Page 48 of Scarred Queen

“You have my word, Casey,” he breathed against her mouth. “Siempre.”Always.

She nodded and squeezed him, pressing her forehead against him. He could tell another labour pain was hitting her, but she barely flinched. Instead she stayed in that moment with him. He could feel her lashes fluttering against the skin of his cheek as she shifted her face and bore the pain on her own. He could feel the savage fury rising up within him, painting his guts black with an inferno of raw emotion. When it came to this woman, nothing mattered except keeping her safe. As much as he wanted the little life within her, he wanted her to be healthy and happy more. Her pain was breakinghim.

A tear, the first to have escaped him since the loss of his mother and sisters, slid from his eye and touched his scarred cheek. Casey captured it on her thumb before anyone else could witness his brief moment of weakness. She opened her eyes and stared into his. “Protect us with your life, Reyes,” she whispered, “and I will betu reina.Siempre.”

He nodded and stood from the bed. He gave her scarred hand one last squeeze before stepping away from the bed. He nodded at the medical team. “You may proceed.” When they didn’t move, he barked, “What the fuck are you waiting for? She’s having a baby, right? Are you just going towatch?”

Casey laughed weakly as they rushed to do his bidding. She looked at Miguel with a smile and patted the bed next to her asking wordlessly for her good friend to join her. He brushed past her husband, having had almost a year now to get over his fear of torture and death, and sat next to her. He held her hand and they chatted in between hercontractions.

Periodically, he made sure she updated him on all of her symptoms, particularly anything going on in her head. While her migraines had gotten much better over the past year with the right balance of medications to help and constant progress being made in the field, she was still at risk for possible stroke if her blood pressure rose too high. It had taken months of arguing and both her and Miguel’s combined voices to convince Reyes that she shouldn’t just be drugged and the baby removed at the right time. The only argument that had worked was that it wouldn’t be good for the baby and Casey couldn’t possibly handle another child’sdeath.

But as her contractions grew closer together and her blood pressure slowly rose, along with a rising pain in the base of her skull alerting them to a potential migraine, Reyes became more and more agitated. He paced the room like a caged lion, snapping at everyone, ready to pounce at the first sign that something was wrong with his woman or his baby. The obstetrician looked as though he might throw up every time Reyes neared him, but he couldn’t bring himself tocare.

“Casey,” Miguel said calmly from beside her as she gritted her teeth and tried not to push, as per the doctor’s orders. She side-eyed Miguel in what looked like a murderous squint. “You need to calm down a touch. Your blood pressure is getting too high and I’m a littleconcerned.”

Reyes’ head snapped up and he stopped pacing, staring, waiting to see if she would comply with her personal neurologist. He gritted his teeth and squeezed his hands into fists, trying to ignore the need to tear the world apart, to commit unspeakable acts of rage so that his soul might rest in peace for a fewminutes.

Casey squeezed her eyes shut and nodded, trying to breathe through the pain in her head and the terror welling up inside her. He saw the thoughts written on her face the moment she opened her eyes and met his. What if her baby didn’t survive because she couldn’t manage the pain of birth? Because she wasn’t strong enough to bring the baby into the world without having astroke.

“Reyes!” she cried reaching for him. “I needyou.”

Miguel backed away from the bed and gave Reyes room. He immediately climbed in behind her and carefully manoeuvered her until she was resting against his chest with her head on his shoulder. He could feel her heart pounding like thunder through her back where she rested heavily against him. He sat with his legs bent underneath her arms, his warmth surrounding her entire body. She turned her face into his neck, closed her eyes and breathed his scent deep into her lungs, savouring him as tears dripped gently down her cheeks. He smoothed the sweat-soaked hair back off her face and tucked the strands behind her ear before gently kissingher.

“I’m scared,” shewhispered.

“I know,nena,” he whispered back. He tilted her face up until she was forced to look at him. “Do you think I would ever let anything happen toyou?”

“No,” she said instantly. “Never.”

“Nunca,” he agreed solemnly. “You belong to meforever.”

She nodded. “Okay,” she whispered. “I think I need to pushnow.”

Their daughter was born thirty-seven minutes later. It took another hour for Miguel and Casey to get the severe migraine she experienced during the birthing process under control. Reyes paced the room with their daughter held in his arms, terror clawing at his heart until he thought he would fall to his knees and beg for God to take him if He would just spare Casey this pain. She tried weakly to reassure him, whispering from the bed where the nurses had changed the sheets and dimmed the lights, but she was in too muchpain.

When the IV fluids and medication finally took effect, she was able to hold her child for the first time. Miguel and the rest of her birth team left the room. Reyes lay next to her on the bed watching the two most important people in his life with fierce possessiveness. He could already see the future mapped out for them. A whole lot of mother and daughter attempting to negotiate for freedoms he would never allow. And he would love every moment ofit.

“What will we name her?” Reyes asked, emotion shining clear in his eyes as he watched the woman he loved cradle their daughter against her chest and hold her as though she would never letgo.

“Sally,” Casey said instantly, without a single moment ofhesitation.

Reyes straightened from behind her, disgust warring to replace his peace. “Absolutelynot!”

Casey didn’t even bat an eyelash. She traced the tip of her finger down the powdery soft cheek and across the perfect, tiny lips. “Sally is Jack Skellington’s counterpart, his other half. Nothing else willdo.”

Reyes felt something expand and then explode in his chest. Like a bubble he’d been holding onto for all the pain his woman had gone through. She was finally safe and whole. Maybe he would never truly be able to let go of her past, the way she seemed to be doing. Maybe he would continue to search out and torture anyone associated with anyone who had ever harmed a hair on her head… or even looked at her funny. But he was ready to admit that she had moved on. That Casey’s inner core of steel had not only strengthened her, but healed her aswell.

“Alright,mi reina,” he said after a moment, caressing first the fine blond of her hair and then reaching past to run a finger over the fine blond that promised to sprout from their daughter’s head. “Sally itis.”

“Thank you,mi rey,” Casey whispered, tilting her head back, finally taking her eyes off the child to kiss hisjaw.

“But just in case she needs a back-up name one day, how do you like Mariana?” Reyes asked. “It was mymother’s.”

“It’s perfect,” Casey said with a smile, then shifted Sally Mariana in her arms and reached for the buttons on her nightgown. “Now do you remember what the nurse said about breast feeding? Can you go get her? And I swear to god Reyes, if you threaten her life, I’ll shoot you in the foot or somewhere else painful butuseless.”

Chapter Thirty-Six

“This was your idea,nena,”Reyes reminded her while attempting to disguise the impatience in hisvoice.

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