Page 85 of Never Tamed
He’s just as horrified as I am.
“Shut up and help me!” My voice goes sharp, but I can’t stop it from shaking. “Go to the other side and hold her upright.”
He’s paler than I’ve ever seen him before, but he listens, rushing around the back end of the SUV to open the other door. He catches Flora before she can fall and tucks his arms under hers.
“I’ve got you.” His eyes meet with mine. “What now?”
Flora cries out, her spine arching, her knees wide. “I have to push! I can’t stop it. Ren! I can’t stop!”
I lower my hands, putting myself in position. “Then don’t! Flora, push! Push!”
Eyes squeezing shut, she does. A deep breath in and another big push. Her screams scatter every last thought in my brain. There are only trepidation and nerves, only Torin there keeping her steady and my trembling palms waiting. And then…
The little slimy, dark-haired babe falls into my waiting hands. With a rush, Flora pushes the baby out, its tiny body suddenly there.
A cry splits the air, small and fierce and impossibly loud.
“Oh my goddess…” I mutter, shock gripping me.
It happened so fast, my mind is taking a while to catch up. From the looks of Torin’s wide-eyed expression, so is his.
We just—No. We couldn’t have…delivered a baby. My chest loosens and my muscles all go lax at the same time. The little one squirms against me and the delta is there with a clean towel.
Flora sobs, collapsing back against him, exhausted. Her chest heaves, her hair plastered to her temples.
Torin stares, his entire body trembling as though the infant is a bomb about to go off. “I—I don’t—what do we do?”
Heart pounding, I laugh, broken and breathless, tears spilling down my face. I cradle the tiny, wriggling baby againstmy chest and pull the edges of the towel around its quivering body.
“Is it…” Flora rasps.
“It’s a boy,” I whisper. “Congratulations, Mama. You did a great job.”
As I pass the infant to her, Flora closes her eyes. She exhales long and slow and her body shudders through it. “Thank you, Ren.”
Her breathing evens, her face softening, and I press my lips together, overwhelmed but drowning in relief. Flora kisses the baby’s head, rocking slightly.
When I glance up at Torin, he’s looking at me differently. His chest is rising and falling hard, but his gaze is fixed on me, like he’s seeing something he hadn’t let himself see before.
Admiration, yes. Pride, that’s there too. But under them is something else. Something that makes my pulse skip.
A smile teases the corner of his mouth. “You did a good job, Ms. Wexler.”
The sound of my proper name again, the one he used to use to push me away and rile me up at the same time, has me grinning.
For the first time in what feels like forever, the fear inside me eases. Flora is safe. The baby is here—tiny, fragile, and alive. In the middle of chaos and death, after everything we’ve survived, a miracle still found a way through.
I ignore that I’m covered in blood and god knows what else and sit back. I let it all wash over me.
After losing so much, there is still this. A beginning. A reminder that Andras hasn’t taken everything from us yet.
We can still start again.
But this time, we will be even stronger than before. Together.
Chapter 21
Mathis
