Born Without Collarbones Novels & Stories

He dabs at her forehead, thinks about wrapping the baby up, then just drops the towel and embraces his mate and their baby. “He’s perfect,” Zach murmurs. “And look,” Orsina says, pointing to a strange birthmark on the baby’s left shoulder. “What is that?” “It’s us, I think,” Orsina whispers. Clara and I lean in close, looking at what Orsina is pointing to. Sure enough, it’s in the shape of the carving, a stylized version of a part bear, part wolf creature rendered in stone. “He’s going to grow up to be something amazing,” Clara says, her eyes full of wonder and pride.

He spanned thirty feet plus from tip to tip of his pectorals, his sunken veins coal-black beneath his flesh. He was naked save for a thin cloth covering his clasper, and whether too poor or too stubborn, he wore no HB mantle. His gills sagged down one over the next, heaving in and out like dog-eared bellows in a damaged ship’s bilge. It was a wonder that the Old One could draw sufficient air for life, much less voice. Bjorn searched for Crystellia, but his success rate remained zip. He had even engaged in a few games of Fins’Feet, hoping she would pass through. No luck.

"Look at her. She isn't blue. She isn't gray. She's... gods, look at her skin." Beneath the thin layer of birth-fluid, the baby’s skin wasn't marked by the typical corporate barcodes or registry tattoos that every mid-tier infant received at birth. For a second, a faint, geometric pattern of violet light pulsed beneath her collarbone—a ghost of the Vane Global data-stream—and then it simply dissolved, swallowed by a deep, light-drinking shadow that left her skin smooth and unblemished. She let out another cry. It wasn't a whimper. It was a sharp, concussive sound that vibrated through the marble floor, causing the puddles of melted silicone around us to ripple.

“I thought she gave birth to you. How did she do that if your dad doesn’t have a penis?” “He made one. I am a special case, an experiment while he was in a new world, far from his own.” I thought back and tried to recall if I’d seen anything hanging between the legs of the Masters when we’d encountered them earlier. None of them wore clothes. Some of them didn’t even have legs, but even the ones that did had an action-figure-smooth crotch. Not that I paid much attention at the time, because why would I? (That’s a rhetorical question).

Since they agreed about it, they decided to tell Collin as soon as possible. In the meantime, Beverly started packing. They brought a lot with them when they came since they had no idea how long they might have to stay. She was excited about going home, but she was also nervous. They literally had nobody. Knowing Collin, he would insist on sending some of the wolf guards with them, but Nicolas was going to tell Collin that they needed to do this on their own. Once they started bringing in newborns, he didn’t want wolves around that might get hurt. Newborns were well known for their ferocity and need to feed. They were also stronger than your average vampire. It was a side effect of being a n

His hands were clenched into fists. Catelyn was devastated. The baby's face was blue and her lips were purple. There were blue and purple marks all over her face and body. Most importantly, the baby was not breathing or having a heartbeat. Her body was cold... "The doctors had resuscitated the baby, but she had been held too long during the birth and she was born with one kidney missing, so she didn't survive..." Catelyn held the baby in her arms and examined her over and over again.

They were very patient and focused, making it easy for Atlas and Regina to understand. Atlas and Regina's tears flowed uncontrollably when they touched their babies for the first time. "They look so much alike, but there's something that sets them apart," Nurse Lily said. "This is the first baby born, a boy, the heaviest. There's a star-shaped birthmark near his collarbone," said Nurse Lily. "Look." Atlas and Regina examined the birthmark. "It really does look like a star," Regina said. "This is the second baby born, a boy, the longest, and his hair is also the thickest, and it looks like it's going to be a little wavy," said Nurse Lily. "He got the star shape on his left shoulder."

She leaned in, her breath fogging slightly against the chilled skin. Beneath the left collarbone, almost invisible to anyone without her level of training, lay a faint vascular signature. A delicate network of vessels that did not match any anatomical atlas she had memorized by heart. Not disease. Not mutation. Not a miracle her father’s faith would bless. Something older. Something that should not exist within human architecture. The monitors flickered once. Then died completely. Silence crashed over the operating room—thicker, heavier, alive. Even the ventilation system seemed to hold its breath.

MARIE "Breathe out slowly." Doctor Aris pressed his cold fingers against my lower ribs. Sharp pain flared beneath his touch. I did not flinch. My gaze locked on the blank wall. I counted the faint cracks in the plaster. One, two, three. "Exhale." Aris stepped back. He wiped his hands on a clean white towel. His jaw tightened in a hard line. "Three ribs healed wrong. Your collarbone has a hairline fracture. Malnutrition stripped away most of your muscle mass."

"Even if your body somehow managed to endure the strain and carry it, the child cannot live. The bones in its chest are already fused together, locking the ribcage tight before the lungs have even finished forming. The moment this baby leaves your womb and tries to take its first breath of air, it will suffocate. It has no viable path to life outside your body, but it will kill you before you ever reach that point." Renji ran a hand through his hair, his breathing rough and uneven as he paced a few steps toward the locked door and back. He looked completely shattered, torn between the harsh facts being laid out by his most trusted doctor and the sight of me sitting on the examination bed, cl