Page 57 of Blood of the Damned: Thorn
“Like what?” he asked, working to keep his alarm out of his voice, unsure what he might have projected.
“As if I’m about to explode.”
He was going to kill Dacian.
He crouched in front of Ledger, rubbing once more at his drum tight, protruding belly, unleashing his thrall to assess what was happening inside Ledger. “The ache could be your body preparing for…” he swallowed hard, “giving birth,” he finished in a scratchy voice. No matter what he knew was going to happen, the reality of it totally had him freaking out.
“Am I?” Ledger screeched, hurting Thorn’s ears.
He resisted rubbing at them as he nodded slowly.
This is it!
Fuck, this is really it.
He needed to get his brothers, they would all be required to help keep Ledger relaxed as his body adapted to give birth toa vampire. Thorn’s thrall—Hartly had called it—wouldn’t work the way he needed it to on his mate, so his brothers’ help was necessary. It was the only small consolation at seeing his brothers lose their shit after Hartly explained they’d have to help at the birthing.
Birthing a vampire—as he’d done his best to block from his thoughts—was nothing like birthing a shifter or human baby. Vampire skin was tough and their bones not as pliable, meaning their skulls didn’t compress. Also—like he chose to pretend wasn’t going to happen—vampire babies used their fangs to assist in getting free. Painful and not a pleasant experience from what he’d learned. Would it be the same for Ledger, as a guy? It was a question with no answer that scared Thorn the most. He hadn’t shared his fear with Ledger, no sane vampire would. The girls needed Ledger’s blood, and biting their way out was the way to complete the blood bond with him. Barbaric, but no way around it, not that Thorn was able to find.
Right now, the babies gained enough sustenance from Ledger and what he ate. They would need blood, besides the milk filling Ledger’s breasts, once born. They had discussed that at least. Although not a straightforward conversation, it was when it distracted from the here and now. And drinking Ledger’s milk, and using their tiny fangs to pierce skin to take blood at the same time, gave them something else to concentrate on.
Ever since he’d noticed Ledger’s chest filling with milk, he’d become a little fixated on how it would taste with his mate’s blood. A detail he most certainly had not shared because of feeling a smidge embarrassed by it.
Ledger rocked forward as much as his belly would allow and gripped his cheeks and demanded tearily, “Answer me!”
Crap, this not having sex was messing with his head! Shaking off how disconcerted he felt, he nodded slowly, the fingers neverletting go as he held Ledger’s gaze with difficulty. “I’m gonna get my brot—”
“You’re not leaving me,” Ledger cried in alarm. “Why do you need your brothers? I don’t want them seeing me like this. I’ll be naked!”
Oh fuckity-fuck. He instantly regretted not having the courage to broach the subject. Calvert warned him about stepping into a minefield by not talking to Ledger about what was required.
He cupped the hands holding his cheeks. “Sweetling, we need them… to help keep you relaxed.”
“How can I be relaxed… ohhh, shit… ouchhhh,” Ledger panted, his face paling so dramatically that his skin appeared see-through. His hands moved to his taut belly, which had changed shape.
It gave Thorn a moment of absolute terror and held him rooted to the spot.
The sound of hammering on the door leading into his part of the house broke him out of his stupor seconds later. Never more grateful for their super speed and connection to each other, he shouted at his brothers, “Get in here!”
“Arrrrrghhhh… noooooo,” Ledger groaned, one hand tugging on an edge of the towel as sweat gleamed on his gray skin. Despite his protests, Dacian and Calvert rushed in.
“Honest Sweetling, we need them,” Thorn rushed to say, helping whip the towel free and managing to hit Dacian in the face with the edge of it.
“Why’d you hit me!”
“Let it go, it was an accident. What do you need, Thorn?” Calvert shot Dacian a warning look and backed it up with a threat he didn’t verbalize.
Thorn felt a quick surge of satisfaction from the red slash over Dacian’s cheek. That will teach him to say his mate would burst open!
Chapter Twenty-Seven
Ledger
Everything felt totally out of control as Ledger sat in a contraption that couldn’t be called a chair because his bottom half was floating over a big hole. Dacian had brought the thing into their bedroom hours ago when Thorn had issued orders hehadn’t heard because he was too busy moaning and groaning through the damn awful pain.
Since then, Ledger had lost track of everything because the pain never ceased once it had really got going. It eased somewhat between what he considered were contractions, but it never truly let go. The websites he’d visited to look for information mentioned how his body would naturally open, producing goo as the contractions became longer, with fewer gaps between them so he could deliver his babies.
Check. There was gunk dripping over the stack of towels on the floor Calvert had placed there, much to Ledger’s acute embarrassment. This, however, was where things seemed to have gone awry when his bottom didn’t feel… open. The pressure was there, only there was something bizarre happening he couldn’t vocalize.
