Page 89 of The Omega's Surprise Baby
“I can drive you to the hospital,” the interviewer suggested with something almost like glee in her voice.
Yeah, no way. That wasn't going to happen.
“Oh, that's okay. I got it.” I only had to call Shane. “I'm sorry I have to cut our conversation short.” I managed to force a smile on my face. I'd wanted to give birth to this baby in a small, quiet hospital without any of the media being the wiser. I could kissthatplan goodbye, but I still wasn't going to invite a cameraman into labor and delivery with me.
The interviewer's face fell, but other than that, she hid her disappointment well as I fumbled around for my phone. I thought I heard her call for clean-up as I finally closed my fingers around my cell.
Shane answered the phone at the same time as my first contraction hit me. “Done with the interview already?” he asked.
“Kind of.” I breathed. “Our daughter is cutting it short.”
“What do you mean?” He sounded alert now. “What's happening?”
“My water just broke, and I think your kid is super eager to be born.”Your kid. You did this to me!
“What?”
“My water broke. You need to come and drive me to the hospital.”
Two-three seconds of silence and then, “Today?”
I took a deep breath. Why did all alphas suffer spontaneous brain death once their partners went into labor? “Yes, today. In the next twenty minutes would be preferable.” Especially because I could feel another contraction coming. This baby was not fucking around. “Seriously. I want to give birth in a hospital, not at the office ofHip Teens.”
That seemed to snap him out of it. “Okay. I get it. I'll be there in a minute.”
“Try not to cause a car crash while getting here.”I would really appreciate that.
When I hung up the phone, the interviewer looked at me with wide eyes. “You'll wait here for your boyfriend?”
I shrugged, trying to appear casual. “Might as well get this interview over with until he gets here, right?”
Her eyes went even wider. “Oh, okay.”
I made myself smile at her. At least this was going to provide some distraction until Shane arrived.
* * *
As it turned out, Shane was stuck in traffic for a while. Of course. This was New York City after all. Knowing that didn't make the wait any easier, though. While Shane made his way through traffic, I was plagued by visions of giving birth to our daughter at the side of the road while surrounded by people taking videos on their smart phones.
I got myself so worked up that I nearly snapped at Shane when he finally walked into the office. “What took you so long? Do youwantour child's birth to be trending on YouTube tomorrow?”
Okay, so forget about thenearly. I did snap at Shane. I couldn't help myself. I felt like a whale, I was in pain, and stuck in a place I really didn't want to be.
To his credit, Shane took it in stride. Somewhere on the way here, it seemed he'd regained his ability to think. “It's all right, baby,” he said, taking my hand. “Let's get you to the car, okay?”
“Okay.” I bit my lower lip, remembering that this was my first birth, but he had gone through this twice before with a different partner. That was good. Maybe I could rely on him to keep a cool head while I lost my shit. “Promise me our baby is not going to born at the side of the road.”
He stopped walking for a moment to press a kiss to my forehead. “I promise you.”
“Okay,” I repeated. ThenIhad to stop for a moment as I felt another contraction coming. Shane squeezed my hand, I squeezed back, grateful for the support. This was not fun, but at least I was not alone. And very, very soon I would get to meet my baby. That had to be worth it all. “Do you think she's going to be fine?” I asked through gritted teeth. “It's so early.”
“It's early, but notthatearly. If she wants to come out this badly, we shouldn't stop her. I'm sure she's going to be fine.” He sounded so confident. I couldn’t tell whether that was an act put on for my sake or not, but I chose to believe him either way. I needed to.
It was a close call, but in the end, we made it to the hospital just in time.Literallyjust in time. If we'd been stuck in traffic for ten more minutes, I'm pretty sure I would have had my baby by the side of the road. I'd read books about pregnancy, I'd been taught about it in school—I knew there were some rush deliveries but everyone had always told me they were the exception and not to expect it. So of course I was completely unprepared when my daughter decided to move things along at a pace faster than anyone was ready for.
In the end, I gave birth only a few minutes after I was wheeled into the delivery room.
The doctor on call laughed actually. “I'm sure this little girl is going to be an alpha, pushing her way through life.”
