Page 87 of Single Omega Dad

Mathias’s hands were like magic, his touch instantly soothing as he circled around and around my lower back.

“Push now,” the doctor ordered. “Push!”

I bore down. I let out a lot of strangled words that probably weren’t words at all as my muscles and my body strained to accommodate the human beings that were passing through me.

I had good drugs, but I could still feel the stretch and the cramping and the way my whole body seized up until I couldn’t breathe.

The doctor yelled for me to push again. And again.

Finally, I felt a release of something big, and fluid. There were voices. And then I heard a baby cry.

The doctor said from behind me, “You’re not quite done. One more. One more.”

“Mathias.” My voice was hoarse as I ignored the doctor. “How does he look?”

“Hmm. A little bit unfortunate, but he’ll clean up good, I think.”

I hissed at him. “You ass.”

All he did was smile down at me and run his hands through my hair. “One more,” he said.

How could he be so calm?

The doctor ordered me to push again. I didn’t recall much of it. I was dizzy and crazy at that point, and what I really wanted to do was lie down and sleep for about a million years.

I felt another release of something big, and I knew it was done.

The doctor was exclaiming how well I’d done. Mathias was congratulating me, but all I could do was close my eyes and breathe out in relief.

The afterbirth came quickly.

When I finally got my wind back, my first question was, “Are they healthy? Are they all right?”

Mathias was still holding my hand. But he had stepped away a little and was looking at something I couldn’t see.

Finally, he turned and said, “Gremlin number one is all cleaned up. Gremlin number two is getting taken care of. They are perfect.”

“You’re not calling them both Gremlin.”

“You’ll be ready in a few minutes and then you can hold them,” he said.

A nurse was cleaning me up, wrapping me in large pads like diapers. But everything was good.

“Ready to turn over?” he asked.

I was more than ready to look at anything other than pillows and a wall. Hands helped me get situated.

Mathias plumped pillows behind my head.

I wrestled into place, closed then opened my eyes and the nurse was standing before me with two white-wrapped bundles. He handed one to me and one to Mathias.

I reached out and brought my new baby to my chest, looking down at his sweet, scrunched up face and swirls of fine baby hair. I couldn’t help but immediately put my lips to his forehead in awelcome to the worldkiss.

I looked up at Mathias, but he was not looking at me. His fixed gaze and slightly open mouth were all for the newborn in his arms. He leaned forward and rubbed his nose against the baby’s cheek. Then he looked at me and sat on the side of the bed, tilting the child in his arms so I could see him.

The doctor stood at the foot of my bed.

“A cursory exam has shown one Alpha, one Omega. We’ve marked their bracelets so you can tell the difference.”