“Are you okay?” Rafe reached for his arm. “Niko, let me help you.”
“Can’t.” He shook his head, pain radiating off him.
“What’s happening?” Kaya asked, rushing around from behind the counter with Aric.
The immense Breed warrior staggered, sweat popping out on his brow. “Renata.” He uttered his mate’s name through gritted teeth and fangs. “Holy hell. It’s the baby. He’s coming. Right now.”
Aric shot an urgent glance at Rafe. “I’ll get the vehicle.”
“No time.” Niko gave a harsh shake of his head. And through his anguish, an excited grin pulled his lips away from his emerged fangs. He chuckled, wonder shining in his ice-blue eyes despite the intense physical pain he shared with his Breedmate through their blood bond. “Holy fuck, it’s really happening. I’m outta here. I’ll get home faster on foot.”
He didn’t waste another second. In a blur of movement, Nikolai bolted out of the bar and vanished into the night.
CHAPTER 19
Nikolai didn’t slow his speed until his boots hit the polished marble of the command center’s foyer. His Breed genetics had carried him in a few scant minutes across the miles of pavement between Dorval and the mansion at the top of Summit Hill; now his blood bond to Renata sent him rushing through the residence and down to the infirmary housed in the Montreal base’s nerve center below.
Kellan stood in the corridor outside the medical room, his comm unit in hand. “I just tried to call you to let you know it’s showtime.” The younger Breed warrior gave him a sympathetic smile. “Should’ve known your bond would give you the heads-up before anyone else needed to. Everything happened so fast.”
“How is she?”
Kellan chuckled. “Been issuing orders like a drill sergeant since her water broke a few minutes ago. And threatening to skewer you with all four of her favorite blades if you didn’t make it back here before the baby does.”
In other words, Renata was fine. Niko heaved out the breath he hadn’t been aware he was holding. “That’s my girl.”
Kellan nodded. “As for your other girl, I called Mira right after I tried to reach you. She’s on the way back now with her team.”
“Thanks.” Niko clapped his adopted daughter’s mate on the shoulder. “Now, I’d better haul my ass inside before my female decides to carve me a new one.”
His gaze strayed past the male to halfway up the passageway. Siobhan carried a large stack of folded towels in her arms as she hurried toward Nikolai and Kellan.
“I thought these might be helpful,” she said, the petite Breedmate nearly out of breath as she approached. “Is there anything at all I can do? You’ve all been so kind to me, and I just feel a bit useless and in the way since I’ve arrived here.”
The commander in him was on the verge of informing the doe-eyed civilian that she was in an area restricted to members of the Order, but she looked so earnest with her offer of help that Nikolai checked the impulse. Barely.
Giving her a curt nod of acknowledgment, he glanced pointedly at his comrade.
Kellan smoothly stepped in. “I’ll take those for you, Siobhan. Come on, I’ll show you the way back upstairs to wait for Rafe and the others. Awfully easy to get lost down here if you don’t know where you’re going.”
Niko appreciated the diplomatic assist. Right now he didn’t have the patience for anything but getting to Renata’s side. The shared pain of another of her sharp contractions tore through him as he stepped away from Kellan and Siobhan to reach for the latch on the infirmary door.
Gritting his teeth against the burn of her agony, he entered Renata’s delivery room.
“Hey, baby.”
She sat in a semi-reclined position in the middle of a railed hospital bed. Her fingers gripped those rails in a white-knuckled grasp and she roared as the worst of the labor pain poured over her. Nikolai felt it too. Not only because of their blood bond, but because of the depth of his love for the woman who suffered this racking torture because of him.
For him.
And for their child.
He went immediately to her bedside. A collection of terry washcloths rested on the table next to her. He wet one from the pitcher of ice water that sat there too, then pressed the cool compress to her sweat-beaded brow.
“He’s coming so fast,” she panted between contractions. “I can’t slow him down.”
Niko grunted. “First our boy makes us wait nine long months and then some, and now he’s in a rush to get here. Definitely gonna have to talk to him about timing.”
Renata managed a laugh, but her gaze stayed locked and solemn on his beneath the dampened tangles of her chin-length ebony hair. “When you left tonight, I had a feeling he was coming soon. I was afraid you were going to miss it.”
“Never.” Niko shook his head and caressed her warm cheek. “There’s not a damned thing that would stand between me and this moment. You know that, right?”
She managed a wobbly nod before bearing down on another wave of staggering pain. Her cry ripped through every fiber of his being. God, he wished he could bear it all for her. All his jokes about keeping her pregnant with more of his sons dried up like sawdust in his throat as he mopped her face and stood feebly by, humbled and awed by the sheer tenacity of his lovely, strong Renata.
“You’re doing great, sweetheart.” He leaned down and kissed the top of her head as the contraction subsided. “Christ, you’re so brave. So beautiful.”
She snorted. “I’m drenched in sweat and my belly’s as big as a house. I feel like a tick about to burst wide open.”
Niko smiled. “Well, you look like a goddess to me. You are a goddess. Mine.”
“You’re crazy,” she said, but she allowed him to kiss her parted lips. “I love you, Nikolai.”
“Ah, baby.”
