Tough Cute Omega

by Eva Lyra

  Incredibly, the babies were still inside Reese’s belly. They had made it in time.

  Oh, thank fuck. Tiberius wanted to laugh but stopped himself. It would probably turn hysterical, and besides, his Mate wouldn’t appreciate it.

  It was fine. They were fine. Everything was going to be okay.

  “We’re here,” he told his red-faced, panting Mate. “Just wait there. I’ll carry you.”

  For once, he got no resistance from Reese, just a terse nod. Tiberius went around the car, opened the door and gently lifted Reese in his arms.

  Reese moaned, grimacing, wrapping an arm around Tiberius’s neck, the other around his belly. “Fuck...”

  It almost made Tiberius laugh. His omega rarely swore. It was cute. But it probably meant that Reese was at the end of his rope right now and Tiberius hurried inside the center, calling out for a nurse.

  “Hello! My Mate is having a baby now. Can you help us? Hello?”

  They’d almost reached the reception desk when a nurse, a beta with a reddish mop of hair, intercepted them.

  “Sir, please come with me. We need to take down your details, look at the medical history of your omega—”

  “It’s urgent. His water broke and he says the babies are coming now.”

  “They can’t be coming so soon—"

  Reese wailed, his belly dipping as it contracted. Tiberius could feel it tighten, pressed to his chest. “Oh shit, help!”

  The nurse frowned. “He does seem to be in a lot pain. We can see about an epidural if you like. When did you say the contractions started?”

  “I don’t know. Reese?”

  Reese cried out, writhing in Tiberius’s arms. “It’s coming. Oh!”

  “He says the baby’s coming,” Tiberius said, frowning. “Call the doctor now, I don’t think there’s time for an epidural.”

  “I will call him. But labor usually lasts quite long, alpha, so don’t worry. Better settle in and wait. Everything will be okay.”

  “Just get the doctor. If my omega says the baby is coming, then you’d better hurry.”

  ***

  And yet it took forever to get a bed. There were many forms to fill and questions to answer, and meanwhile Reese moaned and panted and gritted his teeth.

  Tiberius’s hackles were rising. “Look, I’ll fill all this out once you have him on a bed with the doctor checking him,” he snarled. “Can’t you see this is urgent?”

  But the nurse kept assuring him that babies took a long time to come, and if two hours ago Reese was having lunch and could talk normally, then he probably had time.

  “You won’t know until the doctor takes a look, though, will you?” Tiberius snapped as he pushed Reese on a wheelchair into the birth ward where various omegas with pregnant bellies lay or sat on narrow beds, reading magazines or talking with their alphas.

  “Well, that is true.”

  “Ty...” Reese was moaning continuously now, his eyes scrunched shut, his brow shining with sweat. “It hurts... It’s time...”

  “If Reese says it’s time, then it’s time,” Tiberius said. “I trust my Mate to know what his body is doing, damn it.”

  “Okay, okay.” The nurse shot him a harassed look. “Here is the bed. Settle him here, put the hospital gown on, and I’ll go see if the doctor is free.”

  “You do that.”

  He watched the nurse go, pissed as all hell, fists clenched at his sides, until Reese’s loud groan brought him back to the present.

  “Reese.” He helped his omega up on the bed and started pulling off his clothes. “You’ll be fine. As soon as you’re settled here, I’ll go myself, find that doctor and drag him here by the hair if need be.”

  “Ty,” Reese grunted as he lay back, letting Tiberius remove his shoes, socks, his drawstring pants and his undies. “Ooh. I feel it...”

  “What? What’s wrong? What do you feel?”

  Reese didn’t seem to be hearing him. He grunted again, spreading his legs wider. “Oh god. Ooh, shit.”

  “Reese?”

  He stared at his buck naked omega, the paper gown the nurse had left them still lying there. Reese was propped on one elbow, holding on to the big belly with the other hand, his face red and sweaty. “Ooh, it burns! Ty... it’s coming now!”

  Fuck.

  Tiberius hurried to the foot of the narrow bed, between his omega’s legs, and cursed. The baby’s head was crowning. He could see it.

  Where the fuck was the fucking doctor? He was going to kill him, and that nurse, too.

  Damn it.

  “Just... one second.” He swallowed hard. “Reese, I’ll be back. In a second. Okay? Hold on.”

  Fuck. Fuck!

  Turning around, he ran out of the room, glancing right and left. Nobody was there.

  “Doctor! Nurse! Fetch the doctor now!” he bellowed down the corridor. “The baby is coming now! It’s coming now, damn it!” Then without waiting to see if anyone had heard him, he ran back inside and skidded to a stop at the foot of the bed, between his omega’s legs, his heart racing. “I’m here, love.”

  Reese’s dark hair was plastered to his forehead and his temples. Sweat rolled down his neck. His harsh breathing filled the space between them. “Ooh, I have to push! I can’t stop. Ty!”

  Tiberius drew a deep breath. “I’m right here. The doctor is coming, but I’m here, love. Do what you have to do.”

  Chapter Thirty: Reese

  The baby was slipping out of him, so slowly. It burned. It hurt. It was the most intense thing he’d ever felt in his life. He wasn’t sure how it was possible that something so big was making its way out of him.

  He screamed as the baby’s head stretched him more.

  “I’m here,” his alpha was saying. “I’m right here. You’ll be all right.”

  “Ty...”

  “Push,” Tiberius was saying. “You have to push, Reese. Baby’s almost here.”

  “Trying...” He let his legs fall open wider. “Oooh... god. Ow!”

  “Good job, Reese, he’s slipping out. Push!”

  “I’m pushing...” He was groaning and moaning and shit, he never thought he’d make so much noise while giving birth, but he couldn’t help it. “Oh shit, Ty!”

  “Right here, love. Keep pushing.”

  Then the doctor was there, too, and a nurse, taking Tiberius’s place between Reese’s legs, and Tiberius came to stand beside him.

  The doctor was talking but Reese couldn’t hear past the roaring in his ears. He grunted, bearing down, then gasped when the baby moved lower. He could feel the head between his legs, and the pressure inside him was unbearable. Another push, and he cried out, his legs trembling.

  “The head is out, love,” Tiberius was saying by his ear. “Now don’t push, pant through it and let the doctor check the baby’s neck.”

  “Why?”

  “For the umbilical, to make sure it’s not wrapped around his neck...”

  His voice faded away in static. Panting, Reese looked down but all he could see was his enormous belly. Another contraction was starting and he didn’t know how not to push. His whole body was bearing down of its own volition.

  He tried. As the pain worsened, as the urge to push gripped him, he panted, and panted, dropping his hand from his belly, falling back against the bed.

  “Good, Reese,” the doctor said, “all clear. Now push with the next contraction.”

  It was starting already, and he moaned, the moan turning into a howl as the baby moved down and down.

  “That’s it, good job, Reese, good job...”

  “Ty... I can’t...” He realized he had both hands on his belly, rubbing, as if that could help. “I can’t...”

  “Listen to me, love.” Tiberius leaned over him, looking serious. “You’re amazing. One more push and this baby is out and then you can rest for a bit, okay?”

  Gazing into those intense, determined eyes, Reese found himself nodding. “Okay.”

  “Okay. Now let me sit you up, ma
ke it easier.”

  “Make it—?”

  He gasped when Tiberius sat him up, sitting behind him to support him. “Here we go, love,” he whispered in Reese’s ear. “Do you feel him coming?”

  “God, yes, I... aah!” He cried out as he pushed the baby out and into the doctor’s hands, then fell back against his alpha, panting. “Holy shit. Ow.”

  “Good work, babe,” Tiberius was saying, stroking sweat-soaked hair out of his face. “You did it.”

  “I did it,” Reese whispered. It hardly seemed possible, after all this time struggling with the discomfort and then the contractions and the pain that this was happening. “Where’s the baby? Is he okay?”

  The doctor was doing something, the nurse helping him, but before Reese could panic, he lifted the baby for them to see.

  “Oh wow.” Reese blinked away tears—he still hurt, damn it, below and inside—at the small, wrinkled creature, all wet and bloodied as if it had been through a battle.

  Well, they had, he and Reese.

  The baby opened his little mouth and let out a plaintive wail.

  “I feel you, kiddo,” Reese muttered. “It’s been rough, huh?”

  “I think he’s missing his brother,” Tiberius said.

  “Oh fuck. Don’t remind me.” His belly was still swollen round, though not as tight as before, the second baby still nestled cozily inside. “I’m trying not to think about that.”

  “Want to hold him?” the doctor asked, as the nurse cleaned the baby’s face.

  Aw, he was so little, and suddenly alone in the whole wide world. Reese wanted to protect him, keep him warm, touch the little creature he’d carried inside him for months.

  “Yes, please,” Reese breathed, opening his arms.

  The doctor walked over to the side of the bed and placed the baby against Reese’s chest. “There you go.”

  The baby was warm, its weight insubstantial. It wiggled, all tiny legs and arms, small mouth opening and closing, like a little pup.

  “Look at him,” Reese whispered, cradling the small head in his hand. “So tiny.”

  “He’s a good size,” the doctor said. Looks healthy. “Good job.”

  The baby turned its head, searching for something. Reese shifted him, then gasped when the small mouth closed around his nipple. “Oh, crap.”

  “What is it?”

  “He’s trying to nurse.” He was nursing already, in fact, sucking on Reese’s nipple, making him hiss. “Oh. Feels weird.”

  “Hi, little guy.” Tiberius reached around Reese to caress the baby’s head. “Recognize this voice? I’ve been talking to you for months.”

  “Traumatizing our babies with horrible singing attempts, too,” Reese muttered, keeping his face straight with an effort.

  The baby waved a tiny fist and sucked harder. Was there milk? Did he have milk? Reese hadn’t managed to think that far ahead.

  “Look at him,” Tiberius breathed. “He’s beautiful.”

  “And is using me as a milk dispenser.”

  “Better than using you as his own private five-star hotel, isn’t it?”

  Reese swallowed hard. “Yeah, but...”

  “But what?”

  “Now he’s on his own, vulnerable and he’s so little...” Damn it, Reese was done crying, wasn’t he?

  “He’s not on his own,” Tiberius said. “He’s with us and we’ll take care of him. So don’t worry about that, love.”

  “Easy for you to say, I...” Reese tensed as a contraction gripped his belly. “Shit.”

  “What is it?”

  “I think his brother... ow... is trying to make his way out.” Reese shifted on the bed, lifting one hand from where he held the baby at his chest to hold on to his belly. “Damn it, baby, give me a moment to rest, won’t you?”

  The nurse laughed. “Babies do their own thing and never listen.”

  “I guess you’re right.” Reese groaned, eyes closing, as the pressure down below increased. “Ooh...”

  “Get ready,” the doctor told the nurse, returning to his place between Reese’s legs. “You waste no time, do you, Reese? You’ve barely been here ten minutes and are already giving birth to a second baby.”

  “A new record,” the nurse chuckled.

  Reese groaned, not amused. “Damn... big... babies.” His swollen belly was tightening more and more until he couldn’t breathe. “Fuck...”

  His alpha’s solid chest behind Reese was the only thing keeping him upright. “Good job, Reese,” Tiberius was murmuring in his ear, “you’re doing great.”

  He wailed as the pressure became pain, as he felt the baby spreading him open once more. He forced his trembling legs further apart. “Oh ow ow...”

  “Push, Reese,” the doctor coaxed, “keep pushing, you’re almost there.”

  He felt as if he’d been in labor for weeks, not hours. “I’m pushing.”

  “Harder.”

  The contraction morphed into this incredible urge to bear down, despite the pain, despite feeling he couldn’t do it, his body taking control.

  He screamed as he bore down, the burning below telling him the baby was crowning. “God!”

  “That’s it, Reese, that’s it...”

  It went faster than with the first baby, at least. He panted, and when the pain worsened, he pushed again, crying out when the baby’s head slid out of him. One more hard push, and the doctor was pulling the baby out.

  The sudden lack of pressure below was the most amazing thing.

  Reese blinked at the hazy confines of the room, dazed.

  “Here he is,” the doctor said, lifting the baby who was already crying. “Congratulations.”

  “Where...?” Reese couldn’t catch his breath, black spots dancing in his vision. “Is he okay?”

  “Looks just fine,” the doctor said, as he took him off to weigh him and clean him up. “Just give us a minute.”

  The baby curled on Reese’s chest released his nipple, gazing up at him with round blue eyes. Reese gazed down at the baby, managing a wobbly smile. “Hey, you.”

  “We should have thought of names, huh?” Tiberius whispered.

  Reese snorted. It all felt surreal, and he was dizzy, but it was over, and he was so damn relieved he could’ve cried, only he was done with that, thank you very much.

  When the doctor came back and placed the other baby into the crook of Reese’s other arm, it was a struggle to keep those tears from falling, though.

  “God, look at them,” he whispered, choked up.

  “Our babies,” Tiberius breathed, sounding as emotional as Reese felt. “Beautiful.”

  Reese shifted the second baby until the little mouth closed over his other nipple. He gasped. He didn’t know why he felt the urge to do it—an omega instinct, he guessed, to feed his babies, and connect to them.

  The nurse was gathering soiled towels and throwing away bloodied paper napkins and gloves.

  “That’s blood,” Reese muttered, his brain still slow and overwhelmed. “Did I bleed? Wait, did I tear?”

  “No, you’re fine. This is just birth fluids.” The nurse smiled at him, not stopping what he was doing. “I must say, this has to be the quickest birth of twins I’ve ever witnessed.”

  “That’s because he spent a good part of labor writing exams,” Tiberius said in a mildly exasperated, fond voice.

  “Omegas.” The doctor rolled his eyes a little, and Reese realized he was an alpha, too. “Can’t understand them, can’t do without them.”

  “Damn right,” Tiberius said with a grin, his arms around Reese and the babies. “Damn right...”

  Reese smiled, no more doubts clouding his mind, his heart. Tiberius loved him, and their babies, and he’d found his place in the world.

  Chapter Thirty-One: Tiberius

  He couldn’t stop looking at their beautiful babies, at his gorgeous Mate. With his arms around them, his protective instincts were calmed and he could breathe again.

  His heart was full.
/>   The birth had gone fine. Reese was okay. The babies were okay. Tiberius hadn’t failed them.

  The nurse had cleaned Reese up a little and pulled a cover over him, and a blanket, to keep him and the babies warm. He also brought pillows, but for now, Tiberius had no plans of getting up from where he sat, his Mate leaning back against him. This was as close to a nest as they were going to get for now, and he would take it.

  Reese was dozing off, as were the babies, small fists held high, by their heads, looking like miniature, wrinkled Reeses to Tiberius’s eyes. Beneath the smell of blood and sweat, he could smell their familiar scent, linking them to Reese and himself.

  His Clan.

  Fuck, he couldn’t wait for all of them to shift together, as a family, and run in the woods. He was dying to see what his Mate and their pups looked in wolf form. Cutest little wolves ever.

  And they were his family, his own. His to protect, his to love.

  He planned to do that with everything he had, for the rest of his life.

  The nurse poked his head back inside after a while, smiling at them. “Just press the button behind the bed if you need me for anything,” he said. “Oh, and you have a visitor.”

  “A visitor?”

  “Yes, sir, an alpha came looking for you. He’s waiting outside, in the lobby.”

  Marcus, Tiberius thought. Or Nero. He couldn’t think of anyone else who might drive down to the birth center to check on them.

  He couldn’t think of moving from his spot, either. “Can he come in here?”

  The nurse frowned. “Normally we don’t allow visitors into the birthing area, but the center is almost empty today, so... I can make an exception. Just keep the visit short, no longer than ten minutes.”

  “Thank you.”

  Reese was fast asleep by now, his face relaxed, his body lax against Tiberius, no more gripped by pain. His poor omega. Giving birth was tough business.

  The door clicked open again, the nurse nodded at them and ushered someone inside.