Page 136 of Labor of Love

Now it was all Ledger’s alarm coursing through him as those words repeated in his mind.

The babies will use their fangs to get out.He couldn’t be serious.

Why hadn’t he mentioned this before? It was a stupid question when Ledger figured why very easily. He’d have had a freak out like he wanted to now.

“I’m not doing this,” he gasped through his dry mouth, trying to wriggle his way off the stupid chair. The hideous pain at his bottom stopped him from getting far and he returned his attention to not coming apart at the seams. His fingers curled and cramped around the wooden arms.

Please make it stop,he shouted at his mate.

“I can’t,” Thorn sobbed as he came around the chair and cupped his over warm, sweaty cheeks. “I swear I’ll make it up to you.”

The twisting in his guts made it impossible to answer as he rocked back and forwards, unsure what to do with his body to make it bearable—if that was possible.

“Help him,” Thorn demanded.

“We are,” Dacian grunted. “He’s fighting us.”

What were they talking about? He was fighting no one, not even the babies, who weregoing to eat their way out of his ass!Was that why the pain was worsening? Oh to the heavens, he would not survive this.

“You will, Sweetling. It’ll all be over soon.”

“Lair,” he panted around gritted teeth. Ledger didn’t have the strength to shout at his mate who was back to massaging his back. “Lower,” he groaned around the next crippling pain.

It made no difference.

“Open your mind Sweetling, allow Dacian and Calvert to help.”

At an all-time high, the excruciating pain left his hair stuck to his head and the air so blue it would cause a permanent change. But allowing his brothers-in-law into his mind seemed like an inane concept when he had no idea how to do it. How was he supposed to do that when all he could focus on was the pain?

“I don’t know how to explain it,” Thorn said, answering his unspoken question on a sob.

Why was he sobbing, he wasn’t the one with a vampire trying to munch their way out of his body?

“I can feel your pain, Sweetling.”

Yeah, right!

“The girls are coming, you need to relax your body,” Dacian had the audacity to suggest.

Ledger threw his back and howled, though it can out more broken cat than anything.

He hung suspended in a pain vortex. Then his vision blurred as his brain cut off the supply of neurons telling him what was happening. All he could register was the sting of Thorn’s fangs sinking into his throat and a wrist pressed against his lips.

“Bite,” Thorn encouraged, and compelled him to do just that.

Ledger’s eye teeth pierced Thorn’s skin and at the first taste of his mate's blood, he slumped, his hands slipping off the arms of the chair as he became floppy. Then came the euphoric claim of their joint mating bond, and his soul rejoiced, leaving everything coated in a colorful glow of bliss.

Ledger surfaced groggily, blinking the room into focus as his sluggish brain worked to figure out what had happened. He ran his tongue over his teeth at a lingering coppery taste.Why…

Babies.

Babies.

Expecting pain in his lower body, he tensed.

“It’s over, Sweetling,” murmured Thorn, his lips brushing against the side of Ledger’s temple. “You were wonderful. Amazing.”

It was then Ledger realized he was no longer in the chair, but in bed. Their bed. Resting against his husband’s cool, nakedchest. The love coming through their connection was heady, as was the memory of…

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