I hadn’t even properly parked my car, or the large body of the father-to-be was throwing himself at my door.

“They threw me out! Chris! Angelica is all alone, and they threw me out! My omega NEEDS me! SHE’S IN PAIN!!!”

It was hard to breath to the stench that was coming off of Brandon in thick waves.

“Dude, chill out. They can’t work with you oozing pheromones like that. Get yourself together, calm down and then go back in to hold Angelica’s hand. She needs her alpha, man. Act like one.”

“Can I have a cigarette?”

“You don’t smoke, Brandon.”

“I still want one.”

I sighed and handed over my entire pack and my lighter. Smoking was bad, but he needed to calm down for Angie. If this worked, it was worth it.

“Thanks.” He said. Hands trembling, he lit one and choked on it.

It was a little sad to see Brandon like that. Understandable, since his omega was suffering birthing his child, but in this state he was useless to anyone. And poor Angie didn’t even have her mother to comfort her now.

I ran inside and quickly found the right ward. I introduced myself as Angie’s sister and they immediately let me into the delivery room.

“CHRIS!” She yelled when I came in, tears in her eyes.

“Sorellina!” I called back and hugged her. She purred when I did so, but stopped with a sharp intake of breath, then grunted.

“Oh Chris, it hurts…” she muttered through clenched teeth.

“You’re doing great Angie, real great. Just breathe okay?”

“Where is Brandon?” she asked, after the contraction had passed.

“Outside, calming down. He’ll be back soon, sorellina.”

She chuckled a little. “He looks like a big bad alpha, but he’s such a wuss when it comes to this…”

“He is.” I agreed, and squeezed her hand.

“I’m glad you are here sorella.” She said as she squeezed back. “I wished mum could’ve been here, but I know she’s cheering for me from heaven right now.”

“She is.” I said, not sure if I believed it, but I hoped it was true all the same. We all missed her so much. Me, Luis and Angie, we only had eachother now.

“Dad called me…” Angelica said after breathing through another contraction.

“Did he? Wow. What did he have to say?” I was genuinely interested.

I knew our father had been speaking to Luis regularly since his grandchildren were born. Twelve years ago, he had started to contact the both of us for the first time in seven years. Reason being: his new wife Charlotte bore him an omega son. Can you imagine… Your dad leaves you when you’re twelve, ten and six, doesn’t contact you at all because he’s completely submersed into starting a new family. Then, when it turns out he won’t be getting any more alpha offspring, contacts you again. I still don’t know why Luis and I started talking to him again at that point…

Luis eventually even forgave the man. I tried, god knows why, to have some sort of contact with him back then too, but as soon as I married Patrick, he didn’t want anything to do with me anymore. Damn I hate that man.

“He wished me an alpha son.” Angelica said.

Of course he did.

“Typical.” I snorted. “What are you wishing for? Do you know already?”

“No…” Angelica beamed at me. “We didn’t want to know. It’s going to be a surprise. We’re also not going to test him or her. We’ll see the second gender when it reveals itself. I think it’s better to let the kid develop by itself, instead of forcing them into a stereotype.”

“You’re fucking awesome, you know that, don’t you?”

“I know.” Angelica said, smiling.

“Don’t let Luis or dad pester you into doing otherwise, okay?”

“I won’t. And nor will Brandon. I think he hates dad almost as much as you do, and he doesn’t give a shit about what Luis has to say. His dads are not pressuring us either, which is grAAAAAH!”

Angelica started huffing again, fighting the pain of the contraction. They were speeding up, and I could feel her tremble in pain. I could smell it too, although she was doing a spectacular job of keeping it together.

“Breathe through the pain sorellina, you’re doing so good…” I said confidently, stroking her head and allowing my hand to be crushed in hers.

The nurse stuck her face and hands in between my sister’s legs and said something about centimetres. I thought it was embarrassing as hell, but it must have been something good, because little Angie smiled at her like she won a prize.

She beamed even brighter ten minutes later, when Brandon came in. He smelled like nervous alpha with cigarettes, which was still bad, but at least he wouldn’t scare the nurses out of doing their job.

“Have you been smoking?” Angie immediately said in a teasing tone.

Brandon just nodded and took a seat next to Angie, clasping her other hand, and scenting her neck. She purred again, only to grit her teeth and start huffing and puffing seconds later. I could smell and see she was in pain, but she wasn’t screaming. Probably holding it together for Brandon’s sake.

After only half an hour and two very invasive check-ups by the nurses, they told her to start pushing. What happened next was truly horrifying. Never in my life had I been so fucking sure I didn’t want to be in her position EVER.

There was screaming, trembling, blood, poo and some kind of goo coming out of my little sister. And then at one point, there was a bloody and slimy baby girl. She looked horrible, but I lied and said she was beautiful anyway.

Brandon got to cut the slimy thing coiling from her belly, and then she started screaming. The sound had all the hairs on my arm rising up. It was terrifying. But everyone else seemed to be very happy about it, so she was probably meant to do that. The nurses then gave the bloody little gremlin to Angelica, who was crying tears of happiness.

The air suddenly smelled like something indescribable. It was coming off of the three of them, together. It made me feel happily lightheaded and warm. Then I noticed tears in my eyes. Why were there tears? I don’t cry!

Okay, so maybe I did. Because despite all the blood and gore and the hideous thing that came out of my sister after the baby, I felt this was one of the most beautiful and special things that I had witnessed in twenty-nine years.

I looked at Brandon and Angie being happy, then at the little gremlin in their arms and I realised that she was perfect. Mind me, she was still ugly as fuck, but lovely all the same. I couldn’t wait for her to start calling me auntie Chris, like Franca and Larissa.

I snapped a picture of the happy trio and asked if I could put it in the family app-group. Angelica nodded, and I did.

“She’s called Joanna.” Brandon said. And my heart just exploded. They called her after mum…

Through my tears I put the text under the picture: [Welcome to the world, Joanna Gilligan].

Patrick texted me, not in the group app, but privately: [Wow, it’s great that they named her after your mum! Did everything go OK? She looks like a gremlin :-p]

I laughed, and was typing a reply when Luis called. He too, was crying like an idiot.

“Congratulations zio Luis!” I said in between sobs.

“Congratulations auntie Chris! Were you there for Angie?”

“Yeah, she was extremely brave.”

“Of course she was. She’s a Fererra.” He chuckled. “Can you ask her when we can visit?”

“I think she’s going to need some rest first, fratello. I’m going home too. I’ll tell Brandon to call you when they’re ready to receive visitors.”

Brandon was nodding at me fiercely, with a grateful look on his face. Angelica wasn’t looking at all. It was as if she was on another planet. One that contained only her and her newborn. It was a wonderful sight. I gave her a kiss on her head that she probably didn’t even register, and went out.

The second I left the room I felt my tiredness crash into my body. My phone said it was 3.21pm. I hadn’t eaten anything at all during this entire ordeal and only now realised this. So I bought a sandwich from the hospital cafeteria, stuffed it into my mouth and drove home.

Patrick greeted me with a big hug, kisses and congratulations, but thankfully didn’t press me for the story. I just walked into the bedroom and crashed on the bed. I think I was asleep before my head even hit the pillow.