Total pages in book: 85
Estimated words: 81208 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 406(@200wpm)___ 325(@250wpm)___ 271(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 81208 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 406(@200wpm)___ 325(@250wpm)___ 271(@300wpm)
The next day, when my contractions start, I’m worried. The babies haven’t moved much, as though they can sense the time is near. Hunter is back from patrol, and all my bears stand around with concern lining their foreheads and tensing their broad shoulders. If they could, they’d shoulder this burden for me, but like all women, creating life is mostly a solitary process. I tell myself our creator must have known what they were doing when they gave women this burden alone.
I’m ready to meet my babies, but I’m scared, too. So scared I won’t be strong enough.
Hallie arrives in twenty minutes, and Evan shows her to the room we’ve prepared for the birth. My belly is squeezing violently every two minutes. When Hallie checks to see how dilated I am, her eyes widen. She unsnaps her gloves, washes her hands, and returns to my bedside.
“You’re close,” she says, tying her hair into a neat bun, getting ready for what’s coming. She’s dressed in scrubs and comfortable shoes, and I’m naked from the waist down in one of Hunter’s t-shirts. I’ve asked my men to wait outside for now. I don’t need them witnessing another woman pushing her hand where the sun doesn’t shine. There are some things I want to keep private.
I groan loudly as the next contraction hits, and my waters break, soaking the disposable mat beneath me. “Oh god,” I say, panting like I’ve been practicing, the additional oxygen making me lightheaded.
“Get on your hands and knees,” Hallie instructs. “It’ll make the birth easier and reduce the pain.”
I’m strong enough to turn over, but when the next wave of pain hits, my body goes limp. “It’s time to bring in your support team,” Hallie says.
“Okay.”
She covers me while my mates gather around the bed. They’ve seen every part of my body and been inside me in ways that make me blush to recall, but I don’t want them at the business end of this. It won’t be pretty. Evan kneels before me, Hunter to my right, and Robert to my left. They hold me up while Evan encourages me through the pain, breathing with me and patting my face with a cool cloth. “You’re doing so well,” he says. “You’re nearly there.”
I want to believe him, but the pain is overwhelming. “It’s time to push,” Hallie says. “When the next contraction—”
She doesn’t get to finish her sentence because it’s here, and I’m pushing. The fire between my thighs makes tears squirt from my eyes. I grip Robert’s hand, gritting my teeth and holding in an almighty growl that, if released, will only weaken me. These babies are coming, and I must do everything I can to get them out.
“I can see the head,” Hallie tells me, as I feel like I might burst open. I push again, seeing stars and licking flames behind my eyes. My head swims with the pain, and I feel outside myself, dizzy and disconnected.
“That’s it. One more.”
“You can do it,” Evan tells me. “You can do it, Goldie. You’re so close.”
“Ahhhhhhhh,” I groan, dropping my head to the bed. The pressure between my legs crests, and then there’s release. I pant, trying to regain my breath, focusing between my legs on the baby Hallie is wiping down and inspecting. That’s my boy. My son. Coran Bjorn. The future alpha of this clan. A pained cry slices the air, and Hallie laughs. “He’s perfect,” she says. Hunter leaves my side, forgetting his commitment to stay near my head, and takes the baby from Hallie. I only glimpse his serious face, focused on his child, his firstborn, awash with emotion, before the contractions start again.
“Noooo,” I groan. I need more time to regroup, to dig deep to find my strength, but there’s no time. Connell is coming.
“You can do it, Goldie,” Evan whispers in my mind. “You’re so strong, so fierce, a bear momma who’ll take on the world for her cubs.”
He’s right. I will. I’ll kill for my mates and my cubs. I’d tear flesh from bones to protect them. “Easy,” Robert whispers, stroking my back. He can see the images flashing through my mind and feel my rising panic. “No fighting today.”
I pant, feeling the remaining baby shifting lower inside me. It’s so fast; he’s desperate to get out to meet his family. “He’s coming,” Hallie confirms as Hunter sits on the edge of the bed to show me Coran. He’s scrunched up, and his wisps of dark hair are matted with vernix, but he’s perfect.
“Oh god,” I groan. “Oh… I can’t.”
“Focus,” Hunter bellows in my mind. “Focus, mate. You’re almost there.”
It’s the toughness I need to help me bite down and get through the last of this. My body feels like it’s being wrenched in two like I’m being turned inside out. The pain reaches a level that turns my vision white, and I open my mouth, but no noise will come out. “Push,” Hallie says. “Push, Goldie.”