Page 30 of Blood of the Damned: Thorn (Vaughn Winery #1)

Ledger

Everything felt totally out of control as Ledger sat in a contraption that couldn’t be called a chair because his bottom half was floating over a big hole.

Dacian had brought the thing into their bedroom hours ago when Thorn had issued orders he hadn’t heard because he was too busy moaning and groaning through the damn awful pain.

Since then, Ledger had lost track of everything because the pain never ceased once it had really got going.

It eased somewhat between what he considered were contractions, but it never truly let go.

The websites he’d visited to look for information mentioned how his body would naturally open, producing goo as the contractions became longer, with fewer gaps between them so he could deliver his babies.

Check. There was gunk dripping over the stack of towels on the floor Calvert had placed there, much to Ledger’s acute embarrassment.

This, however, was where things seemed to have gone awry when his bottom didn’t feel…

open. The pressure was there, only there was something bizarre happening he couldn’t vocalize.

“Why… isn’t my… bum opening,” he wheezed through the next wave of pain.

The two vampires, watching him with way too much interest, looked at the vampire behind him, both with mutual looks that suggested Ledger was missing something vital.

“S-someone answer m-me!” He attempted a scowl, but he was positive it was more a grimace, with the last contraction lingering on like a damn foul smell.

“A vampire baby comes out slightly differently to shifters,” Thorn muttered, barely loud enough for Ledger to hear.

“What-s tha-t mea-n?” His teeth chattered together as he tried to talk through the worst of the pain holding his belly in a constricting band that came on fast and felt as if it wanted to squeeze his poor babies to death.

“Sweetling…”

Gasping, he glanced over his shoulder, his hands gripping the arms of the chairs, panting through the pain as best as he could.

“Why are… you… shielding me ?” He felt the barrier in his mind, and he also sensed how Dacian and Calvert were pressing at his psyche. They were up to something, goddamnit!

“I… the girls…”

“Fuckkkkkkkkkinggggggg shittttttttttt… telllll meeee.” Alarm came at him at the squealing he was doing, he was past caring about others’ sensibilities or looking like a crazed person. He was one.

“The babies will use their fangs to get out,” Thorn blurted out, his cheeks looking obscenely pale.

Now it was all Ledger’s alarm coursing through him as those words repeated in his mind.

The babies will use their fangs to get out. He couldn’t be serious.

Why hadn’t he mentioned this before? It was a stupid question when Ledger figured why very easily. He’d have had a freak out like he wanted to now.

“I’m not doing this,” he gasped through his dry mouth, trying to wriggle his way off the stupid chair. The hideous pain at his bottom stopped him from getting far and he returned his attention to not coming apart at the seams. His fingers curled and cramped around the wooden arms.

Please make it stop, he shouted at his mate.

“I can’t,” Thorn sobbed as he came around the chair and cupped his over warm, sweaty cheeks. “I swear I’ll make it up to you.”

The twisting in his guts made it impossible to answer as he rocked back and forwards, unsure what to do with his body to make it bearable—if that was possible.

“Help him,” Thorn demanded.

“We are,” Dacian grunted. “He’s fighting us.”

What were they talking about? He was fighting no one, not even the babies, who were going to eat their way out of his ass! Was that why the pain was worsening? Oh, to the heavens, he would not survive this.

“You will, Sweetling. It’ll all be over soon.”

“Lair,” he panted around gritted teeth. Ledger didn’t have the strength to shout at his mate who was back to massaging his buttocks. “Lower,” he groaned around the next crippling pain.

It made no difference.

“Open your mind Sweetling, allow Dacian and Calvert to help.”

At an all-time high, the excruciating pain left his hair stuck to his head and the air so blue it would cause a permanent change.

But allowing his brothers-in-law into his mind seemed like an inane concept when he had no idea how to do it.

How was he supposed to do that when all he could focus on was the pain?

“I don’t know how to explain it,” Thorn said, answering his unspoken question on a sob.

Why was he sobbing, he wasn’t the one with a vampire trying to munch their way out of his body?

“I can feel your pain, Sweetling.”

Yeah, right!

“The girls are coming, you need to relax your body,” Dacian had the audacity to suggest.

Ledger threw his back and howled, though it can out more broken cat than anything.

He hung suspended in a pain vortex. Then his vision blurred as his brain cut off the supply of neurons telling him what was happening. All he could register was the sting of Thorn’s fangs sinking into his throat and a wrist pressed against his lips.

Bite, Thorn encouraged and compelled him to do just that.

Ledger’s eye teeth pierced Thorn’s skin and at the first taste of his mate's blood, he slumped, his hands slipping off the arms of the chair as he became floppy. Then came the euphoric claim of their joint mating bond, and his soul rejoiced, leaving everything coated in a colorful glow of bliss.

Ledger surfaced groggily, blinking the room into focus as his sluggish brain worked to figure out what had happened. He ran his tongue over his teeth at a lingering coppery taste. Why…

Babies.

Babies.

Expecting pain in his lower body, he tensed.

“It’s over, Sweetling,” murmured Thorn, his lips brushing against the side of Ledger’s temple. “You were wonderful. Amazing.”

It was then Ledger realized he was no longer in the chair, but in bed. Their bed. Resting against his husband’s cool, naked chest. The love coming through their connection was heady, as was the memory of…

Had he… in front of Thorn’s brothers?

Heat scorched his cheeks.

They saw nothing, Sweetling, you passed out before…

Don’t say it!

Did that excuse what his husband had done? No! They’d most definitely be having words about everything that had happened today. For now, all he wanted was to see and hold his girls.

“The babies…” Searching the room, his heart set off on a race at how normal everything looked, aside from the absence of his girls. “Where are my babies?”

“Calvert and Dacian have taken them into the bathroom to… clean them up,” Thorn replied cautiously, blocking Ledger from his thoughts.

“Stop sugar coating things. And the whole not telling me about how a vampire baby comes out? We’ll talk about later, mister.

Are they okay?” Ledger rolled carefully to glance upward at his husband, only to breathe a sigh of relief at how all that came was an ache in his bottom.

He caught the scent of the soap he used and how he was no longer a sweaty mess.

How long had he been out of it?

“About half an hour.”

“See, you’re handy at reading me, but you haven’t answered my question. The girls… are they okay?” They had picked names, Maeve and Penelope, but Ledger didn’t want to use them until…

“They are beautiful and look just like their daddy.”

“They do?” His excitement at that washed away the hours of torture.

“Yes, my love. They are as beautiful as you,” Thorn murmured against his lips as he gently brought Ledger to nestle against his chest.

“Don’t you pair dare traumatize us in that way, it was bad enough watching you chew the fu—heck out of Ledger’s neck mid—”

“If you want to live to see another sunrise, I’d stop there,” Calvert said to his twin.

Ledger rolled off Thorn, sitting up. His ass wasn’t so happy at that move, but he wanted the babies in his arms. He wiggled his fingers at both vampires, who each held a swaddled bundle in their arms. “Bring Maeve and Penelope to me.”

Ledger found it more than a little amusing how both vampires appeared reluctant to relinquish the children they had moaned about. They had insisted the twins would disrupt life in the house, but now they looked so smitten. He suspected the ribbing had all been for show.

Thorn shifted around him and moved Ledger to rest against his naked chest, wrapping his arms around his shoulders. Once the girls were placed in Ledger’s arms, it was like Thorn was cocooning all three of them.

Blonde heads peeked out of the fleece bundles.

The girls were identical to each other, as far as Ledger could tell.

Honey-colored eyes the same as his, more focused than he expected, stared back at him from the cutest faces and his heart melted.

With a surge of joy, he realized he could feel the connection a part of him had secretly worried wouldn’t be there because he was divergent.

It was more beautiful than a rainbow appearing through sunshine on rain-soaked clouds. It was bold and perfect.

A shudder of relief ran through him at how wrong his parents had been. They had rejected him; told him it was because he was divergent. That divergent's were inherently different and therefore couldn’t create the same bond with a shifter child.

They are wrong, my love. You are the most precious thing, and our babies already know this.

As he listened, his nose twitched, and he smelled baby powder and… blood .

“Have you fed them… blood?” he asked with concern.

Thorn had already explained how the girls would feed from him, taking his milk and blood together.

However, with Thorn keeping secrets from him, his temper was about to be unleashed if they’d carried out some other ritual type thing without his knowledge.

“No. No, most definitely not. The blood you scent is yours and mine,” Thorn rushed to reassure. “I bit you to seal my bond to them and you, and you had to bite me as the first child…”

His pulse stopped doing a tap dance on the wall of his chest at the truth. “Ate her way out of my ass,” Ledger supplied with more amusement than he’d ever thought he’d have after… Okay, he couldn’t quite remember that part, which was probably for the best.

Thorn winced internally at his description, and Ledger grinned at his girls in delight.

“Yes.” Everything about that one word conveyed Thorn’s awkwardness.

“I think that’s our cue to leave them to it, brother.” Calvert pushed Dacian towards the bedroom door.

“Thank you for everything.” Ledger glanced at both vampires, meaning it, though exactly what they did during that ordeal, he didn’t want to think too hard on.

Dacian gave a hand salute as Calvert winked at him, then they were gone.

He looked down at the two girls, smiling as their eyes had drifted closed. They’d had a big day.

“They have, and so have you. Do you want me to put them in their cribs so you can get some rest?”

Snuggling back against Thorn at the reluctance coming from him to let go of them all, Ledger murmured quietly, so as not to disturb the girls, “I’m sure I can rest like this.” Twisting slightly to glance at Thorn, he asked, “If that works for you?”

Thorn’s adoration was there in those captivating eyes. He brushed his lips over Ledger’s. “Perfectly.”

Love made everything brighter, made the burdens of life lighter. That was Thorn’s love for Ledger.

Ledger felt it down to the marrow of his bones. “Right answer.”

“It’s the only answer, Sweetling.” Thorn deepened the kiss, creating a loving embrace for Ledger’s soul. The past had chased him from the life he’d loved, but led him here, to his destiny. Wasn’t life just glorious?