Page 58 of Rome's Mate: Hunted Omegas

When you wake, all that you’ve seen and experienced will be nothing but a shady image that may or may not come true. Because one of the things that we have in life is that we all have a choice. So, whatever you’ve seen was born of one choice, but that is not a guarantee that it is the choice you will make when you’re in that situation.”

Luna, she wanted to bow her head to somehow show her appreciation, to state that she was her goddess, but she couldn’t even in her sleep. That’s how tired she was, exhausted.

“I know your heart, child.”

“How did my child and I survive?” Once the joy of seeing her mate and son passed, she had wondered about that question.

“You passed your test. Yours was two-pronged. The first prong was, were you willing to take your human life and put it on the line for someone else’s life? And when you saved the young boy, you answered that question quite brazenly.

“Yes, his life was just as important to you as your own.” Luna stood, preparing to leave Amelia by herself.

“Wait, you said the test was two-pronged. What was the second prong of the test?”

“You chose to embrace your immortality when you decided to live. Rome didn’t have a choice and neither did his brothers, but you weren’t cursed, and you had a choice whether to live with your mate until the end of time or to leave him and wait patiently for him to appear one day.”

“It was all about acceptance,” Amelia said.

Luna was gone, but Amelia could hear her voice reflected in the moonlight.

“The best lives lived are all about acceptance.”

Amelia looked back over her life. She had accepted that she needed to run to live, that she would have to fight in order to meet her mate, although she didn't know what she was fighting for at the time. She fought for her son and the child that she was now carrying. Yes, the best lives are those that accept the challenges in front of them and went on to conquer them.

She slipped into a deep sleep with a smile on her face. She couldn’t wait until she saw Rome again and Mal, her males, her life, and she loved them.

A loud scream of pain woke Amelia.

It took her a minute to realize that it was coming from her. The pup, she said, feeling her stomach undulate as it moved like a wave.

“Get Pierre,” Rome told Mal, trying not to lose his shit, as his mate hollered again in pain. Mal didn’t need to be told twice. He was running out of the room barefooted, not even thinking about his shoes.

“Stop,” Amelia said between contractions. “Just call him. You don’t have to physically retrieve him.”

Her laugh and shout of pain were twisted, and she thought that was even funnier, so she laughed even harder. “Males!” It was said with a note of fond exasperation. “I love you, but what happens to you when a female is about to give birth?” She shook her head and held tight to Rome’s hands. Amelia could almost feel the bones in his fingers mashing together.

She tried to loosen her grip, but he’d have none of that. She took several fast, deep breaths, but she wasn’t sure that it was right. It was too late to caution herself to pay better attention to the Lamaze class she took online. And then Pierre came.

“Take slower breaths. You’re breathing too fast,” he told her. The sound of his voice washing over her was comforting.

The same wolf that had scared her in the beginning now brought her peace, because she understood he would do anything in his power to not only save her life, but to save the life of her child. Her mind and her spirit traveled between childbirth. She was with her child, then with her male and her son, back and forth as she waited for Pierre to prep himself for the birth.

Rome's growl is what brought her back to the here and now. She literally had to lift her hand and smack his arm when he acted like he was going to tear Pierre to shreds for taking the cover off her lower half and opening her legs to look between them.

Rome leaned down and kissed her cheek, and he murmured into her ear, “Sorry, mate.”

“It’s a fatal flaw of all male wolves, and alphas are the worst.” Pierre allowed whatever Rome was saying to roll off his back as he got down and started coaching Amelia on childbirth. They worked for hours, feeding her little pieces of ice as she grunted and groaned.

“What happened to me being a wolf and being able to have children without any problem?” she demanded between contractions.

“You’re not a wolf,” Pierre told her. “You’re a shifter, which means that you are part wolf, part human, and there’s never any telling which part will be doing the childbearing at any time. This time could be hard, the next time could be harder, and the time after that could be easy again. It is just luck of the draw.”

Amelia blanched at the thought of having another child. "I've got two, thank you. I'm pretty sure I'm good."

“The head is crowning,” Pierre said. “Now the hard part starts.”

If I could move my feet, Amelia thought to herself, I'd kick him in his gut and show him what the hard part really was.

Instead, she grimaced and pushed when he told her to.

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