Chapter 247: Take The Baby

Reid let out a wet, breathless laugh, burying his face into the side of my neck, his hot tears soaking into my collarbone as he held us both. He just couldn’t keep his eyes off the daughter that took his eyes and blonde hair, but somehow looked more like me than him.

"She’s perfect, Kain," he choked out, his voice thick with a raw, overwhelming devotion. "You both are. You did it, honey... you brought her home."

I rested my chin against his head, holding our daughter tight against my chest as the steady sound of her breathing merged with ours, knowing with absolute certainty that every single battle we had fought was for this exact, unshakeable moment.

"Kain?" Reid’s terrified tone suddenly echoed as the world in front of me suddenly began to tilt.

It didn’t start with a scream. It started with a cold, hollow numbness creeping into my fingertips, spreading upward like ice pouring straight into my veins.

I was still holding our daughter against my chest, her tiny weight warm and solid against my skin, when the first drop of cold sweat broke across my forehead. My vision blurred around the edges, flickering like a dying bulb. I tried to lift my hand to stroke my daughter’s soft blonde hair, but my arm felt like lead, utterly useless.

Then came the smell.

The faint, metallic tang of blood filled the air, rapidly overwhelming the sweet scent of newborn skin. Beneath the light white sheets covering my lower body, a sudden, horrifying wave of heat flooded out, soaking the mattress in seconds.

The cardiac monitor beside the bed began to beep with erratic, frantic speed.

Beep-beep-beep-beep-beep—

"Reid..." I gasped, but the word barely scraped past my lips. My throat felt instantly bone-dry, my lungs suddenly refusing to expand.

My heart was thrashing against my ribs, making my chest heave in ragged, shallow jerks. The heavy, systemic toxicity from years of abusing black-market Omega-suppressants—the chemical concoctions I’d slammed into my veins just to pass league physicals, to hide my Omega sub-gender, and to stay on the ice—was finally taking its toll. My organs had held out just long enough to keep our daughter safe through thirty-seven weeks. Now, with the intense physical trauma of delivery breaking my body down, the dam had burst.

My blood pressure plunged into the gutter. Cold, violent tremors seized my muscles, making my jaw chatter as my skin turned a terrifying, mottled grey.

"Doctor! Look at the monitors! His pressure is crashing!" a nurse shrieked, dropping a tray of sterile tools as the metal clattered loudly across the tile floor.

Dr. Desmond’s head snapped toward the display, his face completely draining of color. He threw back the blanket—and the sight made even the seasoned doctor freeze for a fraction of a second. The white bedding was drowned in a deep, heavy crimson.

"Vascular collapse! He’s hemorrhaging from multiple organ sites!" Dr. Desmond shouted, his calm demeanor instantly shattering. "Take the baby! Get the infant into the incubator now!"

A nurse rushed forward, carefully pulling our crying daughter off my chest. I tried to reach for her, to cry out for her to give me back my baby, but my body wouldn’t obey.

"What is going on?!" Reid screamed, his voice breaking into a raw, frantic pitch as he saw the blood. He lunged forward, trying to grab my hand, his dark grey eyes wide with sheer, unadulterated horror. "Kain! Kain, look at me! What’s happening to him?!"

"Reid, get back!" Dr. Desmond’s voice cut through the room like a crack of thunder, completely stripped of its usual calm. "Orderlies, get him out! Clear the floor now!"

"No! Get your fucking hands off me!" Reid roared, his Alpha voice booming off the pristine walls, shaking the glass panels of the delivery suite. His rich frozen pine scent curdled instantly into a suffocating, razor-sharp cloud of pure, violent instinct.

He fought three security guards and two orderlies off at once, his grey eyes were dark, wild, bloodshot, and locked on me as I lay shivering under the blinding overhead lights. The metallic stench of blood was heavy in the air, thick enough to choke on.

"Kain! Look at me!" Reid screamed, his voice breaking into a guttural sob as a guard managed to pin his left arm against the wall. "Desmond, what did you do to him?! What’s happening to my husband?!"

"He’s in systemic crisis! The residual synthetic suppressants are causing an acute vascular collapse!" Dr. Desmond shouted over the blaring heart monitors, his gloves already dripping red as he barked frantic orders to the surgical team. "Get the crash cart! Push four milligrams of epinephrine and prep the emergency transfusion line! Move!"

The rapid, erratic beep-beep-beep of the monitor suddenly scattered, breaking into a flat, frantic, high-pitched pulse that echoed off the cold tile walls.

My vision began to tunnel, the edges blurring into a terrifying, icy dark. I couldn’t feel my hands or my feet. It was getting... cold. So cold.

"Kain! Don’t you dare close your eyes!" Reid’s wrecked voice echoed from the hallway as the double doors were shoved shut, forcing him out into the corridor. The slam of his fists against the reinforced glass sounded like frantic gunfire. "Kain! PLEASE!"

"Oxygen mask, now! We’re losing his pressure!"

Cold plastic was pressed firmly over my mouth and nose. I dragged in a shallow, rattling breath, but there was no air left to catch. My chest felt hollow, icy, and unnaturally still.

Through the fogged glass of the surgical doors, I could see Reid’s blurred outline—his face pressed frantically against the window, tears streaming down his pale cheeks as three guards held him back. The mighty rookie, the Alpha who had given up his entire hockey career and faced down the world just to protect me, my everything, was weeping like a broken child on the other side of the glass.

I’m sorry, Reid, I tried to whisper, but no sound came out. I’m so sorry...

"Charge to two hundred!" Dr. Desmond’s voice sounded muffled, as if submerged deep underwater. "Clear!"

A massive, violent jolt tore through my chest, lifting my shoulders off the mattress, before dropping me back into the cold, sinking dark. The frantic beating in my ears slowed down... down... until there was only the long, flat tone of the monitor cutting through the silence, and a single tear sliding down from my eye.