon whispers in awe beside me.
“Yes we are. Glove up and come catch your son or daughter with me,” I instruct. “Kane, you’re on picture duty. Don’t get in her way or she’ll yell at you, okay?”
‘“Yes, ma’am,” Damon and Kane say together, doing as I ask.
Adira is going to want these photos later, even if they’re just on someone’s phone. Damon gets on the bed behind Adira next to me with a pair of gloves, his eyes wide.
“She’s in so much pain,” he whispers, looking sick. “She can’t shield me from it through the bond.”
It reminds me of the odd bond I have with my sister. I may not be able to be anywhere near her when she’s in labor if she ever has kids because of it.
“Are you okay to help? That’s good, Adira. The head is almost out,” I tell her.
“I can do it,” he says, gritting his teeth hard.
“I can’t…It burns,” Adira cries out.
“You can do this,” Jed says. “Breathe, baby.”
Morris watches closely, swallowing hard as the baby’s head approaches its widest part.
“Don’t you pass out on me,” I warn him.
Kane dutifully takes photos with his phone, quieter than a mouse and stoic. No one enjoys watching their loved one in pain, and it is harder when the bond reflects it through to you.
Morris shakes his head as he continues to watch.
“There’s a lot of blood,” he rasps.
“It’s normal. Your job is going to be to change these out for me, okay?” I ask.
“Ahh!” Adira screams, pushing.
“Be as loud as you need to be,” I tell her. “You’re doing great. One more push should do for the head.”
Damon is mesmerized despite the mirrored pain, and I hope Kane manages to take a photo of his face. The awe of his child being born is amazing.
The baby’s head is out and I grab Damon’s hands to help support it.
“Shit,” he breathes.
“I won’t let you drop the baby. You’re doing great,” I reassure him.
Adira whimpers and I check her for signs of distress.
“You’re doing so good,” I tell her. “Morris, Jed. Help her get onto her knees. We’re going to let gravity help here. She’s getting tired and we’re so close.”
Morris and Jed both help her, letting her squeeze their hands as she pushes through another contraction. Two pushes later, we have a very healthy little girl sliding into Damon and my waiting hands.
“She’s perfect,” I whisper, helping to hand her up to Adira. “Carefully turn around and lay down. Congratulations, mama.”
Adira sobs as she carefully turns so she can lay down with her baby, while I clean up and Morris makes sure there’s a pad underneath his omega. We’ll change the sheets again once the afterbirth is taken care of, but she can relax for now.
Jed covers Adira up while she cradles the baby, and I begin to take her vitals.
“Hi baby,” she whispers, tears streaming down her cheeks. “I can’t believe you’re really here.”
“Believe it,” I say. “She’s so pretty.”
The baby is covered in vernix, but it doesn’t do a thing to detract from her long lashes and curly red hair. Kane takes a photo of Adira and the baby with a proud smile before pocketing it away.
“We have some time before it happens, but does anyone want to cut the cord?” I ask.
Jed’s eyes get really big, and I can see that I have a taker. Damon lays next to Adira after taking care of his gloves and washing his hands, looking exhausted.
“You’re amazing,” he mumbles. “I love you both so much, Adira.”
She smiles over at him before turning her smile on the rest of her pack.
“I love you all too,” Adira murmurs before looking back down at the baby. “You need a name, little one, don’t you?”
“What about Elani?” Kane asks. “It means light of the sun.”
I’m impressed by the name as I nod, quiet as I pull out what I’ll need to weigh the baby later.
“Is your name Elani?” Adira asks, looking down at her baby.
She looks up at her mama with wide eyes, already alert and wiggly. Those are all good signs, and I make a note as I half listen to her.
“I think she likes it,” Morris murmurs. “It’s a pretty name.”
My lips tip up as they all agree. I love being a fly on the wall while watching new parents bond. There’s nothing better than the afterglow of a birth for me.
Adira is a birthing rockstar.
The charity event is long over by the time I’m ready to leave. Adira has nursed her baby for the first time, had breakfast in bed, taken a shower, and is ready to go to sleep. Elani is eight pounds, four ounces and didn’t tear her mama at all during birth.
I think that’s a perk of being an omega and made to take a knot. It doesn’t mean it hurts any less while birthing a bowling ball though.
Yawning as I leave Pack Dresmond’s home at two in the morning, I focus on the road. I checked my phone once before I started driving, and I was able to see a few beautiful photos of Linus and Quinn in the aerial silks as they danced.
What caught my attention the most was how serene they both looked together. They’re so in love, and her baby bump didn’t affect her in the least. If anything, I imagine that being airborne must have been incredibly freeing.
My heater is working overtime as I drive, but I swear Bertha is laughing at me because it’s not helping at all. Blowing out a breath as I try to watch the road through the shit visibility, I frown as I see there’s a roadblock coming up ahead of me.
Taking a right to follow the detour even though it feels odd that this would be happening so late at night, I reach for my phone and call Caleb. They said they’d be waiting for me at my house, and I doubt that they’re asleep yet.
“ Hey, beautiful. Are you done?” he asks.
“I am. I’m driving home and I’m on Winston and Thresher. There was a road block and I had to take a detour. It doesn’t make sense that… Oh fuck,” I whisper.
All four tires explode as I drive over something in the road. The side street has abandoned warehouses around it. Whatever typically houses them are long closed and I’m not likely to be able to find anything open.
What’s worse? The black car that drives out to block me from any forward progress I might be able to make with fucked up tires.
“ Words, Nova,” Caleb growls. “ Give them to me.”
“I drove over nails or something but I think they were put there so my tires would explode. I’m a sitting duck, Caleb. There’s a car blocking the road now,” I explain, looking for the knife he gave me before I left the club.
At the time, I thought the wicked looking blade was overkill. I don’t think that anymore.
“Don’t get out of the car,” he says. “I’m headed your way and calling the Dresmond pack. I know they just had a baby, but they’re the closest to you.”
I open my mouth to say that maybe that’s not necessary as two men get out of the car with guns brandished in their hands. Fuck a duck.
Finding the knife on the ground, I pick it up and shove it in my coat pocket.
“Just a heads up that they have guns, Caleb. They’re also coming toward me. Shit!”
Ducking down as the men choose violence and shoot at my windshield, I gasp as I’m grateful that it doesn’t shatter.
What I’m not prepared for is one of the men jumping on my hood and beginning to kick in the windshield.
Holding my phone in my hand, I climb into the back and choose to jump out the side door.
“I love you,” I gasp into the phone. “Tell the guys.”
Running despite the fact that I know that they have weapons, I leave the phone line open and shove it in my pocket. I can’t focus on whatever Caleb is saying with the wind screaming around me, tearing my hair from its previously formal updo, but at least this way he can track me.
The ground is slick with snow and black ice, and there’s not any light since it’s a new moon out.
“It’ll be worse for you if you run, omega whore!” the voice yells.
From what I was able to see, these men were wearing ill fitting suits, and none of the mafia men I’ve been around would be caught dead in something as pedestrian as that. It reeks of outsiders.