by Aspen Grey
“Not if you want to keep that bandage on,” she replied. “Just hang your head in the toilet or that fancy bidet you’ve got in your bathroom!”
She gave me a fake mad face then left and headed for the kitchen. Jude giggled.
“The girl saves your life and you still give her shit? Brave.”
“That’s me,” I replied, tugging him down against me. He cuddled right up on the opposite side of my hurt side, which was still sore and hurt like Hell. The fight was still a bit fuzzy in my mind but I was sure of one thing—I’d called Viggo and challenged him. That meant he, or his troops, would be coming for me. And that meant Jude wasn’t safe.
“Baby, I need you to do something for me,” I told him. “I need you to go to Denver for a while.”
“What?”
“I’ll give you some money and get you a place for a month or so,” I explained. “But I need you to get away from here for a while. Viggo is going to be coming for me and I can’t have you here for that. If anything were to happen to you—”
“Oh, and what if something happens to you?” Jude exclaimed, looking at me like I was completely insane. “You want me to just go to Denver and wait there? Every day wondering if you’re alive or not?”
“No, I just want you to be safe!”
“Look at me!” he shouted. “I’m about to pop! And if you think I’m going to do it miles away from you, then you’re completely insane. I’m not going anywhere.”
I was so touched by his outburst that I couldn’t even find it in myself to be angry with him. But that still didn’t change the fact that if he stayed here he would be in danger. And I just couldn’t have that.
“Clarice,” I called. “Can you come here for a minute?”
Clarice came back into the room. “What’s up, slayer?”
“Your pack. They live close by. Can Jude come and stay with you for a while? There’s going to be some trouble coming my way and I don’t want him here for it.”
“We’d be happy to have him,” Clarice nodded.
“No!” Jude protested.
“Stop!” I said firmly. “Stop. Denver is too far, you’re right. But Clarice’s pack is close by and they’ll take you in while I handle this.”
“They can fight with us!” Jude suggested.
“No,” I replied, shaking my head. “No, this is my fight. I don’t need to endanger anyone else who wasn’t involved. This is my past coming back to haunt me like I knew it would.”
If there was one thing I learned back in New York, it was that a man fought his own battles and handled his own business. He didn’t turn to other people and ask them to put their safety or lives on the line for something he had done. I wasn’t going to ask Clarice to go to her pack and ask them to endanger themselves because of some alpha they’d never met. If any of them ended up hurt because of me—well, I wouldn’t be able to live with myself.
If you live…
I shook the thought from my mind and took Jude’s hand. He smiled at me and I kissed him on the cheek.
“We’ll be happy to have him,” Clarice replied before excusing herself. I ran my hand across Jude’s pregnant belly. It still seemed like a miracle to me that a life was growing in there. It was our baby, a symbol of our love and the future of our family. Boy or girl, I couldn’t wait to meet them.
“I love you, Jude,” I told him. “But nothing can happen to you or our child.”
Tears welled up in Jude’s eyes and he leaned his head against my chest. I shifted slightly, still aware of the wound in my side. Shifters healed quickly, more quickly than humans, but this would be with me for at least a few more days.
“You better not get yourself killed,” Jude warned me. “I don’t know what I’d do without you.”
“Me? Killed?” I chuckled. “That’s like telling the ocean it better not dry up. It’s just not possible.”
“Hey, you never know. Global warming and all that!”
“Global warming would make the oceans bigger, not smaller,” I laughed.
“Okay, well…global cooling then!”
“Another ice age?”
“Exactly!”
I chuckled and smelled my mate, his sweet grapefruit that was so refreshing and sensual at the same time. It was the smell of home now, of safety and my reason for living.
I lay there with him for what could have been ten minutes or could have been an hour, and just as I was about to doze off, I felt Jude stir beside me.
“Uhm…Alexei?”
“Yeah, babe.”
“I think—I think it’s happening,” he groaned. My eyes snapped open.
“You think it’s happening!?” I asked. “Like—it it?”
He nodded vigorously, putting a hand on his stomach. He clenched his teeth and groaned again.
“Yep! Yep, the baby’s coming. Oh, wow, that hurts!”
“Clarice!” I shouted. I sat up in bed, one hand over my bandage and walked to the door as she was coming in. “The baby’s coming!”
“Oh!” she replied. “Okay, let me turn the stove off and we’ll get started. Jude, get into the bathroom for me.”
“Way ahead of you,” Jude replied. I helped him into the bathroom and tugged his sweatpants off and helped him into the tub and started the warm water. We’d talked about doing a water birth and watched tons of YouTube videos on it. Clarice was on board, so that’s what we were doing.
“It’s really happening,” Jude smiled.
“It sure is, baby,” I replied. “We’re going to be a real family now.”
Chapter Nine
Jude
The water wasn’t that warm yet, and I flinched as it touched my butt. But that was nothing compared to what I was feeling inside of me. It was like one of those toy train sets chugging away in my lower stomach, or a track of mini race car toys speeding around and coming off the rails. It was nothing like anything I’d ever felt before, and while it wasn’t really painful—yet—it wasn’t the most comfortable thing in the world. All I could picture in my mind was a toothpaste tube being squeezed to get the very last drops out.
“How are you feeling?” Clarice asked as she came into the room and went to the sink to wash her hands.
“Like a tube of toothpaste!”
Clarice actually started laughing as she came over to us with a stack of towels and a small bag.
“I’ve never heard that one before.”
“Well, that’s how it feels,” I told her.
“Does it hurt?” Alexei asked. “Do you need something for the pain?”
“No,” I shook my head. “At least not yet. And I don’t want to be drugged up. I want to do this naturally.”
The tub was starting to fill up now and the water was warm. Despite not being that close to Clarice, I realized I wasn’t self-conscious in the least about the fact that she could totally see my dick.
“Okay,” Alexei smiled. “We’re both a couple of troopers.”
“Made for each other,” Clarice said. She pulled a few candles from her bag, set them on the edge of the tub and began to light them. Thankfully, they were unscented. She really was a shifter nurse. Once they were lit, she went to the lights and turned them off, turning the room into some kind of birthing chamber that I could see in Game of Thrones or something.
“Ahhh, I feel like a birthing goddess,” I joked. “The goddess—wait, goddess? God of fertility and creation—”
My little joke was cut short as another contraction, stronger than the previous, slapped through me like a flock of dinosaur birds trying to flap their way out of my stomach. I slapped the edge of the tub and grasped Alexei’s hand.
“Yup, that one hurt!”
“Hang in there, baby,” Alexei told me.
“Do your breathing like we practiced,” Clarice said smoothly. She was unfazed by all this, clearly having done it many times before. “Focus on that. It’ll help you keep your mind off the pain.”
“Oh, sure,” I groaned. “A little breathing’s go
ing to take my mind off my guts being turned into Jell-O!”
Alexei chuckled and I glared at him.
“Oh, you want to laugh, huh? How about I take the immersion blender, cram it up your ass and turn it on? Then you can know how this feels!”
But this only made Alexei laugh even harder, which in turn actually got a laugh out of me too.
“I love your spunk,” he told me.
“I love your spunk,” I winked. “It’s what got me into this situation.”
Another contraction hit me as the water continued to fill the tub. I groaned, closed my eyes and tilted my head back. The cold porcelain on my neck felt good, and Clarice pressed a cold towel against my forehead.
“I’m going to give birth to a shadow,” I mused, feeling almost high or something as I gave myself over to the situation. “In the shape of Stannis Baratheon.”
“Game of Thrones,” Alexei explained to Clarice. “We binge watched it recently.”
“Never seen it,” Clarice replied. “I’ve got enough paranormal in my own life; I don’t need any more!”
Alexei squeezed my hand and I thought back to the first time we met back at the club. I couldn’t even believe that I’d worked in that dump, but if I hadn’t, I never would have met my fated mate. But I guess that was fate, wasn’t it?
My old problems seemed so far away now—almost inconsequential. My old landlord? My rent issues? The alpha dickheads at the club? Valentino? It was like thinking back to an old movie I watched years ago that never left that much of an impression on me. Alexei had swept into my life like a tornado and uprooted everything, changed it for the better. Nothing would ever be the same, and this child was going to be the real game changer.
I’m going to be a father!
More than ever, the thought filled me with a warm feeling that overcame everything. For just a moment, I was unaware of anything else. But then another contraction hit me and slapped me right out of my contentment.
“Uhhhhhh,” I groaned. “Alexei, I hate you right now.”
“You do?” he replied. I could hear the amusement in his voice.
“You did this to me,” I told him. “You son of a bitch.”
“Hey, you’re the one who told me you wanted to ‘feel me come inside you’ and all that.”
“Babe!” I gasped, opening my eyes and glaring at him. “Not in front of Clarice!”
“Oh, I’m no prude,” Clarice chuckled. “I’ve heard it all and may have said that to a man myself a few times!”
I smiled and closed my eyes again, focused on my breathing while the contractions came at me faster and faster. I was completely submerged in the water now, and thought back to the YouTube videos I’d watched with Alexei.
How did those women seem so calm?
Maybe it was because they’d already had children. Once I was on our third, I’m sure I’d be able to handle it the way they did too.
Third? Did I just think that?
Here I was giving birth for the first time and I was already thinking about churning out two more? I guess that was what love would do to you!
“Okay, okay, okay,” I said in the rhythm of my breaths. “I think—I think it’s time for me to start pushing now.”
“Does it feel that way?” Clarice asked. “Because you don’t need to start pushing too early if you aren’t sure.”
“Yeah, I think the toothpaste is ready to come out.”
Alexei laughed and I turned to look at him. He was more beautiful than ever in the flickering candlelight, his eyes filled with strength and determination. He was my mate and he would be by my side through anything and everything, and I couldn’t wait to bring his child into the world and give it to him.
“Then go ahead,” Clarice replied. “Start pushing.”
“We’re really doing this, baby,” I told my mate.
“You’re doing this,” he corrected me. “I did the other part.”
I smiled and pursed my lips for a kiss, which he quickly gave me. I felt the choo-choo train inside me chugging along the tracks and knew it was time. I looked into his eyes, inhaled his scent, and pushed.
Chapter Ten
Alexei
Lying in bed with my mate and my son was pure Heaven. Bliss on a whole new level that I’d never known.
When I’d left New York and built my dream house, I thought I was happy. I was living the high life, having escaped from Viggo and his organization. But I hadn’t really been happy—not compared to this.
Little Rob Junior, named after Jude’s father who died in the car crash. He smelled like Jude, which was appropriate as he was an omega, but his hair was dirty blond and his eyes were gray, so it was hard to tell who it was he’d take after, but I suspected it would be Jude.
I was already thinking about how I was going to have to look out for him when he grew up and became a teenager if any Chad-like alphas decided to come knocking, looking for me to let him out of the house on a weeknight.
You could pretend to be crazy, I thought with amusement as I pictured the face of the first boy who came over to take my son out. I wouldn’t be that hard on them, but they’d know that Rob Junior had himself a father who wasn’t afraid to do whatever it took to keep him safe.
I glanced over at my phone on its charging stand and saw it was 3: a.m. Uninterrupted sleep was a thing of the past, but I didn’t mind all that much. Waking up beside my mate and my son was better than sleeping well through the night and waking up alone.
“Babe,” Jude whispered. “Are you awake?”
“Yeah,” I whispered back.
“Rob’s out. You wanna—ya know?”
I smiled. Giving birth had somehow made Jude even hornier than he already was, and we were like a couple of high school kids sneaking off to fuck whenever the parents were out. I glanced over at him and saw the excited look on his face. Rob was between us in his bolsters. I nodded and we both slowly made our way out of bed, careful not to disturb him.
As we walked to the bathroom, Jude quickly slipped his hands down my boxers and grabbed my dick. By the time we got to the sink, I was ready to go. Jude dropped to his knees and took me into his mouth.
The softness of his lips set me on fire and I looked down and watched them as they massaged my shaft, coating it with his saliva as he started to blow me.
“You get better at that every day,” I told him. His mouth full, all he did was smile up at me.
I stroked his hair as he began to use his hands at the same time. He could use them both to jerk me off while still having his mouth over the tip of my dick—that’s just how big I was.
“Play with yourself,” I told him. “I like to watch.”
Obediently, my mate removed one of his hands from my cock and pulled his through one of the legs of the loose boxers he was wearing. He was completely hard and already dripping with precum.
“Yeah, like that…”
I ran my hands through his hair and over his shoulders, caressing his body as he sucked me. He’d only given birth less than a week ago, but I was already thinking about breeding him again. I mean, could you blame me?
I was hungry for him and didn’t want to waste any time getting inside of him, so I reached down and lifted him up, turned him around, bent him over the sink and almost tore his boxers as I yanked them down to expose his juicy butt that was already showing signs of his slick.
“Mmmm, getting ready for me?” I asked as I gripped my cock by the base and slapped it against his cheeks.
“I’m always ready for you, baby.”
“Yeah?”
I slid my dick between his cheeks. He was almost wet enough, but not quite, so I knelt down and spit right on his tight little hole, causing him to groan and tilt his head back. I grabbed his hair and slid my cock inside him.
“Fuuuuuuuuck,” he moaned, his voice barely a whisper. I grabbed his ass with both hands and started to fuck him. We had to be quiet so as not to wake the baby, but I was fucking him hard with long deliberate strokes,
watching the sweet flesh of his ass bounce every time I bottomed out inside of him.
I felt his sweet spot, like a warm walnut, with each one of my thrusts and knew that the feeling was driving him wild, even if he couldn’t howl with pleasure like he normally did.
“That’s it, baby,” I whispered. “Take that alpha dick.”
“I—I need it!”
“I know you do,” I replied as our balls slapped together. “And that’s why I give it to you so good.”
I fucked him so hard that Jude actually stumbled and almost fell. I had to grab him by the hips and hold him up. We both immediately started laughing as quietly as we could.
“Holy shit, babe!” he giggled. “You trying to kill me?”
“Death by dick?” I suggested. “Could be worse ways to go.”
I was feeling my orgasm beginning to surface. This had to be a quickie, of course—there was no telling if—more like when—the baby would wake up and need one of us. But as I closed my eyes and focused on coming, something else happened that slapped me out of it like a cold bucket of ice being dropped on me while I took a hot shower.
Viggo’s scent swept into my nose.
I froze, and despite how close I was and how turned on Jude made me, my dick went limp and I slipped out of him. He glanced back at me and opened his mouth in confusion, but then he smelled it too and his face went as white as cream.
“Is that—”
“It’s him,” I nodded as I stalked over to the window. I glanced out back, searching the night for him. For a moment I saw nothing, but then something moved by the tree line.
It was Viggo, standing completely nude, his gray beard blowing gently in the night’s breeze and his muscles swollen and heaving. He’d shifted and run here and was challenging me now. He may have been old, but he was still a tough bastard. He was my old boss and had made me into the killer I once was—the killer that was still buried deep inside me despite my new life as a father and a mate. And that killer was what I was going to need to transform into if I was going to save my family.