“I don’t know if I’d hold up as well as you have it was Jason.”
“Not much choice, is there? And he needs me.” Duke looked down at Bram, and felt his complete helplessness in this situation. “Not that I’m doing much.” He took a deep breath and decided that a change of topic was in order. “How’s Quin doing organizing the construction?”
“We’ve got enough people now, we think, for the houses anyway. But Bax is up to something, and there’s been dire warnings about a shift in priorities that he’s being mysterious about.”
Duke chewed his lip and slipped out of the bed. “So, when does construction start?”
“Any time now. Quin’s picked out a spot for you and Bram, just the other side of the wall, so you won’t be more than a five or ten minute walk from me and Abel.”
“You guys realize I might not be home again for another six or seven weeks, right? We won’t have the credits to bump us up the list. Unless I can be scheduled for a few extra shifts once we’re back?”
“Your mate is going to be home with two brand new pups. If you think I’m letting you work yourself to death for a new house and taking shit from Jason for the rest of my life over it, maybe we need to check you into the hospital too, because you’re obviously lunar.” There was humor in Mac’s voice, but also alpha, and the message to let it go came through loud and clear. “Besides, I think Quin is up to something, but he’s being very quiet about it. Holland, too, for that matter. Do you think something’s going on between them?”
Damn, he hoped so. Because it was a beacon of hope for his and Bram’s mating. “Well, an Alpha should have a mate. And Holland’s a good man.” He glanced down at Bram again. It was tempting to ask Mac again to put him on the roster for the Summer Meeting, but the sight of Bram, pale-faced with anxiety, shadows under his eyes so dark they were nearly black… Yeah, he needed to put this aside and focus his attention where it was needed. And ultimately, it was his frustration with everything, with Bram being scared, with his own fear and his own complete inability to do anything to change the outcome, that was making him so bloodthirsty. So he deliberately changed the topic. “You going to bring Macy with you?”
“Don’t know. She’s busy enough as it is. Might be better to leave her home with Grampy.”
“I bet Bram would like to see her. He gets a kick out of her at daycare.”
“Does he? I bet the other toddlers don’t. She’s nearly as headstrong as Fan is.”
“No one’s as headstrong as Fan is, according to Bram,” Duke said dryly.
“We’ll have to hope they never mate.”
Duke snorted, making the bed creak. “Thanks for the nightmare material. Jerk.”
Mac laughed. “I’ll tell Jason you want us to bring the little whirlwind with us when we come. Oh, Quin wants to know if you’d be willing to take one of the smaller houses in the Winston neighborhood until the new ones are done, or if you’re okay staying in the apartment and he’ll give it to one of the new couples mating this spring.”
It would be nice to have a house, especially one of the Winston houses with their hidden cabinets and odd shaped rooms and the history behind them. But trying to move with two new babies? And maybe sick babies? “I think we’ll stay, if it’s all the same. I don’t know what’s going to happen here. Unless—does Holland want his apartment back? Because I’ll make it work. I know Bram’s appreciated having another omega right next door, but we always knew it was only temporary.”
“What? No! Oh, no, he’s never said a thing that I know about. But there’s a Winston house opening up in April, they’re down to two people in the family and they’ll be moved to one of the apartments. Quin thought you should have first crack at it, with the pups coming. It’s a three bedroom, but if you want to wait, the first of the new houses will probably be ready in July.”
Duke looked down at the red-brown head resting on his chest. “Can I get back to you on that?”
“Yeah, no rush.” The laughter of a happy pup rang out in the background. “Hey, I’m gonna have to go. The boss is here.”
Duke heard an oof and then Mac said, “Yeah, gotta go. See you soon.”
Duke put the phone away and climbed back into the bed. It felt good to have Bram in his arms and he drifted off to sleep himself.
CHAPTER FORTY-SIX
I hadn’t realized how lonely I was, even with Duke there all the time, even with the nurses popping in and out of my room, until Mac and Jason showed up with Macy. And wow, was she ever a hit. She’d gotten to that adorable toddler phase, babbling in a mix of real words and made up ones, giggling at everything, and wide-eyed wondering at every new thing she saw. The nurses went absolutely ape-shit over her, took her down to pediatrics to meet some of the other pups—umm, children. She came back with candy and a stuffed animal.
We had a great time. Duke and Mac went out to get food and Duke picked up treats for the nurses as well, blowing our little budget to smithereens—or so I thought. Turned out, he’d been doing handyman stuff in the enclave to earn some credits there and cover his room, but had refused to tell me because he thought I’d get upset. I did, too, but Jason reminded me that there was no reason he couldn’t nap with me at the hospital, so it really didn’t matter, and it was nice to know that if I wanted or needed something, we’d still have the money for it. So I apologized and Duke laughed at me for being silly, which was fun, because I hadn’t felt silly in a long time.
We joked and caught up on stuff going on in Mercy Hills. Jason was about ready to pop—he said he’d gotten pregnant near the beginning of November, so he only had about three weeks left to go. Mac’s cousin Patrice was pregnant again too, hoping for a boy, because they already had three girls and she said it was getting boring.
“Have you picked out names?” I asked Jason.
“Skye for a girl, Sebastian for a boy.” He leaned back in his chair and I noticed him stroking his belly in the same slow way I often did myself. “I’m kind of jealous of you knowing what you’re having. I’d like to be able to say her or him, and call them by name.”
“We’ll have to save up for one of those machines. It’s amazing.”
“Have you two decided? On names?”
Duke spit out a laugh and I frowned at him. “Stop. It’s not that funny.”
“What?” Mac asked, glancing back and forth between the two of us.
I sighed. “I wanted to call them Tristan and Isolde, you know, from Shakespeare? I thought it was a cool combination, and they’re twins, they should have names that go together. But apparently there’s someone on the other side of the enclave who’s already named Tristan, which spoiled the whole plan.” I frowned even harder at Duke and he just smiled lazily. Big mean alpha. “So, the girl will be Isolde, but we ended up naming the boy after an uncle of Duke’s. Jedrick.”
“Good names,” Mac said.
“I like them,” Jason chimed in.
We passed the rest of the afternoon talking about the changes going on in the enclave. Bax was working wonders with the humans, had somehow arranged a contract with a local human business, something about environmental energy, and Mercy Hills was going to be gearing up to build solar panels on a much larger scale. It meant that we were going to be short on labor to build the houses, but Mac said that Quin was talking to other packs to see about hiring a few more of their electricians and carpenters. Quin was looking for people willing to put them up, and he’d been actively recruiting young shifters to work at putting the panels together once the building for business was completed.
Jason winked at me—the Omega Pack was out of their mind excited about this sudden influx of foreign alphas and betas, which made me laugh. I wouldn’t have wanted to mate elsewhere, but to each his own, I guessed.
They had to leave just before supper—there hadn’t been any room in the enclave. Evidently, Mercy Hills wasn’t the only pack with space problems. Stupid laws. So I pasted a cheerful expression on my face and waved goodbye to them. Then Duke
and I settled down to eat leftovers and roam the channels on the television, something I hadn’t yet grown tired of.
Eventually, it was time for Duke to go as well. I kissed him goodbye, unaccountably unsettled by him leaving, but he couldn’t stay or he’d be arrested. So I watched him go, and then I pulled my blankets tight around me, pretending it was him that I was wrapping myself up in, and watched television until I fell asleep.
I wasn’t sure what woke me up at first. It was quiet, everyone was asleep. Someone had come in and turned off my television and there was nothing but the hum of the air circulating through the vents and the heavy stillness of the hospital at night. Might as well pee. I got up off the bed and my stomach cramped. Great. I can finally eat whatever I want, and now my stomach decides to give me grief about it. I hoped I wouldn't’ be spending the rest of the night on the toilet. On the other hand, it wasn’t like I had to get up for work tomorrow.
The front of my pajamas were wet, so I grabbed a new pair out of the drawer, grumbling that now I was pissing myself, and maybe it was time for the babies to make their appearance.
Except when I got into the bathroom and turned on the light, I realized the wet wasn’t coming from my cock, but higher. And when I pulled the pajama pants out of the way, the wrap attempting to hold my belly together was soaked and it didn’t smell like pee.
I hurried out to the bed and hit the button that was supposed to call the nurse, my hands holding my belly, hoping for someone, anyone. The clock on the wall read just past five after five. There was another cramp, and it occurred to me that this might not be all the Thai and Greek food I’d eaten yesterday, but my womb giving up the ghost on my babies. I hoped I was wrong, that it really was the food, because there was still five weeks to go in my pregnancy.
I waited and waited, and hit the button again and again, until the speaker crackled and Nurse Cranky angrily demanded to know what I wanted.
“Ma’am, I need help.” I said. Catch more flies with honey, right?
She ignored me.
“Ma’am,” I said again, a bit louder. “I think something’s wrong. The front of my pajamas is wet.”
There was a pause, and then her voice came through the speaker again. “You should change your pants, then, and get back into bed. You’re on bed rest, remember?”
“But I think something’s wrong. I woke up and my dressing was soaked.”
“You probably just had an accident. It happens. Go back to bed and I’ll come in a bit to change you.” Her tone implied I was being a baby, and that she would be changing me like I was a baby with a diaper.
I reddened, but to be honest, she scared me, because I didn’t trust her fear. “I don’t think it is. It doesn’t smell right. Please, just look?”
“You just follow instructions. I’m the nurse, I know what’s going on.”
So I hauled myself back off to my bed and stripped off the damp sheets, while my belly kept shivering and changing shape, and I knew I was in labor, but what did I do when the nurse didn’t believe me? I half wondered if she wanted me to lose the pups, and I started to cry silently while I looked through the cupboards in hopes of finding clean sheets to put on the mattress, but there were none, and I wanted Duke but he was at the enclave and couldn’t even leave for another hour and I was scared.
I waited and waited and waited. A couple of times I went to the door to see if she was coming, but there was no answer to my yelling and pounding.
Finally, at quarter to six, Kristy came in for her morning shift. Like every morning, the first thing she did was unlock the door of my room and wave hi. Today, though, she paused and took a second look at me. “Bram, is everything okay?”
I shook my head and tears started running down my cheeks. “I think I’m having the babies.” I clutched my belly and leaned against the door frame.
She came right over, even though she hadn’t done any of her start-of-shift stuff. I was never so grateful to a human in my life as I was to her in that moment. “What are you feeling?” She ushered me back into the room and stopped dead when she saw my stripped bed. “Where are your sheets?”
“I took them off. They’re wet. My bandage is wet, and I’m having cramps.”
She led me over to a chair and made me sit. “Okay, let’s have a look here.” Carefully, she unwrapped the bandage supporting my belly, then peeled away the gauze beneath it. I smelled the fear off her, more sharp and preylike than shifter fear, though her expression remained carefully neutral.
“Sweetie, I’m going to get you a wheelchair and we’re going to take you somewhere else for a little while. I’ll have someone come clean your room up for you while you’re out.”
“I’m having them, right?”
She nodded.
I went numb, completely, except— “Duke! Can we get a message to Duke?”
“I can try. But right now, I need to call Dr. Stambourg and get you down to delivery. You okay here by yourself for a moment?”
I nodded. “I don’t feel sick. I just…” I had to stop, because I was going to start crying again. “I’ll be okay.”
“I’ll only be a second.” She left, and moments later I heard her saying something sharp to Nurse Cranky, then she was back to help me into the wheelchair. “We’ll call your husband from labor and delivery. The doctor is being called now, he won’t be long. Don’t worry. We’re going to look after you and those babies of yours.”
I hoped so.
CHAPTER FORTY-SEVEN
Duke was just cleaning up after a messy glue job fixing a broken table when his cell phone went off. He glanced at the screen, and his heart started beating so fast it ached. It was the hospital. The only reason for the hospital to be calling him was if something went wrong. “Hello?”
“Duke Mercy Hills?”
“That’s me. Is Bram okay?”
“We’re just calling to let you know that Bram has been taken down to Labor and Delivery. It looks like his water broke last night, which means that the babies have to be delivered now.”
It was only twenty after five in the morning—he had another forty minutes before he could leave. “Thank you,” he stammered out, his brain going a mile a minute trying to figure out a way to bypass the curfew laws and get to the hospital. He paced the Alpha’s living room, chewing his lower lip and eyeing the door. Fuck it. He’d go talk to the guys on the gate and see what they’d do. Maybe he’d get a sympathy vote.
He left a note for the family and slipped out the door. The van started easily and he was down at the gate within ten minutes of the call coming in.
The human guards were nowhere to be seen, probably inside their building watching television, or whatever it was that they did to pass the time. Duke got out of the van and paced restlessly in front of the gate, hoping that they cameras on the space and would pick him up. Eventually, the door to the building opened and a man came out, hitching his pants up and pulling a ball cap down over his eyes.
“Gates don’t open for another fifteen minutes,” he said, his tone saying he thought Duke was stupid to try to get out early. “Curfew’s still on.”
“Isn’t there any kind of exception for emergencies? My mate’s in the hospital here having twins and the babies are coming now, early. I need to get there.”
“Can’t open the gate. Against the law. She’ll be fine, you can wait.” The man started to turn away, but spun back again when Duke threw himself against the gate, ignoring the burning in his hands.
“Dammit, he could die. The babies could die! You’re telling me there’s nothing that can be done?”
The human put his hand on the holster at his waist. “You just calm yourself down there, boy, or you won’t be going anywhere. Gate opens at six, just like the law says. If you want to be driving through it at six, then you need to go sit back in your van and wait, like a good dog.”
Duke snarled and shook the gate once before storming back to the van to glower at the gate and the humans on the other side of it until curf
ew lifted. As soon as the bars rolled away, the lights glinting off them like off the edge of a knife, he put the van in gear and headed out.
The human held up a hand to stop him, something he hadn’t done since the end of the second week. “Papers.” He stared at Duke, his hand still on the butt of his gun, the holster opened. Duke stared at him, then slowly reached for the papers in the glove compartment and handed them over. The human slowly read through them, glancing between them and Duke as if checking him against the description, then read through the papers again a second time.
Duke gritted his teeth and squeezed the steering wheel. He wanted to yell, to curse at the man holding him up, to tell him to fucking grow up and to let Duke go to his mate. But he didn’t, couldn’t, because if he did, he might never make it to the hospital. This was all happening because he hadn’t kept hold of his temper when he first arrived. He had to wait it out.
Finally, the man nodded and handed the papers back. “You remember this, next you’re in a hurry. I don’t got to do anything you say, so if you want something, you got to make it worth my while, or wait until it’s convenient for me.”
Duke swallowed and nodded, keeping his eyes focused on the road ahead of him. The guard watched him for a moment longer, though it felt like an hour, then nodded and let him go.
He rode the speed limit like it was his life on the line, and luckily there wasn’t much traffic. He pulled into the hospital parking lot at twenty to seven and raced up to the maternity ward. “Bram,” he panted. “Where is he?”
Kristy took his arm and led him down the hall. “Follow the green line. And good luck,” she called after him as he raced away from her.
The hallways twisted and turned and he wondered if they’d ever end. Then, he came to a set of locked doors. He pushed at them, then shook them.
A voice crackled out of a small speaker he hadn’t noticed. “Can I help you? Push the button to speak, please.”
He pushed the button. “Bram was brought down here. My mate, he’s having the pups. Please, let me in!”
Duke's Baby Deal (MM Mpreg Shifter Romance) (Mercy Hills Pack Book 3) Page 21