Chapter Seventeen
Ronny
Our home was ready, we were ready, and Grandpa Jones was even more ready, but one person didn’t seem to be.
And that person was in charge of the whole show.
They were small, apparently very happy with their current location, and as of our last appointment with the healer showing no interest in vacating the space.
I walked past the bathroom one morning to find Brach having a conversation with his belly that had me stopping in the doorway.
“If you will just come out, I will give you ice cream for breakfast every day,” he said. “You can name your bedtime and you can pick three days a year to ditch school with no repercussions.”
While I watched, he stroked his belly in slow circles and made promises that he couldn’t possibly keep.
He was so big and so uncomfortable, and I would do anything to help him with that.
He’d been so happy throughout the pregnancy, shrugging off stomach upsets and food aversions and not even asking for things he had every right to want.
When we went shopping for his paternity clothes, he’d insisted he didn’t need so many.
My mate had never before been valued as he should have been, and I tried every day to show him his worth.
But right this moment, I could only think of one thing to do.
I marched into the bathroom, faced my mate, and also spoke to his belly.
“Young one, it is time to be born. Your father cannot really do all those things, he’s just exhausted and we’re both ready to meet you.
Come out right now and we will shower you with so much love, you won’t mind not having ice cream for breakfast, except maybe on your birthday. ”
When I finished, I looked up to see my mate staring at me like I’d lost my mind.
“Alpha, are you all right?”
My cheeks burned. “Uh, yes. I was just trying to help.”
“I don’t think the baby is going to hold me to all that.” He giggled. “But I also don’t think you can give them orders at this—” He gasped as fluid splashed around his feet. “Alpha, what did you do?”
“That’s a good baby.” I patted his belly. “I’ll go call the healer and remake the bed.”
“I’ll take a shower.” He threw his arms around me and gave me a kiss on the lips. “Thank you.”
“You’re welcome?” I drifted out into the hallway to find my phone, muttering under my breath.
“Sure, I tell the baby to be born and bam, he’s in labor.
Way to be an alpha.” Now all I had to do was repeat that whenever I needed our child to do anything good for them for the rest of their growing up.
Would it work for eating spinach? Taking naps?
No…it would not. It was a coincidence, which my omega would realize once we got through this intense moment. But for now, it was kind of nice to feel like the problem-solver of the day. Truly, if our child was responding to anyone, it was my omega who offered ice cream for breakfast.
We had our birth plan all laid out, and we each went through our steps, so by the time the healer arrived, Brach was showered and tucked into the bed I’d made up with the special sheets to protect the mattress.
He’d had some pains, but they weren’t too close together yet, and I half expected the healer to say we should have waited.
“Let’s take a look, Brach,” he said after I apologized for jumping the gun. “And we’ll see if you need me here yet.”
Throughout the pregnancy, our healer, Juan, had been a bright light. He was always encouraging and contributed to my omega’s cheerful demeanor. Anytime we had a concern, we could call or stop by, and each time, he’d left us feeling good and never as if we’d overreacted.
“I see you got the bed all ready as we discussed.” He pulled a stool from the corner over to the bed and folded the sheet down. “And you have everything else all ready. Nice work, both of you.”
My omega glowed under the praise. “Thank you.”
“Now, let’s see. Want to bend your knees for me, Brach. Good job.” He completed his exam then covered Brach with the sheet again. “How far apart are the pains?”
“I think about six minutes, maybe seven,” I said, although I hadn’t done a great job in timing them. “Too soon to call you?”
“No, let’s time a few now because this baby is going to be here, if I had to guess, within an hour or two.”
Turned out, that while I had been timing early on, since I got busy preparing everything, things had gotten a lot closer together. The pains were about three minutes apart and growing more intense by the moment.
It was getting real awfully fast.
We’d planned for Brach to do a lot of walking to help things move along, but there was no time for that now. I stood by the head of the bed, letting my omega hold my hand while he rested between pains.
His nails were digging into my hands, but I swore I’d never say a word about it because he was bringing our child into the world, and I couldn’t do anything more for him than this.
“Good job,” Juan said. “Now, on the next contraction, I want you to try to push.”
“Thank heavens,” he growled. “I was going to do it anyway.”
My mate lifted the top of his body off the bed and bore down.
“Again.”
On the third try, the baby slid out into the healer’s hands and we were dads.
“It’s a girl,” the healer said. “Do you have a name?”
“Yes.” Brach looked at me, and I nodded.
“Go ahead, omega.”
“We’re naming her Rebecca after our friend’s late wife.”
The healer handed her to me, all wrapped up in a soft, rainbow-striped blanket. She was red and wrinkled and wailing and the most gorgeous thing I’d ever seen. “Hi, Rebecca,” I said. “Welcome to the world. I hope you’ll be very happy here.”
“She should be.” Brach offered me the softest smile. “With a daddy like you.”
“And you, omega mine.” I kissed our daughter’s forehead and my mate’s lips. “This little girl is going to have the happiest life we can give her.”