Tough Cute Omega

by Eva Lyra

  Reese gripped Tiberius’s hand and bent over as much as he was able, retching and coughing.

  “Fuck, Reese. I’m calling the doctor.”

  “No. Don’t.” Reese squeezed his hand and wiped at his mouth. “I’m okay.”

  “The hell you are.”

  “It’s the stress. It got to me. I’ll eat something and I’ll be okay.”

  “Reese...”

  “Please, Ty. I need to take this exam, and then I’ll relax. I promise.”

  “But—”

  “You don’t get it. You’ve always done well in the Academy. And you’re not about to have babies. It’s been hard.”

  “I know, love.” The tears standing in Reese’s eyes were killing him. “I know. You’ve worked so hard. You’re such a fighter.”

  “I feel like I’m so useless sometimes.”

  “No fucking way. Come here.”

  “What?” It was watery and faint.

  “Come.” He turned Reese around and wrapped his arms around his Mate from behind, stroking his belly. “Look at all you’ve done. All this.” He stroked the top of Reese’s massive belly, then the sides, as far as he could reach. “Two babies, about to be born. You’ve done all this work, plus the studies. You’re amazing. You can do this. I know you can.”

  Reese sniffled and sighed, leaning back against him. “With you by my side, I will.”

  ***

  Reese managed a bit more of the spaghetti, moving the rest around his plate. He smiled at Tiberius whenever he said something, and nodded at Marcus and Nero when they came to sit with them.

  Despite Reese’s reassurances, Tiberius had this gut feeling that Reese was going to have the babies very soon. Maybe the next day. So he resolved to keep an even closer eye on him.

  Sooner rather than later, though, Reese had to go take his exam, and Tiberius helped him up.

  “I’ll walk you there.”

  “I can walk on my own.”

  “There’s no discussion about this,” Tiberius said, losing some of his patience. “I’m walking you there, and waiting for you after. Is that clear?”

  Reese shivered. “Yes, alpha.”

  “And when labor starts, you’ll let me look after you, and help you. Help you birth our babies, help you take care of them, and no more of this “I’m handling everything on my own because I am so tough” shit, okay?”

  “Okay. Got it.”

  He was smiling, though, and that shot a wave of relief through Tiberius. Reese would let him take care of him when the moment came. Reese was tough and determined to finish his exams, to fight for his future, but he would lean on Tiberius when it was time to have the babies and raise them.

  That’s what his wolf wanted to hear.

  “Let’s get you there then, to take that damn exam.”

  Then they’d prepare Reese’s bag for the birth center so they would be ready just in case, for the moment the babies decided to come.

  And his wolf would be able to sleep at night.

  ***

  He didn’t return to the salon as he’d originally planned to do, to wait until the end of the exam. Something kept him outside, pacing.

  Why was he so stressed? He wasn’t the one pregnant. Or the one taking an exam. He was done with his exams for the semester, all his focus on his Mate.

  That could be the problem. He was frustrated because he wanted to help Reese and couldn’t, and since his only focus was Reese, there was nothing else he could do.

  He could organize the Claiming ceremony. He’d already emailed and asked about venues.

  He could go and pack Reese’s bag right now—but he couldn’t leave until his omega had finished his exam and came out. For some reason, Tiberius found it impossible to leave.

  Gut instinct?

  Paranoia?

  Who knew? Fact was, he couldn’t go. He was stuck pacing and worrying.

  Don’t worry. Reese is fine. He said so. He’s right on the other side of this wall. Nothing can happen to him or the babies.

  Breathe.

  “Ty. You never finished your food.” Looking up, he saw Marcus coming his way. “Is everything okay? Nero and I thought maybe something happened.”

  “No. Fuck, sorry.” He raked his hands through his hair, raising it into spikes. “I walked Reese here for his exam and I was going to come back to eat with you but... I can’t leave.”

  “Why? Is Reese okay?”

  “He says he is but I think he’s just stubborn and isn’t telling me everything.”

  “Hm... He looks ready to pop.”

  “Right? I think that’s why I’m so damn antsy. At the last doctor's appointment, we were told he could go into labor any day, and that was a week ago.”

  “That’s normal, Ty. I know you’re both anxious to meet your babies, but babies sometimes take their time.”

  “And you’re so experienced when it comes to babies, are you?”

  “Whoa.” Marcus lifted his hands. “Calm the fuck down.”

  Tiberius grunted and resumed pacing. “I’ll just wait until he’s finished with the exam.”

  “Suit yourself. What I came to say was that I looked a bit into what you said about his fathers...”

  Tiberius stopped again. “Didn’t know you were looking into that. Have you found out anything?”

  “Apart from a total lack of a file? No. But that missing file tells me that something’s off.”

  “Now you sound like a secret service agent. How would you know the file is missing?”

  “I have my contacts.”

  “Oh right. Politics...”

  “There’s something fishy in Denmark, Ty. If the witches really are in a cold war with us, why hide the evidence? Is any of it real?”

  Tiberius sighed and folded his arms over his chest. “What’s on your mind?”

  “We have to keep digging.”

  “I can’t save the world, Marcus. I’m going to be a father any day now. My Mate and my babies need my attention.”

  “Never asked you to save the world. You focus on your family, Ty, and let me worry about the truth.”

  “I know you’re doing it for Reese.”

  “That’s where you’re wrong. Reese is great, but I’m not doing it for him, or for you. I need to know the truth because the clans want to go to war. Didn’t your father tell you? They’re looking for excuses to attack the witches, and they’re building a case on non-existent evidence and dodgy cases, like Reese’s fathers. I have to put a stop to it before we find ourselves in another hundred-year war.”

  “Damn.” Tiberius glanced at the closed door of the classroom where Reese was taking his exam. “You’re right, my father did talk about it, several times, but my only thought was Reese and myself.”

  “Ty—”

  “Whatever it is you’re doing to uncover the truth, and as long as it doesn’t put my family in danger, you can count me in.”

  Marcus clapped him on the back, nodded. “I’ll do that.”

  Chapter Twenty-Eight: Reese

  His belly really hurt.

  Reese kept writing, but then he had to stop again as the pain tightened, forcing a gasp from his lips. “Ooh...” The pen fell from his fingers on the desk and he gritted his teeth to keep quiet as the pain worsened.

  God.

  Ow.

  Ha... Ha...

  Glaring down at his belly, he picked the pen up again the moment the contraction ended and struggled to gather his thoughts. He had studied hard for this exam. He knew the answers to the questions. He could do this.

  He managed to get through one more answer before another pain gripped him. He groaned quietly, pressing the tip of the pen into the paper. “Ooh... Ow, god.”

  The guy sitting at the desk next to his cast him a curious look but didn’t say anything. Which was normal, it was an exam, they weren’t supposed to talk.

  Or be in labor, damn it.

  Reese shifted on the chair, trying to find a position that made the pain more bear
able, and panted softly through it.

  He was finishing this exam, come what may.

  The moment the pain faded, he got back to it, keeping his answers succinct to get as many of them done as possible, before...

  Ow...

  This sucked.

  Another contraction.

  Another answer.

  Another damn painful contraction.

  Two more answers.

  And another bad contraction.

  Fuck!

  Three questions left to go. He could do this. Time was running out on either end of the hourglass, but he could manage it, just...

  “Ah!” His vision blurred as his belly tightened so hard he could barely breathe. “Ah. Shit.”

  “Reese.” The supervising teacher approached his desk, worry written all over his face. “Are you all right?”

  “Sure. Yes.” He was panting. “Almost done.”

  “Need me to call your alpha?”

  “In a minute.” He had no illusions that he could walk out and go find Tiberius, not when he was contracting this hard. “Just need to finish the test.”

  The teacher shot him a doubtful look but nodded and moved away.

  Rubbing his belly with one hand, he kept at it, composing the answers, stopping to breathe through contractions. Another answer. Another.

  One last answer, damn it, he was almost there.

  Ow shit... There was a light pop and then he felt a warm gush between his legs. Shit! This couldn’t be happening.

  His water had broken.

  Damn it, babies. You were supposed to wait.

  Clenching his teeth, Reese forced himself to concentrate on the last question. Do it, Reese, damn it.

  ‘Explain what sort of company you’d found and why. Give all the information necessary in three paragraphs.’

  Christ.

  “Ngh...” He bowed his head, struggling to keep a groan behind his teeth as he started to contract again.

  What company would he found? To sell what? What would be the appropriate business type? What—?

  Crap, this was one serious contraction. Reese’s belly tightened and tightened and he was still leaking between his legs. “Oof.”

  His pen scratched an abstract doodle into the paper as he tensed and moaned out loud, reaching the peak.

  The teacher was back, his face a hazy mask of disquiet in Reese’s blurry vision. “Reese—”

  “Give me five minutes,” he panted. “Need to answer the last question.”

  “The babies—"

  “Please.”

  The teacher was silent. The whole room was staring at them.

  At him. Reese.

  Then the teacher turned around and walked back to the back of the classroom, and Reese had to hope he would give him the five minutes before calling the school nurse.

  Hurry up, he told himself. Last chance.

  He scribbled and scribbled, trying to organize his scattered thoughts, the bits of information garnered from all those hours spent bent over books, learning everything he could for this test.

  Types of businesses, advantages, disadvantages, personal thoughts, laws of different countries and counties, things to be careful about when trading with other races.

  Almost, almost...

  “Owowow...” He fought it. Let tears slip down his cheeks. Tried to regulate his breathing until the pain gripped him so hard he couldn’t help the moan. Then he wrote some more.

  Ooh... God, he hurt. The pain was spreading through his belly, down his back. His belly was contracting so hard it was tightening and dipping. Ow.

  The pen dropped from his hand. He was done. Wasn’t he?

  “Reese.” The teacher was beside him, a very worried looking Tiberius behind him. “I think it’s time for you to go to the birth center.”

  “I think so, too,” Reese breathed and gathered the papers of his exam with a shaky hand. “I’ve finished. Here it is.”

  The teacher took the papers, nodded. “Good work, Reese.”

  Yeah. It had been.

  Now he had a different sort of work to do, and it was getting urgent...

  ***

  He’d managed to finish his exam, but things were a blur right now as his body took over. It seemed that these babies were coming now, and there were going to be no more arguments about it.

  Only drawback: he was still in the car, heading toward the birth center. Tiberius had lowered the backseat a little, but Reese wasn’t sure if it was helping or making things worse.

  “Oh!” He clutched at his huge belly as the pain began. “Ooh...”

  The pains were coming quickly now, with barely a break between them. The leakage continued, too, probably ruining the seat of Tiberius’s Jag.

  Right now, Reese couldn’t give a damn.

  “Oh god!” The contraction peaked, gripping his belly so hard he had to swallow a cry. “Oh god...”

  “Hang on, Reese. We will be there soon.”

  “How soon?”

  “Twenty minutes, give or take. I didn’t expect so much traffic.”

  “Oohhh...” Reese tensed, gripping the side of the seat with one hand, his belly with the other, sweat dripping from his brow. “Ty...”

  “I know, babe, I know. Be patient.”

  “Tell that... to your babies. Ah!”

  “I’d ask but I’m afraid they’ll decide to come out to reply in person.”

  “Don’t make me laugh,” Reese hissed, then slumped back when the contraction finally ended. “Jesus.”

  “Sorry.”

  “You should be. I’m never letting you near me again.”

  “No more sex? Ever?”

  “No more... ah!”

  “Reese?”

  “Can’t you drive faster? Ow. Ow, shit...”

  He was stressing his alpha. He could smell the bitter edge of Tiberius’s frustration and fear as he tried to drive and reassure Reese at the same time. Reese’s fault, for not admitting sooner that the babies were coming.

  But those exams...

  ... they didn’t seem so important anymore. Not when the pain wrapped around him, threatening to crush him. Not with the possibility of giving birth in the car looming over him.

  He’d been an idiot not to tell Tiberius sooner, not to grab his things and head straight to the birth center. And now...

  “Aaah! I can’t.” He tried to arch off the seat, failing. “It hurts!”

  “I know, love.” Tiberius cursed and punched the steering wheel. “Fucking traffic.”

  “I’m sorry.” Reese groaned through the contraction. “It’s my fault we’re in this mess.”

  “We’ll be fine. Don’t you worry about a thing.” Tiberius reached over and rubbed the top of Reese’s belly. “Don’t worry, love.”

  Reese slumped back once more, panting. The pressure between his legs was enormous, and terrifying. “I think... the babies are coming now.”

  “What?” Tiberius shot him a wild look. “No, Reese. Not yet.”

  Reese almost laughed at how frazzled his Mate seemed at the possibility. Did he understand now why Reese was apologizing? “I feel one of the babies,” he whispered. “Down there. Almost there.”

  “Fuck!”

  Yeah. Reese totally agreed, and he lost the thread again as another pain gripped him. He moaned and shook and shifted on the damn seat as the baby pressed lower inside him, filling his birth canal.

  The cars in front of them were finally moving, and Tiberius started to honk and overtake others. It was all a blur. Would they make it in time? Reese had no idea how long these things took. He felt like the baby was coming now, but what if he was wrong?

  He couldn’t stand the thought of bearing this pain for much longer. He felt like he was splitting apart.

  This time when the pain hit and kept rising, he howled.

  Chapter Twenty-Nine: Tiberius

  His omega was writhing and crying out with pain beside him, obviously in hard labor, and Tiberius was stuck in traffic, failing
in his role as Reese’s alpha, his protector, alpha father to his babies. He was failing to bring him to the birth center in time for the birth because some asshole drivers were taking their sweet time scratching their balls, moving slower than tortoises, and wouldn’t let him pass.

  He honked at them again, cursing a blue streak, wishing there was a sign he could stick to the car saying ‘Emergency, omega in labor.’

  Or maybe some flashing lights.

  This was his worst nightmare come to life. Failing his Mate in such an important, difficult moment, not making things happen, fixing the problem.

  “Almost there,” he said, glancing sideways at Reese who was moaning and straining. His sweater was riding high on top of his bare belly. It was so damn big. Their babies were about to come and they were stuck inside the damn car.

  Another contraction was obviously starting, as Reese held on to the grab handle, jaw clenching, gritting his teeth.

  “Hold on, love,” Tiberius whispered, torn between keeping an eye on his omega and the road ahead. “Hold on.”

  “I can’t! Oh god...” Reese cried, the sound thin and high. “Oh god!”

  “Almost there,” Tiberius said again, his own mantra. “Hold on, Reese. Don’t push yet, do you hear me? Don’t push.”

  Reese nodded, but then he gasped and arched back. “I’m pushing. I can’t stop! Ohh!”

  “Fuck. Fuck!” Tiberius banged his fist on the wheel. “Okay, just... try not to push. Try, love, okay? Just two minutes longer. We’re arriving.”

  “I can’t! Ty, help me. Oh...” He writhed on the seat, gasping for breath, moaning. “Ow.”

  Tiberius had never felt so helpless in his whole damn life. “Shit. Is it coming, Reese? Push down your pants, let me see.”

  But Reese just cried out again, his face contorting with pain.

  Fucking hell.

  This drive from hell would never end. He hated seeing his omega in pain. It tored him apart. They had to find the doctor so he could give Reese some drugs, give him some relief, and check that everything was going smoothly.

  The fear Tiberius had done his best to push away, the fear of anything going wrong, was resurfacing, pressing on his chest.

  Finally, the birth center appeared at the end of the street. As they parked in front, in the emergencies, Tiberius threw the car into park and turned to face Reese, fully expecting him to have given birth already. His hands shaking he pulled down his omega’s elastic pregnancy pants, but... nothing.