10
RAGNAR
It was my nightmare come to life again. I hated hospitals and hated saying goodbye to my loved ones. There was nothing that could have prepared me for having to let them take not only my mate but my unborn babies to surgery, not knowing if any of them would make it. Mom was a godsend, as always. She was organizing the family and keeping the tabloids at bay. She’d basically recruited our nurses to make sure everyone in the hospital knew that if any of them leaked information about Ryan and the situation, they’d not only have hell to pay from the hospital but from her personally. She could be fierce when needed. She wasn’t a hawk shifter for nothing.
We had been in the waiting room for almost an hour when two other people were shown in, followed by someone filming them. Mom leaned over and whispered, “I thought they said this was a private surgery waiting room.” I shrugged. “Maybe they’re here for someone in one of the other surgical rooms.”
We ignored them as much as we could, but the longer they stayed, the louder they got until we couldn’t help but overhear their conversation.
“Yes, of course, Travis. I’m so happy we could give you this exclusive. I wouldn’t work with anyone but the best. You know that.” The blonde girl giggled, and the guy with the camera, presumably Travis, gave her a shark-like grin only an online influencer could perfect. “Tiffany, you really are the best, queen. I can’t believe you’re actually related to him. So, since you’re next of kin, they’ll let you know first if he dies or the kids don’t make it, right? That would be the scoop of the century.”
Tiffany giggled again and nodded. “Oh, for sure. I’m his sister. They have to tell me everything, and whatever I find out, I’ll give you the exclusive. And according to the contract, a death announcement will be worth double what we already agreed on, right?”
Travis laughed. “Hell yeah, death sells, so you give me the scoop, and you’ll get the reward.”
While this was going on, the older man in the corner was quietly on his phone, talking to someone. He hung up and stepped up to the other two. “Look, I don’t have time to hang around here all night. I know you said I needed to be in the shot for the possible pics of grieving relatives, but can you just take my picture and photoshop me in later if there’s any news to report? I hope he’s alright, but I have other things I need to do tonight.”
In response, Travis took the man’s picture as the man tried various poses to look sad. Then he shook the man’s hand and left without a word to the girl.
For the whole time this was happening, my mother had been slowly turning various shades of red as her blood pressure skyrocketed. By the time the man had left, she had reached her breaking point.
“Who the hell are these people, and who let them in here?”
“That’s Ryan’s step-sister, and I don’t know the guy, but I think he has about twenty million followers across all his socialmedia platforms. He’s a reptile who preys on and reports on the downfall of celebrities.”
As she was about to ask another question, the nurse who had acted quickly in the delivery room came in and walked straight to us. “Mr. Scott, Mrs. Scott, we have…”
Before she could finish, the blonde bitch stalked over, grabbed the nurse’s shoulder, and spun her around. Travis pointed the camera at her face, and Tiffany demanded, “I’m Ryan Winthorpe’s sister, so I’m his next of kin. If you have any news about him or his babies, I’m the one you tell, not these randos, whoever the fuck they are.”
She looked smug and happy with herself for two point five seconds until the nurse hauled off and grabbed the camera from Travis’s hand, smashing it against the far wall. After that, she swung and shoved both Travis and Tiffany so hard they hit the same wall and fell to the floor.
“Listen here, you bottom feeders. Don’t you ever touch me or try to film me without my permission. Evidently, you ignored the notices at all the hospital entrances, but that shouldn’t surprise me. This is a privately owned facility. We do not have to follow certain laws because we are not a public facility. And on top of that, we’re a shifter-owned facility, so that puts us in a special category called fuck around and find out. Let me clue you in. You fucked around with the camera, which is strictly prohibited on the property, and you also fucked around by assaulting me on private property.”
The two idiots had stood up now, and although Travis had the good sense to stay quiet, Tiffany had the right to remain silent but evidently didn’t have the ability.
“Listen here, bitch, I don’t think you know who I am. I’m Ryan’s sister, and my dad owns…” She never finished. Before the nurse could shut her up again, Mom stepped forward and held up her hand.
“Little girl, we do not care who your daddy is or who you think you are. You’re here trying to profit from the possible misfortune of someone who’s supposed to be family. You should be ashamed of yourself.”
Tiffany turned purple with rage, then charged toward Mom, hoping to catch her off guard. Mom saw her coming from a football field away, so when she got close, Mom was ready. Unbeknownst to most, Mom was one of the rare shifters who could partially shift on demand. When Tiffany came at Mom, nails bared and aimed at her face, Mom shifted her own fingers into her hawk’s talons and let them rip. Literally. Tiffany never made contact with Mom, but the hawk had much better aim. The girl’s screams could be heard throughout the hospital, so they took her out of the waiting room and down to find a hospital that could see her in the ER. Since this was a private shifter facility, she was out of luck, as her wounds weren’t life-threatening.
“My face is ruined! My wedding is next month. What am I supposed to do now?”
The nurse turned her back to her as she was escorted out, but still answered her question. “If you’d acted like a decent human being, you wouldn’t have ended up like this. I guess the outside matches the inside now.”
Tiffany screamed again as they pulled her out the door. Travis, who had been quiet this whole time, looked like he was about to say something, but I shook my head in warning, so he tucked his head and followed security out the door.
Now that we were alone, my blood pressure rose the longer I waited to hear what the nurse had to say. She kindly smiled at me, seeing my anxiety, and rested her surprisingly soft hand on my arm.
“Calm down, Mr. Scott. Everything is fine. Ryan is through surgery and in recovery now. You can see him in a few minutes. The babies were in distress when we got in there, but oncethey were delivered, they recovered quickly. Both of them are perfectly healthy. Do you have their names already?”
Hearing that everyone was okay was all I needed to hear before I collapsed into the nearest chair and burst into tears. Sobs wracked me as Mom hugged me and told me everything was fine.
“Dearest, you have to go see Ryan, so let it all out now. You don’t want him to see you upset when he comes out of anesthesia.”
Mom was right, as always. I took deep breaths until I stopped crying, then went to the bathroom to splash water on my face and try to get rid of some of the splotches. As I left the bathroom, a new nurse told me to follow her to the nursery. Walking into the brightly colored room, I saw the two bassinets with my babies right up front. Our boy looked just like Ryan, with the same gray eyes and a head full of soft brown hair. Right next to him, our baby girl looked just like my mother. She had my warm brown eyes and the quick, shrewd look of our lineage. Whether either of them turned out to be shifters didn’t matter to either of us. What mattered was that they were healthy, happy, and loved.
I stood between them and counted ten fingers and ten toes on each, marveling at how tiny and perfectly made they were. Before long, Mom stepped up and joined me. “Dearest, we can go see Ryan now. Why don’t you carry your daughter, and I’ll carry my grandson? Let’s go show him what a wonderful job he did.” Mom picked up her grandbaby, and I picked up my baby girl. It was time to reunite our little family.
