Page 4 of Hades

She stumbled but caught herself on the edge of the bed, the feel of the dark purple satin sheets cool against her fingers.

The woman who lay on the bed looked at Harley in horror as she breathed deeply, sweat coating her flawless dark skin. She looked back at Hades with tears streaking down her face. “Did you kidnap her or something? She looks terrified.” Her eyes landed back on Harley, who straightened up and put her professional face on. “Are you okay? My brother can be kind of an as?—”

Her words cut off with a cry of pain, and Harley jumped into action. “I’m Harley, sweetie. What’s your name?”

“E-Eris.” She panted and breathed deeply as she gripped the sheets.

Harley looked over at the man who resumed pacing and asked, “And are you dad?”

He stopped, standing just in front of her, his height dwarfing her, but his aura felt friendly, unlike Hades. “Yeah. I’m Cade. Please tell me my wife is going to be okay. Her midwife wasn’t answering the phone, and she’s been in labor for hours.”

“Hours?” Harley asked, her face folding into a frown. “Why didn’t you guys go to the hospital?”

“My brother doesn’t trust hospitals,” Eris spat, glaring at Hades who stood shadowed in the corner of the rather dim room.

“He’s not the one having the baby,” Harley said incredulously.

Eris laughed with absolutely no humor in her tone. “What Hades says goes, in case you haven’t noticed. Seriously, I’m sorry if he kidnapped you. I promise to pay you well for this.”

Harley shook her head and then jumped into action. “Okay, Hades, can you turn on the lights? If you have a dimmer, you don’t have to turn them all the way on. Just a little more so I can see better. Cade, did Tiffany have you set up with a birthing kit for home?”

He nodded and walked to the corner of the room, grabbing a large bag. Relief flooded Harley because she came here with absolutely nothing. When they left the birthing center, she hadn’t been thinking straight. The only thing she had on her was her phone. She left her duffel bag behind the reception desk when she checked the lady in labor into the center.

“Everything should be in here.”

“Perfect,” she said, rummaging through the bag and nodding her head. Everything seemed to be there. “Eris, do you want your brother in here while you give birth? We have to take your underwear off now and see how dilated you are.”

“The fuck you asking her for?” Hades barked, causing Harley to jump and then turn to her. “I’m standing right here.”

Harley’s eyes turned to slits. The attitude that was about to come up out of her was the perfect example of how she would step for everyone else but herself. Earlier, when he damn near pulled her arm off, she could barely muster a reaction. But now?Oh, she was about to tell him a thing or two. She stood and marched over to him. “Do you have a vagina?”

The question seemed to catch Hades off guard. He frowned down at her before he mustered up his response. “How ’bout I put this big ass dick in ya mouth for disrespecting me with that question?”

Harley’s mouth dropped open, but she quickly closed it, not wanting him to think she was giving him permission to put any of his body parts into her mouth. She had never been talked to so disrespectfully before, and her head reared back at the feel of her panties wetting.What the hell is wrong with me?On the outside, she forced herself to plant her hands on her hips and glare up at him. “Look, unless you have a vagina and are birthing a baby today, you have absolutely no say what happens in this room.

“I’m here to make sure your sister delivers a healthy baby into a calm environment. Whatever that means for her is what I will provide. Do we understand each other?”

Eris cried out behind them, and as badly as Harley wanted to attend to her, she stayed planted in place and waited for Hades to respond. His eyes moved over her head and toward his sister. She saw his jaw tense as he looked back down at her and nodded, but as she turned to walk away, feeling triumphant, he tugged on her arm again and pulled her into his chest. Leaning down, he spoke directly into her face in a hushed voice. “If anything happens to my sister or nephew, I’ll personally make sure you never leave this house again.”

Fear traveled through her body and made her tremble, but he let her go swiftly, allowing her to scurry away from him and focus on her job.

“Honey, do you want your brother in here?” Harley asked again once she was back at the bed.

“It’s fine! Hades, just come over here or stand over by the window. I don’t need you looking at my coochie.”

Hades huffed but surprisingly did as his sister told him to do. When he stood on the other side of the bed from Cade, Harley said, “Okay, can we take these underwear off to see what’s going on down there?”

Cade moved Harley aside. “I got it. Only person taking my wife’s underwear off is me.”

Harley respected it. She just needed him to hurry up, and he thankfully did.

“I need to push!”

Harley’s eyes widened as she got in place. Eris was definitely ready to push. “Go ahead, sweetie. Push. I can already see your baby. A head full of dark hair.”

Cade got in place and held his wife’s hand, speaking to her lovingly while Hades glared at Harley, watching her like a hawk. She ignored him and focused on her job.

After coaching Eris to push for about twenty minutes, strong wails filled the room, and Harley smiled down at the baby boy in her arms before noticing the greenish streaks mixed with amniotic fluids on the baby. She listened to him cry for a split second and realized it sounded raspy, and she immediately knew he had Meconium Aspiration Syndrome. In other words, baby boy had breathed in his own stool on his way out into the world.

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