Read HeartStorm (HeartFast Series Book 3) for Free Online Page B

went into labor less than a quarter hour later. At this precise moment she's fully dilated, and her pains are coming less than two minutes apart. Breathe, Star. Keep the oxygen flowing to the baby."
                Hunter felt his nose tickle. He was on the verge of shedding tears, and there wasn't any damn way he could wipe his face or nose. Sniffing, he pressed a hand to his throat, feeling the HeartCrystal where it lay in the hollow of his throat, and pleaded with the stone.
                Emma, please send her my love.
                A tiny chirped response echoed in his head. Hunter watched the screen as he mentally ticked off the seconds in the back of his mind.
                Star cried out again, this time arching her back. It was then Hunter noticed she wasn't so much clutching the rim of the tub as she was gripping it because her wrists were restrained in wide, flesh-colored cuffs.
                "Come on, Terrin. Push. Push. I can feel the baby's head. Time to push, Terrin!" the doctor urged.
                Star gritted her teeth, her eyes focusing on Hunter's image on the small monitor. She grunted, panting for air between efforts. Her hands released the tub rim and balled into fists.
                "Push, Terrin! We have shoulders!"
                Fire knelt by the tub and took one of Star's hands in hers. Hunter watched as the woman placed a kiss on his wife's temple, and a surge of jealousy streaked through him. The emotion was as unexpected as it was strange. Jealousy had never been part of his makeup. Yet, at this beautiful moment, if he could, he would have risked anything to be with Star.
                The physician suddenly shifted, and she gave a little cry of joy. Raising her arms, she lifted the newborn infant from the waters and into the air. The umbilical cord stretched from the baby, down under the water's surface.
                "Congratulations, Udo, Terrin! You have a daughter! Fire, bring me a towel. Quickly!"
                Morning Fire got to her feet and hurried off-screen to fetch the towel. Hunter kept his eyes on the tiny child now shivering in Perlakian's hands. Deftly, the physician flipped the baby onto its stomach on the towel, and briskly began rubbing its back with the material. A thin wail drifted through the connection.
                "Oh, come on, little one! You can do better than that!" Perlakian gently admonished.
                In the next instant, a more lusty yell filled the room, and Hunter saw Star weakly grin. Fire released the straps holding Star's wrists, and his wife reached up to take the baby, which she brought back into the tub. Letting the warm waters surround the infant as she placed the newborn on her chest, under her chin.
                Hunter saw Star's reaction the same moment a light twinkled at her throat. Star touched the crystal with her fingertips, and the look she cast up at the monitor was filled with love.
                "Emma, tell your father we have been blessed."
                "Do you have a name yet for the child?" Perlakian inquired.
                "Callaura," Hunter answered in unison with Star.
                A series of four musical notes sounded. Surprised, Hunter realized the HeartCrystal had chirped simultaneously at his throat and at his wife's. The four notes came again, and this time he could almost swear he heard the word Call-lee-lah-rah.
                No, Emma. Callaura. Not Callielaura.
                But the crystal remained insistent, chirping the short motif a third time. Hunter smiled to himself.
                He leaned back in his seat. He was exhausted, but he couldn't take his eyes off the mother and child lightly dozing in the birthing tub.
                Hunter frowned. Why was the water taking on a reddish tinge? In fact, the