by Grey, Aspen
“Wendell’s coming!” I heard Tommy cry out. Out of the corner of my eye, I was vaguely aware of Sid getting to his feet. As he came into my view, I saw with deep regret that it was his leg that had broken when I’d thrown myself onto both of them.
Son of a bitch!
“Garrett!”
It was Billy’s voice behind me. I felt his hand on my back, its warmth pulling me back from the realm of rage I’d entered during the fight. I felt Pablo’s body shudder as the last of his life escaped him and finally released my grip and let him fall to the ground.
“How is he?” Tommy shouted.
How am I? I thought as I looked up at my mates. Billy was beside me, his eyes filled with a fear that broke my heart, his hand pressed over his baby bump. Tommy looked much the same behind him, with one hand on the ground and the other on his stomach.
“I’m fine,” I growled as I shifted back to human form. “How are you? Are the babies coming?”
“Oh, they’re coming,” Billy replied. Sid came up beside me, doing his best to act as though he wasn’t in great pain.
I’ll have to make sure I give him a raise, I thought, managing a bit of dark humor as my mates and I gathered together. Sid remained in his panther form until he reached the shadow of the taco truck and then shifted back to his human body. The sight of his leg, broken and bent out of shape, hurt my heart.
“You called Wendell?” I asked Tommy.
“He’s on his way,” Tommy replied quickly.
“I hope he gets here soon,” I said as I cradled my mates in my arms, Billy with one hand over the wound on my leg and cursing under his breath.
“Pablo, that son of a bitch! I can’t believe he came back after all this time!”
“Well, he won’t be coming back anymore,” I assured him, pulling him closer. He tried to speak again but another contraction silenced him.
“Come on,” I told my mates. “Let’s get you guys in the car.”
“But Wendell’s coming here!” Tommy protested.
“Do you want to give birth in this alley?” I asked him. “No, we’re taking you both home. He can ride with us or meet us there. Now come on, let’s go!”
Chapter Twenty-Two
Tommy
As it turned out, Wendell arrived at the taco truck just as we were leaving. Garrett drove while Billy kept one hand clamped over his leg wound that thankfully had stopped bleeding too badly. With our hippie doctor behind us, and both Billy and me about ready to pop out our kids in the back seat of the car, we sped through traffic towards home, which thankfully wasn’t far away.
“Almost there,” Garrett assured us. “Just hang in there.”
“Easy for you to say,” I told him, half-kidding. “You’re not about to push a living thing out of you!”
“Arnold!” Billy shouted into his cell phone as Garrett hung a right turn. “Hey, man. Listen up! We’ve got a problem—two dead alphas behind the taco truck with plenty of humans in the area!”
Billy was on the phone with Arnold, a shifter detective that he knew and almost considered a friend. Billy had helped him out with some information a while back when there was a crazy killer targeting working boys in San Diego—information that had led to the killer being caught, and as such, Arnold owed Billy a favor. Also, it was in his best interest to make sure that the secret of the shifters remained a secret.
“Yeah,” he said back into the phone. “Two. Yes, it couldn’t be avoided. They attacked us! Okay—thank you!”
He hung up and practically threw the phone as he growled in pain and doubled over.
“We’re there,” Garrett said as he pulled into the back alley behind our house. The lights of Wendell’s car flashed as he pulled in beside us. My own contraction hit me with less pain than the last one but a lot more force, causing me to double over like I was being pulled together from the inside.
“Oh, boy,” I groaned as Garrett parked and shut the car off. Instantly, he was around the other side and helping me outside.
“Wendell, help him!” he shouted, pointing to Billy who was doing his best to get out of the car on his own. Wendell, looking like he’d just stepped off a surfboard after “hitting some sick waves, bro,” took his hands and helped him towards the building. Garrett and I were already there holding the door open.
“Why can’t there be any shifter hospitals?” I moaned as I stepped inside. Garrett limped forward and pressed the elevator call button. Sid had his hand on Wendell’s shoulder as he did his best to walk on one leg. Altogether we were like a wounded infantry squadron or something, and seeing as how two of us were returning from a life and death battle, that wasn’t too far from the truth.
“Maybe one day,” Wendell replied. “When we don’t have to hide from the humans.”
The doors dinged and we all hobbled into the elevator. Garrett pressed the third floor button and we all slumped against the walls, holding our various debilitating problems with our hands. To an outside observer we must have all looked on the verge of death, but I guess if looking like death was what it took to bring a new life into this world, I would gladly go through it.
The elevator stopped and we got out onto our floor and made our way down the hall to our apartment. Garrett opened the door and we all stepped inside, Billy and I quickly making our way over to the couches. We slumped down next to each other and groaned. Another contraction hit me, and as mine was finishing, another gripped Billy.
“These kids want out!” he said in a way that probably could have come out as a joke if he wasn’t in so much pain. “I knew this was gonna hurt, but…”
“Just hang in there, guys,” Wendell said as he set down an enormous bag beside us and began pulling out all kinds of things, from gloves to towels to little tubes of things I didn’t recognize.
“Where did that come from?” I asked him. Had I been so blinded by my labor that I’d missed him carrying a big up from the car?
“Don’t worry,” he told me. “You just focus on what you’re doing.”
“I’m not—doing anything!” I gasped as another contraction did its best to force my guts out of me. “My body’s doing it all!”
I was vaguely aware of Garrett and Sid over at the bathroom, obviously tending to their own injuries. Pablo’s face filled my mind, along with a fresh dose of rage that slapped my heart in a way that made it feel as though it was about to come shooting out of my throat.
No. Don’t focus on that! Don’t bring a baby into a world filled with anger!
I closed my eyes, reached over and grabbed Tommy’s hand and squeezed. Wendell took my legs and pressed them together, then tapped my hips, signaling for me to lift up so he could take my pants down. I followed his direction without hesitation.
“Garrett!” I cried out. “Are you okay!?”
“He’s fine,” Wendell assured me.
“I’m all right,” Garrett called back. “I’ll be there in two seconds!”
“Legs together for a second, Tommy,” Wendell said as he moved to him and took his pants down and set them aside. “Okay, you two. These kids are coming and it’s time to start getting down to work!”
Chapter Twenty-Three
Garrett
My leg was bleeding. Sid’s was broken. My mates were both in labor and I was in the bathroom trying to get a bandage tight around my wound so I could be by their side when they brought my children into the world. Sid groaned as he handed me a bottle of hydrogen peroxide.
“Son of a bitch broke my leg,” he grumbled.
“I’m so sorry, Sid,” I told him as I took a deep breath and uncapped the bottle. “I promise I’ll give you a big raise after this.”
I gritted my teeth and sprayed the bottle all over the puncture wounds on my leg.
“Fuck!”
My leg stung and burned as the liquid hit, causing me to tense up. I gripped the molding on the door with such force that a piece of it cracked off in my hand.
Shit.
“Baby!” Tommy c
alled from the other room.
“I’m coming!” I shouted back, snatching a ball of gauze and dabbing it all over my wound. Then, I grabbed the bandage and began tying it as tightly as I could without tearing it.
“Does Wendell fix broken legs?” Sid asked, sounding like he was ready to pass out.
“Wendell!” I cried out through my teeth. “You fix legs?”
“Tell Sid I got him,” Wendell called back. “After I deliver these babies!”
I tied off the bandage and secured it with two metal clips. Sid pushed himself back across the floor so he was leaning against the vanity. His face was pale and covered with beads of sweat. If one of Pablo’s alphas had gotten their teeth into him, I don’t know what we would have done. Using my other leg and my arm to steady me, I struggled to my feet.
“Hang in there, Sid,” I told him with the most comforting tone I could muster.
“Don’t worry, boss,” he said with a forced smile. “I won’t die on you.”
“Jesus!” I gasped. “I didn’t mean it like that!”
He chuckled as I made my way from the bathroom and into the living room where both of my mates were sitting beside each other on the couches, an almost bed of towels laid out on the floor beneath them. When I saw them there, their faces twisted up in pain and concentration, the full reality of the situation came over me and I forgot about my leg.
The burning sensation left me. The soreness, the tenderness, the stiffness—all of it was forgotten as I made my way over to them and knelt down in front of them beside Wendell.
“How are they?” I asked him, then to them. “How are you?!”
“How’s an orange feel when you’re juicing it?” Billy replied. I couldn’t help but smile as I placed a hand on each of their knees.
This is it, I thought. It’s happening!
“We’re going to be fathers,” I told them. “Can you believe it?”
“They’re getting close,” Wendell told me. He took a small, damp towel and handed it to me and nodded towards Billy, whose eyes were closed in concentration. I took it and began to wipe his brow and cheeks slowly, in a calming fashion, doing my best to pretend that I was actually doing something and being useful. But of course, all the hard work was on them—I was just a spectator.
“How you doing, Tommy?” I asked. “Feeling like an orange?”
“More like a dish towel,” he muttered. “A dirty one being wrung out over a bucket!”
This time it was Wendell that laughed. Billy groaned and arched his back up off of the couch.
“Gah, it’s definitely coming!” he groaned. Wendell tapped my shoulder and whispered.
“Pull him closer to the edge.”
I reached over and took Billy by the knees and gently pulled him so the lower half of his body was off the edge of the couch. Wendell did the same for Tommy. I took two of the ottomans and slid them closer, giving the boys both some place to prop their feet up in a way that somewhat resembled a traditional hospital setting. But there was nothing traditional about any of this, and I was more than fine with that.
A swift moment of realization and euphoria swept over me as a slideshow of our lives together played out in my mind, from the first time I’d encountered them, smelling their sweet scents that had not only made me realize that I’d found my fated mates—not just one but two of them—but had also awoken a dormant side of me, my alpha side that had been suppressed for so long that I hadn’t even known it existed.
How far we’ve come…I thought as I looked at their pregnant bellies. I did that to them. And soon I’m going to be a father. We are going to be fathers!
“Okay, boys,” Wendell said, sounding like a basketball coach. “The time has come. These kids are ready to join the world. It’s time to start pushing! You ready?”
“I think so!” Tommy groaned.
“I guess I have to be,” Billy joked again.
“You guys can do it,” I assured them, squeezing their knees lovingly. They each opened their eyes to look at me. I nodded as reassuringly as possible. “You can do it.”
“Okay, guys,” Wendell said. “Push!”
Chapter Twenty-Four
Billy
I’m a father, I thought as I held little baby Eric in my arms and looked down at his adorable face as he nursed at my chest. He was pale like his father, with the same black hair and the same heterochromia eyes. He was an alpha, and I knew he would grow up to be a spitting image of Garrett, and I loved that.
“Hungry boy,” Garrett said from beside me. He had taken a seat between Tommy and me after we’d both given birth, and Wendell had gone into the bathroom to take care of Sid.
“He sure is,” I replied, gently stroking his cheek. “He’s so soft!”
Garrett smiled as he leaned in and kissed me. His scent was extra strong, as though us giving birth had caused his pheromones to run wild, which was probably true. I had a feeling that if Tommy and I weren’t so worn out from what we’d just accomplished, he’d be ravishing us both later on.
“This one is too,” Tommy remarked, cradling little Shane to his chest. Shane was an omega and took after Tommy in the way that Eric took after Garrett. He was a bit…mushier? Was that the right word? Softer, maybe. Something about him was just a bit more “omega-ish.” He seemed completely content as he lay there, cradled against Tommy’s chest, suckling away, safe and sound with not a care in the world.
And that’s how it should be! I thought with pride as I looked around our home, filled with warmth and security. Our children would never want for anything, never experience the pain all three of us had grown up with. We’d give them so much love that they’d probably get sick of it! I could already see their teenage faces screwing up as we kissed them before they went out the door, hear their cries of protest when we told them to be careful and not get into too much trouble, and their sighs of disgust when we had to have “the talk” with them.
I couldn’t help but picture all the things we would do in the future. I guess it was natural. I was a father now and I felt as though the world had taken a shift in a new direction. My life was no longer my life—it was theirs. I no longer lived for just me—I lived for them.
“It’s incredible how good you two are with them,” Garrett said with much admiration.
“It’s so natural,” I replied, which was the truth. “Nothing has ever felt more natural.”
“Oh?” Garrett smirked. “Not even opening up for me?”
“Babe!” I gasped, jokingly putting both hands over little Eric’s ears. “He’s not even a day old yet!”
Garrett laughed. “Don’t worry. He doesn’t understand yet.”
“You don’t know that!” I protested. “He might be some crazy genius and if you keep talking like that we’re going to end up raising a pervert!”
Everyone laughed and looked up as Wendell came in from the bathroom, Sid hobbling along beside him with an arm draped over his shoulder.
“There he is!” Garrett exclaimed, getting up from the couch to go over to him. “How are you, tough guy?”
“Not as good as I’ll be after a nice day at the spa on you,” Sid smirked, drawing laughter from the room.
“Anything,” Garrett replied. “We owe you big time, buddy.”
“Seriously, Sid,” I added. “We owe you our lives.”
“Don’t be so dramatic,” he replied with a wave of his hand.
“It’s true,” Tommy said firmly. “If you hadn’t come along to help, there’s no telling what would have happened.”
“Oh, I know what would have happened,” he chuckled. “Those idiots would have eaten you all for dinner!”
This time it was Tommy who gasped and put his hands over little Shane’s ears. “Sid! Would you stop that! This is a place of peace and G-rated language right now!”
Sid just smiled as Wendell walked him over to the opposite couch and helped him sit down. He winced in pain, which Garrett noticed. I knew how bad he felt about what had happened, but
there was no sense in blaming anyone. Pablo had been an utter maniac who lived to exploit and terrify people, and I should have known that it was only a matter of time before he found us and tried to squeeze us. I guess I just figured that since we weren’t “working” anymore, he wouldn’t have any reason to bother us. I guessed wrong.
“Sorry, sorry,” Sid apologized as he adjusted himself on the couch with his broken leg straight out in front of him. “I’m just feeling a bit…pissy right now, I guess would be the right term.”
“Well, you’ve got a broken wing,” Wendell replied. “It’s to be expected.”
“Is he going to need like…a cast or something?”
“I’m going to get him a splint here in a few minutes,” Wendell replied. “And a crutch so he can get around, but he’s a tough alpha, he should heal pretty quickly.”
“He better,” Garrett joked. “I don’t want to have to find someone else to fill his spot at the truck.”
“You better not!” Sid replied. “I’m expecting that raise you promised. Don’t think I forgot!”
“Sid, I’ll give you your own truck!” Garrett laughed. “Just as soon as Sawyer and I decide it’s time to expand.”
“We can call it The Broken Wing,” Tommy joked.
“Or, On Three Legs,” I suggested.
“Oh my God,” Sid groaned.
“Or The Fractured Taco!” Garrett added, roaring with laughter.
“Fuck you guys!” Sid laughed.
Tommy and I both gasped. “Language, Sid! Language!”
Chapter Twenty-Five
Tommy
My best guess was that my body was swimming with endorphins and that’s why I felt as though I was floating on the clouds of Heaven as I lay down in bed beside my mates, my arms wrapped around Shane, my little bundle of joy.
