Chapter Twenty-Four
Kirk
The closer to Delanie Hope’s birth we got the more I doted on Chasten and the more he let me. No longer did he complain that I did most of the cooking or reminded him when it was time to check his blood sugar or have a snack. I also took up guard duty, answering the door and not allowing anyone inside. As the days passed, he spent more and more time in his wolf form. It wasn’t part of his original birth plan but I was quickly coming to suspect that he was going to give birth while furry. It wasn’t that uncommon for shifters to do and doctors were trained for it as well.
When Doctor Dreala came to check out the birthing room, Chasten hid in the bedroom refusing to shift back to his human form. Her ‘inspection’ didn’t take as long as I thought it would and within half an hour, she gave the room a thumbs up and insisted on checking on Chasten. It took me a few minutes of coaxing him, but in the end, he agreed to see her. She took one look at his twitching belly and asked me if we had all the baby supplies we’d need for the first few days of our daughter’s life. Thanks to Chasten’s obsessive ‘baby’ shopping and the baby shower our friends hosted, we did.
“Good and I’m glad the birthing room passed too,” she said, her voice low and steady. “That baby’s coming today, Kirk. Maybe not right this minute. Maybe not within the hour, but today. Do you think you can get him in there?”
“I know I can,” I said and shooed her off into the birthing room to get things ready.
Her expression didn’t look fond of being shooed anywhere, but she was in our territory now. I tiptoed back into the bedroom not wanting to set off any anxiety or fear in Chasten. I peeked back into the bedroom where we had left him in the bed, but he wasn’t there.
“Mate?” I called out softly and tiptoed toward the bathroom on my socked feet.
The first snow of the year had come the night before and Chasten insisted we both needed to put socks on. I hated fabric clinging to my feet around the house, but I gave in to my pregnant mate.
A whimper sounded from under the bed, and I smiled to myself, no longer sure we’d make it to the birthing room. For a second, I almost barricaded the door. The need to keep the world out radiated all over our mating link from Chasten. Instead, I stretched out on my belly and asked him what the plan was over that same link.
Chasten put his paws over his eyes and shook his head. We weren’t going anywhere. So, I left Doctor Dreala to muck around in the rest of the house and grabbed some clean towels from the bathroom and stretched back at the foot of the bed with my mate. I massaged his ears and face as early contractions moved through his body. I stayed with him, only getting up to turn out the lights and grab a pillow to lean on while I was down on the floor.
Eventually Doctor Dreala did make her way into the bedroom earning growls from Chasten. She didn’t get too close. Instead, she lingered against the far wall near the bathroom door. As the minutes ticked into hours she came and went refreshing a hot basin of water over and over as if she couldn’t figure out what else to do with herself. She knew not to come too close unless something went wrong. I was pretty damn sure Chasten was all wolf now and he’d take off a finger to protect himself and the pup making its journey from his body into the big, scary world.
“We’ll see the leaves and we’ll take so many photos to show Delanie when she’s older,” I said, whispering to Chasten about our upcoming trip in between contractions. He panted hard and if I hadn’t worked in the hospital to see the occasional laboring carrier come through, I might’ve worried. I hated seeing him in pain. Hated the fear that dribbled all over our mating link when all I could do was stay by his side as he followed his wolf’s natural instincts and gave birth to a beautiful grey wolf pup.
Doctor Dreala tried to take a step forward when the first whimpering yip-whine broke free from our pup but Chasten growled and moved her closer to him until she found a teat. Her big appetite made me grin as Chasten licked her clean.
“She gets that appetite from you,” Chasten teased me over our mating link.
“I’ll happily take credit for that” I said, running my hand gently over his head again.
More than an hour passed before Chasten calmed down enough to let Doctor Dreala get a look at Delanie. She declared her healthy if in need of a real bath and gave her all the baby shots that would protect her against the big wide world that she was yet to meet. She lingered but we fell asleep with me half under the bed with Chasten and our pup. Later, I’d wake up with a sore neck, but for the moment, I was the happiest wolf in the world and had the best sleep of my life with my mate and pup close by.