Page 60 of The Chosen Son

Two sets of eyes turned to stare at me, but I wasn’t in the mood to explain. “Hospital! Go!”

Zeek slammed on the gas, the truck fishtailing before the tires finally gripped, and we took off down the deserted street. The city looked like a ghost town, cars abandoned on the side of the road, snow clogged around the wheels, locking them in place.

My heart was lodged in my throat, anxiety taking over. I couldn’t decide if I was hot or cold, and there was a band of pressure tightening alarmingly around my stomach. “Careful!” Deimos shouted as Zeek took a corner too fast, the rear of the truck sliding wide.

“Your dinky sportscar would’ve gotten stuck by now,” I jabbed irritably, dropping my head back on the seat, moaning as a contraction hit me.

“Yes, dear, you’re always right,” he said soothingly, and I cracked an eye open to peek at him.

“Don’t do that. Don’t play the good guy. I fell in love with the villain, and that’s what I need right now. I want you to fight with me. It’ll help distract me.” I could feel a cool sweat beading on my forehead.

Deimos leaned in and took my jaw in his hand, his violet eyes flashing. “Anything for you, love. What kind of material were you hoping for? I left the bread bag open on the counter this morning. I bet the whole loaf is all stale and crusty by now.”

I laughed lightly. “You asshole.”

His smile was everything, and he kissed me lightly, tenderly. “I look forward to fighting with you for the rest of our lives.”

We were interrupted by the truck jolting, and I hissed in pain when we went over a bump. Deimos brought his arms instinctively around me, holding me to him, but he shouldn’t have bothered, because next thing we knew, the car came to a sluggish stop. Zeek revved the engine a few times, but I could hear the tires spinning uselessly beneath us.

We were stuck.

“This isn’t the hospital,” I said, stating the obvious.

Zeek turned to look at me from the driver’s seat. “It is not.” The poor demon looked crushed to have failed me, his poor pudgy face quivering. “What shall I do, sirs? I could run to the hospital and bring a doctor back?”

Deimos reached into his pocket and pulled out his phone. “Don’t bother. I’ll call Phobos, and he can fly Cam there.”

I had my doubts about this plan. Phobos had been screening his calls, suddenly too busy to talk to us. He was having a good sulk after I chose Deimos over him. I waited, breathing through another contraction, while Deimos angled his phone this way and that, his expression darkening. “No service,” he finally spat, squeezing his phone hard enough that the case cracked.

“That’s okay… it’s fine… we’re gods, we’ll be fine…” My eyes stung, and I shut them to keep the frustrated tears at bay. I didn’t want to have my baby in a car. I gritted my teeth as I tossed off my seatbelt and debated how much space I would have to lie down. “We don’t even have the baby bag because we left it at home by the door! Why aren’t we prepared for this?! We’ve had literally months of warning! It’s not like it’s a surprise, ‘Oh, where’d this baby come from?’”

He smirked rakishly. “We had better things to do than worrying about a stupid bag,” he said, bestowing me with a wink. The things we had to do were sex.

I smacked his shoulder. “You find me somewhere safe to have this baby or you’re never getting sex again!”

I rocked back and forth on the seat, trying to ease the growing pressure, and my wet pants made a squeaking sound against the leather, making me giggle manically.Life is good, remember?

I didn’t miss the look that passed between Deimos and Zeek. “Fuck off, the both of you,” I growled. “Until either of you has to push a baby out, neither of you are allowed to have an opinion.”

“Yes, dear,” Deimos said, sliding straight back into role of appeasing the omega in labor. But then he reached for the door handle, and as soon as he cracked it open, a flurry of snow blew in, the wind whipping at my hair.

“Where are you going?” I shrieked in a panic. He wouldn’t leave me here to do this alone, would he?

“Hey, it’s okay. Look.” He pointed through the window, and I saw a neon sign glowing through the snow. I couldn’t read what it said, but in my mind, it meant safety.

I nodded. “Okay… but come straight back!”

He wasn’t even gone a full minute before he ran back to the car. He flung the door wide, the storm invading my tiny haven, and reached for me. “Come on, the owner said it’s fine.”

Sniffling back my tears and my lower lip quivering, I took his hand and let him sweep me up into his arms, using his body to shelter me from the worst of it. He carried me through the deep snow, and Zeek scurried ahead to hold the door open for us. It was warm inside, almost too warm, with a crackling fire in the wide, stone hearth. “Is that legal?” I asked, warily eyeing up the significant blaze, but I wasn’t about to look a gift fire in the ash.

Especially not when another contraction hit me with the force of a tidal wave, nearly knocking me off my feet. Deimos caught me before I could go down and held me until it passed and I could breathe again, then he guided me over to the fire where a bearskin rug was laid out. “Hey, I remember this place,” I muttered, kneeling down to lie on the floor. Deimos helped me peel off my jacket and balled it up to use as a pillow.

There were no customers and only one staff member. The same lumberjack bartender from the last time I’d been here was sitting in a chair with his boots up on the wood table, arms crossed over his chest, scowl peeking out from under his beard. “Yeah, and you’re lucky I’m still here. Looks like I might be forced to close my doors. Business has not been good.”

“Uh-huh,” I grunted, not really listening. I was sorry for his financial troubles, but I had bigger issues on my plate right now, and all of my focus was currently being devoted to Deimos peeling off my wet pants. This baby was coming whether I was ready or not.

What happened if there were complications? I might’ve been almost invincible now, but we didn’t know for certain whether the babywas conceived before or after I was marked. What if they were not a god but a demigod, mortal and fragile? What if—

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