Page 99 of His Sassy Omega
Hiring the new baker, Jenna, had eased some of his worries, but I knew it was making him crazy giving up that much control of his first baby. Besides, bed rest got boring real fast. It sounded great in theory, but the reality sucked hard.
There are only so many shows, movies, books, and games you can play before becoming bored out of your mind. I quickly realized a bored Quinn was a cranky Quinn. Lying in bed all day, every day was not comfortable either, made even worse by his ever-growing belly.
I watched him squirm now, his face grimacing. “Back hurting again?”
It was his most constant complaint, and I spent a lot of time rubbing it for him. Not that I minded, I loved being at his beck and call. Cooking, cleaning, even doing the laundry in between zoom meetings and reading emails.
I could have hired someone, but I’d wanted to do it on my own the first couple of weeks, while we’d each gotten acclimated to the unplanned changes in our lives. My wolf hadn’t been keen on the idea of letting other people near our mate and pups those first few weeks. I’d never imagined I would find it as calming as I did, cooking and cleaning, but it soothed my soul for some insane reason.
I figured my dad was tossing in his grave, but I didn’t give it another thought. I was doing what made me happy, for the first time in forever, and I no longer heard my dad’s voice in my head, telling me who I needed to be. How I needed to act.
It was incredibly freeing.
Quinn wiggled again, then stretched. “I may need to take a lap around the room.”
He’d been getting up for short periods, doctor-approved, in the last month, especially when his muscles were aching. He dug his hand into his lower back. “Today seems worse than normal.”
I helped him up, rubbing at his back while he leaned against me the best he could with his belly between us. He hissed as I hit a sore spot.
“Damn, is it possible to pull a muscle, lying in bed doing nothing? My back is killing me today.”
I kissed the top of his curls, one of my favorite things to do, gently massaging along the wall of tight muscles of his lower back.
He sighed softly, yawning. “Does it make me a horrible person, if I say I’m ready to not be pregnant any longer?”
I chuckled against his soft curls. “I’m pretty sure that’s a normal reaction.”
“Good, because I’m really ready to meet these two.”
“Me too.”
I blinked my eyes open in the darkness, not sure what had woken me. I reached a hand out for Quinn and felt nothing but the sheet where my mate should have been. It was cold, no longer holding his warmth, which told me he hadn’t been in our bed, where he belonged, for some time.
I instantly sprang up, my eyes scanning our bedroom. Even in the darkness, I could see well enough to know the room was empty.
I jumped up, not bothering with clothes or a robe. It was the end of June, and even with the AC on I wasn’t cold.
I found him in the library, one of his favorite places to hang out. He’d been spending more time there in the last month. I’d carry him down and then head into my home office, after taking care of any household chores that needed to be done. I’d usually find him stretched out on the couch, book propped up on his round tummy, when I’d take a break. Oftentimes, I would just watch silently from the doorway, as one of the babies would be kicking, and the book would move gently when they pushed against it.
Quinn wasn’t stretched out on the couch now, however. He was standing behind the large armchair next to the big window. Something seemed off with his posture, I just couldn’t pinpoint what. I wanted to scold himfor coming down on his own, but knew he must have had a good reason not to wake me.
I ran a hand over my face, trying to wake myself up. “Quinn?”
He didn’t answer me, teeth gritted. I scanned his face, stiff in concentration, his eyes focused in front of him, but not seeing anything. He was pale, a little sweaty, and his hands were curled around the top of the chair. He gripped it so hard his knuckles were white.
“Baby?” I moved quickly, wanting to scoop him up, get him in the car, call Finn,something. But I waited until what I guessed was a contraction passed, until his grip loosened, and he was able to take in a shaky breath.
He nodded. “Thing One and Thing Two took my eviction notice seriously.”
I rubbed his back. “Why didn’t you wake me?”
He took in another shaky breath, straightening up. “I came in here to walk around. My lower back was still killing me. I didn’t want to wake you. I’m starting to think my back wasn’t just hurting earlier, but maybe I was having back labor.”
I immediately lowered my hand and started rubbing his lower back. He leaned into me, his head under my chin. “Back labor? That’s a thing?”
He nodded into me. “That contraction hit like a Mack truck. I couldn’t even breathe, Lach. The only thing keeping me upright was holding onto the chair. There was no warning. Nothing in the books said anything about it happening this way. My water hasn’t even broken!” He wailed a little, which was so out of character for him, I had to hide my smile. “All the books say that your water breaks, and you have easy contractions, minutes apart. Lots of minutes apart. There are no minutes apart, Lachlan! None! This is bullshit! I’m not ready for this!”
The intensity of the contraction I had witnessed concerned me, as well as him saying there was no time in between them, indicating he’d had more than one. “We need to go. Now.”
