“Come to bed, love.” Rhys’s hands came from behind and massaged my shoulders, finding the exact muscles that had cramped during my painting session. I groaned at his expert touch, rolling my head along with it. Sitting like this for hours had really messed up my neck. “You can keep painting this in the morning.”

I dipped my brush in a jar and sighed. I put a hand on my enormous belly, feeling that our daughter was finally asleep. Maybe I should take this opportunity where she wouldn’t be kicking my bladder to sleep myself. I’d forgotten how impossible it was to get any rest during your third trimester with an unborn baby kicking and somersaulting and just about ready to come out. It was a great excuse to stay up and nest, to make sure that everything was ready for when our baby arrived.

However, exhaustion was hitting me so hard, and I closed my eyes and leaned into Rhys who draped his arms around my shoulders.

“Think she’ll let me sleep tonight?” I murmured softly.

“I think, if she loves her omega-father, that she will.”

I let out a snort of laughter. “They say that the second ones are harder than the first. She probably already has it out for me.”

Rhys pressed a kiss to my temple. “Well, I think your second one will be harder. I can’t imagine how any child would be easier than Jake.”

I nodded, marveling that the love of my life and my son got along so well. In the months since moving in with Rhys into our new home, Jake and Rhys had really hit it off, not exactly like stepfather and son, but more like good friends. Jake still called Rhys “Pops,” and Rhys just took it in stride.

Jake had been staying at the house, in anticipation for his baby sister to be born, but he was on a trip with his college class to Silicon Valley to learn about the latest in machine learning.

Whatever that meant.

Jake hadn’t wanted him to go, but between me telling him that it was fine and Rhys saying that he needed representation for his company, my son begrudgingly obliged. Based on his social media posts, though, he was having the time of his life.

I was glad for the privacy. I just wanted to take these last few weeks before the baby was born to nest.

And nest I did.

I sat back and looked at the nursery. For the last three months, I’d taken a paint brush and painted stars along the walls and ceilings, blending blues and greens and magentas and purples to create my own abstract interpretation of the Milky Way for my daughter. My painting that I had vowed to create for her the night of my gallery opening had turned into an ongoing project with the nursery as I doubted every paint stroke and repainted everything over and over again. I just wanted it to be perfect.

I still had a whole corner that was only half-realized, and the baby was due any day now. That pressure was also causing me to panic. I wasn’t done. Maybe another few hours and…

“A few more hours of painting won’t make a difference, omega mine.” Rhys gave my shoulders another squeeze.

I shook my head with a chuckle. “How do you read my mind?” Always. He was always able to tell what I was feeling.

He grinned and tapped my nose. “You’re an open book to me, Ethan. Come to bed. That will do you more good than trying to figure out that corner.”

“Fine.” I acted a little belligerent, only because he was uncanny in how he knew everything I thought. I pushed myself off the chair and bent over to grab the paint brushes to clean up. First rule of painting: never leave your brushes dirty, no matter how tired you are.

Rhys put a hand over mine before I could pick up a single one. “Go take a bath, love. I’ll clean this up.”

I glanced over at him. “Are you sure?”

He gave me a are-you-really-fighting-me-on-this? expression before patting my hand. “I’ll be right in the bathroom. Besides, it will take you way longer to clean up than me.”

“I hate it when you’re right.”

He winked before giving me a long, lingering kiss. “I’m always right.”

My mock-disgruntlement only lasted as long it took me to get to the bathroom, turn on the tub, strip, and soak in the tub. Only now did my body really let me know how sore I was from pushing myself too hard. I had cramps all over the place, including my belly. I rubbed at my abdomen, and felt the baby kick.

“Good thing you’re worth it, my love,” I murmured adoringly.

Another cramp wracked my body, so intense that I cried out, my toes curling from the intensity of it. This wasn’t the same kind of cramp that I had from painting too much. This was something else entirely, a kind of pain that I hadn’t experienced for a long, long time.

Since I gave birth to Jake.

The pain subsided, and I sat hunched forward in the tub, heaving deep breaths to see if it would hit me again. I’d had Braxton Hicks contractions with both my pregnancies, so maybe this was just another one, and my imagination was running away from me.

But still…

“Ah, shit!” I cried out as another contraction took over. I grasped at the tub, holding on for dear life as I tried to ride the sensation.

It hurt so much.

“Ethan?”

I turned in the tub at the sound of Rhys’s voice and saw him standing in our new bathroom. For the first time since he and I started seeing each other again, he looked unsure, scared of what to do. This would be his first child and his first time dealing with an omega in labor. His unsureness made me love him all the more.

I gave him a weak grin. “I think that corner won’t get done before the baby arrives.”

He swallowed nervously. “Has your water broken?” There was an undercurrent of excitement in his voice, like he was so excited to take this next step. And terrified at the same time.

I shook my head before chuckling. “Not yet. But you’d better help me out of the tub in case it does.”

That snapped Rhys out of his shock and he rushed to my side. “We’ve got to get you to the hospital. Now.” He helped me get to my feet, and despite his panic, he held me like one would a baby bird. Yet another reason why I loved him so much.

“The baby won’t just pop out like that,” I chided him. “I was in labor with Jake for sixteen hours. Hold on, there’s another contraction coming.” My grip on his arm went white-knuckled, and we both stilled, waiting for it to pass. “This is a long one.” My teeth ground together as I fought to keep from crying out.

Rhys kissed my forehead. “You are amazing. One second.”

I waited, standing stark naked and dripping wet while Rhys grabbed a white cotton robe for me that went down to my knees and our hospital bag. “I just called Dr. Ryker, he knows we’re on our way.”

I nodded but looked over at the robe. “Shouldn’t I get more dressed?” Modesty came at the oddest times for me.

He shook his head and helped me to slip the robe on over my shoulders. “They’re just going to put you in a hospital gown as soon as you get there. And I want to get you there sooner rather than later.”

I grinned at him. “True. Those paint brushes won’t get cleaned either, huh?”

“They’re being taken care of,” Rhys assured me as he tied the robe around my waist. “I know you don’t want the maids to touch your painting supplies, but this is an exception.”

I gave him a wry look. “Just this one time.”

“Good. Are you ready?”

I was wearing a house robe and a pair of slippers, and I was definitely not ready to bring our daughter into the world, but I nodded nevertheless. Very few people ever felt like they were ready to have a baby, right? “Yes.”

He helped me rush down to the garage—which was really more of a waddle in my state—and we took his fastest car, despite the fact that I told him that it wouldn’t make a difference whatsoever whether we made it one minute earlier or not. Rhys insisted. And I loved him for it. I never saw a man speed as fast as he did between stop lights and turns and drive so carefully across intersections and when he had to stop. He was trying to hurry without hurrying, and it was one of the most endearing things I’d ever seen.

Still though, I was never as relieved as I was when I saw the hospital come into view. My contractions were getting closer and closer together, and I knew that while it had taken sixteen hours for Jake to be brought into this world, this baby was going to come faster.

Maybe Rhys had been right to hurry.

He frowned as we pulled up to the hospital, his brows creasing together. “Do we go through the emergency room, or—?”

“Emergency room.” I’d been through the drill once before with Jake, and Rhys and I had taken birthing classes together, but I knew that all logic went out the window when it was delivery time. “You said you called Dr. Ryker?”

“Yeah, and he’d better be here,” my alpha growled as he pulled up in the driveway in front of the automatic doors. He put the car in park, slipped off his seatbelt and ran inside without another word. He looked like a man hellbent on taking care of the ones he loved.

A few seconds later, he came out, pushing a wheelchair with him, a nurse with him, looking flustered. I wondered what he said to her when he grabbed the wheelchair, because it looked like their exchange hadn’t been too cordial.

Rhys opened my door. “Your chariot awaits, my lord.” He huffed and sounded a little out of breath, like he had sprinted the entire way.

“Mr. Rhodes?” The nurse peered in and gave me a tentative smile. “Your partner here warned me within an inch of my life to take care of you and the baby. And I promise to do just that.”

“I know you will.” I gave Rhys a warning look, who looked abashed at his behavior. “Sorry for anything my alpha said.”

“Oh, that’s all right.” The nurse bent in to help me. “Every new father is incredibly worried about their mates and their babies.”

The longer she spoke with me, the more at ease she seemed, which put me at ease. I took her hand and put weight on my feet to pull me up, and another contraction rocked through me. I hissed in sharply, shutting my eyes against the pain. Rhys grabbed my other hand to hold me and ground me, and I leaned into him.

The wheelchair seemed so far away.

“I’m okay, I’m okay.” But maybe I wasn’t.

“We need to get you in the delivery room, fast,” the nurse said. “Are your contractions close together?”

“Too close,” Rhys muttered. “About a minute apart.”

She nodded. “Dr. Ryker is already prepped for you and waiting.”

“Awesome.” I sagged into the wheelchair, and as soon as my butt was seated, Rhys was already pushing me through the corridors and following the nurse, who was barking orders at the staff. Now that I was with them, they were working together to get me to the room in record time.

As soon as the double doors flapped open and the cold air hit me, I let out a long sigh. “Ah, I remember this.”

“Good morning, Daddies,” Dr. Ryker said cheerfully, yet with an air of weariness.

No wonder I was tired. “Is it morning already?”

“Three-oh-seven in the morning, to be exact.” He smiled warmly. “Let’s get you up on the table so I can have a look at you.”

Rhys and the nurse helped me into a hospital gown, and I realized how right it was that he told me it didn’t matter about my robe, because I would be changing anyway. I’d nearly forgotten that I was wearing a robe until now. Rhy chuckled, and I knew that he had somehow read my mind again.

He helped me up onto the examination table and get my feet in the stirrups.

“Wow, this is a blast from the past,” I said to Rhys with a chuckle. “Never thought I’d have my feet in these stirrups again.”

“Fortunately, that’s the only thing that hasn’t been made better in the last twenty years,” Dr. Ryker assured me as he grabbed a rolling stool. “Let me have a look at you.” His head ducked between my legs, and I took hold of Rhys’s hand as he settled in at my side.

“You’re doing wonderfully, Ethan,” he murmured into my ear.

“I blame you for this,” I parroted to him, and he only laughed.

Dr. Ryker’s head bobbed up between my legs. “Good thing you arrived when you did. You’re fully dilated, Ethan. This baby wants to come now.”

I tightened my grip on Rhys’s hand. “Oh no. Can I have an epidural?” Please, I begged the cosmos, I just wanted something to take this pain away.

But the doctor shook his head. “There’s not enough time. You’re going to have a natural birth, Ethan. We’re going straight to pushing with your next contraction.”

“Straight to pushing?” I echoed, and Dr. Ryker nodded. I put a hand on my belly. “Good thing, you’re worth it, my baby.” As if in answer, another contraction came, and this time, I didn’t hold my cry in.

“Okay, Ethan,” Dr. Ryker said, “I need you to push. Push!”

“Push, omega mine,” Rhys whispered in my ear.

So push I did. I pushed with everything my body had, crying out with the exertion from it. Rhys was there with me the whole time, encouraging me, helping me. That round of contractions wasn’t enough, and I lay on the table, spent.

Rhys brushed some of the sweaty locks from my forehead as I heaved deep breaths. “She was in such a hurry to come and now she’s being difficult,” I told him only half-jokingly.

“Told you she’d be more difficult than Jake.” His expression was wry but turned to concern as another shockwave ricocheted through me.

The next fifteen minutes alternated between resting periods and what felt like hours of me pushing to bring our baby daughter into the world. If it weren’t for Rhys, I don’t know what I would have done, because his strength helped me to keep going even when I thought I had nothing left within me.

And even when that almost failed, I…

A baby’s cry split the room, the most glorious sound I’d ever heard and I let out a sob of relief as tears spilled from my eyes.

“Congratulations, Daddies,” Dr. Ryker shouted, triumphant with the moment, “it’s a girl.”

“Oh my god.” I cried openly as they washed the baby and wrapped her up in a blanket to hand to me. She was so tiny, so perfect, and her eyes were shut, her angry fists as she screamed her unhappiness. She had Rhys’s hair. As I would have expected. “Oh my god, she’s just perfect.”

“I love you so much.” Rhys kissed my temple before turning his attention to our daughter. He placed a big hand over her head, nearly dwarfing her with it. “She’s just beautiful, Ethan.”

I slipped the top of my gown down far enough for her to latch on and feed. She took milk greedily and hungrily.

“What are we going to call her?” I asked, suddenly realizing that in my hurry to get the nursery just right, we hadn’t settled on a name. Sure, we had our favorites and our reasons for choosing them, but we hadn’t settled on one. I realized now that it was because we had to meet our daughter before we could give her the perfect name.

Rhys met my eyes and he gave me a serene smile. “Do you trust me?”

I blinked and nodded. “Of course.”

“Then let’s call her Jacqueline. After Jacob.”

I stared at him for the longest time, my heart pounding as I turned his suggestion over and over in my head. “Are you sure?”

“I’ve been sure of two things in my life.” He squeezed my shoulder. “That you were the man for me, ever since we were teenagers.” He nodded to our daughter. “And that Jacqueline would be the perfect name for her. Jackie, for short.”

I gulped back the swell of emotion in my throat before I turned back to the baby in my arms. A memory surfaced, a painful one, of Jacob telling me his last words in our wrecked car.

“Remember me.”

I had remembered him with Jake’s name. I had been thankful for knowing and loving Jacob. And what better way to remember him than by bookending this chapter of my life with this?

“Okay,” I whispered, stroking my daughter’s perfect cheek. “Jacqueline it is.”