Heat Race - Tanya Chris Page 0,70
be dangerous.
“Child birth is always a risk, but historically, the risk has been higher for omegas than for women. It’s pretty obvious why hybrids evolved away from alpha/omega reproduction.”
“Why’s that?” Jack Henry swung his legs to the side of the table so he was in a proper seated position, not splayed open like a medical exhibit.
“Let me illustrate on this model.” Dr. Morris pulled over a plastic model of a woman’s anatomy. “A woman’s uterus is connected to the vaginal canal via the cervix. When the fetus is full term, the cervix dilates, and the child is born through the vagina. What you’re missing is a way out.”
“The baby doesn’t come out through my ass?”
Dr. Morris laughed. “I don’t even want to think about the sterilization nightmare that would entail. No, it seems nature didn’t plan ahead in the case of omegas. The only way out is through the abdomen.”
“A c-section?”
“Exactly. Except historically the c-section was performed by the sire. Using his, um, claws.”
That was all Jack Henry needed to hear. No way he was allowing Jasper to rip through his stomach to haul out a baby.
“As you can imagine,” Dr. Morris went on, as if Jack Henry wasn’t totally having a panic attack, “the results weren’t always satisfactory. Birth was a high-risk procedure, for both the omega and the child. But we can do better than that now. You’d give birth in a hospital, of course. Assisted by me, not Jasper. Survival rates for c-sections are very high these days.”
Jack Henry could tell Dr. Morris wanted him to have a baby. He would probably write a journal article about it, become famous for assisting at the first omega birth in almost two hundred years. But it was Jack Henry’s body that had to be sliced open. Whether by claws or a scalpel, sliced was sliced. Not to mention that a weird organ he hadn’t even realized he had was going to expand to the size of an infant. Who knew if it would shrink back down enough for him to dance.
He leaned into Elias, trying to communicate how scared and uncertain he was. He’d thought it would be better to know, but now that he knew, he remembered why he’d put off finding out.
ELIAS
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
No one was clawing their way into Jack Henry’s stomach on Elias’s watch. Jasper wouldn’t have any idea what organ he was aiming for or what other organs might be in the way of it. No wonder omega mortality rate had been so high.
“We were wondering about hormonal birth control,” he said to the doctor. “We’ve been using condoms, but they’re not ideal.”
Dr. Morris shook his head. “Sorry. By the time hormonal birth control came around, omegas had stopped getting pregnant. Nothing’s ever been developed for them. We might be able to fashion something like a diaphragm, but we’d be making it up as we went, and I doubt Jack Henry wants to be an experiment.”
Jack Henry shook his head emphatically no.
“Is it only Jasper’s sperm we have to worry about?” Elias asked hopefully. If only an uber-alpha could do the job, then at least he and Saul could stop using condoms.
“Nooo,” Dr. Morris said slowly. “I don’t think so. If an egg is present, any alpha sperm could fertilize it. Medical history is full of unexpected babies, whether due to infidelity or rape.”
“You’re saying if a strange alpha forced himself on me, I could end up pregnant?”
Elias wrapped both arms around his mate. “No one’s going to rape you,” he promised. Why would the doctor put such an idea in Jack Henry’s head? Elias rubbed up and down Jack Henry’s arms, trying to warm him up. He wasn’t wearing anything except the paper gown they’d given him, and the room was cool. “Let’s get you home. It’s a lot to take in.”
Dr. Morris left so Jack Henry could get dressed. He picked through his clothes as if he’d forgotten how to put them on until Elias took over, handing him one item at a time and guiding him through the process.
“Remember when we were in the treehouse?” Jack Henry asked as Elias tied his shoelaces. “Saul was fighting Lon, and we didn’t know about Jasper being an uber-alpha then. I was afraid.”
He’d been afraid Elias wouldn’t have been able to protect him if Lon had gotten past Saul. And he was right. Elias would’ve died trying, but he probably would’ve died.
“I’m a better fighter now. I’ve been practicing.”
“I know. I didn’t mean it that way.