Page 27 of Such a Tempting Omega

“Good. You go get comfortable, and I’ll set everything up.”

I sighed. “I can help.”

He gave me that smile. The one that meant he was about to say something ultra sweet. “Hirsch, you are doing everything right now. You have a part of our family growing in your belly. That’s a lot. Now, let me spoil you a little. Go on.”

I walked away, pouting of course, when he swatted me on the backside.

He would continue that later, and I couldn’t wait.

“I almost forgot. I picked you up an apple spice cake on the way home.”

“Great!” I yelled back. “Now I can get fatter.”

“Hirsch, are you talking badly about my mate again? Or are you purposefully trying to get in trouble so I take you over my knee?”

I scrambled for words. This man made me think all kinds of things. “The second one,” I replied.

“Well, keep it up and I’ll spank you but give you no release. You are beautiful and yes, your body is changing, but that’s no reason for name-calling. Right?”

Growling, I nodded. “I know.”

“Let’s enjoy this meal you made and the movie. Then we’ll play.”

Chapter Twenty-Three

Liam

It felt like we’d been together forever. Hirsch said it felt like he’d been pregnant forever, but in fact, we weren’t quite to the due date the healer had given us, so we might have a bit longer to wait. As we drew closer, Hirsch was sleeping more, or rather trying to. He was getting up to use the restroom so many times a night that he was exhausted all day.

This having a baby thing was not for wimps. And I did everything I could to make it easier for him. Unfortunately, that wasn’t a whole heck of a lot. He’d had a big appetite for food and other things until about a week ago, but now he said there wasn’t any room for food inside him, and he’d also lost interest in sex.

We’d managed to find a few positions that kept things interesting and comfortable, but now he was so uncomfortable, all he could think of was the time when his insides were no longer squashed into a tiny corner of his body to make room for our little girl. We still didn’t have a name for her, but we agreed we would decide when we met her which of the several we’d narrowed it down to seemed to suit her best. Or, if none of them did, then we’d continue the search. A name was very important, we believed, and sometimes I wondered if my parents had felt that way or if they just picked my name out of thin air.

I didn’t want to know.

Hirsch had gone upstairs to bed right after dinner tonight, and I was just finishing up the dishes when I heard him groan. Or maybe my wolf heard it because it wasn’t that loud. But it had me dropping a plate to shatter on the floor before racing up the stairs calling, “I’m coming, omega. Don’t have the baby until I get there.”

As if.

Yes, he was in the earliest stages of labor, but we had plenty of time to put the birth plan in motion. Romeo was at another birth, and he offered to send someone else if we wanted, but from the information we gave him, he believed there was plenty of time. He arrived at midnight and declared we had hours to go before we were going to meet sweet Glenda or Julie or Anya.

“I’m starting to doubt my plan,” Hirsch panted on his way through yet another contraction at about four in the morning. “Maybe it would be a better idea to go to the birthing center.”

“Let’s check you out again,” Romeo said, rising from the chair in the corner where he was sitting when not needed. He’d been at the other birth for twenty-four hours and had to be exhausted. He took a look and shook his head. “It’s too late for moving. Too risky.”

“But I could get some serious pain relief there,” my brave omega whined, also beyond tired. “And I don’t want to hurt anymore.”

I was holding his hand and trying to lend support. In all our months together, that had been the key to calming him, but I had a feeling we were past that now. He was so close to delivering, and his face was pale, lines of pain bracketing his mouth. “I’d take the pain for you if I could.”

“I know you would, alpha.” He tried to smile, failed. “But it doesn’t work that way.”

“It should.” When he found out he was pregnant, he felt guilty as if he’d done it on purpose when we both should have been aware of the possibility. But I’d had nothing but joy about the baby on the way, never somehow recognizing just how hard this would be for him at the end. “I’m so sorry I did this to you.”

He was deep into a contraction, but as it started to fade, he said, “I’m supposed to say you did this to me in an accusatory way, but even though I could really use some pain meds about now, I am so glad you did this to me. Now, if you don’t mind, Ithink I’m going to need to concentrate here, and you can grovel at my feet later, okay?”

“Love you, omega.” I didn’t say more, gave him the space he needed to bring our daughter into the world. But I prayed hard because another thing that hadn’t been in my mind for the whole pregnancy was that on rare occasions, an omega or the baby or both did not make it through the birthing process.

Something in my face must have given me away because Romeo beckoned me to come with him into the hallway, out of earshot of my omega. He closed the door behind us. “You’re scared.”

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