"Ugh, can we wait until after I give birth for the wedding reception? I mean, I know your mom wants us to have the wedding reception before I give birth, but seriously, I am uncomfortable. I'm not going to be standing in line with some big ass belly, swollen ankles and an aching back."

I loved Marcus's mom, I really did. She was so nice, and loved me like I was another son of hers. It made me sad at times, thinking of my mom and how I missed her. But having been around a real mom, I realized that my mom wasn't unconditional with her love or even a very loving or nurturing mother at all, which made me even sadder. What the hell had happened to my parents to make them think it was okay to treat a child like that?

"Honey, we can do whatever we want. If you want the wedding reception held after you give birth, you better tell my mom fast."

Yeah, I know I should've told her when she started this, but she was hell-bent on not having us show up to a wedding reception with the baby. I seriously did not want to go through this so heavily pregnant, though.

"What if I could somehow induce labor and then there would be nothing to do but postpone the wedding reception?" I looked over at Marcus, who didn't know whether I was joking or serious. I honestly wasn't even sure myself. "Never mind. I'm not even sure I'm joking on that one. I just don't want to upset your mom and yet there is no way in hell I'm going to my own wedding reception miserable and uncomfortable because my feet hurt and my back hurts from standing up."

"We can always put you in a wheelchair and-"

I grabbed a pillow off the couch and smacked him in the face with it.

"Don't even go there. I told you to stop the wheelchair comments. I'm not going in a fucking wheelchair at any time. Anywhere." I threw the pillow across the room but it landed a few feet short of the TV. I was not big enough that I needed a wheelchair to get around. At least he was smart enough not to tell me I was waddling again. He thought it was cute and didn't take me seriously when I told him not to tell me I was waddling. Two entire days of me doing nothing but quacking changed his mind.

"I got a heads up from my friend Steve, you know the FBI agent?"

I nodded my head though I was very wary of what he was going to say next.

"They may need to have us come in and testify at a grand jury, and to be available for depositions for your parent's and uncle's attorney."

Fuck. That. God, I thought this was over and it's still dragging on.

"What the hell! Can they not leave us alone? It's been months now."

"Things move slowly, especially when the government is involved."

I was done. I pushed myself up and off the couch, trying not to look at Marcus because I had to contort myself in a weird position to get up off the couch. I waddled down to our bathroom. I was going to take a nice, hot bath and relax, though I would have to call Marcus to help get me out of the tub.

I filled the tub up with hot water and poured in Japanese bath salts that smelled like peaches. I climbed in the tub and leaned back, sighing. It felt so damn good. Right now, this was better than sex. Now if only I had someone to massage my shoulders and upper back while I was sitting in the tub, that would just be heaven.

My back had really been hurting lately. Stupid alphas have no idea what we go through to give birth. Seriously, this last month has been absolutely hell with heartburn, my ankles hurting and then disappearing, and the back pain. Not to mention, I couldn't even see my feet. I'm pretty sure they were still there though, because I was walking, but hardly. I could barely even pee anymore, having to wrap my arm under this gigantic belly.

I gave another deep sigh. I think I'll just rest in here for a while.

After a while, the jets in the tub weren't even making my back feel better. God, what the hell was that kid doing? Kicking straight up my spine? I'd love to bend forward and stretch out my back, but I had a gigantic beach ball stuck to the front of me. Oh, when was I going to give birth? I was so tired of this.

Fuck, I was in pain. I tried to move around in the tub, but no position felt any better. My back was killing me, as if it was going to split apart. I swear the vertebrae in my lower back were breaking apart. It hurt so bad.

I leaned back, checking that I had actually turned the hot water on, but everything looked right. Why the hell wasn't it helping my pain? Another wave of pain hit me and I groaned. God, I wonder if this kid had actually broken my pelvis or something?

Marcus ran into the room. "Are you okay? I heard you groaning from the bedroom." I shook my head. I really wasn't okay. There was seriously something wrong with my back.

"No. This back pain- I can't even deal with it anymore it hurts so bad. I feel like my pelvis or my back or something is splitting. Oh my God, I hurt so damn bad." I lowered my head, just trying to give any kind of relief to my back. No position was helping.

Marcus walked behind me, rubbing my shoulders and back. That felt terrific, but my back still hurt like it was splitting apart. What the hell was going on? I groaned again as another wave of pain hit me. "I don't know what the hell's going on but maybe you should take me somewhere. Waves of pain just keep hitting my back." I was going to start bawling if we couldn't get this pain stopped anytime soon.

Marcus stopped kneading my shoulders. "Wait a second. What did you say? Did you say waves of pain?"

I nodded."You should probably take me somewhere before my pubic bone actually does break. I swear there is something wrong."

Marcus turned the jets off. "What are you doing? That's the only thing that was helping!"

"Honey," he leaned over the tub with one hand on my arm, "I think you might actually be in labor. How long has this back pain been going on?"

There is no possible way I was in labor.

"Several weeks now. Haven't you heard me bitching about my back enough?"

Marcus smiled. How dare he fucking smile when I'm in pain?

"No, I mean these waves of pain."

I glared at him but he was still smiling.

"It's not something to fucking smile about. I'm in pain and I'm dying. As a matter of fact, my bones are probably breaking or splitting apart from this monster child you impregnated me with, you fucking asshole."

Marcus's eyes widened. Maybe I shouldn't have said that.

"How about I get Bill to take us to the hospital and they can check out your back, okay?"

That's more like it.

Marcus helped me out of the tub, which was a little tough because I had to stop and bend over due to the back pain as another wave of pain went through me. I actually screamed with that one, even though I had been trying not to. I didn't want to seem like a wimpy whiner in front of Marcus, but it really felt like my bones were breaking.

Marcus

I had never heard anything like that out of Ryan's mouth before. They weren't kidding when they said omega's got crabby when they were in labor. I helped him out of the tub and held onto him as I walked him to the bed. I helped him lay down on his side, quickly dried him off, dressed him in sweatpants and a T-shirt, and called Bill. I wished I had a wheelchair, even though Ryan would kick up a massive fit. I swear he was in labor even though he said it was all in his back. Fuck, I hope nothing was wrong with him. Shit, are the kidneys in the back? Now I was really scared.

I could barely walk Ryan down the hallway to the living room. I set him on the couch and called downstairs for the doorman to bring up a wheelchair. I didn't care what Ryan said, it was too dangerous for him to keep trying to walk like this. I helped Ryan up and sat him in the wheelchair. When he didn't even complain I realized we were in deep shit. If his pain was that bad, I hoped like hell he didn't have a bad kidney infection that we had missed. I was terrified. Should I call an ambulance? Could Bill get us to a hospital fast enough? Should we call the OB/GYN just on the off chance that this was labor?

I gave Bill a heads up on what was going on so that when we came to the front door he helped Ryan get in the back of the car. I ran around and got in the other side of the car next to Ryan. "Take us to the hospital. Either his back and pelvis are breaking apart or he's in labor. I've never heard of labor being all back pain, so I'm really worried."

Bill carefully pulled out onto the street. "My sister had nothing but back labor for her kids. She didn't have any of the stuff the other omegas had, like contractions around the front. It was just all the lower back. She was complaining that her bones were splitting apart too."

Oh my God. Ryan could be in labor. I didn't even call my mom! I wasn't even ready for this. I didn't even grab the bag! I was the worst alpha ever.

"I didn't think that this was labor at all. I don't even have our bag!" Bill looked at me in the rearview mirror.

"Don't worry. You'll have enough time. I can come back here, pick it up and bring it to the hospital."

"Bill, you're a fucking lifesaver."

Ryan groaned, then screamed, squeezing my thigh so hard that I thought he was actually going to break his fingers. "Ryan, practice your breathing. The slow and quick breathing, okay?"

Ryan's hand reached out so fast, grabbed the collar of my shirt and pulled my face to his that I had no time to even react. "Don't fucking tell me how to breathe."

Holy shit. This was like a Jekyll and Hyde situation. I swear Ryan's eyes glowed red, or maybe that was the glow from the stoplight we were under. Either way, he scared the shit out of me. He didn't let go of the collar of my shirt, either, until we pulled up at the hospital and Bill worked his hand loose so they could get him in the hospital's wheelchair. I never ever would've expected this from my mild-mannered Ryan. Then again, I've never gone through labor.

Ryan tried to fight the nurses getting him in the wheelchair. He sure as hell did not want to go in the hospital in a wheelchair. I didn't know what his deal was about wheelchairs but that boy seriously needed a wheelchair. He was now bending forward, doing his labor breathing every minute.

"We need to get him upstairs into OB as soon as possible. Who's your doctor again?" I couldn't even remember the doctor's name. All that information was in the bag that I had completely forgotten to bring. I was the worst fucking alpha ever.

"It's Dr. Spartz." Ryan groaned through another wave of pain.

Yeah that's right. Dr. Spartz.

"Don't worry, he's already up on the OB/GYN floor. We'll get you up as soon as possible. Just hold on."

I followed the group and rode up on the elevator with them. I didn't know what to do. I didn't know if this really was labor or if they should check for kidney disease.

"Do you think that we should take him to the E.R. instead? What if this isn't labor but a kidney problem?" The nurse turned to me with smile and patted my arm.

"This must be your first child. This is definitely labor. I've been timing the contractions and they're less than a minute apart. You got here just in time."

Oh boy. I am the shittiest alpha ever.

They rolled Ryan into a big room that had a loveseat, chairs, and a TV. It looked like a waiting room. Shouldn't we be in a delivery room or something? The nurses helped Ryan get on the bed. Soon, they had him hooked up to a blood pressure monitor and all sorts of other gizmos.

"We've called Dr. Spartz to come and see how far along you are."

This was the part that I didn't like. I didn't want somebody else to shove their hands up my omega. I knew they had to attach fetal monitors, though. It looked like he was even hooked up to a seismic register.

The doctor came in, introducing himself, and shook my hand. He sat right down, not wasting any time, and checked on Ryan. "You're definitely moving right along. But we've probably got a few hours left to go."

A few hours left to go? I knew labor took a long time, I had gone to some of the birthing classes with Ryan, but he was in so much pain and the contractions were only a minute apart!

I turned to Ryan, thinking of telling him the doctor was nuts if he thought this was going to take a few more hours. I decided I should probably just keep my mouth shut. I opened my mouth to ask Ryan if there's anything I could do for him, but then just closed it, remembering how he had been since these pains got really bad. It would probably be better not to even talk to him. I got a wet washcloth from a nurse and wiped his forehead and face.

I still couldn't believe we had completely missed that this was labor. I felt like a dumbass. Ryan seemed to be constantly in a contraction. Quick breathing, maybe one second of rest and then quick breathing again. A nurse leaned over and told Ryan to stop holding his breath.

"Is the baby getting enough oxygen?" There were so many damn machines. Were they monitoring Ryan or the baby? I had no fucking idea.