Chapter Twenty-Nine
Dax
Our omega was slowing down in the last days of her pregnancy.
Up until very recently, she’d been buzzing around the house, cleaning, organizing, and insisting that dust built up on a daily basis and must be battled.
For the past week, she’d switched gears and spent her days in the nest, allowing us the privilege of waiting on her hand and foot.
Not Sylvia as we knew her, but we were delighted to do it. She was sweet and apologized over and over until we insisted that there was nothing we liked more than taking care of our omega. Cooking the foods she craved, refilling her water glass, helping her up even though she could do it herself.
She emerged from the nest room less and less often. Just to use the restroom, shower, or visit Emma. But she didn’t feel bad, she said, just tired and ready to meet the baby. As were we.
“Mate, I brought you some tea.” With her due date behind us by a couple of days, the midwife had approved an herbal blend that might help get things started. I set the cup down on the table next to her. “Is there anything else you’d like? Chocolate cookie?” Her craving of the week.
“Not really hungry.” She stretched and groaned. “My back is aching.”
“Would you like a little massage?”
“No. I don’t think so. It’s been bothering me for a few hours.” I’d been with her most of that time, but she hadn’t said anything. Why hadn’t I noticed she was uncomfortable?
But then her comment struck a note somewhere in my brain. Hadn’t the midwife said something about backaches…back labor!
“Sylvia, I’ll be right back. You don’t need anything?”
“No, just for this to stop hurting.”
“I’m sure it will. In fact, let me go give the midwife a call and see if she has a suggestion, all right?”
“Thank you, Dax. I hate to be a bother.” Her wince had me flying out the door and racing to the kitchen where the others were fixing lunch.
“It’s time!” I grabbed my cell phone from the counter and tapped the midwife’s name. “She’s in labor.”
“When did it start?” Archer held a spatula by the stove where four grilled sandwiches were toasting on the griddle.
“How far apart are the pains?” Talon demanded, abandoning the plates he’d been piling potato chips on. “I have to go to her.”
“Wait just a minute.” I held up a hand to stop them. “Melissa? Hi. It’s Dax. Our mate is having back pain. Been a few hours.”
She asked me some more questions then said, “Back pain is not uncommon in pregnancy, but since she’s already overdue, I think I’d better pop over and give her a little exam. Nobody panic.”
“We aren’t,” I assured her. “See you soon.” Disconnecting, I faced the others and filled them in. “She said specifically not to panic.”
“We wouldn’t do that,” Archer said just as the scent of burning toast reached my nose.
I leaned past where he still stood holding his spatula and turned off the stove. “That’s what I told her.”
He shook himself. “She’s right, though. If it’s not labor, hopefully she can help relieve the pain, but if it is, we need to be 100 percent together for our mate. Calm. Organized. Provide the support she needs at a difficult and painful time.”
His words would have held more water if the three of us didn’t spring into action, crowding the kitchen doorway in a manner the Three Stooges would have gotten a good laugh from. Once we disentangled ourselves, we flew up the stairs and into the nest, nearly landing in a heap at her feet.
“What is wrong with you three?” Sylvia asked. “Is the house on fire? I smell something burning.”
“Lunch,” I told her, “but it’s fine now. No actual fire. Melissa is on her way to check you out. It’s possibly the start of labor or maybe just sore muscles. So, no need to panic.”
“I’m not panicked.” She fixed us with a firm glare. “But you three…” Attempting to stand, she was presented with multiple efforts to help her and shrugged us off. “Guys, I’m fine. I’m— Oh.” She looked at the floor between her feet. “I’m all wet. When did you say Melissa would be here?”
Everything in my mind settled at that point, and Archer and Talon also came to a stop, their frantic motions ending.
Our mate was the most important person in the world to us and was about to deliver a tiny person who would share that spot with her.
She deserved the best of us. We looked at one another then at her.
“Let’s get you cleaned up and ready to have our baby, omega.” Archer took her arm and led her toward the bathroom.
“I’ll bring the gown you wanted to wear,” Talon said.
“And I’ll let Melissa in when she gets here and double-check the supplies she asked us to have ready.”
We were a team ready for action, each of us ready to help our mate through her labor. Any of us would have borne it for her, but since that was impossible, we weren’t stupid enough to express that sentiment.
Instead, we got her as comfortable as we could then stepped back and let Melissa do her job. She was a calming presence, experienced in shifter births, and knew how to not only help the omega but make the rest of us feel useful without being condescending.
“Back labor sure can hurt,” she said, massaging our omega’s lower back after examining her. “But you’re almost fully effaced, and your little one will be here I’d say within the hour.”
“I sure hope so,” Sylvia said, smiling bravely, “because I can’t wait to meet them.”
With the three of us following orders and our mate pushing hard, the midwife’s prediction came true almost to the moment. Little Ben, named after his uncle who saved our omega, arrived, took a deep breath, and screamed his protest until Melissa set him at our mate’s breast and he latched on.
Smart boy knew who his mama was.
And I’m not ashamed to admit the three of us wept in joy and relief that our babe was here and our mate had made it through the pain she’d tried hard not to show us. Feeling like she’d been through enough for a lifetime, I startled when she whispered, “Maybe we’ll have a sister for you next.”
Our omega, the strongest person I’d ever met.