Page 101 of Where the Current Takes Him
“What? What’s—” Beau stopped speaking when he saw the sheet. A large, wet patch was spreading slowly across the fabric.
“Beau, I think you’re in labor.” Jaime’s voice was calm on the surface, but a note of panic ran beneath. “I’ll get Vuos. Do you know the number for your birthing center?”
The next five minutes was a flurry of action, from stuffing clothes into his hospital bag to calling Beau’s poor midwife in the middle of the night. Jaime came rushing back into the room and got Beau to his feet
“We have to get going now. The transport vehicle will be here in just a minute. Try not to panic, okay?”
That last part sounded like it was meant for Jaime just as much as it was meant for Beau.
“But Loriun isn’t here,” Beau gritted out as a contraction blazed up his lower back. “Where is he?”
Jaime glanced over at his mate.
“I will go get him Beau, I promise,” Vuos rumbled. “He will be here before you know it.” And before Beau could ask any other questions about why his mate had abandoned him to begin with, Vuos plunged into the pool.
“Doyouknow where he went?” Beau challenged, glaring at Jaime.
The older man chewed his lip. “Vuos didn’t tell me either. But after that awful stunt your dad pulled, I can guess.”
Beau gasped. An image of Loriun bursting into his father’s office and beating the shit out of him arranged itself in his mind’s eye.
“You don’t think he—?”
“I don’t know,” Jaime said quickly. The quiet rumble of an engine was now audible from the front of the house. “Let’s just focus on you, okay? Loriun can take care of himself, and even if he can’t, Vuos will.”
Beau fell silent, and let his friend escort him to the sleek, white van that awaited them in the drive.
Chapter 42
Loriun
Without fury roaring in his ears, the ocean’s silence was creating a perfect environment for anxiety to set in. Loriun had physically attacked a prominent human politician. Not only that, but he had left his grieving, pregnant mate to do it. Had Beau woken up to discover Loriun was gone? Would he be upset?
Of course he would be upset. This was probably the time Beau needed his mate the most, and Loriun was off blackmailing his father. He hoped that Beau would understand after he’d had some time to explain. At least he would be able to attend his mother’s funeral, even if he was angry at Loriun while he did it.
And at least their precious photos would no longer be used to foster hate and rage. Regardless of the morality of Loriun’s actions, he had done it all for Beau.
A voice rang out through the water. Loriun slowed, cocking his head to listen.
“Loriun!”
It was Vuos. Fear flooded Loriun’s mind. Had something happened to Beau?
“Loriun!”
He struck out in the direction of the call, swimming with such speed that he nearly collided head on with the dark-scaled Mer.
“Vuos,” he panted. “What? What’s happened?”
There was a wild look in the other Alpha’s eye. “Beau is in labor. He’s at the birthing center with Jaime now. Come on, we’ve got tomove.”
Loriun didn’t swim back to Miami—heflew.
∞∞∞
Their son came with the sunrise. As pink clouds scored the indigo sky, Makai Koery took his first breath. His face was scrunched and red, his eyes screwed shut with shrieks of indignation. Along his tiny arms were peppered scales of champagne pink and wisps of pale gold fins. His tail was tightly curled along his left side, still in the position it was in the womb. There, too, were golden-pink scales, framed with the flare of his tail fin.
The strawberry blond fuzz on his head formed a perfect accent to the beauty of his scales and fins. But when he opened his wrinkled eyes, Loriun saw that they were a familiar shade of warm brown.
