Page 88 of Bitter Heat
“Know what?” Janus asked.
Kerry stared at him blankly.
“You mean, you don’t know? I mean to say, it’s not the case? How can it be that you act so much likeÉrosgápe, and yet…” He shrugged. “You don’t sense a pull?”
Kerry and Janus turned startled glances on each other. Janus crossed his arms over his chest and turned narrowed eyes on Dr. Rose. “He’s mine. That’s all I know or care about. But that’s come to us slowly. We’re notÉrosgápe.”
Dr. Rose frowned, confusion descending on his features. “If you say so,” he said uncertainly. “I’m sure you’d know.”
“Yes,” Kerry said, staring up at Janus wonderingly. “We’d know.”
Janus could onlyassume that the stress of the Monhundys’ arrival was to blame.
Kerry’s pains started up again in the middle of the night. Strong this time, with a rush of water and blood, too, that told the full tale. There would be no stopping the birth now. They had to hope the child was strong enough and ready to breathe on his own.
Zeke—unwilling to trust Dr. Rose and worried that Janus, as Kerry’s lover, would lose his wits if something went wrong—sent for Dr. Crescent, and, so, as Kerry labored, there were far too many cooks in the kitchen, so to speak. There was Dr. Rose with his steady, unemotional suggestions, Janus with his panicked focus on Kerry’s every pain, and Dr. Crescent with his robust, down-home, all-will-be-well attitude that, on most days, left Janus feeling secure and happy, but on this day drove him to want to murder the man.
“I want to go to the lake,” Kerry cried out as another pain gripped him. It’d been an hour and a half since Dr. Crescent had arrived, and the babe seemed no closer to being born. “Please. Let me go to the lake. Iwantthe lake.”
“Sweetheart, you’re all right. I’m here with you.”
“I said I want the lake,” Kerry bit out with a hint of frenzy in his eyes. “Now. I want it now.”
Dr. Crescent looked away from where he was keeping an eye down below for any evidence of the baby’s head crowning. “You want to birth in the lake?”
“Yes. Please. In the lake. Now.”
“Kerry, it’s the middle of the night, and you’re too close to—” Dr. Crescent interrupted Janus before he could say more.
“Then into the lake we’ll go, lad,” Dr. Crescent said with a silencing clap on Janus’s shoulder. “Whatever makes our omega feel strong and ready.” He caught Janus’s eyes. “Understand? What do I always tell you about births?”
“Attitude is half the battle of it.” But that seemed so much easier to believe when it was someone else’s omega giving birth. When it was his own, and that omega wanted to go down the dark path of the forest, with wildcats and their young, and who knew what else, to a lake in the middle of the night, while his pater and his in-laws hovered outside the door judging every decision and finding it lacking, well…
Janus blushed as though anyone could have heard his thoughts. Kerry wasn’t his omega, and this child wasn’t his either. Just because they’d grown intimate over the last few months, and his sense of ownership of Kerry’s body had grown exponentially with each touch, kiss, and caress, didn’t mean that this man was his in any way, shape, or form. Never mind thathebelonged solely to Kerry now, whether the man wanted him or not. Legally, he had no rights no matter what either of them wanted, or what anyone had said in the hall earlier in the night.
“The lake,” Kerry said again, rolling onto his side and making to get out of the bed. “Now. I want to go now. It’s important. I need to be there.”
Dr. Crescent gave Janus a meaningful look, and even though it went against his better judgment, Janus helped a sweaty, naked Kerry out of bed. Dr. Crescent led the way, and between Dr. Rose on one side, and Janus on the other, they ventured out of the room.
“Where are you taking him? What’s happening?” Monte asked, his eyes red and tissues balled up in his hand like he’d been crying.
Zeke swerved a glance at Janus and then said, “To the lake, then?”
And how the old man knew, Janus didn’t know. Perhaps he’d overheard, or maybe Kerry had shared these plans with him long ago. Whatever the case, Zeke held the Monhundys back from following or crowding, explaining the situation, long enough for them to get Kerry down the stairs and out the back door.
They made it down to the lake under the light of the half-moon. Janus noticed, not for the first time, how bright the moon was in the sky up in the mountains. So much clearer and whiter than in the city where the electric lights dimmed it.
“Wolf-god, please smile on this birth,” he asked, taking in the white half-moon, the wolf’s teeth bared in either joy or anger. He prayed for joy.
It took longer than he’d like to get Kerry down to the water. They had to pause several times for increasingly painful contractions. But once they were there, Dr. Crescent shucked his shoes, and his pants, leaving on just his underwear and shirt, and forged into the shallows like it was the most normal thing on earth.
Kerry, for his part, lunged as best as he could toward the water, too. Janus let him go, so long as Dr. Crescent had a grip on his arm, and as soon as he’d shucked his own shirt and shoes, he went in, too. His pants clung to him, but he didn’t have time to wait. Kerry was determined to wade in, and Dr. Rose seemed uninterested in following at all, much less in all his clothes.
Janus got his arms around Kerry’s waist and guided him out until the shallows dropped off to a deeper area up to their waists. Kerry groaned and sank down, letting his sweaty body dip into the night-cooled water. He whimpered as another pain took him, and Janus held on to him, running soothing fingers through his hair, as he squirmed, trying to get away from the pain.
“This is worse than the day on the beach, the day when—”
“Shh,” Janus cut him off with a furtive glance at Dr. Rose by the shoreline. He noticed the bobbing light of flashlights on the trail. So, Zeke had made them wait long enough to get better light to guide them down. That was good. It had given them time to get into the water without the Monhundys’ protests. “I know it hurts, sweetheart. We’re almost done. I hope.”
