Chapter Twenty-Three
Virion
It was normal to be embarrassed to be wet in the presence of family, but this variety of wet signified a whole new loss of autonomy and privacy, one that even strangers felt privilege to.
Laying back, the healer, Nilla, attempted to shoo Nemiah off to wait with his mother.
“I’ll be right here.” Nemiah glared at her and earned a scathing glance back.
“Do you not trust me?”
“I trust you, but I want to be here and witness to this.” Nemiah leaned down to kiss Virion’s temple and hold his hand. “Nobody deserves to be alone during this.”
“Thank you.” Virion squeezed his mate’s hand, grateful for Nemiah’s strange propriety. Virion’s father had never once sat in on a birth for any of his children, and from what everyone had told him, Behran didn’t sit in on Nemiah’s birth, either. He merely waited outside the room and took the child as soon as he was severed from his pater. The omega that bore him had chosen to leave the kingdom, and Kiara had the babe thrust into her arms that night, congratulating her on becoming a mother. And in a way, it had been a kindness to spare the omega and to give Kiara a child, finally. He had every right to turn Kiara away, back to her homeland, but he chose to give her a child. Perhaps there was some degree of kindness in him.
The thought passed in a flicker as the squeezing pain in his belly progressed. The domed surface hardened in a ripple and, throwing his head back, he felt the uncomfortable clack of his horns against the headboard, unable to contain them. Nemiah supported his head to stop the scraping and whispered sweet nothings into his ear as the pain rippled through him, bringing with it a fresh gush of birthing waters.
“I love you,” Nemiah said, his lips brushing the shell of Virion’s ear.
“You better, because I’d hate to be doing this for someone that hated me.” Virion couldn’t muster a laugh through the pain.
Uncomfortable coldness made his backside twitch and his genitals shrink. Not that omegas had much sac to begin with.
When water arrived to the room and boiled under a spell’s flicker, the nymphs returned, a sliver of their ethereal color briefly visible through a part in the curtains. As curious as they were, they spared him their attention, seeking out the direction of Kiara’s quiet whispers.
Fingers invaded his hole without warning, the healer pressing one of his legs up. Virion bleated in shock but didn’t rebuke her. She likely warned him, but his focus seemed so distant.
“You timed it right, my prince.” Her praise, ultimately, meant little as another wave of the pain swept through. It wasn’t as bad as he’d imagined, just ramping up from the odd cramping he’d had since the night before. The preparation he’d taken, reading through old medical manuscripts on how to center himself in his pain had paid off. The Drashil allowing omegas to become healers and scholars had made so much more information available to him.
The contraction that wracked him ebbed, and in the lull, he dimly registered Nemiah’s whispering pleas to the goddess for his health and pain. A nearby lantern flickered with blue flame as a reassurance that she, too, was there to witness this new life. The flicker gave Virion assurance as well.
“Push! Bear down, Virion.” The healer’s urging made Virion cringe as he bore down against a growing, violating force. His inner organs seemed to shift and move as he bore down and found Nemiah bracing his horns to help him bear forward and grasp his knees.
“I hate this! Stop!” Virion snarled as he wrenched free of their grasp and flailed in bed, much to their protests. On all fours, Virion released a haggard breath and bore down, pushing that violating pain down lower, stretching his hole far beyond anything he’d ever taken before. The sting and burn settled, making itself at home in Virion’s body.
He pushed again, bearing through a contraction as the healer tried to coax him to lie once more.
“Fuck, no! That position is outdated, inconducive to my anatomy, and if I’m going to rip my asshole, I’d rather do it on my own terms!” Virion snarled as he pushed and the healer put up a weak protest about her not being able to see things as well.
“Your ease of viewing is less important to me than my own safety and comfort.” Virion snagged Nemiah’s offered hand and squeezed until he hissed and a bleat of surprise confirmed his suspicion. Their child crowned.
With fierce, snarling breaths, Virion bore down through another contraction then another, his energy wavering as he screamed at the apex of the head pushing free, a shoulder, and the rest of them in this violating, empty spill that left him shivering and weeping.
It took a few moments, Nemiah parting from him and the healer busying herself. The long silence grew ominous until a barking cry rang out, wrenching free of unwilling lungs.
Nemiah broke down into shaking sobs as he moved over the bed, arms cradling a bundle while the healer worked Virion over. Task completed, Virion fell to his side and let her clean and bandage him.
“It’s a boy,” Nemiah said, tilting the crying bundle into Virion’s arms. Ashen skin, a pale dusk child stretched out with curled fingers, pale lips forming a gaping O of displeasure. A dusting of silvery light hair stuck up at all odd angles.
Into his arms the child settled, quieting against his warmth.
“Ahran,” Virion whispered, glancing up to meet Nemiah’s eyes. A continuation of his father’s name, but not a repeat of it. It signified meaning, power, and command, with none of his father’s venom left in it. “What if he’s omega?”
The odds of an alpha omega pair producing a beta were low, so the likelihood of the child being omega or alpha was near that of a flipped coin, with a beta being a coin landing on its side.
“Then he’s omega, and he’ll be king, with his own consort.” Nemiah took the child from him and opened the curtains when all had been cleaned and the healer excused herself.
Alluin arrived within the hour of the child’s birth, marching through the halls with minimal guard as he entered their chambers to pay witness to the child that Kiara had been reluctant to release between bouts with the excited nymphs that dazzled the infant into opening his wide eyes. White sclera gave way to silvery pale irises.
Nemiah took over, addressing the king as Virion fought the urge to fall asleep after letting the child feed at his chest, the sensation foreign and uncomfortable. The urge won out, but he found himself roused as a cool hand wrapped around his own and squeezed in an unfamiliar way.
Virion peered up and locked eyes with his father, his face a mask of uncertainty. Perhaps his emotions were genuine, perhaps calculated, but he gave Virion a slight nod. “The boy’s beautiful. You did well.”
Virion offered Alluin a half smile and a nod. “Of course he’s beautiful. He takes after me.”
Alluin stifled a laugh and shook his head before Kiara saw to putting the babe into his cradle.
As promised, Sima came in with Nemiah’s page and recorded the birth, letting Sima write the date in with careful numbers. His poor hand trembled, and the numbers came out a little crooked, but legible all the same.
“Heal up nice and strong, Virion, my dear. I want another grandbaby as soon as possible.” Kiara laughed and offered a short hug to Artemis, a warmer gesture than she’d given the nymphs previously.
Virion glared at her and made a rude hand gesture that she reciprocated with a genial laugh before seeing herself out, muttering something about seeing where her son had wandered off to with Alluin.
With their little one taking a nap, Virion closed his eyes, relishing what sleep he could get.