“Golly, Mr. Raven, if you’re hungry, come eat your little mouse. I promise I’ll fill your belly, and then you can fill mine.” His grin was dirty and perfect, and I did eat my fill before filling him up several more times for good measure.
9
RYAN
“Rag, it’s time, babe.”
“Mmmm, just five more minutes, baby.”
“Rag, I don’t think they’ll wait, honey.”
“Who are you talking about? Are we expecting anyone today?”
“No, babe, we’re home, and no more travel for at least a few months, remember? Come on, wake up. We need to go.”
He was so sexy, lying there, dark and broody. If I hadn’t been in full labor, I would have jumped on him and taken him for a ride. It was wonderful that after all these months, we were so much in love. It seemed like I loved him more every day. It could have been because of the two little loves I was carrying, too.
I had been right in my prediction. He really had knocked me up on my first heat. He’d been supremely proud of himself ever since, and no one could tell me a damn thing. Rightly so. He’d fucked me into a whole new, wonderful life. I called that a spectacular miracle.
But miracle or not, Mr. Miracle needed to get his ass in gear, or we were going to have these babies in the yard.
“Ragnar, I’m not joking. We really need to go. It’s time, and we need to get to the hospital pretty quickly. I’ve already called the doctor, and they’re waiting for us to get there.”
I saw the light dawn when he jumped out of bed and ran to the closet to find something to wear. He threw things around like a madman, finally settling on a pair of sweatpants and a button-down shirt. That was an absolute no.
“Babe, I put your clothes on the chair over there. Put that on. Then grab my bag on the stairs for me. I’m going to get in the car.” When I left the bedroom, he was still throwing clothes around the room, but he was finally wearing things that weren’t a fashion disaster.
As I got settled in the car, he ran into the garage and jumped into the driver’s seat. I looked at him and said, “Hospital bag?”
Then he yelled, “Shit, I’ll be right back,” and ran back into the house.
Two seconds later, he was back, so I yelled, “Bright blue bag on the stairs.” He nodded, then disappeared and returned a few seconds later, finally carrying the bag.
The drive to the hospital had been uneventful, and I was quickly settled into the room. Monitors and IV lines were placed, and then the doctor came in to give us the news.
“Hello, Dads. Everything is looking good right now, but we’re early in the process. Remember what we discussed. Since this is a multiple birth, we’ll pay particular attention to the babies’ heartbeats and the dad’s vitals. If at any time there’s a concern, we’ll go straight to surgery.”
We had talked extensively about all the possibilities, so I was calm about the situation, but Ragnar looked panicked. “Doc, what do you mean, straight to surgery? We talked about the outside chance that might be possible, but now it sounds more probable than possible.”
Dr. Tracy had a serious look on his face. “As we discussed, there’s always a possibility of anomalies, especially with multiple births and also with shifter births. We never know what will happen, but we can make educated guesses and plan accordingly. We’ve made the best plans for our best guesses, but we’ll have to see what those babies have planned, too.”
Ragnar seemed a little calmer, so he sat down by my bedside. To keep him distracted, I gave him the task of calling his family and letting them know. Since my mom couldn’t be here with me, we had decided that his mom was the one I wanted with us for the birth. Ragnar had been right all those months ago. His family had embraced me with open arms and hearts. I had found the family I had always wanted. If I couldn’t have my mom, then Rag’s mom was the best I could ask for.
By the time his mom had gotten to the hospital, along with most of the family, my contractions had become much more intense, and the tabloids had found out about the imminent birth and had descended on the building like locusts. Since the series had been announced, even though it wasn’t even out yet, the media scrutiny of my life had been insane. We’d even left my home in Tennessee and moved closer to the Scotts in Ohio for the time being. We’d managed to hide our exact location for a time, but we realized there was always someone willing to sell a story. We’d chosen this hospital for the birth because of its well-known security protocols. I hoped it would keep us all safe from the so-called journalists.
All thoughts flew out the window when, all of a sudden, a massive cramping pain hit me in the right lower abdomen.
“Ohhhh, fuck, what is that?”
The nurse ran to the monitors, ripped the blanket off me, and started palpating my belly over the area that was cramping.
“It’s okay, honey, we’ll get you fixed up.” She flipped a switch on the nearest monitor, and a loud, incessant beeping began.When more nurses rushed in, she barked orders. “Jill, call Dr. Tracy and tell him it's a code two. Kelly, call anesthesia and surgery three and let them know we’re on our way stat.”
My heart rate picked up the more I heard, and I was close to a panic attack. Ragnar ran to my side, and his mom was right there, holding both our hands. “What the hell is going on? Where are you taking him and why?” He looked close to tears, and I wanted more than anything to take that panicked look away.
“Honey, he’s got a complication. One of the babies has twisted in there, and it’s causing pain for Ryan and issues for the babies. If the cords are twisted the wrong way, it can cause major complications. The sooner we get them out of there, the sooner everyone can feel better, okay? Now, they’re here to roll him down to surgery. You can walk down with us, but for now, you need to move back.”
Rag held onto my hand as long as he could, but soon I was rolled out of the room and down hallways and through elevators until I arrived in surgery. The anesthesiologist was not pleasant, but he did his job, and before I knew it, I was drifting into Neverland as the nurse told me, “Just relax, and when you wake up, you’ll be a dad.” I hoped she was right.
