Page 101 of Ruined Omega

It’s over. I’ve done it. We’ve done it.

And yet...

I cock my head forward again and look at my belly, which is noticeably smaller, but still distended quite a bit. I know that a new mommy’s postpartum belly still sticks around for a while. This feels different though. I don’t feel the same lightness or emptiness I was expecting. There’s still a lot of pressure in there. Is it supposed to feel like this?

Something jerks inside me.

I wince as the primal need to push surges through my midsection again.

Lily leans over me. She palpates my belly. She presses her stethoscope to my tummy, listens, shifts position, listens again.

“There’s one more…”

As soon as she says those words, an extremely rough contraction racks my body. I groan with pain. I feel half-dead from exertion. My body is greasy with sweat and my bones feel like jelly.

“There’s one more!” Lily cries out.

Immediately, my belly and core squeeze and convulse all on their own, pushing even without me doing it on purpose. Fat drops of sweat roll down my face. My insides burn like they are on fire. Baen and Canaris are saying something, but I can’t focus now. All I can do is breath and push.

I feel the baby easing lower. The head is almost there.

“It’s coming!” Lily shouts in front of me. “The head’s coming out! It—”

Her voice cuts off mid-sentence. It’s hard to see through the tears and the sweat, but Lily’s auburn eyebrows seem to jump with surprise.

A chill of concern washes over me. I try to speak, but my throat is too tight.

Canaris asks the question for me. “What’s wrong?”

Lily shakes her head, drags her hand across her own sweating brow.

“Nothing,” she murmurs. “Nothing’s wrong, it’s just&hellp;” And then, with her voice regaining its strength and determination, she says, “Come on, Hines. You’re almost there. Just one more push!”

I suck in a deep breath, drop my chin onto my sweat-slick chest, and push as hard as I fucking can.

“Urrgghh!”

My grunt of exertion transitions into something like a roar as I shove the final baby out of me. I feel its tiny body exit mine. The pressure dissipates. The relief, the blessed feeling of emptiness sweeps over me.

One more seemingly insignificant push, and the placenta is out. Then I just lie, weak and trembling. All I can do is pant and cry from the pain and the effort.

Then another tiny voice matches mine, crying along with me.

“Hines,” Baen says beside me. “Hines, look…”

I open my eyes and look at the baby that Hines his lifting up.

He is another Alpha, perfect and strong and healthy. His pudgy little arms squirm and his legs kick as he cries loudly. But now I see why Lily was so surprised.

The baby is a pure, stark white. The color of freshly fallen snow.

This is Seraph’s sign.

***

A few hours later, the babies and I have been thoroughly cleaned, and we are now resting inside the nursing nest that the Alphas have built for us. Three of the babies are sleeping beside me, and the fourth, the little boy with the marble-white skin is nursing from my breast. He has latched easily, his little lips and gums sucking and tugging at my nipple as the milk flows out of me. My three Alphas are gathered around us, reclining around the side of the nest made of blankets and moss and rushes. Baen is carefully inspecting the omega baby, his face filled with wonder and love.

“Did you look at Azura’s nose?” he whispers to no one in particular. “It’s the tiniest little nose I’ve ever seen. How can something be so tiny?”