Page 168 of Omega's Flight

Now he really was turning green. "No, that's okay." He swallowed again and I wondered if I'd have to take him out of the room. It wasn't like I was entirely necessary, although maybe this was why I'd been invited.

Bax turned back to snatch another couple of towels from Julius' slackening grip. "He okay?" he whispered to me.

"I might take him out to the living room," I whispered back. "He's never seen a child born before."

Bax's expression almost made me laugh out loud, but I was certain my face had looked the same when I first heard it too. I glanced at Julius and made the call. "Come on, Julius, let's go check on that window. Felix is taking a long time." I heard Holland laugh a little in between contractions when Julius bolted out of his chair and beat me out the door.

"We'll be back in a few minutes," I told the room.

"Take your time," Jason said. "Poor kid. How do you get to be that sheltered?"

I shrugged, because I didn't know, and followed Julius out into the living room. I found him at the kitchen table with Felix, the creaking of the kettle on the stove making their low-voiced conversation hard to hear.

"How many have you seen?" Julius was asking when I got close enough for the words to be clear to me.

Felix shrugged. "Probably a couple dozen, but not many omega ones. Maybe a half-dozen of those."

"Are they really different?" The skin between Julius' eyebrows was wrinkled and the corners of his mouth turned down with stress.

Felix shook his head and got up to hunt about in the cupboard for mugs. He threw me a look on his way by, and I nodded and sat down next to Julius. "Not a lot different, except that with women, the baby comes out between their legs. Most of the rest of this is the same." I cocked my head to one side and squinted at him slightly. "Didn't you learn about this in omega school?"

He looked down at his hands, twisting together like two snakes in a sack. "Mom and Dad kept me home. They said that some of the things they taught in school weren't...proper." He raised his eyes to the entrance to the hallway and the skin around his mouth went white. "That's..." He looked frightened.

I laid my hand over his, stilling their frantic movement. "I know, it sounds terrifying, doesn't it? But this is my fourth. It's much noisier than it is terrible."

"How can that be?" He pulled his hands away to accept a cup of tea from Felix, but didn't drink, just played with the handle of his mug.

I laughed. "Because it is uncomfortable, and some of it hurts, but there's a baby at the end, and no one complains if you want to yell at the top of your lungs while you're having a baby." I glanced over my shoulder then leaned in to whisper conspiratorially, "And it keeps the alphas in line for a good month after, because they're absolutely horrified by it." I let a giggle slip out and picked up my mug. "Drink your tea and we'll go back in and you can see that it's not that bad."

Julius picked up his mug—I'd guessed right that he'd been well 'socialized' as an omega—and wondered about his sister. "I didn't think it would...smell like that."

"You mean like blood?" I glanced over at Felix, who shrugged.

"It's the price you pay for a baby," he said.

"They're worth a lot more than a few drops of blood." I held out my hand to Julius. "Come see." He stared at my hand for a moment and a thought occurred to me. "Do you not want pups?"

"I do, I do! I just, I don't know..." He looked down at his hands, once more twisting around each other and then finally, tentatively, reached out and took my hand.

Impulsively, I put it on my belly. Not that our little boy was doing much anymore—he was too cramped now, with only a couple of weeks left to go before I could expect him to make an appearance, but sometimes... Discreetly, I poked the opposite side of my belly and held my breath.

There! Push harder, pup! Really make him feel it.

Julius' eyes widened. "Oh!" His fingers spread wide against me and he leaned into the touch. "I felt him." Growing wonder fought with his uncertainty, while in the background the noises from the bedroom grew sharper and more insistent.

"Let's go in," I said gently. "You can see why we do this." I took his hand and led him back to the bedroom.

Quin had wrapped himself around Holland, his face right next to his mate's as Holland strained in the final stages of labor. I heard Julius gulp and got an arm behind him before he could escape out the door again.

A deep voice whispered in my other ear, "I'll stand guard." Felix's eyes twinkled and he seemed to expand to fill the doorway.

I hid a grin of my own and ushered Julius closer to the side of the bed.

Holland stopped to take a quick breath and lean against Quin.

"You okay?" Quin asked and offered an ice chip without being asked.

"I'm fine," Holland said around the ice. "Oh, we're starting again." His brow furrowed and he sat up straighter, filling his lungs and taking a renewed grip on Quin's hands.