Chapter Twenty-Three
Eryx
I’d noticed some things over the past week. Joaquin was out of breath. Simple tasks made him have to stop and rest his hand on his back.
He said his hips were aching. Every night now.
Naps grew longer. Nesting was an everyday thing.
We’d worked together to make meals for the freezer and put things in place so that our first weeks with our little one would be as peaceful as possible. Maybe an impossible word with a newborn, peace, but I would try.
It was the least I could do. My mate was carrying and growing our child inside him. And he would go through the painful labor to bring him into this world. On top of that, as if that wasn’t enough, he would feed our child directly from his body.
And here I was…my addition to the process was like a snap of the fingers.
It made me feel useless. I’d never tell my omega that, but I would try my best to support as best I could. Other alphas in town had given me advice. Other omegas had talked to Joaquin. We’d gathered all the information and made the preparations.
“Eryx.” My name on my mate’s lips drew my attention from my worrying.
“I’m here,” I said from the kitchen where I inspected the freezer, considering adding more meals.
“It’s time.” He said the words so calmly.
It’s time. I’m awake. It’s four o’clock.
I turned to look at him and realized his tone was the only thing calm about him.
His pants were soaked with what I assumed meant his water broke.
His face was pale. Hands were shaking. Eyes wide with fear.
The scent of all of it nearly knocked me over.
“Joaquin…” Nothing. “Omega mine.” His gaze snapped to me and we held it for a moment. “Let’s get you into the shower and then get our bags and go to the birthing center. We planned for this. We’ve gone over the plan. I swear everything is going to be okay.”
“Help me, alpha. I know the plan but right now I can’t move.”
Sweet omega. I reached him in seconds and we went through the motions. I never stopped talking to him while he stayed silent. That was his way. His silence spoke volumes to me and always had.
And who could blame him. He was in the process of bringing a life into this world through his body. I’d be screaming.
With Joaquin dressed, I started the car and helped him in before running, sprinting, back to the house and gathered all of our things. We had the bags packed for weeks.
It was all going to plan…until it wasn’t.
“You have to stop,” he said and I pressed on the brakes, reacting to the sheer terror in his voice. “This baby isn’t waiting for the birthing center. He’s coming. Now.”
“We’re…” On a road right in front of the thrift store. Only a block from the theater. I checked the time. It was still closed. For a few hours. “Two minutes, omega. I swear it.”
“I…the movies? You’re taking me to the movies?”
I got out and rushed to his side. His contractions were coming every minute, and we barely made it into the back door when the first urge to push swallowed him. He cried out and got on his knees.
We had provisions. Joaquin’s naps had become so necessary that we’d put a cot and lots of blankets and pillows in the back office about a month ago, and thank the goddess, I hadn’t removed them.
Our baby was about to be born in this place we built together.
I called Quinn and told him where we were.
He wouldn’t make it, he said. My mate’s body knew what to do.
Trust it. Trust him. Trust his tiger.
I hurled the blankets onto the floor, and Joaquin had managed to take his clothes off while I did. He got on his hands and knees, and his eyes turned golden with brown stripes within it. His tiger was in control.
“There you are. Are you helping my mate? I’m here. You can do this.”
His fingers drew up like claws and he roared through the contractions now. Pushing his hind end down, I knew the baby was coming in seconds, so I moved behind him and waited. And sat in awe of omegas.
The head emerged first and then in one more push, our baby came out with a whoosh. I caught them and in some indescribable moment, cut the cord with a pair of scissors I remembered to grab in a lucid moment.
A knock on the back door caused Joaquin to stiffen.
Who in the hell was knocking on the door at a time like this. An employee.
No. It was Quinn. He’d sprinted over as soon as he could.
“You did it, Joaquin.” He kept his distance, probably knowing my mate’s tiger was still in control.
Healing the pain. Already mending what had come undone during the birth.
“We have to get you to push out the placenta, but your baby is fine.” He looked at me.
“Eryx, show him his cub. Your mate needs to pass the placenta.”
I scrambled in front of my mate and showed him our son. Yes, it was a boy as I’d suspected. Healthy. Already fussing. Plump and gaining his color by the second.
Joaquin took one look at him and his eyes turned back to normal. He let out a whimper and I held our son there while Quinn tended him.
“Look what you did, my love.”
As soon as we could, we transported Joaquin to the birthing center where he was cleaned up and so was our son. We had several names in mind, but I would leave the actual naming up to him.
Our son took to his daddy’s chest feeding immediately. Hungry little tiger.
We’d spoken a million things between the birth and the moment the birthing staff closed the door on us for the night, but none of them had words. We spoke them through the bond, through our love, through that invisible thing that would tether me to this omega for the rest of my life.
“Give him a name,” I breathed, sitting next to them both on the bed.
“Is it weird to want to make him a junior? Call him Ricky?”
My chest seized up. “You want to name him Eryx like me?”
My mate nodded with tears in his eyes. “I do. After the most important other person in my life. And have you seen him, alpha? He’s like a copy and paste version of you.”
Our son looked exactly like me. It was uncanny. I didn’t say anything but I saw the resemblance as soon as he was born.
Maybe the next one would look like my omega.
“He really is.”
We laughed.
“I like it. And I love you both so much, my heart might burst at any moment.”
“We love you back. More than you’ll ever know.”