Chapter Seven
They were in a car and they were moving. Dara could feel each time the wheels hit a bump, each swerve, each turn of a corner. His shoulder throbbed, his stomach was sick, and there was this cramping pain across his back and around his bump.
The baby.
He sat up with a gasp, trying to orientate himself. Bear, wolf, car. What?
“Darius? It’s okay, you’re safe.” He didn’t turn to look at the speaker, knowing what he’d see. Seth and Hunter. They’d taken him from the lighthouse. They shouldn’t have done that.
“Dara?” Seth tried again, his voice soft. Try as he might, Dara couldn’t ignore the wolf.
“It hurts.”
“I know. We’re going as fast as we can to get you some help. Just try to stay calm.”
“Stay calm? You stay calm. I’m having a baby, in the backseat of a car, with two strangers taking me god knows where.”
“To River Den, Dara,” the bear said from the driver’s seat. “We’re going straight to River Den.”
“Why should I believe you?”
“Don’t believe us,” Seth said, pulling a phone from his pocket. “Believe your brother.”
Dara was stretched out across the backseat, his feet in Seth’s lap, a blanket wrapped around him. His shoulder was an agony he did his best to ignore, now and then eclipsed by the pain that came and went in his belly.
“Cade, it’s Seth. No, Hunter’s okay, he’s just driving. We’re on our way to you.” Seth glanced at Dara, giving him what Dara guessed was supposed to be a reassuring smile. “No, we haven’t found Lucas yet. But we did find someone else.”
He held the phone out to Dara.
With a shaking hand, he reached for it, pulling it to his ear.
“Cade?”
There was a long, stunned silence.
“Dara?”
“Cade!”
“Oh my god, Dara. Are you okay? Is Max with you?”
“No, they have Max. I tried to keep him safe, to do what Zane wanted, but I couldn’t. Ahh—”
He dropped the phone, grabbing his belly as another sharp contraction bent him almost double. “No, no, no.”
Seth had rescued the phone. “No, Cade. It’s Seth. Dara is… he’s hurt and… he’s pregnant, we think maybe he’s in labor. I don’t know… I don’t know that either. Hold on, I’ll put you on speaker.”
There was a crackle and then Cade’s voice filled the car.
“Dara, can you hear me?”
“I hear you,” Dara replied, rocking back and forth to try to ease the pain.
“Where does it hurt?”
“My shoulder. A lot.”
“It’s dislocated, Cade,” Hunter called from the driver’s seat.
“And what else?”
“I… Cade, I’m pregnant. But something’s wrong, I’m having pains but it’s too soon.”
“He fell, down some steps. He’s got a nasty cut on his head too, he’s been in and out of consciousness.” That was Hunter again, sounding more collected than Dara or Seth.
“How far apart are the contractions?”
Dara didn’t even try to answer that question.
“We haven’t been counting.”
“Then start. Do you have the urge to push yet, Dara?”
“No. Just really bad pain.”
“Okay. The next time the pain comes, Seth is going to time it, and you’re going to take nice, slow, deep breaths through your mouth until it eases.”
“It hurts too much, Cade.”
“I know, Dara, I know. If you can relax a bit, the pain will ease. The breathing helps a lot, too. Believe me, I know.”
“Wait, have you…”
“Uh-huh, there’s a little posse here ready to meet you once you’re up to it. As Hunter will tell you, we’ve had our hands full. We looked for you and Max, Dara. We never stopped looking. I’m so sorry we didn’t find you.”
“We have to save Max.”
“We will. I’m going to let Jensen know you’re on your way. Just keep breathing.”
Five minutes and six seconds. That was how far apart the contractions were an hour into their drive. Seth was acutely aware of each second. Dara was in and out of consciousness, but he came to when Seth called him.
“My shoulder hurts.”
“I know. I’m really sorry. We’re almost at River Den, we’ll get you some help.”
Dara was sitting up suddenly, shoving Seth’s arm away. “I need to push.”
“Oh, no. No, no, no. No pushing, okay? We’re in a moving vehicle, I’m pretty sure there are health and safety laws for this situation.”
“Seth,” Hunter called from the front. “Cool it and help him.”
“Help him how, Hunter? We’re in a metal cage, hurtling at speed. What the hell am I supposed to do?”
“Calm him down and slow his breathing.”
To Seth, it seemed like an impossibility. He could barely keep himself calm, how was he supposed to do that with a terrified, in pain, and pregnant omega. The only thing he had going for him was that Dara seemed to respond to the sound of his voice. Whereas he slept through Hunter’s words, he roused for Seth. And he listened.
“Okay, Dara, I need you to listen to me. Are you listening?”
“Not deaf,” the omega replied, wincing at the volume of Seth’s voice.
“Right, sorry,” Seth said, gentling his tone. “I want you to focus on me, on my voice, and on your breathing.”
The omega frowned. “I can’t do three things at once.”
“Okay, then just don’t push.”
“Seth!” Hunter growled.
“Breathe with me, okay. Here, put your hand on my chest.”
He lifted Dara’s hand, setting his palm down over his rib cage. “Breathe with me.”
Taking slow, deep breaths, he held Dara’s hand to him and made steady eye contact. Gradually, Dara began to mimic him, his chest rising and falling in slow, steady motions.
“That’s great, you’re doing great.” A contraction hit, Dara’s face grimaced, and his hands clenched into fists.
“Okay, let’s try something different. We’re going to pant now, okay? Short, sharp breaths.”
He had no idea what he was doing beyond providing a distraction. Maybe he should juggle?
Dara panted along with him until the contraction eased, a good minute later.
“Do we look as stupid as I think we look?” the omega asked Hunter.
The bear cracked a grin. “Oh, yeah. I’m just sorry I don’t have a video camera.”
Seth wasn’t sorry, not one bit. This wasn’t a moment that he wanted memorialized.
“I still need to push,” Dara said urgently. “I really, really need to push.”
“Here, back to slow breaths,” Seth said, grabbing his hand. This time, the breathing didn’t do the trick. And the next contraction had Dara’s hands scrabbling against Seth’s. “I can’t stop this. I need to push now.”
“Hunter?” Seth called. The alpha had been there when Cade had given birth. He was clearly the better choice for this situation.
“We’re fifteen minutes from River Den. Get his pants off and get something to wrap the baby in.”
“Hunter.”
“Do it, Seth,” his friend growled, the bear coming through in his tone and rocking Seth back against the seat.
“Right, okay. Let’s get you naked,” he said to Dara. “Not completely naked but… you know what I mean.”
He reached for the waistband of Dara’s pants, undoing the button and zip and pulling them down. Dara tried to help with his good hand.
“We haven’t even had a first date and you’re already tearing my clothes off,” the omega complained. “I heard wolves didn’t have any manners.”
Seth shook his head, smiling. “Whoever said that was a liar. I’m about to give you the shirt off my back for your baby’s first blanket.”
He was as good as his word, pulling the T-shirt off and setting it aside.
“We could use mine,” Dara said.
“No, you need it and it would be agony getting it off over that shoulder. Don’t worry, I’ve got this.”
“Remember to catch the baby,” Hunter said over his shoulder.
“Okay,” Seth replied. “Wait, why? Where is he going to go? They can’t bounce, can they?”
“Only the kangaroo shifters,” Dara said.
“You’re not one of those, are you? Because that could get awkward.”
Dara laughed, tears in his eyes. He half sobbed his reply. “I hate to break it to you, Seth, but this is already awkward.”
“What? No!” Seth said. “We’re just three guys having fun, out on a road trip. If one of us happens to pop out a baby on the way, you know, so what. Happens all the time.”
He got another laugh from Dara while he strategically placed his T-shirt across the omega’s lap in an attempt to give him a modicum of privacy.
The next contraction hit, and Dara reached for his hand, squeezing it tightly. “I need to push.”
“You go right ahead. We are close, so close. By the time this little one makes an appearance, we’ll be there.”
“It could be really quick,” Hunter warned, “if the baby is small.”
“Don’t worry, I’m ready. Got my catcher mitts on,” Seth said, positioning his hands as if he was ready to catch a baseball.
Dara smiled through his tears then grimaced and made a sound Seth didn’t think he’d ever heard before and for good reason. It sounded like it hurt, a lot. Which he reasoned made sense if you were pushing something kind of big out through somewhere kind of small.
“Don’t forget to breathe, Dara,” he called. “Breathe!”
He ducked his head down and looked, not really understanding what he was seeing. Popping his head back up, he asked in an undertone.
“Um, Hunter?”
“Yeah, Seth?”
“Should I be seeing feet?”
“What?”
“When a baby is being born and the first thing you see is feet… that’s not great, right?”
“Shit.”
No, not great.
“What’s wrong?” Dara said, panting now that the contraction had eased.
“The baby’s a dancer,” Seth said, not missing a beat. “Hard to tell yet which form. I’m thinking maybe tap or ballet. The good news is, I count ten toes.”
“Seth, call Cade, get Jensen or Joe on the phone.”
He did, putting it on speaker and throwing it onto the seat next to them.
“Seth?”
“Put Jensen or Joe on,” he yelled.
“Seth, it’s Joe and Jensen’s right beside me,” a voice said a few seconds later.
“We’re mid-birth here, Joe, between contractions. And the baby’s coming feet first. Any words of wisdom?”
“Keep going with the next contraction, get the baby out. Have something on hand to cut the cord, feet first means the cord is more likely to wrap around.”
Seth didn’t ask what it wrapped around, he could guess.
“Okay, I’ve got this. Don’t sweat it, Dara, I’m an old pro.”
“At deliveries?” the omega asked.
“At life. Don’t worry, you, me, and this kid are gonna get through this. But, you know, those guys at River Den, they don’t believe we can do it. So we have to show them, have this whole thing done and dusted before we pull up outside. Okay?”
Dara nodded. “Okay.”
“Great. When the next contraction comes, you need to push. Really, really push. No hesitation. No thinking, maybe I’ll push on the next one, maybe this isn’t the contraction we’re looking for. This is it. This is showtime. Houston, we are a go. Got it?”
“You’re a little crazy,” Dara said.
“You don’t have to be, but I hear it helps.”
“Here it comes,” Dara said, reaching for Seth’s hand.
“Okay, here we go. Remember, big pushes, as many as you can manage.”
There was that sound again, animalistic, primal. It touched something inside Seth, and beneath his skin where all had been silent, he felt something ripple and stir.
“Shit,” he said, too softly for anyone else to take notice. There wasn’t time to wonder, not with a baby to deliver.
“That’s great, Dara. Almost there. I can see the cutest butt and it’s not yours. And shoulders, two of them. And the back of a head. Keep going, keep going.”
He grabbed his T-shirt, wrapping it around the tiny form as with one last grunted effort on Dara’s part, the baby was born.
“Here, there we go. Nothing to it, huh?”
Now that he had the baby in his hands, he was lost.
“Um, Joe. Baby’s out. What’s step two?”
“The cord?”
“It’s safe, just dangling.”
“Then leave it. Is he breathing? Crying?”
“No, not crying.”
“Try rubbing his back.”
Holding the baby in one hand, still balanced between Dara’s legs, he rubbed gently across the baby’s back, moving his hand a bit brisker when he didn’t get any response.
“Come on, kiddo, up and at ‘em.” There was a little cough followed by a weak cry and all four limbs flailed suddenly.
“There, that’s the way. Here, let’s say hi to your Papa.”
He wrapped the T-shirt a little more securely and lifted the baby up, settling him on Dara’s chest. The omega’s uninjured hand came up to rest on the baby’s back, holding him close.
“Hi, little one. Is it… what is it?”
Seth laughed. “In all the excitement, I forgot to check. He looks comfy there, so what’s say we leave him or her for now?”
As promised, by the time they braked to a stop at River Den, it was all over. Seth was kneeling shirtless next to a half-naked Dara who was cradling his tiny baby in his arms. Seth climbed out to let Joe and Doctor Jensen in, swaying a little on his feet. Hunter’s strong hand landed on his shoulder, steadying him.
“Good job,” his cousin said. “I knew you had it in you.”