Chapter 21
Chapter Twenty-One
Wulf
We’d planned a home birth, but the healer we chose preferred that their clients use a center, so we’d agreed to do that.
Unfortunately for the “safety factor and sanitary conditions” our little Amy disagreed with that idea and my omega went into full-blown labor in the middle of the night.
No warning, no interval to time the pains, nothing.
For an omega suffering pains only a minute or two apart, Striker looked way too happy. An athlete, he was used to pushing himself beyond what normal shifters could or would even want to. And he’d been in so much pain for so long, I wondered how this compared.
I hated him to have any discomfort at all, but a the healer pointed out when I commented, the healer said he could get an epidural if he wanted. Striker was loudly opposed, but I had thought perhaps I could convince him when the time came.
Not now.
He smiled because everything was going his way. No birthing center. No epidural. Just home with me and if I had to guess I’d have said no chance of the healer arriving before the baby did.
I called anyway.
The healer was out on a call, the one who usually filled was out of town, and when I told Striker his smile grew so wide, it scared me. “You know I’m not the best choice to deliver a baby, right?”
“You’re a medical professional.”
“And I do work with omegas who have problems after birth, but I have never actually brought a baby into the world. Maybe we should try for the center.”
“And see who? A tech? A nurse?”
“Yes because a nurse at a birthing center has experience.’
“Sorry, no. My pains are rolling over each other at this point and if I knew how to check, I’d say I’m just about ready to push. We’re having this baby, ouch, at home, and you are either going to have to help me or stand back and watch me do it on my own.”
“You know I can’t do that!”
“Right, so go get the big pile of towels I washed and left in the hall closet along with the special sheets, and well, there’s a whole box of stuff.”
I gaped at him. “You never did plan to go to the center, did you?”
“No, not really. But I wasn’t sure I could pull it off. If we were out somewhere, for example, you’d have driven me right there. But, as it stands, the Goddess has decided to have our little girl born right here in our bed where we made her.”
“You didn’t hide early labor did you?”
He was pacing around the room, hand pressed to his back, but he stopped to shake his head. “No. I would have, but I didn’t need to. Now, are you going to get the supplies, or do I have to do it?”
Of course, I followed every one of his instructions, making up the bed and setting the clean towels on the nightstand. By the time I was done, he said, “I feel pressure. I think it’s time to push.”
My stubborn omega, who had been the master of his body for his whole athletic life, arranged himself on the bed and continued to tell me what I needed to do to help him.
His voice wobbled a few times as he bore down, sweat pouring from his brow, but he never lost control of the moment and even with me as a poor excuse for a midwife brought our daughter howling into the world five minutes before the healer showed up looking very displeased with both of us.
I tried to explain, but Striker’s insistence on a home birth made it hard to prove our innocence.
Not that we cared all that much. While the healer delivered the afterbirth, I cleaned up our daughter and brought her to her omega daddy for skin-to-skin time.
Our adorable Amy was as opinionated as her daddy, we learned, and I wouldn’t have had it any other way