Chapter 24
Chapter
Twenty-Four
When I woke up, it was dark outside. I’d been tucked in under the covers, but I was alone. It still smelled like Sabrina and Mike, which is probably the only reason I didn’t freak out. Moving out of bed, I left the light off in the bathroom as I turned on the shower.
I felt gross. After walking and being outside in the sun, I hadn’t showered. Once I did, I pulled my hair back and stepped into the same sweats I had on earlier. Walking next door, I stepped into the nursery.
It was exactly how I envisioned it back at the house.
We reordered and delivered the furniture we had set up in the house here.
Lauren, Beau, and Laila did a bunch of the work, painting and putting up everything.
Peter even helped a little in getting the furniture moved into place.
I also had a bassinet ready if I wanted to set it up next to the bed.
Pushing the double doors open to the balcony, there had been a lot of work done to make it safe. No one imagined she would grow up here. The new house on Mrs. Truman’s land was being built. It would be our home. I just hoped it would be for the three of us, and not the two of us.
The breeze cooled the warm air from outside. I leaned against the doorframe, my arms wrapped around the now weirdly empty space after she dropped so low. Closing my eyes, I reached out through the mind link.
From my side, I could feel the bond was still strong.
However, the thread of our bond that disappeared into the endless darkness was fraying.
Our bond was fraying. I couldn’t feel the other side and the emptiness was enough to choke me.
My wolf whimpered, trying to reach out with me; as though the two of us together could do something.
I love you. I miss you. I wish you were here with me.
Despite knowing my words wouldn’t reach him, I still said them. I needed Marcus to know that he still was in my heart. No matter what. Maybe one of these times my words would slip through. That he would hear me, even in the darkness.
Slowly, I opened my eyes. I turned back to see Eva standing in the doorway. She came forward as I stood up from my lean. Rubbing my arms, she leaned her head against my shoulder.
“I came in to check on you. You okay?”
I nodded. “Kinda.”
“Kinda?” She leaned her head up to look at me. “What’s wrong?”
Looking down at her, I smirked. “I think this is the first time I’ve seen you without your platforms on, and I can’t believe how tiny you are.”
Eva laughed, smacking my arm. “I don’t sleep in them! Gods! Also, you would have to sandwich three of you together to make my width. So you are welcome to try to tell me I’m smaller than you.”
“It’s just nice to know that there is a dragon out there shorter than I am.”
“Oh, hush!” She smacked me again. “Are you feeling any contractions?”
I shook my head. “And do that to you? At what…?” Leaning back, I looked at the time. “Three in the morning? Never.”
“Thank you for your consideration, but I still need to check on you.”
My eyes narrowed as I glared at her. “Check on me, as in…”
“Stick my fingers in your ass. Come on. Lay down.”
Groaning, I let my arms fall as I reluctantly followed her back into my room. Lying down, I took a deep inhale of Mike and Sabrina’s scent. It relaxed me. Not even close to Marcus’ birch wood, but it helped to have something so familiar.
“Pants off. Legs and ass up. Tuck that tail back, too. Come on.”
“Would you have woken me up if I were asleep for this?”
I followed her instructions. She pulled on gloves and sat down on the edge. Again, she used some gel to lube her fingers and gently entered me.
“No. You’re awake, though. Which means something woke you up. So I want to check.”
Nodding, I leaned back on the pillow with my arms crossed over my chest. I couldn’t remember the dream I was having or anything that would have woken me up. There was nothing I heard either, so it was too sound of reasoning for me to fight her.
“You’re at six right now.” She pulled her fingers out and took off the glove. “I might actually set up the bed.”
“It took a few hours, though, to go from four to six.”
She smirked as she slipped my pants back on. “My sweet pup, you could go from six to having a baby in your arms in twenty minutes. Don’t sell yourself short.”
Getting up, Eva didn’t close the door behind her. “I’m going to bring my birthing stuff in. I’ll be right back.”
I nodded, looking up at the ceiling. I stared at it for a while, not thinking about anything in particular when I felt a stomach cramp. It wasn’t bad. Just like if you ate something expired, and it was giving you the bubble guts. After another few minutes, it happened again.
Eva stepped into the room and saw my grimace. “Colton?”
“Stomach cramp.”
She barked out a laugh. “Those are contractions, not stomach cramps. Come on, I need you up so I can make the bed.”
Groaning, I got up and stretched. My muscles felt weird: sore and loose at the same time. Eva was making up the bed, putting a couple of layers down before putting a blanket on top of that. After that, she put another smaller pad about two-thirds of the way down.
We talked about birthing options before, and Marcus had mentioned a water birth. That scared the shit out of me. I couldn’t wrap my head around being in water and giving birth in water. Nothing about that sounded right. At all.
“Colt?” Sabrina was at the doorway, rubbing her eyes. “Everything okay?”
“It’s nothing, Rin. Go back to bed.” I smiled.
Sabrina finally looked over at Eva, busy setting up stuff, and her eyes narrowed. “Colt, are you lying?”
“No?” I looked over at Eva.
She chuckled, though. “He isn’t lying. He just doesn’t know what’s coming. Well, no…that’s wrong. She is coming and soon.”
Stepping into the room, Sabrina stood next to me and wrapped me up in the blanket she had. We stood watching Eva move things around. I sucked in a breath, and my eye twitched for a moment. Sabrina looked up at me, her eyes wide.
“You’re having contractions, aren’t you?”
I nodded. “It’s not bad, though.”
“Not yet,” Eva amended my statement.
“Mike is coming. He’s throwing on some pants.”
Nodding, I leaned my head against hers. “If you two could scent me again, that would be nice. If that’s okay, Eva.”
“That’s fine, dear. Whatever makes you more comfortable. Usually, we would have your mate scent you, but if those two are even a fraction of help, we will take anything.”
Kissing Sabrina’s head, I turned and went into the bathroom. As I went to pee, I looked down and noticed my sweats were soaked all the way down the pant leg. Blinking, I reached over and opened the door. Mike and Sabrina were talking to Eva.
“Um…guys…”
All three of them looked up at me.
“I think…my water just broke.”
Eva moved immediately. She came around the bed, pulling on her gloves as she went. Helping me step out of my sweats, she wiped up what was on the floor. A contraction hit a minute later, and I leaned over, holding onto the counter and the bottom of my stomach. This one was painful.
“Colt!”
I breathed slowly through it as Sabrina took hold of my arm.
“Bring him in. That just kicked us off. I don’t think this is going to be a long labor.” Eva was moving even faster now.
Sabrina helped me to the bed, and I shook my head. I didn’t want to lie down. The thought made me want to cry. Instead, Eva moved some of the pads and pulled all the pillows off the bed.
“Colt, kneel on the bed and use the headboard. Sabrina and Mike, if you want to kneel on either side of him. Try to take some of the stress off the headboard.”
Slowly, I crawled into the middle of the bed. Putting my hands on the headboard, I barely had time to get into a comfortable position when another contraction tore through me. This time, I groaned, using the headboard and arching my back towards the bed. Damn it. Damn it, it hurt.
“I got you, Colt. We are here.”
Mike grabbed my hand with both of his, creating an anchor for me. Sabrina did the same, and I closed my eyes. Their grip was firm, and I took in their scents.
“Colton, I’m going to check again, alright? You need to relax and breathe. Deep and long breaths.”
I nodded, listening to Eva as I focused on relaxing. She inserted her fingers, but I was already soaked from my water breaking. It didn’t take her nearly as long to check.
“Yup. This little one is coming. Colton, I need you to tell me when the pain and contractions start to feel like you need to poop. That’s when we are going to push, alright?”
Nodding again, I hissed and groaned as my hands squeezed their hands. It hurt. They were getting stronger and faster. Shaking my head, I took a gasping breath.
“Fuck. Him.”
Sabrina chuckled. “That’s what got you into this mess, Colt.”
Growling, I shook my head. “He wants me to do this two hundred times? I will break his dick off.”
My growl turned into a muffled cry as I arched my back against the pain.
Eva was behind me, rubbing my back in the perfect spot.
She also went around and helped lift a bit of my belly.
We were stuck in this position for what felt like forever.
The contractions were coming faster and stronger, barely giving me time to relax.
“Breathe nice and deep, Colton. Slow and deep.”
I did as she asked until another contraction rippled through me. For the first time, I understood what she meant. It felt like I needed to sit on the toilet.
“Eva…”
“You feel it.”
I nodded quickly, breathing through my nose and out my mouth.
“Alright. On this next one, Colton, I want you to push. I want you to count to fifteen, slowly as you push. Can you do that for me?”
“If I say no?”
She chuckled. “Now is not the time for your sass, Colton.”
“If there ever was a time…”
I didn’t finish my sentence. A contraction tore through me and I almost didn’t muffle my cries. Stretching out my body, I pushed without understanding which muscles I was using. I just pushed.
“Count, Colton!”
“One…two…three...” I counted out loud, barely able to get it out between needing to cry.
The contraction passed, and I felt myself go slack. I was breathing heavily, but Mike and Sabrina held me up. Eva continued to rub my back.
“That was good. You did really well. We need to do that again. From the beginning. Slow down your counting as push.”
“Fucking hell.” My curse made everyone laugh.
It hadn’t even been a minute when another one started. This time, I started counting from the beginning. I got to fifteen, but Eva told me to keep counting. Keep pushing. So I did. Eventually, she told me I could relax, and I let my head fall to the headboard.
“Colton, we have one more push.” I could feel Eva’s fingers reaching in. “That’s her head, right there. One more long push, and we can get her out. Can you do that for me? You need to be stronger.”
I snorted. Pulling back my shoulders, they cracked, and I tightened my grip. Sabrina and Mike both adjusted to hold me tighter and more steadily.
“You are so amazing, Colt. You are doing so well.” Sabrina kissed my temple. “We got you. We are right here.”
The next one started, and I didn’t bother counting out loud. I counted in my head, but I forced myself to push harder.
“There we go! There we go! Keep going, Colt! Stronger! Stronger! Keep going!”
Suddenly, I felt relief. Cries filled the room that weren’t mine, and I’d never felt so light. I nearly fell into the mattress, but Mike and Sabrina held me tight. I cried as well, my body shaking.
“Alright, Mike, can you get under his side and turn him onto his back?” Eva was still giving orders.
Mike listened, peeling his hand out of mine before looping his arm under me. It felt weird; my stomach was squishing so much as he carefully helped me to flip over. Sabrina grabbed the pillow Eva had thrown off the bed and tucked it under my back so I could sit up a little.
Eva handed me a tiny, naked, crying baby, resting her on my chest. My shaky hand came up, holding her to my body. Immediately, she stopped crying. There was a little layer of dark black hair on her head, and I couldn’t help but think she was perfect.
“Colt…” Sabrina whispered, brushing some of my sweat-soaked hair from my forehead. “…she’s beautiful.”
Sabrina was crying, and I nodded, tears falling down my face as well. Mike smiled, a look of utter reverence that I rarely saw, and I reached out to him. He took my hand, squeezing it. Eva shook her head, grinning from ear to ear.
“I’ve done a lot of births over my years. Never in my life have I had one go so smoothly. You are truly incredible. Congratulations, Colton. You have a little girl.”
I let out a laugh. “Thank you. Thank you so much for helping me. I couldn’t…there would be no way that I would have made it this far without you.”
“Damn right!”
We all laughed, and the door flew open. Candice and Tyson stood in the doorway, eyes wide. She looked as if she were asking for permission to come in, and I nodded. Eva had covered my legs with a blanket at the very least.
“I was expecting to hear screaming. I heard nothing, and then I heard everyone laughing in here.” She stepped forward and smiled. “How are you? You okay?”
Candice reached out and pressed her hand against my cheek.
I broke out in sobs. Maybe I should have expected it.
I always feared, deep down, I was only being kept around because of Kayla.
That they would be more interested in her grandbaby than me.
Her coming and asking me first, touching me, meant so much more than I think she could understand.
“I’m okay.” I nodded, smiling. “More than okay.”
She smiled, focused on me for a moment that meant everything to me, before looking down at the little girl on my chest.
“Welcome to the world, my little dragon.”
“Kayla. Her name is Kayla.”