Thirty weeks. That’s how long Sean had been carrying these children.

More than two more months to go.

Everything hurt: his back, his feet, his hips.

No one had ever told Sean that being a pregnant omega would be so damned uncomfortable. Not even the midwife Carlotta in her visits every two weeks had suggested it would get this bad.

And Mihai was driving him insane. Not that the alpha hadn’t been perfectly wonderful. He had. He’d made sure Sean wanted for nothing—bringing him reading material and food and helping him to the privy.

But Sean was bored.

And miserable.

And ready to have these babies.

He was certain there were two little ones in there. Just that morning, he’d seen three baby feet perfectly outlined, pressing out against the skin of his distended belly.

Only a few months earlier, such a sight would have horrified him.

Now he found it cute.

Even if he was pretty sure the twins were in there having a tap-dancing party. Right on top of his bladder.

I cannot believe I have to get up to go pee again.

As he sat up, his tunic slipped up above his stomach, and he saw one baby’s foot press out against it again. But this time, as he watched, the foot shifted, transforming into a wolf’s paw right before his eyes.

“Oh,” Sean cried out. “You’re going to be a werewolf just like your alpha daddy, aren’t you?”

He patted the tiny outline of a paw as he swung his feet out of the bed and stood up on the lush carpeting covering the tiled floors. He continued talking to the baby. “You’re going to be so absolutely perfect. I can’t wait to meet you.”

The miniature werewolf foot pushed out further, as if to return the loving touch.

But as it pressed against him from inside, a sudden, searing pain ripped through Sean’s abdomen.

With a wrenching cry, he grabbed his stomach and fell to his knees. He landed hard, the thud from hitting the floor reverberating through his whole body.

Is this labor? This doesn’t seem like what Carlotta described.

Another agonizing, ripping pain shot through his stomach.

The pain sent blackness rolling across his vision. With a groan, he toppled to one side.

I’m going to pass out.

“Mihai,” he called out weakly. No one responded.

Was that loud enough?

“Mihai.” This time he was sure it came out as a whisper.

Of course. The one time I need him, and Mihai’s nowhere to be found. After weeks of being all up in my business all day every day.

The soft smile that crossed Sean’s face belied his thoughts, though. I love that silly alpha.

A wet gush spilled out into his pants.

Oh, no. I peed on myself.

He managed to turn his head enough to see the floral carpet under him.

Did it always have that pattern?

His vision blurred, came back into focus. The flower on the carpet bloomed, opening up and becoming bigger as he watched.

Wait. That’s not a flower.

The blackness drifted across his vision again, this time dampening down all but his last thought as he tumbled into unconsciousness.

That’s blood.

***

“SEAN, ARE YOU HUNGRY?” Mihai came in from the kitchens, placed behind the main buildings to keep the heat from building up during the summer.

His voice echoed through the guest wing.

Like it’s empty.

That couldn’t be true, though. He and Sean were the only ones here today. Pyt had left for a week’s visit to the main castle to see Lords Martin and Broden and their children. With more than two months to go until Sean was due, they had all agreed it should be fine.

Besides, there were plenty of other people around, what with the Drelos cooks and housekeepers and guards.

He glanced into their bedroom. The bed was empty.

Right. Plenty of other people. Just no Sean.

This couldn’t be right. Stopping at a small, decorative table in the hallway and setting down the plate of food he carried, Mihai moved to the privy and opened the door.

No one there, either.

Calm down, he told himself. Sean wouldn’t have gone far. He knows how bad it could get.

Mihai moved back toward their room, planning to sit down and gather his own panicked thoughts.

When he walked into the bedroom rather than simply glancing inside, Mihai saw Sean’s leg along the ground on the far side of the bed. With a cry, he rushed around and fell to the floor on his knees beside his omega. Lifting one of the other man’s hands in both of his, he called out Sean’s name and bent to listen for a heartbeat.

It was there, but faint.

That’s when he realized that the knees of his pants were soaked in blood that was seeping out from underneath Sean.

“Oh, my love, what happened?” He patted his hands around Sean’s face. “Wait here. I’m going to go get help. Don’t leave me. I need you.”

As he dashed down the hall, yelling for anyone who was nearby to assist him, he fought the urge to shift into his wolf form. It wouldn’t do any good – not yet. He needed to be able to speak to the people who were rushing toward him —a housekeeper and a guard coming from another part of the mansion.

Mihai quickly outlined what had happened. “Is there anyone with medical knowledge on the grounds?”

The guard nodded. “The leader of our battalion was a medic when he first started. He doesn’t have much knowledge of omegas, probably, but he might be able to help a little.”

Mihai nodded. “You go get him.” He turned to the housekeeper. “You go to the kitchens and have them boil water. Heat up their sharpest knives, too. We need things to be as clean as possible. Once they have started with that, you come back. And bring as many sheets and towels as you can gather in one armload. Make sure they are as clean as possible.”

She nodded and scurried off, as well. Confident that those two would arrange for the omega’s basic needs, Mihai rushed back to Sean’s side.

Kneeling down beside his omega again, he said, “As soon as someone is here to stay with you, I’m going to get Carlotta. Don’t leave me. Do you hear me? Do not die on me. I cannot handle that.”

When the former military medic entered the room, Mihai began babbling. “I didn’t move him. I didn’t know for sure, but I thought I had heard that it was a bad idea to move unconscious people, so I left him right where he was, right where I found him. But he’s bleeding. A lot. I don’t know what to do.”

The medic nodded. “You did exactly the right thing,” he said. “He’s almost certainly bleeding internally — and there’s not much I can do about that. Not without a mage-midwife. I don’t have any powers of my own.”

“I’m going to get her,” Mihai said.

“Good plan. I will do what I can here to minimize the bleeding.” His face turned serious. “You need to hurry.”

Mihai nodded. One look at Sean’s pale face told him that.

When the guard and the housekeeper returned, the medic began barking out orders like the military man he was. Mihai backed away from Sean’s side, then turned and raced down the hallway, stripping his clothes off as he shifted. By the time he burst out the door, he was in his animal form.

A giant brindled wolf raced through the forest toward the main part of the village, to the assistant midwife’s house.

He should know where Carlotta is.

The race through the forest was a blur that later he would only barely remember.

When he fetched up at the assistant midwife’s house, and shifted into his human form, he was drenched in sweat and panting.

“I need to know where Carlotta is,” he said as soon as the young, male midwife opened the door.

The assistant midwife immediately grabbed a jacket from inside the door and pulled on his boots.

“Carlotta is near the castle – one of the castle guards’ wives went into labor last night.”

Mihai started to turn away from the door, but the man who’d opened it said, “Wait. I can help. Is it your omega?”

“Yes.”

He disappeared back into his cabin for just a moment. When he reappeared, he held a glass of water and a dry rations bar in his hand. “You need fuel and fluids,” he said.

Mihai nodded and consumed both as quickly as he could while the assistant midwife continued talking. “It will be faster if you and I separate. I will go see what I can do to help your omega while you go get Carlotta.”

Mihai nodded, and the assistant midwife, apparently completely unperturbed at having held a conversation with a naked man standing outside his door, stepped out and headed back the way Mihai had come.

The alpha shifted into his wolf form, having never had to say more than just a few words.

He was tired, he could tell, but the adrenaline rushing through his system kept him moving steadily, despite the rapid shifting he’d had to do.

He followed the assistant midwife’s directions precisely, his long, lupine limbs eating up the distance between him and his omega’s savior. He pushed aside the tiny voice that told him he might be too late already, that Sean might be dead, along with their babies.

Don’t think like that.

He knew worrying might cause him to falter right when his mate needed him most.

A third shift when he arrived at the home near the castle where Carlotta had been working left him even sweatier and more exhausted than before.

When she was called to the door, Carlotta didn’t even wait for him to speak. She simply spun around and began loading her medical equipment into the black leather satchel she carried everywhere.

Mihai shook his head, but he couldn’t get out the words he needed to say yet.

“Come in and have something to eat and drink while I gather my things,” she said. “You’ll need to listen carefully so I can give you instructions on what to do when you get back there, as you will almost certainly arrive well before I do.”

“No,” he finally managed to gasp out. “I’ll shift. You ride.”

Carlotta gasped, her eyes going wide. One of the worst insults a person could offer a werewolf was to suggest that the wolf act as a beast of burden. That Mihai was willing to allow her to ride him back to Sean highlighted how very desperate the werewolf must be feeling about his mate.

Carlotta didn’t argue. She spoke to the couple in the cottage, telling them to send word if they needed to. Like her assistant, she knew enough to offer Mihai food and drink, which he quite literally wolfed down.

He caught his breath while he ate, then gave Carlotta her own instructions.

“You’ll to hold on to my fur,” Mihai said matter-of-factly. “You won’t hurt me, so don’t worry about that. Hold on as tightly as you need to. Wrap your legs around my midsection — again, as tightly as you need to. And bend down low. You might want to keep your face down to keep from getting hit by branches and the like.”

Carlotta didn’t ask how he knew all this. She simply strapped her bag across her chest and climbed onto the enormous wolf once he had shifted.

All the way back, Mihai kept reminding himself that carrying extra weight was worth it. That he was bringing help back to his mate, no matter how much his inner wolf wanted to rail against the fact that carrying someone slowed him down.

This is the entire reason for the run through the woods, he reminded himself.

This was the only chance he had of saving his omega.

By the time they returned to Pyt’s mansion, Mihai was gasping and stumbling.

As she dismounted, Carlotta said, “You got me here at least twice as fast as I could have made it on my own. No matter what, you are a hero.”

And then she was gone, headed inside to the room Mihai shared with Sean. He dragged himself over to a horse trough next to the barn, where he lapped up water eagerly. Part of him knew he needed it. But he also knew that he was anxious about going inside to discover whether his mate was still alive.

The frightened part of him lost, as he knew it would, and quickly — he had to take care of himself enough to keep from dying of dehydration, but once that was tended to, he pulled himself up the stairs and into their room.

He wanted so much to talk to his omega — but he lacked the energy to shift. He had used up every ounce of power he had simply running to get Carlotta and bring her back.

Still, he made his way to the bedside. As soon as he saw that Sean was still breathing, he licked his Omega’s hand once, and then he retreated into a corner, where he collapsed, still in his wolf form, and laid his head down on his paws, his gaze steadily boring into Sean’s still form on the bed.

As soon as I am able, I will shift again, he promised himself. I will let Sean know how much he means to me.

In the meantime, though, all he could do was watch, terror clawing at his throat as he prayed silently for his omega and their babies to survive.

We all need to be okay. We need to survive. I cannot live without Sean and our babies.