Reid had called the hospital in advance, and an orderly and a nurse were waiting at the entrance with a wheelchair. They took us right in to labor and delivery. Another benefit of small-town living. All births were a huge deal, and you got the royal treatment.
Everything happened all around me as if I wasn’t even there. Which, to be honest, was probably for the best because all I wanted to do was to yell at them to make him not hurt anymore.
The instructor at our birthing classes had joked that the support partners, in this case, me, were the ones who needed the classes. That we were the ones most likely to pass out, freak out, or a variety of other unpleasant things. Damn her. She was right.
I wanted to be the perfect alpha, strong for my omega, ready to help him through all things, and I was woefully unprepared.
“Stay with me.” Reid grabbed my arm. I’d been sitting on the stool beside him, not moving, so his question caught me off guard.
“I’m not leaving.” I laid my head on the bed beside him. “Ever.” It was true. The man was stuck with me for all of time.
“You look like you are going to pass out.” He tapped my nose obviously amused with himself. “You’ve got this.”
“Shouldn’t I be the one saying that to you?” After all, I wasn’t the one evicting a human from my body.
His face scrunched up, and the monitor beside him started doing its crazy side-to-side lines indicating another contraction. They were getting closer together, but thanks to the epidural, he seemed to be feeling them far less than the initial ones.
“Probably,” he panted as if the conversation has been flowing freely and not interrupted by his active labor, “but you can do that later when the epidural is no longer enough. For now—I’ve got you.”
“I love you, Reid.” I closed the two inches between us, letting my lips brush against his.
“And I love you even if you are the one responsible for all this pain.”
“Har har.” The instructor from our class had warned us mass blamings and cussings were a part of labor and we should be prepared, to just let them fly over our heads, and it was nice to hear him teasing about it. It meant he really was okay.
“I regret it, you know.” I laid my hand on his belly thinking about the little bundle I was about to be introduced to, the one whose name I still didn’t know.
“The baby?” He quirked an eyebrow knowing that what I said wasn’t what it sounded like. He knew me enough to know I sometimes got too into my head. It was nice to have someone in my life like that—a person who recognized my weird and often annoying idiosyncrasies and loved me all the same.
“Heck to the no.” I would ever be grateful to that faulty condom. “I regret not knowing the name yet.”
“You will soon, and I think you will love it.”
Because telling me then and there would’ve been far too simple.
“You could name her Franketta, and I would think it was the most beautiful name in the world for the most beautiful baby.”
“Biased much?”
“Just a little bit.” Or all the bits. She was going to be amazing. I already loved her with all that I was.
“I wasn’t thinking Franketta, but it does have a nice ring to it.”
I went to continue our banter just as his face crinkled again, although this time it was followed by a scream of pain.
This time, I found myself falling into the role the classes had prepared me for, helping him breath, offering him comfort, and even giving him my hand to squeeze to the point of wondering if it was all broken.
Less than an hour later, they were placing our beautiful and, in all ways, perfect little girl on Reid’s chest, bringing tears of joy to both our eyes. She was ours. We’d created her—more Reid than I, but that didn’t make the moment any less miraculous. We were fathers. Life couldn’t get much better than that.
Epilogue
Reid
I slid Rose, our beautiful baby girl, into her baby carrier and went about getting ready for my hot date for Valentine’s Day. And by hot date, I meant a night at home with my alpha, snuggling in front of the television, watching cheesy romance movies, and eating his favorite food, which I was about to prepare. I could hardly wait.
Rose nestled in and fell almost instantly asleep. She was the best baby, and not only because I was biased. She ate like a champ from day one, slept through the night extremely early, and hadn’t seemed fazed when her first tooth popped in earlier that month.
When Kayson first realized how I came up with her name, he laughed and laughed, immediately agreeing it was perfect.
The day he came to get me, to bring me to my senses, and the day we both found out Rose was going to be a part of our lives, he had brought me an insanely ginormous bouquet of roses sent by Aunt Vivian. It would’ve been the most romantic gesture if he had remembered they were in the back of his car before I found them three days later, a wilted mess. He told me that one day he would bring me the perfect rose. And, eight months later, he did.
I laid all the ingredients on the counter and prepared to assemble my one and only amazing recipe, lasagna. I’d cooked the meat earlier and was using no-cook noodles, making it the perfect meal to assemble as Rose took her nap. In no time, I had it covered in foil on the stove. We’d put it in the oven as soon as we threw the first movie in, giving it time to bake while we enjoyed the night.
Aunt Vivian had offered to babysit, her new favorite pastime, but with the snowstorm predicted to arrive around dinnertime, we decided that not getting stranded with Aunt Vivian was probably a better option. We loved her dearly, but boundaries weren’t quite her thing.
As it turned out, that had been an amazing decision, the snow falling much earlier than originally expected and the accumulation building quickly. I didn’t mind the snow—once Kayson got home—but, until then, it was going to have me a little on edge. I wanted him home safe.
The front door clicked open a half hour before I was expecting him. Good alpha had known I’d be worried.
I walked out of the kitchen to greet him, but instead of just Reid, I saw Reid, Aunt Vivian, and her Henry, as she still called him, holding the most horrific flower arrangements I’d ever want to see anywhere near my house. They were the spitting image of the ones Celeste selected for her wedding.
Damn. I loved him.
“I remember these.” I waited until the door clicked closed and they took off their coats before meeting them halfway. I hadn’t wanted to chance my little Rose getting a breeze and waking up before she was ready.
“I thought you might.” Aunt Vivian chuckled as she set her vase on the coffee table and offered up her grabby hands for Rose.
I gave Reid a side eye, and he just shrugged. Oh well, it was on her if she had to hold a crying baby. I unfastened the carrier and handed Rose to her, pointing to the baby blanket on the arm of the chair in case she needed it.
“There’s my baby,” she baby talked as she and her Henry sat on the couch ready to dote on their grandniece.
“I like the flowers.” I was such a liar, but I loved that he brought them and remembered our last Valentine’s Day, so close enough.
“I thought you might.” He wrapped his arms around me, inhaling my scent.
“So, company for dinner?” Not that I minded. In hindsight, his buying me a new, extremely large lasagna pan a few days earlier when there were only two of us with teeth in the family should’ve been a hint.
“It would appear so,” he whispered in my ear before nibbling just below it, knowing darn well it was the surefire spot to get my engine revving, and we had company. Before I could scold him for his antics, the doorbell rang.
“More company?” It was official, my curiosity was piqued.
“Something like that.” A kiss on the cheek, and he was off to answer the door.
“Pastor Merrick,” he spoke far louder than necessary. “How nice to see you. What brings you here this bright and cheery afternoon?”
“You me
an the near blizzard?” she corrected as she toed off her snow-covered shoes and handed Kayson her coat.
“Yeah, that.” He smirked at me as he hung up her coat.
“I was told there was lasagna after the wedding,” she bantered back. Wedding. Was it Vivian’s or mine? Both were real possibilities since we both wore rings and had our betrothed with us, and both sounded like the type of thing Kayson would find amusing to spring on me. I decided to bite.
“The wedding?”
“You said yes.” Kayson sidled up beside me, wrapping his arm around my shoulder.
“That was a general, yes, I’d love to marry you.” Which had somehow ended up with the two of us getting a wedding license the next day, but then Rose came a bit earlier than expected and we dropped it. Or, more accurately, put it on hold. Looked like hold time was over.
“So, you want to wait?”
“Let me put the lasagna in the oven, first.” I sighed as loudly as I could manage and did just that.
“I’m ready, I guess.” I crossed the room and grabbed his hand. He stood in front of our fireplace with his aunt, Henry, and the baby he held by his side and Pastor Merrick standing facing him.
“Now, just to be clear, I get some of your famous lasagna if I perform this ceremony?”
I so very much loved Pastor Merrick.
“Absolutely,” we said in unison, and she began the ceremony.
The words we recited were identical to the ones in just about every wedding I had been to. We promised to love, cherish, and all that. Truth be told, we didn’t need to take vows for all of that, we’d already committed in our hearts. But that didn’t make that magical moment when she declared us husbands any less magical, and as I stood there in front of our fireplace on a stormy Valentine’s Day night, I couldn’t help the tears of joy falling down my face.
Best. Valentine’s Day. Ever.
About the Authors
Lorelei M. Hart is the cowriting team of USA Today Bestselling Authors Kate Richards and Ever Coming. Friends for years, the duo decided to come together and write one of their favorite guilty pleasures: Mpreg. There is something that just does it for them about smexy men who love each other enough to start a family together in a world where they can do it the old-fashioned way.
Ophelia Heart loves her men sexy, sweet, and pregnant. Ophelia Heart is the pseudonym of a best-selling author who fell in love with all things omegaverse.
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When Pierce finds out the couple he is carrying a baby for is backing out of the arrangement, he has very mixed feelings. Ecstatic to be no longer legally obligated to give up the baby he has long since thought of as his, he’s also terrified he’ll be unable to provide for his new little treasure. Almost eight months pregnant, he sets off to find refuge at his grandmother's house, back in the town he called his own many years earlier, the town where he found and lost his one and only love, Rhone.
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Table of Contents
Chapter One
Chapter Two
Chapter Three
Chapter Four
Chapter Five
Chapter Six
Chapter Seven
Chapter Eight
Chapter Nine
Chapter Ten
Chapter Eleven
Chapter Twelve
Chapter Thirteen
Chapter Fourteen
Chapter Fifteen
Chapter Sixteen
Chapter Seventeen
Chapter Eighteen
Chapter Nineteen
Chapter Twenty
Chapter Twenty-One
Chapter Twenty-Two
Chapter Twenty-Three
Chapter Twenty-Four
Epilogue
About the Authors
Other titles by Lorelei M. Hart and Ophelia Heart
Roses for His Omega: A Mapleville Valentine's Day Novella: M/M Non Shifter Alpha/Omega Mpreg (Mapleville Omegas Book 2) Page 10
