Read Online Claimed by the Alphas: Part Six by Viola Rivard - Free Book Online Page A

had been bad, but not unbearable. Next to the concern she had for the baby, it was virtually nothing. All she wanted was for it to be okay.
     
    Asch entered the room, his face awash with concern. As soon as Mila saw him, she wondered why she’d ever told Brae not get him. Relief flooded her.
     
    “Is it time?” he asked, coming over to crouch down next to Mila. He took her hand in his and squeezed it.
     
    “Still a few more hours to go, but it’ll definitely be tonight,” Fern told him. She nodded at Lotus. “Let’s give them some privacy.”
     
    Asch looked uncomfortable as the others got up to leave.
     
    “It’s okay,” Mila said. “I doubt she’ll miss anything.”
     
    It was hot in the small room, and her body was sticky with sweat, but it didn’t stop her from leaning against him. He hunched down so that she could rest her head in the crook of his neck.
     
    “Are you scared?” he asked, rubbing the back of her neck.
     
    “ Are you?”
     
    He kissed the top of her head. “Terrified.”
     
    “Caim?”
     
    “I think he’s more afraid than the both of us.”
     
    Mila bit her lip and pressed herself closer to Asch. She was torn between feeling sorry for Caim and being annoyed with him. Annoyance won out when her next contraction hit, and she grit her teeth, trying not to make a big show of it. Gently, Asch massaged her back until it passed.
     
    “Can we just stay like this until it’s over?” she murmured into his neck.
     
    “We can stay like this for as long as you need to.”
     
    He held her for a long time, kissing and caressing her. Fern came in to check on her several times, and when her contractions were growing closer together, Fern finally shooed Asch from the room.
     
    Mila didn’t advocate for him to stay. Although the pain was becoming more intense, everything seemed to be going smoothly. The baby was in the right position and according to Fern, her labor was progressing nicely, albeit a little fast.
     
    Without any cause for concern over the baby, her old fears had begun to reemerge and she didn’t want Asch there when the baby was born. She would need time to mentally prepare herself for what was to come. One of her mates was about to be a father, and the other, was not.
     

CHAPTER FOURTEEN
     
     
    Mila had thought that the IHOP-baby—as she had affectionately dubbed him—was quite possibly the tiniest person she’d ever seen. Her daughter was half his size, and all Mila could do was stare down at her serene little face with a mixture of apprehension and terror.
     
    “Are you going to be okay?” Fern asked. She dabbed Mila’s forehead with a damp cloth. “Want something to drink?”
     
    Hoarsely, Mila said, “When I was in junior high they gave me an egg to take care of for the weekend.” She gave Fern a desperate look. “I broke it.”
     
    Fern blinked at the non sequitur. “ Well, I wouldn’t worry too much. She’s a little tougher than an egg.” Fern fluffed the pillows and helped Mila to lay back. “Heaven knows, we dropped Caim plenty of times, and he turned out just fine.”
     
    Mila gave her a shaky smile. “You knew Caim when he was a baby?”
     
    “Sure did,” she said brightly. “And lucky for her, she looks nothing like her father.”
     
    Mila looke d down at her daughter. With her pudgy little face and her cute button nose, she looked far too soft and delicate to belong to Caim, yet Mila hadn’t needed Fern to sniff it out for her, she had just known.
     
    “He didn’t come in to see me,” she said to Fern.
     
    The older woman gave Mila a sympathetic look. “I imagine this has been very difficult for him.”
     
    Mila frowned, her earlier annoyance returning. “It’s been pretty difficult for me, too.”
     
    “His first sister was born prematurely,” Fern told her. She set to gathering up the soiled blankets and cloths. “Much earlier than this little angel, and it didn’t go well.”
     
    “ I didn’t know,” Mila