“Push, Billy!” Osana urged me, dabbing the sweat from my brow with the third cloth since I’d gone into labor. “I need you to push! This baby can’t wait any longer!”

“Not until Aiden is here!” I shouted, slamming my fist against the bed. More pain than I’d ever experienced threatened to take me over – emotional and physical. My stomach was convulsing every thirty seconds, and my head was killing me. But my heart was what hurt the most.

Nothing between Aiden and I had gone how it should have. From the moment he took me back to his house, our life together had been a roller coaster of ups and downs. Marcellus had taken me back, I’d been sold and had been sure I’d never see him again.

But then I’d been set free – free to die on my own in the woods. I’d met Kitchi, come to the lodge and Aiden had found me. But the pack almost killed him, thinking he was an enemy.

We’d shared time together, but now, yet again, he was gone from me and I wasn’t sure if he would be back.

What if he never returned? I didn’t want to be a single parent – I couldn’t. This child was Aiden’s as much as it was mine, and I needed him. If he never came back to me, I knew I would never be able to find another alpha like him. He was one of a kind – he was my mate.

“Aiden will be back,” Osana cooed, doing her best to comfort me.

“How do you know!?” I snapped back, barely able to control my anger. I knew she was just trying to help, but right now that didn’t matter. All that mattered was Aiden and his baby.

I needed his scent, his touch, the warmth from his body and the smile that let me know everything would be all right. His arms needed to be around me and I needed to fall asleep beside him every night for the rest of my life.

Another contraction hit me, harder than the last. They were growing in intensity with every minute and I didn’t know how much longer I could hold out.

“Honey,” Osana whispered, her voice growing worried. “You’re going to hurt your baby if you don’t push now. Aiden will be back soon. But he has to do what he has to do right now, and so do you.”

“No!” I cried out, the tears spilling out of my eyes. But I knew she was right. I felt my stubborn anger start to wane and despair threaten to take me over. My hand cried out for his, and my nostrils yearned for his scent. I knew this would be hard, but I had pictured him by my side. We would go through this together. But now I had to do it on my own.

“No…” I cried, breaking down and sobbing as Osana dabbed my face with the cloth. For a brief moment, my contraction subsided and I took a deep breath. A calm came over me as I tried to force myself to accept my situation: I had to give birth now, and I had to do it without Aiden – without my mate.

I thought back to our last night together, as I lay in bed with him still inside me, bonded as mates, my nose buried in his neck as I inhaled the scent that made everything better. The world was just brighter when he was around, and maybe if I filled myself with that feeling, I could get through this.

Gazing out the window, I could barely make out the flakes of snow still falling from the sky, slightly illuminated by the back porch light. The winter made everything seem so still, but as I gazed out through the shadows, I saw something move.

A figure – a fox.

Kitchi!

His figure darted quickly through the snow and I saw him shift as he hit the porch. I heard the back door open as he raced inside.

“Osana!” His footsteps tore through the lodge and seconds later he burst into the room. His eyes went wide as he saw me lying on the bed. “Shit! It’s coming now!?”

I nodded. It was all I could do.

“What is it, Kitchi!?” Osana asked. “Are you okay!?”

Kitchi didn’t answer right away, which was completely out of character for him. He was always so sure of himself, that I understood right away what was wrong.

“It’s Aiden, isn’t it?”

I didn’t want him to answer, but from the look in his eyes I already knew the answer.

“Yes,” he said softly. “He’s hurt.”

“Is it bad!?” I gasped, my throat seizing on the words as they fought to escape my lips.

He didn’t reply and my heart tore at my chest.

“They’re bringing him in now,” he said, and I heard the front door open.

“Chrissie!” Tate roared. “Get us some gauze! Quickly!”

The floorboards creaked as Chrissie raced down the hall and into the room. She snatched a box of gauze from the cabinet and dashed back out into the living room.

I pushed off the bed and tried to get to my feet, but Osana pressed me back with a hand on my chest.

“No!” She shouted. “You can’t do that, Billy!”

“I have to see him!”

“Bring him in here, goddamn it!” Osana roared. I’d never heard her even come close to swearing before. This was bad.

Footsteps clunked through the lodge and seconds later, everyone spilled into the room.

“Aiden!” I cried out as they brought him in and set him on the second bed beside me. His eyes were barely open and he was bleeding from three deep wounds, one on his ankle, one on his chest and a deep laceration on his neck. “No! What happened!?”

Chrissie had her hands pressed hard against the wound on his neck. Tate had a ball of gauze on his chest and Bryce was on his ankle. Kitchi and Red watched from the hallway, their eyes locked on their fellow alpha.

“Marcellus,” Kitchi said. “He was there tonight.”

“He did this to him!?” I roared as a contraction hit me. “Gah!”

The pain was too much to bear. My heart screamed out at the world as my child fought to be part of it. A primal scream forced its way from my lungs and out of my mouth as I howled for my mate. My hand clasped his as another contraction twisted in my stomach.

“Red!” Osana snapped. “Hold him down!”

Osana moved quickly as Red took my side, his hand against my chest to stop me from leaping to Aiden’s side. She moved to the cabinet and snatched an IV line and a bag of fluids from the cabinet.

“Aiden!?” I yelped, inching closer to him on my bed. “Aiden, are you with me, baby!? Aiden!?”

As Osana slid the needle into his arm, my mate’s eyes opened slightly and focused on me. Relief flooded through me.

“You’re alive!”

“Of c-course I am,” he smiled, reaching out for my hand. I took it and closed my fingers so tightly around him like I was about to lose him again.

“Our baby’s coming!” I told him, smiling through tears that poured down my cheeks.

“I’m so happy,” he said as he smiled. I could see it took all his strength to move his lips.

“You have to stay with me!” I told him. “I can’t do this without you.”

He was fading in and out as Osana fought to stitch the wound on his neck while the others kept pressure on his wounds.

“I’m not going anywhere,” he smiled as another contraction hit me.

“Push, Billy!” Osana shouted as she worked to keep my mate alive. “You have to push now!”

Screaming, I summoned all the strength I had, and now that my mate was here, finally, I pushed.