Their Mating Rituals [Paranormal Protection Unit 4] (Siren Publishing Classic) (17 page)

Jackie smiled and shot Allister a look and a wink.

Giving Allister a wave, she walked into the room where Lina was resting. After several long minutes, she watched Lina’s eyes opening and smiled. “Hey there. I left your son with his grandpa. How you doing?”

“I hurt,” Lina admitted. “Good Lord, having a baby is so much harder than I ever thought it would be.” Closing her eyes again, she sighed. “Thank you for letting Daddy have a moment with my wee one. I think that he’s still stressing about my twin,” she whispered. “So yeah.”

“Yeah, I know,” Jackie told her friend with a smile.

“Can you get Aiden back here please?” Lina whispered. “I feel the contractions starting.”

With that Jackie left the delivery room and moved to Aiden touching her hand to his shoulder. “She needs you. Looks like the next baby is about to come.”

“Thanks, Jackie,” he said and shot a look over at Talon with a grin. “Grab a bottle if Anthony needs it, will you, and let T feed him,” he murmured to his sister-in-law. “I think he’ll get a kick out of it,” Aiden whispered before slipping back into the room. Settling on the stool, he took Talina’s hand. “I’m here, babe. Ready for round two?” he asked her softly.

“No not really,” Lina grumbled. “He’s going to be as big as his brother and I seriously don’t know if I have it in me to give birth to another Dragon. But I have no choice in the matter,” she said and leaned forward as the first contraction hit.

Holding her hand tight, he encouraged her and then wiped her brow as she lay back down. “I think that I have a new hero, darling,” he murmured next to her ear as she lay focusing on her breath. “I would be, of course, talking about you,” he said, petting her hair lightly.

She nodded and whimpered. “Well, we know that he’s as big as the other boy. God, I don’t know if I can do this,” she whispered as she looked up at him with a hint of fear in her eyes.

Brushing her hair back, he wiped her face again and rocked her gently. “You can do anything, angel. You saved me. You protected me. You were there for me the entire time, baby. You can do something as simple as this,” he whispered with a grin.

“As simple as this?” She growled. “Are you freaking serious? Giving birth is not ‘simple’ anything!” she told him with another scream as the next contraction started. “Gods, this is tearing me apart!”

“Push!” he encouraged her, holding her up in position so all she had to do was bear down. Lowering her carefully, he stroked her face. “Sure it’s simple,” he said softly with a grin, trying to keep her fired up. “I mean really, all you’re doing is pushing a little baby out, really can’t be that hard.” Shooting looks at those that snorted and were gaping at him, he rolled his eyes, hoping someone would clue into what he was doing.

“Seriously?” Her anger gave her strength and she began to push hard. Bearing down in her anger, she pushed through one contraction and into the second one. She pushed harder and harder. She felt the baby moving down, felt it crowning, screamed another time, and sobbed when she heard the lusty scream.

“Uh…” The doctor looked to the nurses and then to Aiden and shook her head. “She’s far smaller than her brother, and she’s stunningly perfect.”

“See, angel, our baby is just…” Aiden whipped his head around and stared. “She?” he squeaked at the doctor and blinked rapidly as his brain switched gears. “A girl?” he whispered, stunned, and began to smile slowly. Turning to Lina, he kissed her hard and fast. “You gave me a little girl.”

“A girl?” Lina asked, her shock clear. “Wait, how?” She lay back against Aiden, “Oh crap, how?” Reaching out blindly though, she smiled. “I want to see my baby.” She whispered. “Please.”

Laying the child on Lina’s chest, the doctor sighed. “The one and only thing that I can think of.” She stroked her fingers over the girl’s cheek and smiled. “She’s beautiful,” she murmured. “Anyway, the only thing that I can think is that the boy was always the one that moved in front of his sister. I was wondering what in the world was happening, because the boys were the same size. Now I realize it was the same boy each time.”

Staring at his little girl, Aiden wrapped his arm around Talina’s shoulders. “Told you that you could do it,” he whispered softly to her with a grin. “She’s beautiful, angel, so gorgeous, just like her mother.” He was crying and honestly didn’t care. He was so blessed and so happy he didn’t know what to do about it.

“She is so perfect,” she whispered as she looked at the child. “Oh God, we have to change the nursery,” she said with watery sobs. “So that our baby girl won’t feel left out.” She looked up at Aiden and smiled. “A girl. Who would have ever, ever seen that coming?”

“I definitely didn’t,” he said with a grin, pressing a kiss to her lips. “We will make the adjustments and ensure she knows she’s just as loved as her brother. But we have another issue,” he told her quietly, “What do we name her?”

“Oh crap,” she muttered and looked down at the little beauty she was holding. Her shocking red hair was so long she likely could pull it up and in a ponytail on top of her head. “She’s stunning,” she whispered. “And holy cow, Daddy is going to have a heart attack,” she said with a smirk. “But as for a name.” She shrugged. “Goodness. I don’t know. We were going to name her Andrew, so what do you think we should instead?”

“Good Gods,” he murmured. “What about…” He paused and frowned for a moment. “Amelia?” he suggested, sticking with their letter choice for the name.

“I like it. I was thinking Andria or something, but I like Amelia. We can call her Amy.” She looked down at their actually really tiny daughter and smiled. “What do you think, sweetheart?” She frowned then and added, “Is she healthy? She’s so much smaller than her brother. Is she healthy?”

“Of course she’s healthy. She has our genes, darling,” he told her softly. “Girls are always a little tinier than boys, especially with twins. But she will grow. She has a lot of Dragon genes going for her after all.” Stroking his finger over the chubby little cheek, he shook his head. “I still can’t believe it, a little girl.”

“I know,” she whispered. “Oh dear God, how are the others going to take this?” she asked and looked up with a smile. “How are you going to break the news to them that we have a girl? Because this news is for you to break, darling mine.”

“Gee thanks, babe.” He chuckled and shrugged. “I figure I’ll go out to introduce our second child and just pop it on all of them. After ensuring that a nurse has her hands on Anthony so no one drops him,” he told her honestly.

“That sounds like a good idea.” Lina yawned and closed her eyes. “All right, honey, take Amy and introduce her to everyone.” She smiled and gave her baby another loving hug. “A little girl.” The awe was clear in her voice, awe because they had a little girl.

Pressing another kiss to her lips, he lifted his tiny daughter into his arms. Tucking her close, he covered her up. “Shh,” he whispered when she fussed. “It’s only for a moment, baby girl. We need to surprise the family,” he told her and headed to the door with a nurse on his heels.

“Well, come on. Lemme see my other nephew,” Jackie said, getting to her feet as Aiden walked out of the room. She was practically vibrating in excitement. Her sons would have playmates, would have cousins that they would be able to spend the rest of their lives with, and that made her all kinds of happy. “Come on. Hand him over,” she said with greedy hands reaching toward the white bundle.

“You’re going to have to alter a few expectations, Jackie,” Aiden said, moving the blanket for everyone to see the little girl. “It’s a girl,” he told them all with a grin. “This is Amelia.”

Jackie just stood there looking from the baby to Aiden and then back to the baby. “A girl?” she asked in awed tones. “Holy hell, you had a girl.” She shot Allister a look and then turned to look at Talon, who was looking like he was going to pass out. Grinning, she held out her hands. “Well give me that little darling and let Aunty Jackie see her.”

“She’s tiny, Jackie, be careful with her,” he said softly with a chuckle. Brushing a finger over her cheek, he stepped back and took his son to cuddle as, once again, Jackie was surrounded by men peering down at the bundle.

“Good lord, she is tiny,” Jackie commented, looking down at the small girl. “And you’re sure that she’s okay?” Glancing back up, Jackie gifted Talon with a grin. “Wanna hold your granddaughter, T-Rex?”

“She’s perfect,” Aiden said with a glare at his brother’s mate. “Why does everyone keep asking that?” he grumbled to the nurse who just shot him a look.

Talon moved in closer and nodded, taking the even smaller bundle. “Hello, Amelia,” he whispered softly as he tucked her in close to him. “Gods, she’s perfect, Aiden,” he murmured quietly.

“Amy, darling, you are going to be one spoiled and overly protected little girl, but that’s just as it should be, darling.” Jackie teased the men crowding the baby girl. “Between your brother and cousins, not to mention all the uncles that you have here in this facility and all the others all over the world, you, my little darling, are going to be spoiled.”

“How’s Talina?” Talon asked, looking up for the briefest moment before returning his gaze to the tiny girl.

“Exhausted, sore, sleeping like the dead right now,” Aiden said with a grin. “She was a trouper and I think I owe her an extra few presents for all the harassing I did to get her to bear down and deliver our little girl.”

Jackie laughed and shook her head. “If you pissed her off, you will definitely owe her some presents.” She looked down at the little blue-eyed girl and sighed, her heart lost to the little girl. “But as soon as your momma sees you, Amy darling, she will know that you were worth every single moment that it took to give birth to you.” Jackie’s gaze swung back to Aiden and she asked, “I thought you guys were having both boys? Each time she went to the doctor the ultrasounds showed two boys. What happened?”

“Best we can figure is Anthony was playing protective big brother and always ensuring he was the only one in the frame. We knew there were two because of the extra arms and legs we’d occasionally see, but the doc thinks that it was always Anthony showing off for the camera,” Aiden told her with a shrug.

“Well, that’s okay. Big brother will always protect his baby sister, won’t he?” Jackie asked and grinned down at the little girl who watched everyone with wide and unblinking eyes. “You are a curious little girl, aren’t you, darling? That’s good. Be curious about everything, sweetheart.”

“Except boys,” Talon, Aiden, and Allister all said in unison and then grinned at one another as Jackie and the female nurse all made disgusted sounds. Chuckling, Allister hugged his mate close. “She can start looking at boys when she’s a few hundred years old and not a day sooner.”

Jackie snorted and looked down at the little girl. “It’s okay, darling. I’m sure your momma will tell you the same thing as well, but you go with what feels right. The uncles and other men in your life will understand, darling.”

“Not in this lifetime,” Aiden said, shaking his head at her. “Any male that isn’t family and could potentially be her bond-mate better have his will made out in full if he so much as breathes in a two-thousand-mile radius around her.”

Jackie laughed. She couldn’t help herself. Shaking her head, she sighed and looked down at the girl she held. “Your daddy is full of hot air, darling.” She then looked to Aiden and added, “We both know that it would be more like a full continent away from her.”

“Bonuses of working with the King of the Dragons and head of the Council,” Allister said with a grin. “You can have any of the fucking males that can get near your girl shipped off to anywhere in the world.”

“There is that,” Aiden said with a chuckle.

Adjusting the baby, Jackie looked to Aiden. “Where is this little darling’s bottle? I have a feeling she’s about to start to scream soon if we don’t feed her.” The way the little girl had been snorting and wiggling around in the blanket told her that she was about to start to scream for sustenance.

“Here.” The nurse passed one to Talon and one to Aiden. “They both need a feeding and then we will do all the paperwork. We need to weigh, measure, and so forth so that they can then get some sleep,” she told them all. “I’ll go check on your mate, Aiden. The doctor should be done, so we can move her to the private room where you’ll all spend the night.”

“Allister, honey, will you grab us a burp cloth so that when these little ones spit up we will be able to wipe it up quickly?” Jackie asked her bond-mate since Aiden was busy holding his son.

“I’ll grab the cloths,” Aiden said with a smile, handing Anthony to Allister with a bottle. Moving to the room he grabbed two cloths and, coming back out, passed them over to each person feeding a baby.

Jackie snorted and grinned. “You just didn’t want me going to check on Lina,” she teased Aiden. “It’s okay though. You should go and check on her. The babies are perfectly safe here and are now getting their bellies filled. Do what you need to for your mate.”

“I will.” He grinned at her and leaned in to kiss her cheek. “Make sure Talon doesn’t go into shock, will you?” he murmured. The big Dragon seemed to be off in his own world as he stared down at the baby girl he fed.

“Don’t worry. I won’t let him fly away from us,” Jackie assured Aiden with a grin. “Go. Give her lots of hugs from us and tell her how proud we are of her as well,” she murmured and touched his cheek. “You and she did good, brother.”

“She definitely did.” He grinned, giving her a quick hug. Moving back into the room, he went over to his mate and stroked her hair. She was all cleaned up and lying there sleeping. “How’s she doing, Doc?” he asked softly.

“She’s doing great,” the doctor told him and stood to move away. “I have her on a pain medication drip. It’s not a very strong one, but I don’t want her to have too much in her in case she decides to breastfeed.” She smiled and moved to stand beside Aiden. “Go. I’ll have her moved into one of the larger beds so you should be able to crawl up into bed with her. When the babies are fed, cleaned up, and measured, we will wheel the cubes in here so that you can watch over your family while you rest.”