Chapter 130 - Inseparable
Louis
I was beginning to understand why the Goddess had chosen Daphne as Nash’s mate. She was like fire to his ice, bold, confident, fearless. There was nothing sexier than a woman who knew what she wanted and wasn’t afraid to fight for it.
Perhaps I need to take a lesson from her, I thought as I tugged on my collar and pulled open the door to the Women and Children’s unit in the Royal Pack Hospital. The waiting room was full, with pregnant women, women with babies, and small children running around among the adults. Predictably, there were very few men, and my eyes immediately fell upon Nash Turner.
He looked very uncomfortable. He was too tall for the delicate chair, and he was sitting awkwardly, trying to pull his elbows into his torso so he wouldn’t crowd the heavily pregnant woman who was sitting to his right. Daphne was calmly flipping through a parenting magazine, and I noted that she had saved a seat for me to her left. She looked up from her reading and gave me a sweet smile as I squeezed myself into the chair.
I was going to have a word with the administration about the seats.
“Thank you for coming, Louis.”
I took a deep breath and put my hand over hers, letting the warm, comforting tingle travel through my fingers, up my arm, and straight into my heart. “I promised you I would take care of you and the baby,” I replied quietly.
Nash leaned forward and glared at me. “That’s very thoughtful of you, Your Highness, but I’m here now.”
I shrugged. “Your presence doesn’t negate my responsibilities.”
“Alright boys, put it away,” Daphne turned her arm over and captured my hand, and on the other side, she grabbed Nash by the wrist. The power that flowed between us was breathtaking. “Play nice, there are children watching.”
Indeed, several of the toddlers in the room had stopped their rambunctious play and were now staring at us wide eyed. One little girl stuck her fingers in her mouth, and another let the plastic Legos he was holding slip through his fingers. “Maybe they are staring because they know he is the king,” Nash grumbled under his breath.
“They are too young for that,” I replied, trying to sooth the child with a smile.
“More likely they could feel the negative energy rolling off you guys like the red tide,” Daphne said with an eye roll. “Be good, and try not to make the babies cry.”
I sat back, and accidentally elbowed the young mother next to me. She gave me a cross look and purposely leaned further away. I crossed my arms over my chest, just to keep them sucked into my body, and sat stiffly until the nurse came out to call Daphne for her appointment.
The nurse, a small, dark-skinned woman with hot pink braids, looked from Nash to me with a raised eyebrow. At first, I thought she meant to send one, or both of us out. I took a possessive step closer to Daphne. So did Nash.
“Oooh-kay then. Let’s get you registered, Ms. Redhawk,” She pointed Daphne in the direction of a triage station. There was only one extra chair apart from the one that Daphne was supposed to occupy. I gallantly gestured for Nash to sit.
Nash shook his head. “Nah. I’m good. Age before beauty, right?” he actually cracked a smile, and I couldn’t help but smile back, as I took the seat next to Daphne, and watched with rapt attention as the nurse started asking Daphne a bunch of questions about her general health and wellness. The nurse, who introduced herself as Tina, typed her responses onto a laptop.
“Name of the father?” Tina asked, her small fingers poised over the keypad.
“Nash Turner,” Daphne said easily. “And Louis Levesque.”
“Oh. The nurse looked stumped, “You aren’t sure?”
“Oh, I’m very sure,” Daphne said brightly. “My baby has two fathers.”
“Um…well. You can do genetic testing later–”
“That won’t be necessary,” Nash interrupted tersely. “We know who the biological father is. Just put both names in the damn computer.”
I was a bit surprised that Nash would accept my name next to his in the system. The nurse then looked at me, like she expected me to talk some sense into the other two, because, I was, after all, the king. “Both names, if you please, Tina.”
“Um, okay,” her fingers clacked on the keyboard. “Do you know your approximate weight before you got pregnant?”
Daphne continued to answer the questions until the nurse instructed her to slip off her shoes to take her weight and measurements on the digital scale next to the wall. She then tested her blood pressure, and checked her heart rate and blood oxygen with a little clip on her finger. “Everything looks good on this end.” She passed Daphne a little plastic cup. “We’d like a urine sample please. The bathroom is just over there by the nurses’ station.
Daphne took the cup into the bathroom, and then the nurse escorted the three of us into a room to wait for the doctor. There was a terrifying looking bed with stirrups, and an assortment of metal obstetrical tools arranged on a stainless steel tray like torture devices awaiting their next victim.
Tina handed Daphne a gown, gave us one more dubious look, and then excused herself from the room.
Daphne wasn’t shy about changing in front of both of us. She shucked off her clothes shamelessly, and I didn’t look away. I let my eyes feast on her beautiful body, which was already ripening with the pup within her. She pushed her arms through the ugly hospital gown and jumped up on the paper-covered exam table to wait.
Dr. Singh appeared a few minutes later, a tall, slim Indian woman with a massive amount of shiny black hair coiled up on top of her hair. Interestingly, she wasn’t a werewolf. I could smell that right away. But, that wasn’t all that unusual. Sometimes we recruited professionals from outside the werewolf community when needed. To her credit, she didn’t even blink at the presence of two men in the room.
She pulled a rolling stool up to the exam table, and used the end of it as a desk as she reviewed Daphne’s information. She didn’t even give Nash or I the time of day, as her entire focus was on Daphne’s health and well-being - as it should have been. “Okay, on the first visit I like to do a pelvic exam for new patients,” She clicked her pen and stuffed it into the pocket of her white jacket. “Do you want the gentlemen in or out?”
Daphne shrugged, “They can stay if they want to,” she said, already swinging around to position herself at the end of the table. “Nothing they haven’t already seen.”
“Out,” Nash spoke, his ears turning an interesting shade of red. “We’ll wait outside.”
I could have stayed. I’d been married and mated before, and this wasn’t my first pup, but he took my arm and pushed me toward the door. It wasn’t so much that he forced me to step out with him, but the moment he touched me, I couldn’t refuse him. I let him guide me out into the hallway, and waited while he shut the door.
There was no place to sit, so I leaned against the wall, and absently rubbed the arm where Nash had grabbed me. His touch was like Daphne’s, but oh, so much more potent. It felt like someone had turned up the voltage from tingle to stun.
He looked stressed, as he pushed his hands through his short hair, making it stand on end in clumps. A nurse bustled down the hall, and he was forced to step aside to accommodate her. In the end, he came and leaned on the wall next to me. After a moment of tense silence, he growled out, “I don’t like it.”
“Don’t like what?” I asked, and then it dawned on me. “Ah, you don’t like another man being around for your prenatal visits?”
He glared at me. “No, not that. I don’t like that woman putting her hands on Daphne.”
I stared at him in surprise. “She’s a doctor, Nash,” I reasoned. “That’s her job. It’s not a sexual thing.”
He clenched his jaw shut. “I still don’t like it.”
“Well, if it makes you feel any better, I’m sure Daphne doesn’t like it either. I understand those exams are pretty damn uncomfortable for women.”
Nash blew out a breath. “Yeah, I guess.”
I wanted to touch him, I wanted to offer him some comfort. Just a grazing of the fingertips on his arm, a touch on his shoulder, but I stuffed my hands down deep in my pockets instead.
“It’s alright.” Nash said after a long minute.
“Hmm?” I turned to him, studied his profile, his stubble-darkened jaw.
“It’s alright that you are here.” He shoved his large hands down into his pockets too. I wondered if he realized that he was mirroring my posture.
“Really?” I asked doubtfully.
He hunched his broad shoulders and his face looked troubled.
I couldn’t help myself, I pulled my hand out of my pocket and let it rest on his arm. “Look Nash, I’m sorry. It’s your first kid, and I guess having another man around for these firsts is kind of stealing some of the joy and glory, right?”
He looked down at my hand, but he didn’t try to shake it off. “Not that either,” he said, and something in his voice, something in his heart maybe, made my chest ache. “I never wanted to have kids. Not that I got anything against kids, its just…” he blew out a breath. “I’m not fit to be a father.”