Chapter Thirteen: Damon

" R ex."

Silence.

" Rex ."

A grunt.

"Rex, seriously, you need to wake up."

"Hmm?" He was groggy, but at least he was finally responsive. I took a deep, calming breath.

"I'm about ninety-percent sure I'm going into labor."

Hours after Rex's knot had deflated, I'd gotten out of bed to use the bathroom. After doing my business, I noticed tenderness in the stretch of skin between my balls and my ass. Ollie had warned me that it was a precursor to labor. Sure enough, mild cramps started to ripple through me not even half an hour later, as though my noticing the painful patch of skin had given it permission to begin.

Have you ever seen a six-foot five naked cowboy startle awake so abruptly that he fell out of bed?

I have.

Rex picked himself up quickly and rushed to my side, his eyes scanning me over intently. "Are you feelin' okay? Do I need to call Eric? Brandt? An ambulance? Shit, do they even have ambulances out this far?"

"The nearest hospital's about an hour away," I replied calmly, my heart tripping at his worry, "and, yes, they do have a fleet of three ambulances. But, no, I don't need one." I paused and grimaced through another belly cramp. They were painful but reminded me of gas pains more than anything else. Manageable.

I wasn't na?ve enough to believe they'd stay that way.

Still squinting at me with concern and mild panic, he asked, "How the hell are you so calm right now? Shouldn't you be screamin' about me never gettin' to touch you again, or somethin'?"

I couldn't help laughing at that, feeling marginally guilty at the pang of hurt in his eyes, which he blinked away as I answered, "It's still super early right now. The contractions aren't regular, and…the you-know-what hasn't formed yet."

"Birth canal?" he hazarded a (correct) guess. I cringed.

"Shh! Don't say the words!" I was still really uncomfortable with the concept of developing a whole new orifice. Even though I couldn't stop my body from going through with it, I didn't want to think about it.

While I shuddered through the thought, Rex located his discarded clothes and started to re-dress.

"Uh…what are you doing?" I asked, cocking my head.

He froze. "Getting dressed?"

I shook my head. "Nope. Strip."

" What ? Why?"

Frowning, I wondered if he'd paid any attention to any of Brandt and Eric's prenatal advice. Slowly, as if talking to a toddler, I answered, "I need you in the shower with me."

"Uh…"

His bewildered expression would have been both adorable and comical if I wasn't starting to give in to the discomfort of the cramps and the thing developing between my legs.

"Eric and Brandt said that the warm water will help with the pain from the contractions later on," I reminded him. "And it makes more sense to be naked for that."

"But," picking up on my rising irritation, Rex seemed to do his absolute best to speak calmly and carefully, "aren't we going to the clinic to have the baby? You know, where they have all the medical tools and things?" He was smart enough to leave the ‘in case something goes wrong' unspoken. I heard it anyway.

I hated to admit that he actually made a valid point. But…this was my home. I'd gotten comfortable in my apartment over the past few weeks. I'd gotten my bed all cushy, and the whole place smelled like me and Rex. It felt safe. Warm. Welcoming. The perfect location to welcome our cub into the world.

"Plus," he added even more cautiously while my head warred with my shifter instincts, "your shower is, uh, kinda' tiny, darlin'. I barely fit in there on my own."

Damn him and his logic.

My lower lip quivered. Rex's expression immediately softened and, before I knew it, he'd closed the short distance between us to wrap me in a hug. I clung to him like a life-raft. He really was my safe place.

"It's gonna be okay, kitten, I promise," he soothed as the first sobs escaped me. "It's okay to be scared. It's okay to change plans. It's okay to cry and scream like all those laboring people in the movies do."

Through my tears, I snorted, but I really appreciated him saying ‘people' and not ‘women'. Like, I knew that I was only the second documented pregnant male omega in a few centuries, but it was nice not to feel like it made me different. Really, it was likely that most omegas could get pregnant…as long as they came across their fated mate or, as I kept thinking about it, a compatible alpha. With two of us going through this so close together, I wouldn't have been surprised if it started becoming more common across the world. Like evolution had kicked into overdrive or whatever.

Anyway, I was thinking in circles, mostly to avoid facing the fact that I was actually having a baby.

The sense of calm which had settled over me only an hour or so earlier seemed to evaporate into thin air.

I was going into labor.

I was having a baby.

In a handful of hours, I would officially be a dad.

I didn't know how to be a dad.

Why, during all those weeks of prenatal care, had Eric and Brandt not prepared me for that part?

"You've been helping Ollie with the twins," Rex reminded me gently, and I realized belatedly that I must have blurted all of my thoughts out loud. "You know how to hold babies. How to feed 'em, and how to change 'em. Pretty sure you know how to bathe 'em and dress 'em, too. The rest is all trial and error, darlin', and we'll learn together."

Once again, he was right. Between the way he was rubbing my back, and his steady heartbeat beneath my ear, I started to calm down again. "Sorry," I apologized sheepishly, but Rex gently pushed me back, holding me at arm's length as he shook his head.

"You're allowed to feel whatever you need to. I can't imagine how terrifying what you're going through is. But you're not gonna be alone. I'm here. And I'm still not goin' anywhere."

A handful of months earlier, when I'd arrived in Shifters Sanctuary, I'd thought there was no way the alpha who had knocked me up and run away could ever compare to the way Beck was with Ollie. However, in that moment, I had even more proof that I hadn't given Rex a fair chance way back when.

He was perfect. Or, at least, perfect for me.

I knew that telling him as much while I was in labor would be a mistake, though, so I kept the revelation to myself. I didn't want him thinking that it was my panic and insecurities talking. When I finally told him, it would leave no doubt as to my sincerity.

"What do you need me to do?" he asked, pulling me from my musings.

"I don't…I don't know." I hated not knowing, but I was suddenly struck by indecision. Rex was right: it made more sense to go to the clinic and have access to medical supplies, but I was scared. Life had finally settled into a routine that felt good, and it was about to be upended all over again.

Plus there was the immediate fear of the pain and uncertainty of labor. I was only the second male omega in however many hundreds of years to experience childbirth from this perspective, after all. We were all pretty much going in blind, save for Ollie's recent experience. What if something went wrong?

"Okay," he gently guided me over to the bed and sat me down, "how about we cuddle until your contractions are more regular or something changes, uh, downstairs …and then I'll call Eric and we'll let him decide whether stayin' here or goin' to the clinic is the right choice?"

Perfect .

* * *

Eric wasn't lying when he said that the hot water from the shower would work wonders on my labor pains. It was almost noon and Eric had shut the clinic so that he and Brandt could give me their undivided attention. Like Rex, they had both thought that it made more sense for me to have the baby where they had access to all of their supplies, so that's where we ended up.

Thankfully, because the clinic was housed in Eric's cottage, I had access to his surprisingly generous bathroom. He must have had it renovated in recent years, because it was more modern than the rest of the cottage, and large enough to comfortably fit both Rex and me in the shower stall.

"Gods bless the inventor of the handheld shower head," I moaned, arching as Rex aimed the spray to the achy spot at the base of my spine. When the next contraction hit, I got him to move it to my tightened belly while I braced my hands on the tiled wall and breathed through the pain.

It was also nice to be under the water to wash away the blood from when the… ugh …birth canal had formed (which had been just as freaking painful as it sounds – like shifting, but only partially, and with pressure and stretching of parts that should not exist). My water had broken not long after, but Eric had examined me and declared that I wasn't dilated enough yet. With all the pain, I was convinced he was wrong, but I was just shoved back into the shower and told to try and relax.

Relax? Ha!

Apparently, this wasn't even the worst of it. Eric had sounded far too cheerful as he informed me that active labor was going to be worse. I couldn't help but hope that he found an alpha and got to experience this for himself. You know, for research. Science and all that jazz. We didn't want him to miss out on the magic of childbirth, right?

Please note, what I was going through could not, under any power of imagination, be considered ‘magical', and I would strangle the next person to use that description within my enhanced earshot.

"Ow ow ow owwwww ," I whined as the cramping intensified. Squeezing my eyes shut, I fought the sensation of building panic. "I've changed my mind," I told Rex, "I don't wanna do this."

"Aw, kitten, I wish I could fix it…" He really did sound apologetic. "But there's no goin' back now, baby. I'm sorry."

I was not going to be a cliché. I was not going to tell him that this was all his fault and that he'd better be sorry.

But I was going to petulantly think it.

So I did.

I thought it so hard.

Rex rubbed my back, not seeming to care that he was getting as wet as I was. Where I was naked, he was still wearing his boxer briefs, but I thought they'd be drenched by now.

Another contraction built within a minute of the previous one ending. This one seemed even more intense, or maybe I was just tiring, but when it crested, I cried out…and then the urge to push made my knees buckle.

Rex's reflexes were thankfully super quick. He caught me before I crumpled, wrapping one strong, tanned arm across my chest as he held me to his body, shutting the shower off with his free hand.

"What's wrong?" he demanded with concern. "Talk to me, Damon."

"I…I have to push…" I couldn't explain beyond that. My body was working on instinct.

A strangled sound came from the back of his throat, and he leaned out of the shower, pulling me with him as he shouted, "Uh, a little help?!"

Eric and Brandt were at the open doorway within seconds.

Usually, I'd be a little uncomfortable being completely naked in front of the men who were also my employers unless we were all preparing to shift, but they'd seen everything when they'd been monitoring my pregnancy, and I was in too much pain to care who saw me naked at that point. Hell, they could invite half the town in and, as long as they were helping me survive this experience, I wouldn't care at all.

"What's happening, Day?" Eric asked me as he walked into the room, grabbing the towel he'd set aside on the closed toilet lid. He carefully helped dry my skin and gestured to Brandt to swap places with Rex so he could also get dried off.

I immediately missed being in Rex's arms and I whimpered. "I need to push."

Eric nodded, not at all surprised. "Gravity has done its job, then," he smiled up at me from where he was drying my legs. "I'd like to check dilation before you follow those urges, okay?" He nodded at Brandt again. "Can you grab the shower chair? And a mirror?"

"What, are you planning on some kind of magic trick?" I snarked as Rex stepped back in to support me. I didn't need it now that the contraction had eased, but I relished his presence. My puma relaxed, too.

Brandt disappeared down the hall and returned in less than thirty seconds, carrying what I called the ‘old people seat' — a plastic seat with a hole in the center, not unlike a rudimentary camping toilet. All you needed was to put a bucket under it or dig a hole in the earth and…that was so not what they were planning on using it for.

Eric gestured to the seat. "Sit down and we'll check you out, okay? This is going to be easier than getting you onto a bed if you're planning on squatting to deliver."

"Squatting?" Rex sounded horrified as he helped me to follow Eric's instructions.

Eric just nodded, but he was focused on the square mirror he had just slid under the chair. "Or kneeling braced over the side of the bed. It makes gravity work in your favor as opposed to pushing against gravity in a reclined position." He looked back up at us and smiled again. "You're fully dilated, Day. It's showtime. How do you want to do this?"

I could feel another contraction building and I groaned and gripped the plastic arms of the chair, pushing without even thinking about it. Eric got me to breathe through it, but he was once again focused on what was happening underneath me.

"Okay," he coached as the contraction eased, "good. Now, we're not staying in the chair for this. That's not an option. So, squatting, or kneeling, or on the bed?"

In the end, I chose the bed. When Rex and Brandt helped me up, I felt too wobbly to trust myself squatting or even kneeling. They guided me from the bathroom and into the same treatment room where I'd gone for scans and other prenatal care. The bed was no longer a narrow medical exam bed, but a proper hospital bed, complete with waterproof mattress and adjustable side rails. The back had been raised, ready for us.

"Rex, up on the bed behind him with his back against your chest," Eric instructed, then helped me up onto the bed after Rex was settled, getting me positioned between his legs. "Okay, I want you to bring your knees up as close to your chest as you can. Rex will help hold them there."

Another contraction was starting up and I was suddenly terrified, but I did what Eric told me to, automatically bending forward to push as the pain built.

Eric nodded. "That's it, just like that. Good. Well done, Day. Now relax."

"Stop telling me to relax," I snapped. "I can't relax. I'm… ohhhh why is there another one already?"

He didn't need to tell me to bear down through it. My body was determined to boot the kid out as quickly as possible.

"Every birth is different," Eric answered my question, even though it had been mostly rhetorical. "You're doing great."

Rex kissed the crown of my head. With his chest pressed to my back, I could feel his heart beating wildly. For all his calm demeanor, he was as panicked as me. I appreciated that he wasn't giving in to it, though. He was soldiering through for me. For our son.

That realization made me determined to do the same.

"You've got this, darlin'," he murmured into my ear as I braced for the next contraction.

His reassurance fortified me.

I bore down and screamed.

* * *

Two hours later —including a lot of tears, bargaining with the universe, and telling Eric to shut the ever-loving fuck up and just help me — Eric held a wriggling, bloodied, tiny humanoid up for us to see.

"Congratulations, guys. Meet your son," he declared as the pitiful wailing started. "All ten fingers and toes accounted for, and a healthy set of lungs, too."

My heart ached.

Our son.

Rex and I had made that weird looking, loud little thing…and he was perfect . My eyes tracked his movement from Eric's hold to Brandt's as Eric guided me through delivering the afterbirth. It was nowhere near as painful or traumatic as delivering a baby, and it wasn't long before Brandt was cutting the cord and the squirming, ick-covered baby was nestled against my chest, already rooting around for food.

And how weird was it that I could provide that food?! I hadn't really thought about it before, but as he latched on to my nipple and suckled, it made sense. Early shifters hadn't had access to formula or anything, so of course our bodies were designed to nourish the lives of our young. It would definitely be weird to carry and birth them and not have a means to keep them alive, wouldn't it?

I reclined against Rex with an exhausted sigh, and his arms moved around me to help cradle our son as he nursed.

Our son , the thought struck me all over again. Wow.

"Look at that hair," he murmured sounding every bit as awed as I felt. "Little guy's gonna take after you, huh?"

Sure enough, the baby had a thick mass of dark hair, wet and matted with blood and vernix as it was. It inspired mixed feelings inside me. On the one hand, I thought he was absolutely perfect. On the other, I'd kind of been hoping that he'd come out looking like his daddy.

I watched him snuffle and suckle for a few long moments before I said, "I think he's got your nose. Maybe your eyes."

"It doesn't matter who he looks like, darlin'. He's his own person."

How the hell did he always know the exact right thing to say? "You're right. And he's perfect."

Rex nuzzled my cheek with his own. "That he is." He waited a beat. "He's gonna need a name."

We had been tossing suggestions back and forth for a few weeks, but had opted to wait until we met him, thinking that we'd get a better idea of what kind of name would suit once we did.

We were wrong.

I looked down at him and drew a blank.

It was bad enough we were going to saddle him with the hyphenated Richards-Murphy surname. What the hell kind of first name worked with that?

"What was your dad's name, kitten?" Rex asked me when all I could do was flounder in silence. "He sounded like a good man. It'd be nice to honor him, wouldn't it?"

A lump lodged itself in my throat. "Campbell. Everyone called him Cam."

"Campbell Richards-Murphy," Rex tested it out loud. I could hear his smile when he followed it up, "I like it."

"It doesn't sound too…I don't know…snooty?"

"Nah," I was jostled lightly as Rex shrugged. "'Specially not if we're callin' him Cam for short."

"I think it's cute," Brandt agreed, bringing a clean hospital blanket over and laying it over us. He smiled, his mottled European accent sounding stronger than usual, "little Cam. A strong name for a strong cub." If I wasn't mistaken, that was a look of yearning in his eyes, but he blinked it away before I could comment on it.

I was totally going to corner my dragon-shaped friend when I was more awake and alert. I'd call it payback for all the times he'd made me vent to him over the past few months.

Rex kissed the top of my head, distracting me. "What do you think, darlin'? Cam?"

I looked down at the baby again. He'd fallen asleep with my nipple in his mouth. It was insanely cute.

"Yeah," I smiled, feeling overwhelmed with emotion. "Cam it is."