Chapter 10
Chapter Ten
Ikal
P regnancy had proven to be a series of highs and lows. The medicine Dr. Lagarto had prescribed had worked wonders for my nausea, but there was nothing he could do about the strain being pregnant with five cubs was putting on my body.
Except put me on bed rest for the duration of my pregnancy.
So, for the last three and a half months, I’d been bored out of my mind, forced to stare at the same four walls all day every day.
Tor was the best alpha ever, though. He’d hired the private chef we’d talked about while we were in Cabo, and Imelda, who was also a sea turtle shifter, and I had hit it off right away. She was only supposed to come in three times a week, but after I’d been sentenced to what amounted to house arrest, she stopped by every day, sitting with me and keeping me company. We’d watched almost every Disney animated movie ever made, and we had a running list ranking all the Disney princes. Imelda also kept the house stocked with healthy snacks and these green smoothies she swore were the best thing for ensuring a healthy pregnancy.
Mirabel also stopped by a few times a week to bring me pastries and gossip from the coffee shop. In the beginning, I’d made her change before she came over, but I was finally able to tolerate the scent of coffee again.
The only time I really left the house was for brief walks in the morning and to attend my weekly appointments with Dr. Lagarto.
So I’d spent the rest of my time shopping online and getting as ready as we could be to welcome five jaguar cubs into our lives. Tor had been amazing about setting everything up, and he’d even bought me a comfy recliner for the nursery so I could sit with my feet up and watch him work. This week, he’d been putting in later hours at the hospital because there was a hurricane threatening Miami where a bunch of sea turtle shifters had made their nests and laid their eggs. One of his colleagues had asked him to come to help, but given the fact that my due date was hard to predict, he’d had to decline. The doctor in Miami was now waiting for Tor’s friend Everett to arrive. When he’d told me about the nests being in danger I’d cried, my damn pregnancy hormones still getting the best of me. I hoped they’d all be all right.
The front door to our apartment opened, and a second later, I heard my mate’s voice. “Ikal?”
He said my name like he didn’t know exactly where I’d be. For the past few days, I’d been sitting in the nursery surrounded by everything we’d bought for our cubs. I was huge now, and moving around was getting more and more difficult. I tried to put the footrest down and stand, but I was too off balance and I slumped back into the chair in defeat. Calling out to my mate instead. “I’m in the nursery.”
Tor’s head popped through the door a few seconds later. “Hello, maitea. I missed you today.” He crossed the room quickly and dropped a kiss on my lips, then lifted my shirt and pecked five kisses to my skin. His hand smoothed over my giant bump. “Hello to you too, my beautiful cubs.” They were all super active, and like they’d been waiting to hear his voice they all started kicking.
“Great, now you’ve done it. One of your babies just kicked me in the bladder. Help me up so I can go pee.”
My mate looked down at me. “Ikal, what is all this?”
“Oh, Imelda helped me get all the baby blankets, towels, and washcloths out, and I know it’s weird but I wanted them all over me so I just piled them up.” Tor reached down to move them, but I slapped his hand away. “No, don’t touch them. They need to stay where they are.”
His answering smile was brilliant but there was also a tiny bit of terror in his eyes. “I think you’re nesting, my love. I think our cubs are going to be here very soon.”
I shook my head. I wasn’t nesting. There was no way. I couldn’t be nesting because I wasn’t ready yet. “Just help me up, but be careful not to move too much.”
“Of course, maitea.”
My back had been cramping since I’d gotten up that morning, and it twinged painfully when I was finally on my feet. I rubbed my hand over where it hurt worst, but it didn’t help.
“What’s wrong?” Tor took my arm and helped me waddle to the bathroom.
“My back has been bugging me all day. Lugging your cubs around is a lot of work.”
“I know it is. But you look so damn beautiful all round with my babies.”
Tor had been obsessed with my bump and horny as fuck for my pregnant body, but Dr. Lagarto had suggested we proceed with caution when it came to penetrative sex. We’d done it a few times early on, but since then, Tor had spent a lot of time between my legs sucking my cock and jerking us off together when we were both too horny to stand it.
He helped me push my pants down and settle on the toilet, then he leaned against the sink, waiting for me to finish. I reached behind me to flush the toilet and a cramp rippled across my belly followed by a rush of liquid.
Tor’s gaze swung my way. “Ikal, are you okay? What was that?”
I looked down at where my hand rested on my bump. The muscles beneath my hand were hard and tense as another cramp rolled through me, and I started to panic just a little. “I-I think my water just broke. I think the cubs are coming.” I looked down at my huge stomach again. “Holy shit, Tor. The cubs are coming. What do we do? I don’t know what to do!”
He was in front of me in a second, his hands cupping my face. “Breathe, maitea. Just breathe. You’re an omega. Your body was made for this. Trust yourself. You know what to do.”
I took a few deep breaths, matching them to his, and my panic receded. He was right. Tuning into my body, I took stock of what I was feeling and what I needed.
“Can you run a bath for me? I really want to be in the water for a little while.”
“Of course, my love.”
The en suite bathroom in our bedroom had a large soaking tub, and Tor helped me out of the pants that had pooled around my ankles. He held me steady as we made it back to our room.
My contractions were pretty far apart, but they were also pretty steady, and I leaned against the vanity as Tor turned on the taps to fill the tub. He stopped to help me breathe through every contraction, and when the tub was full, he helped me undress the rest of the way and climb in.
The water felt amazing, and my whole body relaxed. “You know, if I were pregnant with eggs, I would be in the water until I was ready to lay.”
Tor nodded. “I know. I also know it’s been hard for you not to be able to shift these last few months.”
Dr. Lagarto and Tor’s friend Everett had both suggested I avoid shifting while I was pregnant because my turtle body wouldn’t be able to accommodate the cubs. Tor was right. It had been difficult being disconnected from that part of myself, but I would already do anything for my babies, and if that meant giving up a little time in my shifted form, I’d do it. The other hard thing about giving birth to jaguar cubs, was that since I was a reptile shifter, my body wasn’t made for nursing. If I were a jaguar shifter omega, I would be able to chest feed my babies in my human form and they would be able to nurse in my shifted form too. Since I couldn’t offer them that, Tor and I would have to bottle feed. It had taken me a little while to come to terms with that, but ultimately if our babies were happy, healthy, and fed, it didn’t matter.
“Tor, do we have enough formula?”
My mate nodded. “We have a whole case. I actually sent Imelda a message and asked her to pick up another case on her way over tomorrow.”
“Tor…”
He held up a hand. “She said she’s going to leave everything outside. She won’t come in until we tell her we’re ready. She knows the early days are important for bonding as a family.”
“Thank you.” With all my fears temporarily abated, I leaned my head back on the edge of the tub and tried to relax, knowing labor was going to get a hell of a lot worse. Tor kept draining and adding water to the tub as it got too cold, and by the time I was ready to get out, my contractions were coming fast and furious and I was getting the urge to push.
“Tor, I need to get out. I need to be in the nursery.”
He said nothing, just grabbed the largest towel we had and wrapped it around me helping me dry off as I doubled over with the force of another contraction. The pressure in my lower abdomen intensified, and I knew I needed to push. I wasn’t going to make it all the way to the nursery. I was going to deliver one of our babies right fucking now.
I turned and grabbed the towel bar, using it to hold me up as I bent my knees.
“Maitea? Are you okay?”
Another contraction hit, and I pushed hard. “Fuuuuuck.”
“Oh my god. Oh my god, Ikal.” I heard the panic in my mate’s voice, but I couldn’t focus on it while I was trying to bring our first cub into the world. I barely noticed Tor bustling around grabbing every towel we had and putting it under me, giving our baby a soft place to land.
“The blankets, Tor. Get the blankets.” I gasped the words out while the contraction subsided. The pressure was so much worse than it had been before I started pushing. But I instinctively knew that was a good sign.
The next contraction hit right as my mate returned to the bathroom and once again, I gripped the towel bar hard and bore down, pain ripping through me and a scream tearing from my throat, but this time, I felt something release, then I heard Tor gasp before springing into action and moving to scoop up our cub.
“You did it, maitea. Our first cub is here.” He held up the sweetest little cub wrapped in one of our hand towels and brought them up to my face so I could kiss over their head. Tor partially shifted, his long jaguar tongue running over our baby’s head, and the little one let out a tiny mewl that made my heart shatter into a million tiny pieces before knitting itself back together. I hadn’t even gotten to hold our baby yet, and I was already so in love I knew I would never ever be the same. Tor cut through the cub’s cord with one sharp claw, then wrapped them up tighter and held him to his chest. At some point he’d taken his shirt off and seeing our cub nestled against his bare skin made me melt.
Tor held on to our cub while he uncapped a bottle of water and helped me drink. A light contraction rippled through me, signaling this whole thing was about to start again.
“Do you want to move to the nursery?”
I shook my head. He’d brought all the blankets into the bathroom, and I really liked being able to use the towel bar while I pushed.
The next contraction was strong, and I leaned over, breathing hard and rubbing a hand over my stomach. I knew what was coming, and I was scared because it had hurt like hell, but I also now knew the joy of meeting my babies. I looked at the tiny cub cuddled in my alpha’s arms, and I knew I’d endure whatever it took for our little family.
On the next contraction, I pushed hard, our next cub anxious to make an appearance. This time it was easier, and I didn’t have to push for as long before our second cub was born. Again, Tor picked the cub up and cleaned them off, then passed them to me for a quick snuggle. The third cub was born even faster than the second. My body barely had time to recover before the urge to push overtook me again. Like Dr. Lagarto predicted, the twins were the last cubs to be born. They wanted to come out at the same time, but there was no way my body could handle that. Tor and I took turns massaging my stomach, trying to get them far enough away from each other that they could each have their turn.
When they dropped onto the soft blankets beneath me, Tor started crying, and even though I was completely exhausted, I turned to look. The two cubs on the towel didn’t look like their siblings, who had each been born with their father’s jaguar markings.
“Maitea, they look like you. Like your shell.” Tears fell freely from his eyes as he helped me to sit on the floor and passed me three of our cubs to snuggle while he tended to the last two. I stared at the pattern on their fur, completely transfixed. Tor was right. They did look like me.
He wiped tears from his eyes and wrapped me gently in his arms. “I love you so much, maitea. You were amazing.” He pushed my sweaty hair out of my face, cradled my cheeks in his palms, and kissed me hard. Love and admiration poured through our bond, filling up the parts of me that felt a little depleted after the work of giving birth. He was giving me his strength. As always, my mate knew exactly what I needed. “Let’s get you cleaned up, my love, then we can all rest.”
I nodded, kissed the heads of the cubs in my arms, and let Tor take them from my arms, settling them into one of the little beds I’d bought so they were all tucked in together. He was so sweet and gentle with them, and I knew he was going to be an amazing father. Tor helped me shower and dress in my comfiest sweats. I was sore, but every time I glanced at where our babies were sleeping, I knew I would do it again in a heartbeat.
My mate tucked me into bed first, kissing me gently, then he held each of our babies up to me for a kiss, arranging all five of our cubs on my chest, before he shifted into his jaguar form and jumped onto the bed next to me, wrapping himself around me and our babies. He lifted his head, and his long, rough tongue rasped over my cheek.
“I love you too, Tor. More than you will ever know.”
I’d wanted this so badly for so long, and the reality was better than any wish I’d ever wished. And as I drifted off to sleep surrounded by my perfect little family, I felt happier than I’d ever been and excited about every joy our future would bring.