Chapter 18 #2
Her voice lowered and grew huskier as she said, “Mmm. When you strike, Drakkal, you strike deep.” She reached out despite his warning and caressed his cheek.
He snarled and batted her hand away.
Pain and anger flashed across Vanya’s features for an instant, but she recovered quickly, and the smugness returned to her expression. “Seek me out again when you’re alone.”
Dropping her hand, she turned and sauntered away, her tail lazily swaying behind her.
Drakkal didn’t remove his eyes from her until she was gone, but Vanya being out of sight offered him no comfort.
Her scent, woefully familiar, lingered in the air—and on his cheek.
Once, he’d longed to have that scent in his fur, had craved it, had thrilled in it.
Now he wanted nothing more than to scrub it off.
He turned to Shay and froze.
Her skin was pale, too pale, and her lips were pressed into a tight line. She stood with her feet wide apart, posture stiff. The angry fire that had burned in her eyes moments before had vanished, replaced by a gleam of fear. He knew immediately the change had nothing to do with Vanya.
“I fucked up, didn’t I?” she asked in a shaky voice.
Drakkal’s brow furrowed, and his heart quickened. “What’s wrong, kiraia?”
“I…I think my water broke.”
He tilted his head and lowered his gaze. There was a dark stain beginning at the crotch of her pants and continuing down her leg, but he couldn’t detect even a hint of the distinctive scent of terran urine. “I…don’t understand.”
“The baby, Drak. The baby is coming,” she said, speaking quicker and quicker with every word, her voice rising as tears filled her eyes. “It’s too soon. She’s not supposed to come yet! Oh, God, I fucked up.”
For a second, perhaps two, Drakkal couldn’t process what she’d said. It was too soon. Wasn’t it? And how could the cub possibly come now, after what had just happened? But even if his logical mind was slow to catch up to the situation, his instincts roared up from his subconscious.
He scooped her off her feet, cradled her in his arms, and ran back toward the hovercar. “You’re all right. You’re both all right. We’re going back now.”
She wrapped her arm around his neck and sniffled as the tears ran down her cheeks. “I messed up like I always do. I-I shouldn’t have tried to attack that woman. I did this.”
“Quiet, female.” He maneuvered through the surrounding foot traffic, which fortunately wasn’t as thick as in many places in the Undercity—the upper portion of Arthos had nothing if not abundant pedestrian pathways.
He roared at the people in his path regardless, unwilling to risk even the slightest delay.
“It’s her time to come,” he said to Shay in as calm a voice as he could muster between those roars. “You didn’t do anything wrong.”
Shay gasped and hunched forward, body stiffening. She grasped a fistful of his mane, pulling his fur, as she clutched her belly with her other hand. Drakkal barely felt the pain. He increased his pace as much as possible without jarring her.
When they reached the hovercar, he wasted no time in opening the passenger side door and settling her on the seat.
He fastened her safety harness and closed the door without allowing himself even an instant to fret over her condition—every second was precious now.
Urgand had warned them that this could happen at any time, and that there was a chance she’d have little warning.
The data he’d found on terran pregnancies suggested that no two were quite the same.
He vaulted across the front of the hovercar, tugged open the driver’s side door, and climbed in. The vehicle swayed under his weight. He activated the engines before he even had the door fully closed and ascended the moment the hovercar was ready.
Keeping his left hand on the controls, he held the right out to Shay. “I’m here. We’re going to get back, and everything will be fine.”
She grasped his hand and nodded, breathing heavily for a few moments before some of the tension left her. “Okay. Okay,” she said, still holding her free hand over her belly. “Hear that, baby girl? Everything…is going to be fine.”
As much as Drakkal disliked voice commands, this was exactly the sort of situation in which they were useful.
“Call That Horny Prick,” he said.
Shay huffed a laughed despite everything. “That’s your contact name for Arc?”
“Tell me it doesn’t fit,” he replied with a fleeting smirk.
The vehicle’s center control screen switched to a commlink array, displaying a pending connection with a commlink number. The connection was accepted almost instantly.
“Pussy Cat,” Arcanthus said smoothly. “I thought you were on a date with Shay. Were you—”
“I will claw your fucking eyes out if you make one more cat joke,” Drakkal growled. “Cub’s coming. We’ll be there in ten. Have Urgand ready.”
“Baby’s coming right now?” There were muffled voices in the background, too low and garbled to understand. “We’ll all be ready. Drive safe.”
The call disconnected.
“Oh fuck, fuck, fuck.” Shay’s grip on Drakkal’s hand tightened again as her breaths shallowed and quickened.
Drakkal glanced at her from the corner of his eye even as he increased the speed of the hovercar. Beads of perspiration had begun to gather on her forehead.
“Breathe, kiraia. You’re in control. And soon, you’ll be holding your cub with your own hands.”
“Who was she?” Shay asked when her body eased.
“Who?”
“That female azhera.”
His expression tightened at the mere thought of Vanya; she was a threat to Shay, and his instincts didn’t appreciate that he’d let her walk away. “Someone who doesn’t matter.”
It had taken them nearly twenty minutes to drive to the starting point of their upper city walk.
Drakkal completed the return journey in eight—and those eight minutes were the longest of his life.
Shay’s flares of pain were frequent, coming and going at random, and all he could do was let her squeeze his hand and drive.
The former felt ineffective, the later too slow.
The garage door was already open when they arrived home. He swung the hovercar around and pulled up directly to the interior door so it was only a meter or two from Shay’s side.
Arcanthus, Razi, and Samantha were waiting. They helped Shay out of the car as Drakkal rushed around to her. He swept her into his arms again and hurried for the infirmary. Urgand was standing in the hallway as they approached.
“Her water broke,” Drakkal said. “Can you fix it?”
Urgand preceded him through the door and gestured to an adjustable bed with a pair of stirrups. “Probably just the amniotic sac rupturing.”
Sam followed Drakkal in, closing the door behind her.
“That sounds worse,” Drakkal growled as he carefully lowered Shay onto the table.
“Messy but normal,” Urgand said distractedly. He was hurriedly moving equipment into place around the bed and pulling up floating holo screens. “Take off her pants.”
Drakkal’s ears slapped down. He clenched his jaw and reminded himself—more than once in rapid succession—that this was necessary. She couldn’t very well push her cub out into her pants.
“It’s fine, Drakkal,” Shay said, dropping her hands to her waistband.
Drakkal scowled and tugged off her boots before helping remove her pants. He tossed them onto the floor, turned his head, and glared at Urgand.
“Do I need to have Razi and the boss hold you back?” Urgand asked, pulling on a pair of gloves.
“Why?”
Shay grunted and closed her eyes, her face strained as she gripped the sides of the bed. Fluid seeped from her and wet the bedding.
“I need to check how far along she is,” Urgand said.
“So turn on the scanner and see,” Drakkal replied.
“He has to feel,” Sam said, easing up beside Drakkal at the foot of the bed with a sheet. She draped the sheet over Shay’s legs and waist.
Not for the first time, Drakkal’s instincts warred with one another.
The most rational of his impulses was to question the necessity of feeling anything.
All this damned equipment, all this expensive equipment, and for what?
What was the point of it? But he was not so lost to instinct as to crumble to those impulses.
He loved Shay, and—though he’d yet to meet her—loved the baby, too. Whatever was the best for them. Whatever was the safest.
Drakkal nodded tightly.
“Get her feet up,” Urgand said as he pulled on a pair of thin gloves.
Samantha and Drakkal took opposite sides of the bed and did as Urgand had commanded.
“Let us know when your contraction is over, Shay,” Sam said.
Shay nodded, features tight. After a few seconds, her expression relaxed slightly. “Okay. I’m ready.”
With an uncertain, concerned glance at Drakkal, Urgand slipped one hand beneath the sheet and placed the other over Shay’s pelvis.
Drakkal growled long and low, forcing his full attention to Shay. “I’ve got you, kiraia.”
She kept her eyes locked with his, and though she didn’t speak, she lent him strength through her gaze.
He loved her more than ever in that moment, even if this was backwards—he should’ve been able to hold his shit together without needing to draw comfort from her. He was supposed to be supporting her.
Urgand stepped back and removed his gloves. “Five centimeters. The terran charts say that’s halfway there.” He frowned and looked at Shay. “How long you been having contractions?”
“You mean the cramps?” she asked. “Since yesterday.”
“You’ve likely been in labor since then,” Samantha said.
Urgand’s frown deepened. “I’ll get you something for the pain.”
“No!” Shay hissed as soon as the word was out, her body tensing. She shook her head several times. “No drugs.”
Drakkal’s stomach churned. He caught her hand in his and gave it a squeeze. “You don’t need to suffer like this, Shay.”