I stumbled to my feet and grabbed my pack from under my bunk, following my CO across the base to the airfield. He clapped me on the shoulder and hustled me on board.
“Good luck,” he called as the doors were closed behind me.
There were a dozen soldiers already on board.
“Grab a seat,” someone yelled. “Take off’s in three.”
The plane began to taxi as I moved to the closest free seat and strapped myself in. It was a small plane, meant for carrying troops and not built for comfort.
“What time is it?” I asked the officer next to me.
“Midnight at home, sir. Two a.m. here.”
I’d only been asleep maybe an hour. It felt longer. It felt like I hadn’t really woken. What had happened? Was Miles okay? It was too soon for the baby’s arrival.
I tried to think of reasons they’d call me home with immediate effect and there were only three I could come up with. Either Miles’ life was in danger, or the baby’s, or both. I hoped I was wrong but what else could it be?
Despite my CO’s assurances, there was no information passed back to me from the cockpit. And it wasn’t the kind of flight where you wandered around. The officer nearest the cockpit tried to get an update for me after an hour passed. I couldn’t hear what was said over the engine noise.
“They said there’s no information just yet, sir,” the officer beside me passed on quietly.
“Thanks.” I went back to my dark thoughts, hoping against hope I was wrong.
We landed on a bumpy runway just before six a.m. It was still dark out, the lights of the landing strip the only thing visible. As soon as the door opened, I was out into the cold mid-winter air.
“Jethro!” a voice called, and I glanced to my left to see Blaise.
I ran to him, grabbing hold of him. “Miles, is he okay? What’s going on?”
“He’s at the hospital. He started getting pains, and we brought him there and they rushed him away. They wouldn’t tell me any more. Come on, you need to get over there.”
The hospital was on the other side of the base. An eight-minute walk but we ran it in three.
“My Omega, Miles…” I said to the man at the desk.
“Second floor, turn right.”
I ran up the stairs, Blaize at my heels. Turning right, I almost crashed into a familiar figure.
“Jethro,” Doctor Hayes started to say.
“Where’s Miles? Is he okay? Is the baby okay?”
She held up a hand to stop me. “He’s fine. They’re both fine. Just had a bit of a bumpy start, that’s all. Miles went into early labor. We did our best to halt it but there was some fetal distress and labor progressed. Come on, I’ll take you to see them.”
Following her, we walked through a door into a ward. In the distance, I could hear the familiar thump of Miles’ heartbeat and, close to it, a faster heartbeat and the soft cry of a baby.
I reached Miles’ room just as the sun peeked over the horizon, the salmon pink glow through the window framing Miles and the tiny baby he cradled.
“She’s a little early and a bit small but she’s no worse for wear. A few weeks in an incubator, some tender care, and she’ll catch up.”
I barely heard the doctor as I crossed the room toward Miles.
“Jethro, meet your daughter, Dawn,” he said, showing me the tiny figure that seemed barely bigger than his hands.
I clung to him, pressing a kiss to his forehead, feeling tears of relief escape me.
“You gave me such as scare.”
“I gave myself a scare and the whole clan house. But it’s okay. She’s okay. They flew in a neonatologist from Rathlin city. He says she’ll need to stay in an incubator for a while and she’ll be a little fragile to start off with. Here, you should hold her. They’ll have to put her back inside in a minute.” He nodded his head to the clear plastic incubator next to us. Our daughter’s home for the foreseeable.
And then he was settling the tiniest baby I’d ever seen into my arms. They’d dressed her in a yellow onesie and as I cradled her to my chest, she waved a tiny fist in the air, her mouth open, rooting for food.
“I think she’s hungry,” I said.
“That must be a good sign,” Miles replied, stroking a finger across her cheek.
I bent my head to kiss her, my lips just grazing her forehead.
“Hello, Dawn, little one. Welcome to our family. Welcome to our clan.”
Miles laid his head on my shoulder as we stared down at her.
“I think this right here might be a better love story than Stars and Crosses,” Miles said.
“You know what, I think you might be right.”
Dawn blinked her eyes open, her bright blue gaze on us.
“We have some stories to tell you,” I murmured to her. “About a stolen Omega and the love that sprung up out of nothing but two matching marks.”
“And a clan that waited with bated breath for your arrival,” Miles added. She yawned, her eyes sinking closed.
“They’ll keep,” I whispered. “There’ll be many more stories to come.”
Miles
Being a parent was a roller-coaster in more ways than one. One minute there were weeks until our baby was due, the next I was doubled over in pain and Blaise was rushing me to the base’s hospital.
There was fear and pain, and more than anything I wished Jethro was there. They wouldn’t let Blaise stay with me but Doctor Hayes was at my side and I knew was in good hands. As soon as the baby was born, they whisked her away to the other side of the room.
I watched anxiously as they worked on her. I wanted Jethro. And, oddly, I wished my Mom was with me.
The tiny cry that filled the room was the sweetest sound I’d ever heard.
“Is she okay?”
Doctor Hayes turned. “We’re just getting her stabilized. She needs a bit of help to breathe right now.”
I swung my legs around to the side of the bed and struggled to my feet. My daughter was in danger and I needed to be there for her.
When I crossed the room, the nurse took one look at me and pulled out a chair.
“Sit down.”
I sat but at least now I was close enough to see her. She was tiny and pink, her face covered by an oxygen mask.
The staff spoke words that might as well have been another language. “Sats are picking up. Resps are forty.”
Was that good? Bad?
“She’s holding her own,” Doctor Hayes said with a sigh of relief. “Let’s get her temp up, keep her on the oxygen, and gets some bloods drawn.”
She turned to me. “We’ve got a specialist on route, and we need to do a few tests, but right now it’s the basics of care, keep her warm and make sure she’s getting enough oxygen.”
The nurse helped me up and I moved to stand right next to my baby girl. She was under a heat lamp, her skin pink, but she was perfect, so perfect.
After the specialist came to see her, things calmed down. They had put her in an incubator and she looked impossibly small.
“She’ll need a little help and support for the next few weeks. We’ll keep monitoring her closely.”
“Can I hold her?”
The specialist checked the monitors. “She’s keeping her oxygen levels up so a few minutes of kangaroo care can’t hurt.”
I blinked at that. Doctor Hayes came to my rescue. “It means skin-to-skin contact. It’s very important for premature babies.”
The nurse helped me open my gown as Doctor Hayes took my baby girl from the incubator and put her into my arms.
“You need to support her head. Just like that.” She smiled at me. “Jethro is on his way. His plane landed a few minutes ago.”
I smiled back at her, then down at the precious bundle in my arms.
“Did you hear that, little one? Your daddy is on his way to meet you.”
She was tiny, and I almost couldn’t believe she was really there except that she felt so real in my arms. Her little chest rose a
nd fell, her hands opened and closed. I marveled at it all. Her tiny fingers, her perfect eyelashes, every small movement she made.
Holding her in my arms, I walked toward the window. We were facing due east, like I had been once before, the day I’d learned the meaning of true love, the day I’d understood that I could be more than the sum of my parts. And here I was again, a new type of love surging within me, strong and unbreakable.
The sun appeared above the horizon, lighting up the sky, and I turned as familiar footsteps rushed into the room.
“Jethro, meet your daughter, Dawn.”
Jethro
On compassionate grounds, they gave me leave with immediate effect, even going so far as to extended the time at home I was due to have after Dawn’s birth from six months to a year. It would give us the time we needed to see Dawn safely home.
For the first few weeks, our lives were a bewildering mess of hospital visits, expressed milk, and a ton of terms I’d never heard before, each scarier than the last. But test after test came back with nothing but good results and, before our very eyes, Dawn grew.
Six weeks after her abrupt arrival, she was feeding and doing everything the average newborn was supposed to do, so they allowed us to take her home. Blaise drove us back to the clan house, Dawn cradled in Miles’ arms. The weeks had taken their toll on both of us, like it did any parent with a sick child. But as we pulled into the driveway, Dawn’s arm escaped the cradle of her blankets, waving in the air as if she were a queen greeting her subjects.
“Maybe she just likes to make an entrance?” Miles suggested out of the blue.
“She certainly did that,” Blaise agreed. He swore up and down that there was a gray streak in his hair from the day she was born and the frantic rush to the hospital. His quick actions had saved both their lives. I wasn’t sure there was any way to repay him until his Omega came online but I was determined that when the time came, we’d do whatever we could to help.
There was a small crowd gathered outside, and a banner strung across the door. There was no trepidation in Miles’ expression on seeing all the people, only relief and happiness.
“We’re home, Dawn. At long last.”
Her eyes were open, watching us. Already she knew our voices, would turn her head when we spoke. The doctors said it was a little early for her to do that but I had a feeling she’d always strive to be one step ahead. We’d have our work cut out for us just keeping up.
“Here, why don’t you take her?” Miles said, settling her into my arms. Blaise opened the car door and I stepped out, careful not to jostle her. It was as much of a thrill to hold her in my arms now as it had been that first time. She still looked small but was no longer tiny in my hands.
“Welcome home,” someone called. Miles grinned at me. “And so it begins, right?”
“And so it begins.”
Epilogue
Jethro
My job on the base came with flexible hours, so I came home every lunchtime to spend time with Miles and Dawn. This day, I was a little early, because I had some news to share.
The watch on my wrist told me it was too soon to go searching for Miles in our rooms and I detoured to the preschool instead. Sticking my head in the door, I found Miles overseeing a group of toddlers finger-painting. He carried Dawn in a sling around his chest and I could tell from her heartbeat that she was fast asleep, blissfully unaware of the chaos of half a dozen toddlers with their hands dipped in paint.
“Okay, time to finish up,” Miles called. A little boy trundled over to him, holding out a piece of paper heavy with paint.
Miles crouched next to him. “What a beautiful picture, Toby. When it dries, I’m going to hang it up on the schoolroom wall.”
Toby beamed at him and ran back to his seat. Miles glanced up, catching me watching.
“Do you have a minute?”
He nodded, turning to Vic, the other preschool teacher. “Can you manage the clean-up? I’ll be back to help.”
Vic waved him away with a smile.
Miles followed me out into the corridor, cradling Dawn to his chest. I greeted him with a kiss before pressing one to her forehead. She stirred before settling against him.
“Is everything okay?” Miles asked.
“You know how Nate came online yesterday?”
“Of course.”
“His Omega got across the border. The AO Office called him to come claim them. They’ll be here in a few hours.”
“That’s fantastic.” Miles hugged me and I held on tight. Each bond made since we’d started the clan had been a fight. And there’d be tougher fights to come, I was sure of it.
“Can you take Dawn while I go help Vic finish up and get the little ones into the lunch room?” Miles asked.
“Sure,” I said, easing Dawn out of the sling and into my arms. “I’ll go get a start on our lunch.”
The transfer had woken her but she smiled at me as I braced her against my shoulder.
At almost five months, she was flying along, despite her difficult start. There were still worries, the same ones every parent had with an early baby, and we watched out for each milestone with anxious anticipation. Her smiling had been the biggest thing to reassure Miles. Now we were waiting for her to learn to sit up.
We could see her taking an interest in the world around her and I was sure it wouldn’t be long before that extended to sitting up to see and reach for things. The time passed almost too fast. I longed for more time to enjoy each stage even as I eagerly awaited her next achievement.
As we walked along, she started to grouse, so I bounced her gently and started to tell her a story.
“Once upon a time...”
A year after Miles and I bonded, after we formed our clan that continued to grow, we held a party. Good friends, good food, good music. We had beautiful weather and threw up a few marquees outside. I wasn’t sure how many would come, anticipating mostly those living in the clan estate. But on the day almost every Alpha and Omega in Rathlin State arrived at our doorstep.
Later on, after most guests had gone home, and the kids had gone to bed, a smaller group of us gathered inside the clan house.
I was surprised to see a late arrival.
“Cam, you’re a sight for sore eyes.”
Cameron had more recently taken a position as the clan’s lawyer when we needed someone to fight our corner. But he also had a day job that seemed to take up all of his time these days.
“Well, I could hardly miss the celebration of something I helped create, could I?”
A year before, Cam had brought the supplies to help mine and Miles’ flight into the wilderness. And many years before that, he’d been the one to show me a secret cave hidden on a mountain top. Without him, and Roman, and Blaise, none of this would have been possible.
“We’re so glad you could make it,” Miles said, following him in the door. Dawn was in his arms, hiccuping and tearful. “Someone woke up and they’re not happy about it,” he said as a quiet aside to me. I stroked Dawn’s cheek and pressed a kiss to her forehead.
“We can’t have that, can we?” I said, taking her from Miles’ arms and resting her against my chest so the sound of my heartbeat would fill her ears. I knew the soothing thump would settle her faster than any whispered words.
Miles was chatting to Cam, Blaise joining them, as I circled the room. A year ago these people had been close friends but now they were more. They were family. A year ago I had nothing but the faint hope of a bond mate. And now I had Miles, and we had Dawn. We still had a fight on our hands, what with the South having more of our future Omegas, but it was a battle we were prepared to win, one heart and mind at a time.
“Cam! Your arm,” Miles exclaimed.
I walked over to stand by Miles’ side as the attention of the room was drawn toward them.
Cam was frowning down at his arm and pushing up his sleeve. There was no mistaking what we saw there, his bond mark glowing brightly.
Miles glanced from
him to me, an excited smile on his face as Cam looked down at his arm in wonder.
I looked around the room, meeting people’s gazes head on. Another fight for love, for a bond. Were we ready?
Miles slipped his hand into mine, pressing against my side as Dawn slept soundly on my shoulder, and I knew the answer. We were.
The End
Author's Note
Thank you for reading Love Before Dawn, I hope you enjoyed Jethro and Miles’ story. If you have a moment to spare, please consider leaving a review.
If you’d like to hear about new releases in this series or are interested in receiving review copies of future books, you can sign up to my mailing list here or visit clairecullenbooks.com
Copyright © 2017 by Claire Cullen
All Rights Reserved
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents are either the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, business establishments, events or locales is entirely coincident
The unauthorized reproduction or distribution of this copyrighted work is illegal. Please purchase only authorized electronic editions, and do not participate in or encourage electronic piracy of copyrighted materials.
Love Before Dawn: An Omegaverse Story (Kindred Book 1) Page 13
