Hunter - Book 2 of the Hunted Series

Chapter 24 - Birth

When I'd reached the thirty second week, halfway into summer, and literally on Nick's birthday some odd thing came out, slightly bloody, and kind of gross looking. I panicked and dragged Vi into the bathroom to tell me what it was which made them panic too.

 It was like they'd only just realised how far along I was. I was told I could go into labor any day now, which was less of a shock to me than it was to them apparently, and they managed to convince Jeremy to get one last ultrasound. So she took me taken into town for another ultrasound, Doctor Amar right beside me. Nick came as well, with Elena, the five of us refusing to do anything but crowd the poor ultrasound tech in the room. She just had to go with it.

There they were, the two babies, squished up against each other, both apparently pointing in the right direction. In other words, neither was trying to resist birth by putting their feet down first, neither was sideways, both head down and ready to go. Both the right size. Right weight. She did a doppler thing – and the blood was where it was supposed to be going. Neither twin was depending on the other for blood, or something, which as a relief. How they'd gotten this far was a miracle, at least as far as I was concerned, after all we'd been through.

It freaked me out a little bit more, to be honest, to see that. And again, neither were allowing us to see their genders, too cuddled up and squashed to do much more than wriggle or nuzzle against each other. It was really running out of space inside.

In some ways, it was a relief. They were nearly safely out. I could nearly have them safely in a crib, guarded by the Pack, and go hunt down that bastard myself. It was a miracle they'd stayed put in there for so long. Now... we just needed a nursery to put them in.

Nick seemed to think of that too as he stared at the moving wriggling babies, his face paling, muttering something about how he better hurry up and get the furniture upstairs. We only stayed in town for a quick meal, all takeaway, before he was rushing home. To build the nursery on his birthday. 

The moment we got home, that was exactly what he did, grabbing Clayton. The walls were painted, Jeremy joining in, an incredible speedy effort which had the walls covered in green paint, with yellow lines across the top and bottom, before the men, Vi and Elena started to carry objects upstairs. By now I just sat in the living room. Swimming was out of the question now, as was the staircase, so I watched them and ate the only thing I could stomach. Watermelon. Kept going to the bathroom, even though I barely could do anything, and the aching bum was back big time. Urgh. 

We listened to the men upstairs, their complaints, teases, the occasional crash of something or someone falling over. I wasn't sure why Nick had taken this long to realise it needed to be done, the room had been empty for a while, and groaned when I heard a knock on the door.

Elena came down the stairs, throwing something aside on the couch as she opened the door, and I sat up straighter. It was Paige and Hope. Paige, I had been in contact with for some weeks now, she'd been instructing me in what else lay in the supernatural world. Hope, I didn't know so much, still didn't know why it was so urgent for her to be here now. I didn't want to be an unsocial hostess but...well, I felt like my stomach was about to split open and spill babies all over the floor.

"Hope's staying here till the babies are born." Elena informed us, after she re-introduced Hope to me and introduced her to Daniella and Vi. "Jeremy decided we needed some extra help figuring out what they were up to."

Hope smiled, looking funny beside the bigger woman, such a small woman. I wondered what it was exactly she could do. Appearances in this world were usually deceptive. I looked like a whale but apparently I was a werewolf. She looked like a doll but was apparently a half-demon. She was holding her baby, who had gotten much older and much wriggler.