3. Rowan
Rowan
“Put him down, Orsen,” I growled, putting every ounce of fury I could into my tone so he would listen as Colin rapidly turned blue. One moment, I had been talking Allison through a contraction, and the next, Orsen had been crashing into the room and grabbing Colin.
Safe to say, the dragon was pissed.
I had rushed over to them, but I was powerless when it came to getting between two Alphas.
“He kidnapped you!” Grey shouted, clearly surprised by my command. He appeared in the doorway as Orsen held Colin by the throat. His eyes raked over me, checking for any sign of injuries. Other than being a little rumpled and fighting a mild headache, I was totally fine.
I took a deep breath, giving him a pleading look. “Yes, but it’s not that simple. It’s really a misunderstanding. I know you’re pissed, but right now, I need you guys to shut up and help me.”
They were all here. Bastian and Grey were crowding the doorway as they shoved inside, and Nix was bringing up the rear.
All of them breathing heavily, except for Orsen, who just looked murderous.
My mates stared at me in surprise for a moment before I shook my head, knowing that time was of the essence.
Given Nix’s shirtless state, I deduced that he had recently been in dragon form.
“Are you going to help, or are you just going to stare at me like idiots?” I raised my brows, landing a glare on Orsen again. If he didn’t let go of Colin soon, the poor guy was going to suffocate, and that would be too much for his laboring mate.
“Allison’s labor isn’t progressing well,” I explained in a soft voice, so they could hear me, but the groaning woman on the sofa couldn’t.
The grumpy expression melted off Nix’s and Grey’s faces, both glancing over, taking in her state, understanding dawning in their eyes.
“How can we help?” Nix asked.
After another long blink, Orsen unceremoniously dropped Colin and rushed up to me.
I turned and hurried to the desk across the room to grab a piece of paper and a pen. Once I’d found what I needed, I started scribbling the names of several herbs.
“One of you needs to go back to my clinic and pick these up. They’re in my cupboard, neatly labeled. Easy as reading it and stuffing them in a bag.”
Bastian took the piece of paper, his brow furrowing before he let out a sharp exhale through his nose. “I’m the fastest. I’ll do it.”
I smiled at him. “Thank you. Now, yes, Colin did kidnap me, technically—but it was out of fear for his mate.” I gestured at Allison, who was only getting more and more exhausted as the pain got worse.
“She’s struggling. My only priority right now is to make sure she delivers a healthy baby.
If any of you idiots gets in my way, I will never forgive you. ”
My mates seemed to understand the gravity of the situation, Orsen flicking his gaze toward Allison. “What do you need?”
“All I need for now are the herbs. They’ll help her cervix open and allow things to move more smoothly.”
What I didn’t say was that, ideally, I needed her to dilate enough so I could manually help guide the baby out.
Breech babies weren’t impossible to deliver, but it was tricky—and more painful.
Plus, her muscles were getting weaker, and the contractions weren’t getting the baby into position as they should.
Allison screamed again, and I walked over to her, crouching by her side and taking her hand to rub my thumb over it as she dropped to the floor on her elbows and knees. I’d placed several thick blankets beneath her to save her knees, and this would be the best position for her to deliver in.
“Breathe, okay? It’s nearly time. Just a bit longer, and your baby will be here, safe in your arms,” I assured her, putting on my best caretaker smile.
“How can you be so confident?” she whimpered, sweat covering her, from head to toe, her shirt and pants long gone.
“Because I’ve assisted with many births like this before,” I replied in a cheerful tone, even though, deep down, I was worrying.
Birth was messy and complicated. It could very easily go wrong in any situation, let alone a breech presentation. But I needed to remind myself that it wasn’t impossible.
“I’m sorry. I know I’ve committed a grave offense—” Colin started as he pulled himself off the floor, but Orsen cut him off.
“I don’t want to hear it,” he growled. “We’ll deal with you later.”
“I think you should hear him out,” I interjected, raising my brows at him again. “These two are in a precarious position, and they need a horde to take them in—and personally, I think they’d be an amazing addition to North Oak.”
“You want them?” he asked dumbly. “After he fucking kidnapped you?”
I swallowed, knowing what I was about to do. Ever since I had come to North Oak, I had been denying my position there, but I wasn’t going to anymore, especially if it meant I could help Allison and Colin.
I blew out a long breath. “Yes. If I really am part of the Alpha clan, I can make the decision to allow rogues to join the horde.”
I faced Orsen fully, meeting his prickly energy with my own confident one. I didn’t beat around the bush with him. I flashed a smile at Colin before offering it to Orsen.
“I mean, you can understand why he went to such lengths, can’t you? He was protecting his mate. Surely, you would have done the same if it were me.”
It was a leap for sure, but in a normal horde, being part of the Alpha clan would allow me to invite new members. So, yes, I was going to use my weird situation to my advantage in this especially weird moment.
“We totally would do the same. Also you totally can add people to the horde, you’re an Alpha,” Nix replied, already smiling and nodding like I knew he would be.
Such a puppy dog.
“Well, in that case, I think Allison, Colin, and their baby will be a lovely addition to the North Oak Horde. It would be nice to have a baby running around, anyway, wouldn’t it?”
Orsen crossed his arms, narrowing his eyes at me. “I see what you’re doing, Rowan. I still have to punish him for kidnapping our mate. I can’t be seen as rewarding that kind of behavior.”
“And I understand that. But you can do something that won’t maim or hurt him—and you can do it after the baby is a few months old. Because once the baby is born, Allison will need all the support she can get. After all, we want our horde to be very supportive of new mothers, don’t we?”
I was laying it on so thick, I was surprised that Orsen wasn’t dissolving into a fit of laughter.
Or growls. But in truth, I felt for the little family, and we needed more dragons to keep the horde going.
It would be a long while before the people there recovered from what Jenkins had been doing, and having a baby around would be a welcome change.
“We’ll talk about it.” Orsen stared me down, and I caught Grey shaking his head from the sidelines.
“Good enough for now. Now, I need you to—”
“Ahh!” Allison’s scream cut through the cabin, and I spun around, hurrying over to her. “It’s bad. Ugh!”
Commotion sounded behind me, but I didn’t care. My focus was entirely on my patient as I examined her belly for the umpteenth time. The baby was lower, but they hadn’t turned. God, I needed those herbs. But right now, I needed to figure out what was going on, and that wasn’t going to be fun.
“Allison, I’m going to need to examine you internally. I need to understand what the baby is doing.”
“Is that… Is that going to hurt?” She looked terrified, the mist on her brow thick, exhaustion written plainly on her face.
“It’s not going to feel great, no. But this will really help me.”
She frowned. “Okay.”
I reached under the sheet we’d been using for privacy so that I could feel where the baby was in the birth canal. “Okay, here we go. Colin, get your ass over here and hold your mate’s hand.”
As I worked, Allison groaned, Colin now by her side, and she gripped his hand hard. I could get my fingers up to her cervix, which wasn’t fully dilated, and just inside, I could visualize what was going on. The baby was right there, their little butt starting to come through.
“Okay. We’re really close, Allison. I can feel them. You’re going to push soon, okay?”
“Oh, God. Oh, God. Oh, God,” she whimpered, tiny sobbing bubbles shaking her, but she bobbed her head. “Okay.”
I coached Allison through several deep breaths, the baby still pressing down on her cervix. Then a few minutes later, Bastian came bursting through the door.
“Oh, perfect.” I snatched the herbs from him, getting Colin to talk to Allison while I applied the salve to the exterior to prevent tearing, then used the second set of herbs on her cervix to help it relax. I took several long breaths, but then Allison moaned.
“I think that did something. It feels like they’re lower.”
Great news. I checked, finding that the baby had dropped, and where I could feel the curves of their butt, I could also make out the umbilical cord.
Once Allison was crowning, I would need to make sure the baby came out quickly.
There would be a lot of pressure on the cord, which could still risk the baby.
“You’re doing amazing, Allison. Do you feel like pushing? That urge I was talking about?”
She waited a moment, and I could see another contraction hit her. “Yes!”
“Okay, hon. Let’s see it. Let’s meet your baby.”
I guided her through the pushes until I could see the baby’s butt descending. Getting a good look, the skin tone looked okay for this point of labor, and with the next push, one of the baby’s legs slipped free.
“You’re doing incredibly. Breathe for me, Allison. Breathe nice and deep.”
Another contraction, a little more distance, and then the other leg was out. I could see the cord, and I rubbed Allison’s lower back.
“Okay, this won’t feel good, but I need to help take some of the pressure off the umbilical cord and make sure it comes out nice and smooth.” I lifted her already very stretched skin by hooking my finger inside, giving that cord just a bit more space.
“Ow!” she cried, and I rubbed her back all the more.
“I know, honey. I know. We’re so close. You’ve got this.”
As the next contraction hit, the baby’s arms descended, and I had to swipe the cord to one side so that it didn’t pinch around their face. Gravity was pulling them so much at this point, and I cupped under the baby’s butt to reduce that pressure on the baby’s head.
It was hardly a blink, hardly more than a moment after I scooped under their butt, and they were out. Allison’s cervix had finally dilated enough to let them descend into the birth canal, and just like that, she was able to push them out.
As I lay the baby gently beneath her, Allison cried tears of joy, laughing, while Colin babbled incoherently, smiling. I couldn’t help but grin, emotions swelling within me at the sight of them.
I did love this part.
After a moment of rubbing the baby briskly with one of the clean towels I’d found, they started crying. A wave of relief exuded through the room, even my mates sighing audibly.
“Well, congratulations. It’s a boy.”