Epilogue
The days turned to weeks, then a month, and longer still.
I was heavily pregnant, wondering if I was ever going to see my best friend again but refusing to lose hope, when word finally reached us that the portal had reopened.
Vurhg, Sorak, and Berkr had yet to return from the little camp they’d set up.
They meant to live out there until Dace found her way home, it was presumed at this point.
Birch divided his time between the village and keeping vigil by the portal campers.
Dace had left more than an impression on him if he’d sprouted horns for her—a Lepyr trait.
Celuk had provisions stockpiled for an emergency rescue mission but that was a last resort kind of deal with a herd of angry rhinelephalos, the human mates’ nickname for the massive, generously horned, rhino-elephant-buffalo looking beasts that migrated towards the village during the chill-you-to-the-bone months.
Celuk and the rescue crew were trying to give Dace and Maroumak time to come home and the rhinelephalos a minute to move on and no longer pose a threat of any kind to the village.
Joanie’s male was trying to look at it from all possible angles.
I understood and respected that. He, like Veck, had everyone’s best interests at heart, whether that was what I wanted to hear right in that moment or not.
We needed able bodies here to protect the home front too.
The day my water broke, I just lost it. Dace wasn’t here.
She was missing this. My babies needed to know their favorite auntie.
I needed my best friend. Sobbing all over Kehl as he tried to get me out of my soaked clothes, Elm rushed off to grab Dorothy, who I had chosen for my birthing healer, and Cy helped lay out sheets on the bed to protect it from the mess that was about to happen all over the place.
One moment I thought I was fine, then next I just looked at Kehl, my chin started to wobble, and then I burst into tears.
“Where is she? She’s supposed to be here,” I sobbed out.
“Be ‘kay, my Purr-roo,” Kehl crooned as he risked standing this close to the splash zone or worse at close range.
A contraction hit me the next moment and my knees buckled. Kehl helped me down to the floor so I didn’t drop. Squatting, I leaned forward, grabbing onto his hands for dear life, and snarled.
“AAAArgh. Something’s happening!” I growled out.
Kehl snapped at Cy to hurry over and Cy came stumbling over, dropping the sheets in his arms, just in time to catch our first born.
“Slippery!” Cy called out as he basically caught our baby as it came shooting out of me.
“Girl,” Kehl purr-rumbled at me as he stared down at Cy’s hands.
“He needs help,” I mumbled as I turned and gripped the end of the bed instead of Kehl.
Kehl rushed over, assured I was okay, and helped Cy cut the cord.
By the time Elm had returned to tell us Dorothy was on her way, baby number two was crowning.
“Come help!” Cy called out. “Babies slimy slippery! Cy not have ‘nough hands!”
“My babies are not slimy,” I burst out, which gave Kehl a chuckle as I tore at his forearms as he held them out to me.
“Babies not slimy. Babies bootiful,” he assured me.
“Move,” Elm growled, to trade places with Cy.
Like it was the most natural thing in the world to him, Elm got right down in there, not an ounce of hesitation, and helped deliver babies number two and three in short order, all girls, all healthy, with each a beautiful set of lungs on them.
By the time Dorothy came scrambling through the door with Lukar on her heels, there wasn’t much Elm hadn’t already taken care of.
Lukar even complimented Elm on his abilities, something Elm took to heart.
We had a healer in the making in our midst. While he liked farming with Forest and his brothers well enough, I could see that spark in his eyes as he worked to help me bring our children into the world. It came to him naturally.
“Cy help too,” Cy grumbled.
“Cy not pass out, or drop baby. Very goot,” Kehl complimented him.
Cy gave everyone a Did you hear that? harrumph.
“Now come help Kehl with our Purrr-roo so she meet all her babies and then rest,” Kehl grumbled sharply.
Cy wasn’t typically one to take directions on the spot but he liked Kehl, respected him. He also really wanted Kehl to continue showing him the art of the loom so he could surprise me with hand made gifts solely of his making from start to finish.
I was just finishing nursing our third born, a perfect little Lepyr-Lo denaii hybrid if ever there was one, when I thought I heard a sound outside our hut.
When another didn’t issue, I let it go. Wishful thinking, I told myself.
Our Poppy, as Elm had wished to name her, had dark grey fur that matched the fur ring around Kehl’s shoulders, a cute little pink button nose, long, floppy ears, and the prettiest blue eyes the same color as Cy’s.
Elm admitted to liking the idea of the girls all having flower names, following in Sunny choosing tree/nature based names for all of her sons.
Cy and Kehl agreed after watching the way she bobbed her head searching out my breast to feed that she was indeed our Poppy.
Our first born, a copy and paste of Elm in his more Lo denaii shift, from his green eyes to his brown and white speckled furry body, we named Juni, short for Juniper.
Our second born looked about as human as they come, but for her paper white pale skin, glowing hazel eyes, and thick tuft of grey hair on her head, dark nail beds, and penchant for growling hungrily when nursing. Kehl liked Lia, short for Magnolia.
Juni, Juniper Dace, Lia, Magnolia Sunny, and Poppy Ophelia Tree, after my mother and myself, were only a few hours old and already bossing everyone around. The little darlings had my mates popping up to check on them at every little sound.
There was that sound again. Frowning, my gaze shot to the door.
Kehl stood, still cradling a sleeping Lia in his arms, loath to set her down, while Cy and Elm squabbled softly over whose turn it was to hold Juni.
“Here,” I said on a laugh after checking Poppy’s diaper. “No need to fight! There’s one for each of you!” I called out.
“How about one for their favorite auntie?” a voice I’ve been dying to hear called out softly.
Dace stood in the doorway, hesitant, hands wringing, shaking in place. She looked so different and yet the same it hurt.
“You better get your ass over here and give me a hug or I’m getting up out of this bed and waddling my achy ass over there myself!” I growled at her.
Dace grinned then, tears shining in her eyes. Swiping at her cheeks, she hurried over and gave me a huge hug.
Pointing at one very telling difference in her, besides the fact that her natural scent had changed, I muttered softly, “When you’re ready, you and me, we’re gonna talk.”
“When I’m ready,” Dace said on a laugh.
“Now.” Patting the spot beside me, I beamed at her. “Come meet your favorite nieces.”
“All girls. Oh! I love that for you!” Dace was over the moon excited and spent plenty of time oohing and awing over each baby.
NOW everything was completely right in my world.
I had wonderful mates and three healthy babies, a found family, a village that had our backs, my best friend that would do anything for me back with me, even portal travel to reunite me with my mates I’d feared lost to me, I’d found purpose and meaning in my life, I had everything I’ll ever need.
And I went on to enjoy this fairytale come to life and lived happily ever after, amen.