“Dax,” Morgan said gently. “It’s okay. Calm down. The baby’s not gonna shoot out of me. It takes time.”
That mental image knocked some sense into me. I breathed and tried to relax, even though my knot was still stuck in my mate. “Okay. We can’t force apart or it’ll be painful for both of us, and I don’t want to harm the baby. We just have to wait.”
Morgan nodded. “I can do that.” He smiled. “I’ve been waiting my whole life for you, after all.”
I grumbled, blushing. “How can you be so sweet at a time like this? This is an emergency.”
“Our baby being born is not an emergency,” Morgan said dryly, raising a playful brow at me. “It’s a natural phenomenon that happens all the time.”
“I know,” I grumbled. “I’m just a little freaked out, okay?”
He stroked my face. “I know. Don’t worry.”
I sighed and took his hand in mine. “I’m supposed to be the one comforting you. This is your big moment. Sorry I’m acting like a fool.”
His eyes sparkled with good humor. “That’s why I fell in love with you, silly wolf.”
My heart flooded with warmth and I kissed his forehead, glistening damp with sweat. His contractions would come soon and I wanted to do everything in my power to ease his discomfort.
But first, we had to deal with the knot situation. There was nothing to do but wait and pray it would deflate so we could get to the pack, so that’s what we did.
“…Hey, we never did think of names, did we?” Morgan asked suddenly.
“No.” I grinned. “We just decided that Sage wouldn’t be involved in the naming process. And while we’re talking about it, I’m veto-ing any names starting with ‘l’. We have enough of those in the pack.”
Morgan chuckled. “Done. How about something gender-neutral?”
I nodded. “Any ideas?”
A nostalgic smile lit up Morgan’s expression, like this was something he’d put a lot of thought into. “Back before I met you, when having a baby was something I only dreamed of… The baby in my fantasy was named Ashe.”
“Ashe… It’s perfect.” I kissed him again. “Ashe it is. I can’t wait to meet them.”
Morgan smiled, then winced.
“A contraction?” I asked.
“I think it’s starting.” His grunt was sharp with pain. “You better tell that dick of yours to deflate faster…”
I frowned in sympathy for my mate. “Trust me, if it was safe to rip it out, I would.” An idea hit me. “Would shifting help? I remember Len being shifted when he gave birth.”
“I can’t with you still inside me,” Morgan said. “It’s okay. I’ll live until we can move.”
I groaned. Feeling useless was terrible but sitting around waiting for my body to stop doing what it was doing was even worse. Damn stupid knot.
“Well,that’sdefinitely not what I expected to run into on my nightly walk.”
My head whipped in the direction of the voice. A loud growl instinctively escaped me when I saw the familiar slinking shape by the trees.
“Red!” I snapped. “What the hell are you doing here?”
