Page 39 of Labor of Love

“Get out!” Shiloh screamed. “You’re not taking my baby. Get out. Get out. You’re not having my baby.” The pain hit him. He knew he was probably causing a scene, but the baby was coming, and Shiloh wanted to hold his little one so badly he could taste it. “You can’t have them! Get out!” He screamed as his baby tried to push their way into the world.

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“As you can see, we have absolutely excellent facilities here. All our omegas are offered every comfort in their special time and are treated with dignity and respect while their well-being is our highest priority.”

Corbyn Stone resisted rolling his eyes as he was shown yet another room that was delightfully decorated in the softest shades of blue and purple. The manager of the hospital facility, Blair Peters, was giving him a personal tour. He was clearly itching to get his hands on some of Corbyn’s millions, but Corbyn wasn’t in the mood to share. There was something off about the place. Corbyn had felt it from the moment he’d stepped inside, and the only reason he hadn’t walked away from Blair mid-sentence and left was because he needed to find out what was setting his wolf on edge.

“I understand this facility has a contract with the Omega Rescue Squad, is that right? You care for any of the omegas who might be with child when they are found?”

“Yes, yes we do.” Blair was clearly trying to work out where Corbyn’s ideologies were. Corbyn was known as an astute businessman to most, so it was clear Blair thought Corbyn’squestion was because he was worried about the facility’s balance sheets.

Nothing could be further from the truth.

“Honestly, the contract doesn’t take up a lot of our resources. Obviously, we have to make sure that these abused young men are taken in and cared for. But our focus in those cases is to ensure we provide a good home for the child once they’ve been born.”

Blair nudged Corbyn’s bicep with his shoulder. “We have an excellent waiting list of highly eligible couples who hold our facility in the highest regard. If it was legal to sell those children, we’d make a fortune.” He chuckled.

Corbyn glared.

“We do have an assistance package for the omega once they’ve been discharged. With the baby no longer their concern, we often have cases under that contract that don’t even have to stay the night, so they don’t take up much of our staff’s time.”

Corbyn wasn’t sure he was hearing correctly. He was never going to give birth, but surely it took longer than a matter of hours for anyone to recover from such an ordeal. “Do you mean to tell me the omegas are forced to give up their babies? You’re talking about the ones who have been rescued and are under the Omega Rescue contract?”

“Oh, it’s just routine, and the absolute best thing for the baby, honestly,” Blair said quickly in that smarmy way that made Corbyn want to punch his head in. “There have been countless studies that have been done, proving that omegas are simply not equipped to deal with looking after a baby by themselves without the support of an alpha. And of course the boys that come in through the rescue operation have been so badly abused, usually by multiple alphas, it’s not like any decent alpha is going to take them on and be prepared to look after somebody else’s child.”

You sanctimonious, bigoted, pig-footed asshole…

“You’ll find we have a very efficient system in place,” Blair went on, blithely unaware of where Corbyn’s thoughts were taking him. “Obviously the omega is technically given a choice, but we do insist that they sign the papers relinquishing their baby before they’re allowed to leave.”

“Is that right?” Corbyn mentally cursed his brother, Jordan.Why did you send me on this trip? This crap is the last thing I need.“It’ll be fine,” Jordan had said. “Honestly, I hear this place does really good work in conjunction with the Omega Rescue team – you should seriously check this place out for yourself.”

Which was why Corbyn was stuffed into a suit because apparently billionaires weren’t taken seriously if the clothes they were wearing didn’t cost more than most people made in a year. Corbyn had just come back from a job with a rescue team and his nerves were frayed from what he’d seen. It was only Corbyn’s intense desire to use his money to do some good for the poor souls he and the team had found, and others like them, that made him agree to the visit in the first place.

It was people like Blair who made the situation for the omegas all that more difficult. “I would like to see a copy of your…”

Corbyn broke off as he heard screaming coming from the end of a dimly lit hallway to his left. “Who’s that? What’s going on down there?”

“Please don’t concern yourself.” Blair tried to grab Corbyn’s arm and turn him down another corridor, but Corbyn evaded his grip. “We house the Omega Rescues in a separate wing – obviously their distressed state would be far too unsettling for an omega who is giving birth accompanied by their alpha mate. I believe we have one in there who is currently giving birth.

“Some of them are emotionally unstable. I’m sure you can understand. While we try to provide an alpha to assist with giving birth, because the rescue omegas haven’t got the bondwith that person, birth can be more difficult for them. It’s such a shame, but of course, we have some excellent facilities here for our more traditional omegas should we say. If you’d come this way…”

“I’m going down there,” Corbyn said firmly, striding down the hallway.

As he got closer, he heard another yell and then he distinctly heard, “I am NOT signing that thing. You’re not taking my baby!”

Corbyn’s wolf surged, pushing him to quicken his pace. Yes, it was an omega in trouble, and Corbyn would always help where he could, but there was something different… something in that voice that tugged at Corbyn’s heart and punched him in the guts.

Blair was trying to keep up with him. “It’s really not your concern,” he puffed. “We’re the money men who make things happen, am I right? Our trained medical staff know how to handle an overwrought omega. Honestly, there is nothing to worry about.”

“I’ll check that for myself,” Corbyn said grimly. He gently opened a door to see two women, one of them clearly trying to help an omega in the middle of childbirth, another woman almost hitting the omega with her clipboard.

Corbyn was struck by how starkly different the room was from the ones he’d been shown. The room was stark white. Discarded plugs suggested that equipment had been moved out of the room. The omega was naked on a plain white sheet – no blanket, not even a top sheet to give him any privacy.

“I won’t sign them.” The omega’s whole body was straining, his dark hair limp around his face, his legs wide, sweat beading across his brow.

“Omega, your baby’s coming,” The woman at the head of the bed said softly. “You need to focus on the birth…”

“I am NOT signing those papers. You’re not taking my baby…” The omega was grunting as his extended stomach rippled.

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