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His belly really hurt.
Reese kept writing, but then he had to stop again as the pain tightened, forcing a gasp from his lips. “Ooh...” The pen fell from his fingers on the desk and he gritted his teeth to keep quiet as the pain worsened.
God.
Ow.
Ha... Ha...
Glaring down at his belly, he picked the pen up again the moment the contraction ended and struggled to gather his thoughts. He had studied hard for this exam. He knew the answers to the questions. He could do this.
He managed to get through one more answer before another pain gripped him. He groaned quietly, pressing the tip of the pen into the paper. “Ooh... Ow, god.”
The guy sitting at the desk next to his cast him a curious look but didn’t say anything. Which was normal, it was an exam, they weren’t supposed to talk.
Or be in labor, damn it.
Reese shifted on the chair, trying to find a position that made the pain more bearable, and panted softly through it.
He was finishing this exam, come what may.
The moment the pain faded, he got back to it, keeping his answers succinct to get as many of them done as possible, before...
Ow...
This sucked.
Another contraction.
Another answer.
Another damn painful contraction.
Two more answers.
And another bad contraction.
Fuck!
Three questions left to go. He could do this. Time was running out on either end of the hourglass, but he could manage it, just...
“Ah!” His vision blurred as his belly tightened so hard he could barely breathe. “Ah. Shit.”
“Reese.” The supervising teacher approached his desk, worry written all over his face. “Are you all right?”
“Sure. Yes.” He was panting. “Almost done.”
“Need me to call your alpha?”
“In a minute.” He had no illusions that he could walk out and go find Tiberius, not when he was contracting this hard. “Just need to finish the test.”
The teacher shot him a doubtful look but nodded and moved away.
Rubbing his belly with one hand, he kept at it, composing the answers, stopping to breathe through contractions. Another answer. Another.
One last answer, damn it, he was almost there.
Ow shit... There was a light pop and then he felt a warm gush between his legs. Shit! This couldn’t be happening.
His water had broken.
Damn it, babies. You were supposed to wait.
Clenching his teeth, Reese forced himself to concentrate on the last question. Do it, Reese, damn it.
‘Explain what sort of company you’d found and why. Give all the information necessary in three paragraphs.’
Christ.
“Ngh...” He bowed his head, struggling to keep a groan behind his teeth as he started to contract again.
What company would he found? To sell what? What would be the appropriate business type? What—?
Crap, this was one serious contraction. Reese’s belly tightened and tightened and he was still leaking between his legs. “Oof.”
His pen scratched an abstract doodle into the paper as he tensed and moaned out loud, reaching the peak.
The teacher was back, his face a hazy mask of disquiet in Reese’s blurry vision. “Reese—”
“Give me five minutes,” he panted. “Need to answer the last question.”
“The babies—"
“Please.”
The teacher was silent. The whole room was staring at them.
At him. Reese.
Then the teacher turned around and walked back to the back of the classroom, and Reese had to hope he would give him the five minutes before calling the school nurse.
Hurry up, he told himself. Last chance.
He scribbled and scribbled, trying to organize his scattered thoughts, the bits of information garnered from all those hours spent bent over books, learning everything he could for this test.
Types of businesses, advantages, disadvantages, personal thoughts, laws of different countries and counties, things to be careful about when trading with other races.
Almost, almost...
“Owowow...” He fought it. Let tears slip down his cheeks. Tried to regulate his breathing until the pain gripped him so hard he couldn’t help the moan. Then he wrote some more.
Ooh... God, he hurt. The pain was spreading through his belly, down his back. His belly was contracting so hard it was tightening and dipping. Ow.
The pen dropped from his hand. He was done. Wasn’t he?
“Reese.” The teacher was beside him, a very worried looking Tiberius behind him. “I think it’s time for you to go to the birth center.”
“I think so, too,” Reese breathed and gathered the papers of his exam with a shaky hand. “I’ve finished. Here it is.”
The teacher took the papers, nodded. “Good work, Reese.”
Yeah. It had been.
Now he had a different sort of work to do, and it was getting urgent...
***
He’d managed to finish his exam, but things were a blur right now as his body took over. It seemed that these babies were coming now, and there were going to be no more arguments about it.
Only drawback: he was still in the car, heading toward the birth center. Tiberius had lowered the backseat a little, but Reese wasn’t sure if it was helping or making things worse.
“Oh!” He clutched at his huge belly as the pain began. “Ooh...”
The pains were coming quickly now, with barely a break between them. The leakage continued, too, probably ruining the seat of Tiberius’s Jag.
Right now, Reese couldn’t give a damn.
“Oh god!” The contraction peaked, gripping his belly so hard he had to swallow a cry. “Oh god...”
“Hang on, Reese. We will be there soon.”
“How soon?”
“Twenty minutes, give or take. I didn’t expect so much traffic.”
“Oohhh...” Reese tensed, gripping the side of the seat with one hand, his belly with the other, sweat dripping from his brow. “Ty...”
“I know, babe, I know. Be patient.”
“Tell that... to your babies. Ah!”
“I’d ask but I’m afraid they’ll decide to come out to reply in person.”
“Don’t make me laugh,” Reese hissed, then slumped back when the contraction finally ended. “Jesus.”
“Sorry.”
“You should be. I’m never letting you near me again.”
“No more sex? Ever?”
“No more... ah!”
“Reese?”
“Can’t you drive faster? Ow. Ow, shit...”
He was stressing his alpha. He could smell the bitter edge of Tiberius’s frustration and fear as he tried to drive and reassure Reese at the same time. Reese’s fault, for not admitting sooner that the babies were coming.
But those exams...
... they didn’t seem so important anymore. Not when the pain wrapped around him, threatening to crush him. Not with the possibility of giving birth in the car looming over him.
He’d been an idiot not to tell Tiberius sooner, not to grab his things and head straight to the birth center. And now...
“Aaah! I can’t.” He tried to arch off the seat, failing. “It hurts!”
“I know, love.” Tiberius cursed and punched the steering wheel. “Fucking traffic.”
“I’m sorry.” Reese groaned through the contraction. “It’s my fault we’re in this mess.”
“We’ll be fine. Don’t you worry about a thing.” Tiberius reached over and rubbed the top of Reese’s belly. “Don’t worry, love.”
Reese slumped back once more, panting. The pressure between his legs was enormous, and terrifying. “I think... the babies are coming now.”
“What?” Tiberius shot him a wild look. “No, Reese. Not yet.”
Reese almost laughed at how frazzled his Mate seemed at the possibility. Did he understand now why Reese was apologizing? “I feel one of the babies,” he whispered. “Down there. Almost there.”
“Fuck!”
Yeah. Reese totally agreed, and he lost the thread again as another pain gripped him. He moaned and shook and shifted on the damn seat as the baby pressed lower inside him, filling his birth canal.
The cars in front of them were finally moving, and Tiberius started to honk and overtake others. It was all a blur. Would they make it in time? Reese had no idea how long these things took. He felt like the baby was coming now, but what if he was wrong?
He couldn’t stand the thought of bearing this pain for much longer. He felt like he was splitting apart.
This time when the pain hit and kept rising, he howled.