Father Mine: Zsadist and Bella's Story by J. R. Ward Read Free Book Online Page B

evidently, had taken the random thought to heart. For the first time in weeks she moved strongly—and, with a sharp kick, broke her water.
     
    Bella had lifted her robe and looked down at the wetness, wondering for a moment whether she’d lost control of her bladder. Then light had dawned. Although she’d followed Doc Jane’s advice and avoided reading the vampire version of What to Expect When You’re Expecting, she had enough background to know that once your water breaks, the bus has left the station.
     
    Ten minutes later she’d been flat on this gurney, with Doc Jane moving quickly, but thoroughly, through an exam. The conclusion was that Bella’s body didn’t seem ready to get with the program, but Nalla had to be taken out. Pitocin, which was used frequently to induce labor in human women, was administered, and shortly thereafter Bella learned that there was a difference between pain and labor.
     
    Pain got your attention. Labor got all your attention.
     
    Zsadist had been out in the field, and when he’d arrived he was so frantic that what little hair was left from his skull trim was standing straight up. As soon as he got through the door, he’d ditched his weapons, the pile growing to the size of a love seat, and rushed to stand at her side.
     
    She’d never seen him so scared. Not even when he woke up from his dreams of that sadistic Mistress he’d had. His eyes had been black, not from anger but from fear, and his lips drawn so tightly they were a pair of white slashes.
     
    Having him there had helped her get through the pain. And she’d needed him. Doc Jane had advised against an epidural, as vampires could experience alarming decreases in blood pressure with them. So there had been no buffering at all.
     
    And no time to move her to Havers’s clinic. Once the Pitocin had fired up her body, the labor had progressed too fast for her to be taken anywhere—although it wouldn’t have mattered because dawn was near. Which meant there was no way to get the race’s physician to the training center, either.
     
    Bella came back to the present, smoothing her hand over the thin pillow that rested on the gurney. She could remember holding on to Z’s hand hard enough to break his bones as she’d strained until her teeth hurt and she felt as if she were getting ripped in half.
     
    And then her vitals had crashed.
     
    “Bella?”
     
    She wheeled around. Wrath was in the PT room’s doorway, the king’s huge body filling the jambs. With his hip-length black hair and his wraparound sunglasses and his black leathers, he seemed in his silent arrival like a modern-day version of the Grim Reaper.
     
    “Oh, please, no,” she said, gripping onto the gurney. “Please—”
     
    “No, it’s okay. He’s okay.” Wrath came forward and took her arm, holding her up. “He’s been stabilized.”
     
    “Stabilized?”
     
    “He has a compound fracture of his lower leg and it’s caused some bleeding.”
     
    Some being massive, no doubt. “Where is he?”
     
    “He’s coming home from Havers’s right now. I figured you’d be worried, so I wanted to let you know.”
     
    “Thank you. Thank you . . .” Even with the problems they’d been having lately, the idea of losing her hellren was catastrophic.
     
    “Whoa, easy, there.” The king wrapped her in his huge arms and held her gently. “Let the shakes go through you. You’ll breathe more that way, believe it or not.”
     
    She did as he suggested, loosening the rigid control she’d clamped onto her muscles. Her body shimmied from shoulder to calf and she relied on the king’s strength to keep standing. He was right, though. Even as she trembled, she was able to take a deep breath or two.
     
    When she’d become more stable, she pulled back. As she caught sight of the gurney she frowned and had to start walking around again.
     
    “Wrath, may I ask you something?”
     
    “Absolutely.”
     
    She had to pace a little more before she