Chapter 12

Riley

This wasn’t right.

The helicopter ride happened in a blur of pain and fear, but landing on top of the building didn’t help either.

“Pool…” I grunted as soon as my feet touched the roof landing pad.

“You wanna go for a swim?” Candy and the rest of the team appeared, coming rushing out of the sliding doors. “Not sure if now's the time to get your laps in.”

“No… pool!”

I couldn’t make them understand because I didn’t have the damn words. My mind stuttered, trying to work past and accept the waves of pain, even as I knew in my heart I couldn’t. Just count to sixty, I told myself, closing my eyes, trying to focus. The pain only lasts for sixty seconds. What they didn’t tell you in the calm birthing classes was sixty seconds could feel like years passing by as the pain tore through me. My hand clamped down around someone’s hand, claws digging into their skin.

“Don’t shift.” Haze swum into view, uncharacteristically solemn now. “Don’t, baby. Just hang on. We’ll get you to a pool if that’s what you need.”

“She wants a water birth?”

I’d talked through my birth plan with Candy, plotting the whole thing out in clinical detail, but that failed me now. I didn’t give a shit about birthing balls and positions, not now. I’d felt something, seen something in that grotto and that’s what I needed.

But if I birthed my children in Bordertown, they would be sentenced to a life there, just like I was.

That wasn’t right, I knew that in my bones. I’d gone back home to consider where the hell I fitted in this world and knew now our change of name was more than symbolic. We weren’t Vanguards, we were Taylors, and that meant doing things our way.

“Poooool…” Pain turned the word into a howl, the wolf fighting me for control. All omegas’ wolves fought them during birth, feeling the pain and wanting it to stop, but they couldn’t be allowed to win. The shift would tear my children apart as well as my body. “Fourth floor.”

“You got it.”

Candy nodded sharply, then turned to the others.

“Commandeer the lifts.”

“Take my key.” Gideon shoved something at her. “We’ll use the executive lift.”

“Everyone needs to get the rest of the team and the machines that go ping to the fourth floor, stat.” Candy was the only one that didn’t stink with fear, the devilish look in her eyes strangely comforting. If she was holding it together, I’d be OK, I realised. “We’ve got five beautiful baby alphas to birth safely. Now c’mon.”

She ducked in between my mates, slinging my arm around her shoulders and carrying me forward like a soldier might his wounded comrade.

“Jeez, you were easier to carry when you got drunk that time and considerably drier. Why are your clothes all…. Urk! Is that…? Ohmygod, ohmygod, gag. That’s amniotic fluid, isn’t it? Why is it so slimy?”

“That’s… what you… want to ask… right now?” I gasped as the lift door opened. My mates rushed forward, keeping the doors ajar as we staggered in.

“It’s for science,” she said with a grin, Blake stepping forward and picking me up again. Her smile quickly faded. “That and to make sure I never, ever, ever forget to take my birth control, because damn?—”

“Enough, Candy.”

Colt was half feral, stepping between her and me, but that didn’t help. I needed his protective growl, but I also needed my best friend.

“Hey, I’m the comic relief, remember? If I get Fanta Pants giggling, maybe she won’t feel like her insides are ripping in two?”

Nope, that didn’t work. My arm wrapped around Blake’s neck, my face burrowing into the hollow as another contraction tore through me.

“It’s OK, omega.” His voice was low and soothing. “We’ve got you. We’ve got you.”

So why did everything hurt so much? A hopeless little sob escaped my lips, because now I knew. I’d quizzed some of the mothers that came to the institute to try and get a sense of what I was going to experience, but they’d just shot me long looks. Their answers were always vague, something I knew from my research. We couldn’t accurately remember the pain we experienced, because otherwise you’d never be able to persuade a beta to go through this again. Blood stained my fingers and I knew then I’d cut Blake.

“I’m sorry…” I sobbed. “I’m?—”

“No.” He held my eyes, the same quiet strength he’d always displayed radiating there. “Don’t. That’s what I’m here for. Give me everything you’ve got, omega.” His voice broke on the last word. “Because I am, and will always be, your alpha.”

“We’re your alphas.”

As the rest of my pack clustered close, the doors popped open, the stink of chlorine hitting me hard. It wasn’t the grotto. It smelled like chemicals and artificial things, and the wolf paced back and forth in response. This wasn’t the way it was supposed to be. If I’d known… If I could’ve…

“Water…”

My body bucked in Blake’s grip, as if I could escape the pain, but no relief was forthcoming.

“So do we all just jump in the pool and do one of those weird synchronised swimming routines?” Candy asked, shucking her lab coat, her shoes and then her pants. one of the lab techs she’d brought with her started to stare. “Hey, less arse and more preparation. We need a fetal heart monitor?—”

“No!”

The wolf roared through me, and at that, I fought Blake’s grip, staggering forward, one ponderous step after another. I didn’t have to make it on my own, that helped settle my beast. My mates were there with every step I took towards the pool. Not the big Olympic pool, my mind rejected that absolutely, but the spa… Small, enclosed, warm, yes, that was what I wanted.

“Spa?” Colt’s fangs flashed as he asked the question, and at a nod from me, I was in his arms and rushed over to it. As we dropped into the water, something happened.

Our clothes were saturated, weighing us down and the space was crowded. The spa was made to admit a group of betas, not alphas, but we made it work. The pain felt somehow muted as I dropped low into the water. The weight of my belly was eased, the pain somehow muted by the warm depths. I let a long breath out, feeling like I could relax into this, right before another contraction hit. That’s when Candy crouched beside the spa.

“Tell me what you want, Red.” She held up her phone. “You said you wanted this recorded.”

“Jesus, Candy!” Fen snapped, but I held up a shaking hand.

“We…” Panting, more panting, until the contraction eased off. “We only have one chance at this.” I let out a helpless laugh and then tensed as the pain returned. “We’ll…. learn something…. about the process… Won’t get this chance again.”

“A scientist to the very end.” Gideon appeared by the pool and nodded. “I’m going to restrict access to the pool, make sure you have privacy. You’ll have a team on standby to deal with any complications…” My face screwed up at that word, my mates instantly hissed at him. “You’re in safe hands, Riley. Just focus on bringing your beautiful children into the world.”

An omega can’t resist a direct order. I nodded and then fell back against my mates’ chests.