Mads had never heard that rumor. “The silver hair is just a trait of some shifter blood.”
“Unicorns were shifters. But I digress.” Sikko opened the door to the house and ushered Mads in. “We have new blood to welcome and we can worry about labels later.”
“Mads?” Marquis swiveled his head from his seat at the breakfast nook table, brow furrowed as he spied Sikko supporting him, the wet spot, and did some rather vague math in his head. Dividing by zero failed his mind for a moment before the equation balanced out. “Is it time?”
“I’m fine! It’s close but not that close,” Mads said, pulling away from Sikko’s hold with a half smile as Marquis frantically dialed a number. Mads had no idea what Dr. Vans would do. The man was deathly afraid of bodily fluids and, from experience, Mads could safely say that birth was the most bodilyfluid intensive activity on the face of the planet. Save for that one human who participated in the thousand-dudes-in-one-day challenge. No judgment, and you do you, but damn. She had her priorities.
Mind momentarily distracted, Mads leaned against a wall and took a deep breath, thankful for his father’s mate and the moment of calm and peace. The charm neatly tucked into his palm indeed appeared to be doing the trick.
Marquis spoke hurriedly into the phone and hung up before calling Helena. Mads knew she’d likely be the one delivering their baby, anyway.
Time seemed to slip by as Marquis got off the phone and ushered Mads to the downstairs washroom. Since they’d decided on a water birth, as they’d done for Rex, the preparation was easy. Marquis merely needed to sanitize the tub again, run some warm water, and let him chill until nature ran its course. Mads had come from a long line of easy births. Mads’s papa had claimed he barely had to push. And with Rexford, the labor was over in a few hours from start to finish. And his line had sealed perfectly in—Mads couldn’t remember how long it took. He recalled it having healed nicely, but it dawned upon him that it hadn’t fully healed when Baron took him.
The momentary thought must have stressed their bond, as Marquis paused in his scrubbing of their grand claw-foot tub—the iron and size so heavy that when the house was built, it needed a stone foundation under that part of the house. The original marble tiles had cracked and needed to be replaced and magically reinforced.
Mages didn’t do anything halfway.
Mads slipped from his clothes, keeping his body turned partially away from Marquis. The shape of his body made him self-conscious, unwilling to let Marquis stare at his misshapen self-image.
Marquis knew better than to try, though. Despite Mads knowing Marquis didn’t see the same thing he did, it made him vulnerable in a way he couldn’t explain. Like he knew if this were the case some years ago, with Baron, he’d have been disgusted, as disgusted as he’d been with Damien until his body righted itself.
Mads slipped into a robe they’d placed on a rack, covering up for his own comfort. Nobody else’s opinion mattered. Nobody’s opinion mattered when he decided to settle down on a chair that sat by the vanity, one he wondered if had ever been Doris’s. It seemed a feminine thing to have in there, but Marquis had gone out of his way to assure Mads that it was a feature of the vanity there, used for guests and perhaps their own daughter one day.
That had mollified Mads. Not that he felt any sort of real jealousy when it came to Doris. She seemed like…an unpleasant memory.
Much to Mads’s surprise, Dr. Vans showed up sometime later, an omega with him who had the mannerisms of an unmated male, and magic about him unlike that of a familiar. The expression settled upon his face was a cascade of frustration and annoyance that Dr. Vans seemed absolutely unfazed by. “Excuse me, who is this?”
“This is Trenton. He’s a medical student—post doctoral. He works the next town over finishing his human medical degree while I train him in the magical side of things as an apprentice.” Dr. Vans seemed very proud of himself.
“I’ve attended eight omega births and have had success in every instance. I am already well-trained from a family of healers andsomehowthey’ve paired me with this loon.” The omega, all silky dark hair and icy eyes gave Dr. Vans a jerk of his thumb in gesture and huffed.
“I’ll be the one performing your evaluations.” Dr. Vans scathed in a low reminder.
“I’m sure you will.” Trenton peered over as Marquis set about scrubbing the tub. “Why wasn’t this done already?”
Marquis glanced up, sponge in hand. “It was. I’m merely sanitizing it.”
The omega narrowed his eyes and nodded once before gesturing toward Mads to open his robe. “When was your last pregnancy?”
“Little over eighty years.” Mads sneered and opened his robe, underwear still in place as the male settled to his knees before him and slid a pair of gloves on from a paper packet in his pocket. Mages were remarkably resistant to infections, but it wasn’t impossible. He immediately prodded along Mads’s line, brow furrowed. It stung with every prod as a dribble of fluid hit the floor.
“Definitely in active labor. The placenta hasn’t fully ruptured yet. Once you’re someplace comfortable, I can do that for you and speed things along if you’re okay with that. He pulled out a device from a pocket on the white coat he wore and rubbed the end of some sort of probe over Mads’s belly, listening to the rapid heartbeat of a child within. “Heart rate is good. Was your last delivery textbook?”
“Over by the time the midwife got there, for the most part.” Mads laughed.
Trenton stowed the device away and gestured for Mads to stand while Marquis filled the tub. “Your mate is unusually attentive.”
“I wish the same for you.” Mads flinched as something cold pressed to his back, a stethoscope. The omega was anything if not cold and clinical.
“And I wish alphas would stay the hell away from my ass. Far away. Attentive or not.” Trenton shuddered.
Oh. Yeah. No wonder he and Vans get along so terribly.
“I keep telling him that’s the hottest thing I’ve ever heard. The last time I said so, he threw a reflex hammer at me.” Vans huffed.
“And I told you that my sex aversion and your—whatever you have going on—are not matches by virtue of being ace.” Trenton sneered and went on, grumbling under his breath. “Alphas…”
Mads glanced from Dr. Vans to who he supposed was Dr. Trenton. That little slip of not introducing him as doctor likely cost Vans dearly.
