“Shut up, Zane!” Ko roared.
Cas’ gloves were more red than white as he grabbed the nine millimeter from the floor and slid the safety off.
“Whoa, whoa, Rambo! What’re you—” He racked the slide, and I curled my body around the baby as he took aim. “No shooting the decoy!”
“Nevercall our daughter fang-rotted again, firecrotch!”
“Both of you,stop.” Mount Saint Koa sounded on the verge of eruption. “Cas, gun down, safety on. Zane, get ready to hold Seri’s legs again.”
“How? I’m holding the decoy!”
“Giveour daughterhere, dumbass!” Ko motioned with one hand while holding Seri with the other arm, but the room was spinning like a tilt-a-whirl now, and I didn’t know which of his three hands was the real one.
“Zane?” Someone called my name, but his voice sounded like it came through water. “Eyes up, Zane!”
Too late. The room did a barrel roll. Last thing I saw before darkness claimed me was Ko lunging to grab the decoy.
#
Casimir
I stared at the space between Seri’s legs, my mind refusing to process what my eyes were seeing. Two tiny fists where afterbirth should be.
She’d had four sonograms. One at eight weeks, one at twelve, one at twenty, and one at thirty-two. I’d been present for three of them, and the fourth—the one I missed due to a mission—I’d reviewed as soon as I returned. The recordings were crystal clear. One baby. One heartbeat. One placenta. One amniotic sac…
Seri’s body convulsed with another contraction, her thighs trembling, and her scream cut through my shock. The sound brought me back to my senses like nothing else ever could. Our beloved was in pain, trying to push out a baby alone while I was frozen in disbelief.
I secured my weapon while mentally reviewing everything I knew about compound presentations. Not ideal, but it was manageable. I could do this. Since Zane was down, I positioned her heels on my shoulders to free my hands.
“Seri, I need you to focus on my voice. Push as if you’re bearing down to move weight through your lower abdomen. Hard and direct.”
She nodded, determination replacing confusion on her beautiful face.
“Breathe with me. In through your nose, out through your mouth. Slow and steady until the next contraction hits.”
I heard Ko talking to Zane, trying to rouse him from his faint. Our daughter remained blissfully asleep on Ko’s bare shoulder, unaware that her twin was about to make an entrance. The clinical part of my brain was calculating risks, positioning, potential complications, while the rest of me focused on keeping my voice level and my hands steady. I couldn’t afford to let my shock show, not when my beloved needed all of my expertise and confidence.
The ripple across Seri’s abdomen signaled the next contraction.
“Push. Down and out. That’s it. Good. Again. Harder.”
One more push, and the second baby arrived like a thunderclap, punching its way into the world. Static electricity pricked my skin as I caught the tiny body. Red-haired, ready to fight, voice rising in a battle cry that shook the bottles in the shower.
He was magnificent, his fury glorious.
I nearly dropped him from pure awe.
As he squalled, I lifted him against my bare chest. The vernix smeared across my skin, but I didn’t care. His cries hummed against my sternum as I studied his tiny, scrunched face, his eyes still fused shut, his mouth open in an impressive wail, and something inside me cracked. Some wall I hadn’t known existed.
I’d thought I understood love when I bonded with Seri. I’d been wrong. This was an entirely different dimension of emotion. Boundless, ferocious, and utterly without condition or reservation.
I was doomed. Ruined for any semblance of the stern, stoic leader I’d always prided myself on being. These tiny beings would own me completely for the rest of my existence.
In that moment, with my son’s heart rabbiting against mine, I couldn’t have been happier about it.
“Simmy?” Seri’s voice cut through the fog. “You’re crying.”
Impossible. Father’s training didn’t allow crying mid-battle. Yet here I knelt, gloves dripping, chest heaving, staring at this miracle who’d breached defenses no enemy ever could.
