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No, wait… What the fuck?

Did she really say that to me?

“You’d be dead wrong.” Jax’ voice went so hard it was chilling.

I’d been on the receiving end of that quiet anger from his father more times than I could count. It was a completely different experience, watching as that scathing anger was turned on someone else. On my behalf. It was like having a trained Cane Corso in my corner, itching for a reason to rip into my enemies, with hundreds of pounds of bite force.

He was terrifying—I loved him for it.

“Get the fuck out before I report your ass to the Department of Health.” Jax snarled at the woman, fists clenched at his sides.

Nurse Teri snatched her clipboard, bolting out of the room without making eye contact with either of us.

Good riddance.

She was right to be terrified.

Jax wasn’t the kind of guy who would ever hit a woman or anything… but then again, I don’t know if there were any lines he wouldn’t cross to keep me and the baby safe.

He was just getting into competitions for boxing and mixed martial arts. From what I’d seen, it didn’t pay to be on his bad side. The way that he fought—Jax was a force of nature.

A couple minutes later, the nurse who replaced her walked in—Nurse Lani was a tiny Filipino woman in navy scrubs who looked like she could somehow take on a bear in the forest and win.

Nurse Lani wasted no time checking how dilated I was.

As soon as she was done, she shook her head. “You’re ready to start pushing. I’ll go get the doctor.”

“Wait, wait. What about the epidural?” Panic clawed up my arms.

Oh, no. Oh, hell no.

No, this wasn’t the plan. My birth plan, which was neatly printed out with bullet points and everything, made it clear. I wanted pain meds. I’d signed up for all the pain meds. I think that I had written EPIDURAL in all caps, underlining the word twice.

In no world was I interested in natural childbirth.

“You’re already crowning. It’s too late for that now,” Nurse Lani eyed my belly like she had seen this play out a thousand times before.

I didn’t doubt her. Those stern eyes had clearly seen things.

Okay. I didn’t have time to freak out. The baby was coming. How many years had I pictured ten little fingers and toes? I’d longed to meet my little one. I’d counted down to this day for years.

But now that the moment was finally here, my mind was whirling. Panicking so hard I couldn’t think straight.

What do you mean there wasn’t time for the epidural? This wasn’t fair. For the whole pregnancy, I’d done everything right. I made all the plans and even printed them. I’d told them about it hours ago.

Suddenly, reading all of those medical stories about everything that could go wrong didn’t feel like preparation so much as I had been mentally torturing myself.

Pain gripped me, ripping across my abdomen in waves that were only getting stronger. What started as uncomfortable cramps was now a pressure so intense it burned. Coming on faster and harder. Pressure that threatened to crush me.

The only thing keeping me sane was Jax’s hand in mine—it was a good thing that he was strong, because I was holding on so hard that my knuckles turned white.

Through the waves of pain, Nurse Lani directed me to put my feet into stirrups, and it didn’t matter that this was all happening too fast, because this was happening. Now. The baby was coming.

The monitor graphing out my contractions spiked sharply, just as Nurse Lani noted, “That’s a big one.”

Then it didn’t even matter anymore, because all the pain within my body transformed into a burning drive to just push.

Then with every ounce of my strength, I bore down. All my energy, every ounce of me—everything was shoved downward. A loud groan filled the air and a distant part of my brain recognized that it came from me.