"Am I..." He couldn't take his eyes off her, and what color remained in his face — rather than on it — drained away. "Am I okay? Bethany, you were kidnapped! Are you okay?"
"Kidnapped?" a voice chirped from across the room. "B, your baby daddy may be one hot hunka love meat, but what's going on between those perfectly shaped, oh-so-lickable ears?"
"Paul! What are you doing here?" Max turned to take in each person in the room. "Kimmy, Char...Uncle Chet?! What the hell is going on here?"
"This is the hell that's going on here, Max."
Max whipped around to find Dr. Graves, their healer from home, standing behind him, thrusting a bundle of towels at him.
"You may think he's an angel right now but trust me, in five years, he's going to be raising all kinds of hell."
In a great gust, all the air in Max's lungs whooshed out of him and darned if he couldn't take any more in. All thoughts of money troubles, shunning, the Brotherhood and Yoren’s murderer were swept away. There were more important things to focus on right now.
Such as the five perfect little fingers wriggling their way out from the bundle, clutching at air. Almost waving at him. His heart skipped a beat or three.
Max had visited some of the most beautiful places on earth and risked his life on some ridiculously daring adventures, so he thought he knew what awe was. He was wrong. It all paled in comparison to this tiny, red wriggling thing that was his son.
My son!
Tears filled his eyes as he looked back at Bethany. The tears were flowing freely down her face as well and a smile as big as the world lit her features. He looked back at Dr. Graves.
"Can I...?" A fierce desire to hold his son gripped him, but he was a mess. The last thing he wanted to do was to infect him or something.
"You'd better," Bethany called out, everyone in the rooming bursting out laughing.
In the time it took for Dr. Graves to deposit the baby into his waiting arms, Max's life was profoundly and irrevocably changed.
He was a father.
~ * ~ * ~
Bethany couldn't stop crying. Ever since the pains had first hit her on the sidewalk outside the hotel and a local human had kindly taken her to the hospital, she'd been yearning for Max. That their final words had been in anger drove her nearly mad as the pain of childbirth drove her insane.
She'd begged the hospital staff to call Max, but he never showed up. At one point, she was so delirious from the agony and fear that Max would miss the birth of his son, she actually tried to leave the hospital to find him.
At some point early on, a nurse must have started calling the numbers in her phone because twelve long, agonizing hours later, her hospital room door burst open and her friends had rushed in. Kimmy had called in a few favors and snagged family airline passes for everyone, including Chet. He’d hemmed and hawed and patted Bethany's head awkwardly, then sat in the corner sniffling.
But what touched her most was when Charlotte had peeked around Paul's back, grinning like a fool.
"I'm so sorry for being such a bitch," she said as she rushed to Bethany's side. "I can't believe I was such an asshole. Please forgive me!"
Like she even needed to ask. All of her friends were there and fighting to hold her hands, and she was loving it.
Until the next contraction hit.
That's when Dr. Graves came in and shooed all the human doctors and nurses from the room. Seems the Chief of Staff had a special arrangement with clan leaders that healers would be allowed full access for their 'clients'. He placed his hands on her belly and started humming in a way that reverberated through her entire body. In a blink, Bethany's pain level went from 11 to 4, if that.
Once the pain was under control, she could think clearly. That's when the worry set in. Where was Max? It had been nearly a full day since she'd stormed off like a toddler throwing a tantrum, and no one had been able to reach him. His cell went straight to voicemail and the hotel kept taking messages for him but said he hadn't picked them up.
She couldn't stand the thought of him missing the birth of his son, but it was the 'why' he was missing it that had her anxious. If there was one thing she knew about Max, it was that he would have been there if he could. Which meant he either didn't know or couldn't get to her for some reason.
His warnings about the Brotherhood started gnawing at her. What if they'd somehow hurt him for taking her as his mate? He’d said they were a dangerous bunch, after all.
Paul and Kimmy tried to take her mind off Max — as if that was going to happen — by regaling her with tall tales of all their sexual escapades since she'd left...three days earlier. She didn't believe a single one but loved them for trying. Ironically, Chet's few words on the subject eased her mind the most.
"Don't you worry, girly. He's a tough little shit. He can take care of himself."
When the pain started intensifying again, Dr. Graves had Bethany's friends form a circle around her, linking hands as he moved into position.
"Char, trade spots with me, pleaaase," Paul whined. He was at the foot of the bed and was desperately trying not to watch what the healer was doing between his best friend's legs.
"Don’t break the circle," growled Dr. Graves. Normally quite laid back and rather quiet, his tone demanded obedience. Paul groaned in protest but stayed where he was.
Bethany's belly was taut and rippling with contractions, and the pain was severe, but she knew the healer had done something to ease it because this was nothing like what she'd experienced before he got here. She blessed his tiny head poised between her spread thighs and nearly giggled. Nearly.
When it was all over, he'd laid the baby in her arms and allowed her friends to finally break the circle, which he explained was part of their birthing ritual. It bonded each soul present to the child forever, essentially making them all godparents. That was a-okay by her.
She sobbed uncontrollably over the baby. It did no good for her friends to explain that pregnancy hormones were coursing through her veins, she still bawled. Bawled over her beautiful new son. Bawled over her friends dropping everything to fly to some remote island in Alaska to be with her. But most of all she bawled for her missing man...wereman...mate...whatever.
The sobs that had wracked her body finally slowed, and Dr. Graves took the baby from her.
"It's just for a moment, dear," he soothed when she protested. She couldn't take her eyes off him, her son, as Graves moved across the room to clean him. He was perfect.
That's when Max ran into the room, looking like death warmed over. The surprised look on his face would have been comical if he hadn't been covered in blood and dirt. And then he saw his son, and her world — her family — came into focus.
Max was so gentle, so careful with the baby that it nearly tore her heart apart. She loved them both so much! He ever-so-slowly picked his way across the room, his gaze never leaving his son's face except to make sure he wasn't about to trip over something and drop him.
From the corner of her eye, Bethany spied her friends huddling around Chet, who was sobbing as hard as she was. Poor Chet! But as sad and tragic as his life may have been, in this moment he looked truly happy.
Max eased their son onto her tummy, and together they held him. Grinning like a fool and tears streaming down her cheeks, she ran a hand down Max's wonderful face, completely oblivious to the grime caked there. All she saw was her love, her mate, the father of her perfect child.
He leaned in, his eyes fixed firmly on her own moist ones. Their eyes never wavered as they shared what quite possibly was the world’s most perfect kiss.
Max pulled back, one hand on the baby's head, the other on Bethany's cheek.
"I just have one question. What's his name?"
THE END
~ * ~ * ~
About the Author: Marina Maddix
New York Times & USA Today Bestselling Author Marina Maddix is a romantic at heart, but hates closing the bedroom door on her readers. Her stories are sweet, with just enough
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