Page 89 of Bitter Heat
Kerry took hold of Janus’s hand and gripped it hard. A shout ripped from him as another contraction took hold. They were coming faster now. Faster and faster.
“You promised you wouldn’t let anything hurt me ever again,” Kerry panted as this one released him. His eyes were dark and wide, and exhausted pain was written all over his face.
“Oh, sweetheart, if I could take this from you, I would. I’d do this ten times over if it would spare you the pain, and I’d—”
Kerry’s cry echoed over the lake, bouncing off the mountains. It reminded Janus viscerally of the day he’d found Kerry crawling out from the wilderness naked and bleeding in an attempt to prevent this very moment from ever happening.
“I can’t!” Kerry screamed.
“You can.”
“No. I won’t.”
“You can,” Janus said calmly. “I have you in my arms. The lake has you. Let go. Let him out. Push.”
Kerry huffed and breathed and finally pushed with all his strength. Dr. Crescent had moved to squat down in the water with just his head above, his hands out between Kerry’s legs, feeling, seeking…
His face lit up. “That’s the head now. I feel it. Just another big push, Kerry, and it’ll be over, and you can hold this wee one.”
Kerry started to sob. “I don’t want to,” he whispered, turning fearful eyes on Janus. “I don’t want to—ahhhhh!” He screamed again and pushed hard.
Dr. Crescent scrambled forward and almost went over, but he rose up fast, holding the baby triumphantly in front of him. Water ran off the child as the cord between him and Kerry pulsed and bulged, and then slowed. The child was silent, its head flopped down, and Janus’s heart sank like a stone.
Kerry whimpered. “Is he…why isn’t he…oh, wolf-god, he’s dead?”
“No,” Janus said, taking the baby from Dr. Crescent. “No, he’s not dead. He can’t be. No.”
The baby didn’t move.
“Turn him upside down, right fast,” Dr. Crescent said. “Press him to your chest, belly to your sternum. Let him hear your heart. That’s good.” Then he slapped the baby’s bottom, and the baby jolted against Janus’s chest, his tiny scream splitting the night air.
Kerry started to cry, lifting his hands for him. “Please, please,” he whispered, tears running down his face. “Please.”
Janus passed the baby, who was wailing in earnest now, into Kerry’s waiting hands, shocked when Kerry started wailing, too. He held him stiffly, away from his body, sobbing with his eyes screwed up tight and shaking like a leaf.
Dr. Crescent seemed to know what to do, though, and guided the baby to Kerry’s chest and held him there until Kerry was doing it for himself. Holding the baby and rocking in the water, crying and whimpering. Exhaustion and relief flooded through them all.
Kerry scented his son, leaning in close, and then he startled, his eyes turning to Janus. He took a deep breath and groaned.
“What?” Janus asked, crouching down to get close to them both. “What’s happening?”
And that’s when he scented it, too. The difference between a combination of berries and musk and sheer perfection. Heaven.Home. The world tipped on its axis, and the sky was beneath his feet. When he could breathe again, he found himself wrapped around Kerry and the baby, his nose buried in Kerry’s neck, his tongue tasting the perfection of his mate.
“Well, I’ll be wolf-goddamned,” Dr. Crescent whispered from somewhere nearby. “Fuck me and the horse I rode in on.”
Janus pulled back and gazed at Kerry first in shock, and then in recognition. “You,” he said, reaching for him, kissing his mouth hard. “It’s you.”
“Yes,” Kerry whispered. “It’s me.”
When the sound of splashing came from behind them, Janus was in no mood to deal with Monte Monhundy’s arrogance, and he turned to roar at the man who would aggravate hisÉrosgápeso soon after birthing a child.
“What?”
“They’re bonded,” Dr. Crescent said. “Érosgápe. Unbelievable.”
Janus turned his back on the now cowering man and then turned his attention solely on Kerry. “Let’s get you out of the water. I need to check you, and he needs to feed.”
Kerry stared at Janus in wonder, the air around them thick with new knowing. He nodded slowly, and Janus guided his beloved toward the shore, keeping one hand on his back and the other on the babe in his arms. He glowered menacingly at everyone but Zeke, though it took all he had to let Zeke approach to see his grandson.
