CHAPTER TWENTY-EIGHT
Lero
Nightshade Bear Territory
Some carriers take to bed the last days of their pregnancy but each morning I woke up with an urgency to do things.
Things around the house. Make things. Cook things.
Sew and update the shop. Pile all the pillows around the edges of the bed so I could crawl under it and hide.
Then I remembered how Vallis was afraid of closed in spaces so I tried to pick them all up but managed to get two before I had to give up and take a nap.
Then I woke up and sewed a dozen baby blankets at my machine and little outfits.
I made shirts for wolves and bears and a pair of socks that had little bells around the cuffs.
And I ate.
And ate.
And ate some more. Food consumed my thoughts every time my baby moved.
Had I eaten enough to give him a fair shake of things?
Had he gotten what he needed from my body?
All the healers said that he was healthy and he kicked enough that I was pretty sure he’d come out of the birth canal and open up his own kickboxing studio but still I wondered.
I listened to podcasts about milk production and birth plans.
I had one but had I put enough thought into it?
Enough details? I was going the path of the least amount of intervention.
My grandsire would be on standby with IV pain meds if I needed them.
I’d accept an IV if I was getting dehydrated.
No, I didn’t want people poking around every few minutes to see how far dilated I was.
I might shift into a bear if the need came over me and I’d have the baby at home because we’d spent enough time in the hospital while Vallis was recovering.
I wanted him there with me the whole time.
No one was allowed to send him away. If by an anti-miracle, I needed a c-section, they couldn’t send him away then either.
They were to robe him up and keep him by my side.
With everything going on, it wasn’t any surprise that my baby waited until three days after his due date to start his journey.
It was a little past three in the morning and I was still up sewing a fuzzy sweater for a sloth shifter who lived on Hemlock Mountain.
He was pregnant with his tenth child and his alpha wanted to get him a little surprise gift.
I was nearly finished when I pissed myself.
Only it came out on the wrong side of things.
I kept sewing until I finished the hem of the sweater because everyone knew that first babies took forever, right?
So, why hurry to let everyone know? Labor took a while.
Once I finished the sweater, I sent Grandpa a text and waddled into the bedroom to change into the soft cotton robe I’d made just for today.
“Mate?” Vallis sat up and leapt from bed a second later. “Are you okay? Of course not! I left you up alone and now –”
I put my hand over his mouth so I could get a word in edgewise.
“Of course, I’m okay. My water broke. It’s not an emergency.
At this point, not having a baby feels more like an emergency.
I sent Grandpa a text. I need help cleaning up the sewing room.
I was working because my back hurt too much to sleep.
I finished the sloth’s order. It needs to go out in the morning.
I’ll have Grain package it up and take it---”
“Mate,” Vallis pulled away from my hand. “This isn’t the time to think about work! The baby is coming!”
I swayed on the spot, grabbing onto his arm as I rocked out a short contraction.
I’d witnessed enough babies being born that every bit of panic I expected to rumble through me disappeared.
My body knew what to do and unless it encountered something unusual it would do its job no matter what I thought or talked about. Still, worry creased Vallis’s brow.
“Mate, people have been having babies since before we kept records of it happening,” I said. “It’s okay. That was a contraction. A little one. Things will look a lot more scary before the baby comes. If it’s too much—”
“No,” he shook his head. “My instincts say to get you into bed and---”
“No,” I shook my head at him this time. “Unless I’m bleeding to death or about to be eaten, your instincts aren’t the important ones here. I love you, but this is me going through it. Moving during labor is not only instinctual but recommended.”
“Sorry, I didn’t meant to be a cave-al—”
“It’s okay,” I cut him off again. “Look, I know we talked about it beforehand, but sires always freak out the first few times. I’m just drawing a line in the sand now because I’ve seen what happens when carriers don’t.
Someone gets bit and let’s just say it won’t be me losing a chunk of flesh in the moment and I don’t want to do that to you. ”
Vallis nodded and took a deep breath. My bear rambled on about how alphas think they know everything about labor but can’t feel what we feel even if they paid attention to the mating links they had.
“Are you mad at me?” I asked when he didn’t say anything for several long seconds.
“No,” he shook his head and smelled like he meant it. “Just talking things through with my bear. I want to support you the right way. Only it—If I hurt that much, put me in bed and call the healer!”
“I would because you’re not having a baby,” I laughed.
I knitted on the sofa while Vallis cleaned up the sewing room. I didn’t want to use the machine now that I had had a contraction.
“No sewing your hand to the projects!” my bear teased and I laughed.
Laughing was a mistake! It brought on my next contraction, and I stood up to sway it out.
I didn’t want to pull out any of the big tricks yet.
I needed to wait until the pain grew worse.
My parents weren’t here yet – didn’t know I was in labor as far as I knew – but I knew what they’d say.
Don’t use all the methods at once. Save something for later.
Use the one you’re on as long as it still helps.
An hour later, I had Vallis pressing on the small of my back.
Only he wouldn’t press hard enough and moved his hands when I leaned back against them.
He was afraid of hurting me. My eyes teared up and I wanted to yell at him that I wasn’t a fragile piece of crystal and that I’d bite him if he didn’t push harder.
Then Grain banged on the door and for a split second, I was sure a war had broken out and I was going to have to eat enemies while pushing out a damn cub because that’s how my luck went.
“I felt it over the group link…” Grain started but I was already waving him in.
“Don’t hurt him!” Vallis growled when I had Grain take his place pushing on the small of my back.
“It’s counter pressure. It won’t hurt him,” Dad said, walking in not long after Grain started. “It’s good for pain. It’s like pressing your foot against the floor for a Charlie horse.
I breathed out a sigh of relief. Dad could explain things to Vallis.
We’d talked about them before but it’s different in theory than in practice.
For a second, I wondered if Grain was old enough to even be here, but I’d seen and acted as a gopher for my parents when I was younger than him. He was just about an adult now.
“Still a cub!” my bear roared inside my thoughts as another contraction rolled through me.
This time I roared. Soon, they’d tell me not to use up all my strength, but roaring felt good.
I grabbed Vallis’s hand and held onto it.
He touched my face and I leaned into his hand, nuzzling.
He smelled so nervous that it broke my heart a little.
I’d just have to be brave enough for both of us.
I let out a long, slow breath and kissed him on the cheek. We could do this. There would be like five or six people capable of delivering babies here – plus me. This was easy. Well, technically easy. The actually labor was --- well, there was a reason they called it labor and not leisure.
Sometimes I lost myself to the contractions and came back to the moment surrounded by people.
Once, I grabbed a hold of Preston’s arm instead of Vallis’s.
He was bruised and I was left wondering when he got there.
I had to pay better attention, or I was going to get eaten.
Then again, Vallis was there. He wouldn’t let them eat me.
He just needed to stay within arm’s reach of me.
I squatted, swayed, and slow danced with Vallis, leaning against him to let him take on most of my weight.
He’d gotten so much stronger since leaving the hospital.
He still went to physio and he had a therapist now too.
A contraction tried to murder me and my nails caught the back of his neck.
When the contraction passed, we were both kneeling on the floor, with Preston behind me to keep us both from toppling over.
When my carrier arrived, I nearly knocked over three people who stood between me and the door.
I clung to him for a fraction of a second like I was a cub all over again.
Then another contraction took over. Everyone rushed to help but he batted them away as it passed through me then he got me across the room to kneel with my elbows on the sofa.
This position felt the least painful. I could sway and move and I made Vallis sit so that I could rest my head on his lap.
Someone made a joke about me biting off his dick and I turned snarling at the room.
It was then that Dad cleared everyone out except my carrier, Vallis, Grain, and my grandcarrier.
He stayed in the doorway, watching and close by in case normal took a turn for the unusual.
My grandsire sat on the porch and for a second I imagined him smoking a cigar.
Which was silly. He didn’t smoke but laughing brought on another contraction.