Chapter Twenty
Jude
I woke from a deep sleep with a start. My wolf woke me, clawing at me through our connection. My back was covered with sweat. I swiped the back of my hand against my brow, finding perspiration there as well.
“Jude? Are you okay? Nightmare again?” Ripley reached for me, brushing his hand along my lower back. A simple graze of his fingertips, and I realized how sore I was at the place where my back met my bottom.
“No. Not a nightmare.” My last trimester had been riddled with nightmares.
They were uncommon for me. I had such a dream only a few times a year, if that.
At first, we’d chalked them up to eating sugary food too late at night or the fluctuations in blood sugar as I neared the end of my pregnancy, but a visit to the healer let me know that it was neither.
He said it was more about the hormonal changes and less about the fact that my cookie orders had doubled as of late and thus, so had the sampling of my baked goods.
Even Ripley ran extra hard lately, trying to burn away the extra calories. Silliness, if you asked me. My mate was as chiseled and godlike even after a few dozen cookies.
I, on the other hand, was an ever-inflating balloon, at least, in my abdomen.
My kitchen had become entirely too small, I’d found, trying to move around with my protruding belly.
I’d once been able to flit around it, efficiently and quickly and now, I barely made it one inch without bumping into something.
“Can I get you something?” Ripley got up from bed and came around to my side where I slid out of bed and felt instantly better once my feet hit the floor. Maybe I’d been sleeping the wrong way.
“I think I’ll go get some tea.”
“I’ll make it for you. Stoke the fire a bit, and we can sit up until you’re ready to go back to sleep.”
I sighed. He spoiled me. “You don’t have to. I can make tea. One of us should be sleeping.” I glanced to the clock on the bedside table. “It’s not even dawn.”
“You’re awake. I’m awake. I want to be with you, especially now. It’s so late in your pregnancy.”
Giving up, I took his hand and we walked the short distance to the kitchen. I put on the kettle while Rip moved the embers around and added some logs to the hearth.
“Ripley!” I called out as a bolt of pain streaked through the bottom of my spine and seemed to build near my channel. I gripped the edge of the counter with such force that I was surprised it didn’t break.
“Jude,” he said loudly, but I could barely hear him. His voice sounded so far away.
“I think…I think I’m having contractions. I…no, it’s more than that. The baby is coming, mate. Now.”
Another gripping pain ripped through me, and I fell to my knees before Rip could get across the room.
“I’m calling the healer.”
“Please,” I begged in my wolf’s voice. He was pushing for control, and I gave it to him, happy to take a back seat in this transition. He knew how to give birth, not that we ever had, but he relied on instinct alone and was sure about what our body was capable of. The power that lay within us.
I heard my mate call the healer, Quinn, and tell me he would be there soon, but my wolf didn’t want to wait. “I-I want to go outside.”
My wolf pushed some of our magic at me, giving me new energy and, before my mate could answer, I made my way to the back porch and then to the snowy yard. Rip followed me, blankets already in his hands. I grabbed one, getting on my hands and knees right there in the first snow.
Fitting, since it was the snow that brought me my mate.
“Jude, what can I do?” Ripley asked, kneeling down beside me. We’d talked about this part. Where he would feel helpless next to me while I did all the work, but I’d somewhat convinced him support was hard work too.
That was before my body twisted in pain and my hips felt like they were breaking apart.
“Catch the baby, alpha. That’s all I need you to do is hold them.”
Ripley moved to my back and rubbed circles on my lower back. “You can do this, omega. I’m here. Our pup is almost here.”
My channel burned as I pushed harder and with more strength than I’d done anything in my life. Ripley gave me some more encouragement but my focus was on the pushing.
Three of those back-breaking, burning, aching, anguish-filled pushes and our babe was born. I collapsed onto the blankets as soon as I knew they were safe in their papa’s arms.
“She’s here,” Ripley said, bringing her over. “She’s here. We have a daughter, Jude. And she’s perfect.”