Page 17 of Omega Haunting (Starscale Mates #8)
Astral
All our time spent stuck wedged together under the bed gave us plenty of time to discuss my birth plan. Unless there was a medical emergency, I was giving birth right where we were. I made Marsin take out the good pillows and bedding and come back with some older ones from the linen closet as soon as we began discussing the birth of Baby Raylin. Those had no sentimental value attached to them and could be replaced easily when we burnt them later.
As soon as my water broke, we’d call my parents. They would not come into our room unless I asked but instead would strengthen the wards and guard us. I wasn’t sure who my instincts thought would eat our pup but any intruder was more likely to be eaten up by Marsin than to actually reach our pup. That factoid gave me more comfort than even my new favorite wraparound body pillow that Teddy brought over.
We would inform Doctor Leem that I had gone into labor so that he’d be on call in case something went wrong but he also wasn’t allowed into the bedroom until I said so. My wolf daydreamed about eating anyone who crossed the threshold of the bedroom and had the audacity not to be Marsin. He was the only person who we could truly trust with our baby. He was the only one who could love Baby Raylin as much as I did. He was the only other person who would do anything to protect our pup.
Sometimes I pretended to be asleep so that Marsin could text the doctor when he thought I wasn’t paying attention. It wasn’t hard to know who he was texting by the scent he gave off. He was always slightly annoyed when he chatted with Doctor Leem but he did want to know everything the doctor was willing to tell him about wolf birthing. I knew all the most important parts. I’d attended more than a few births in my life. Once the pup was out, you needed to ensure the poor baby was breathing and moving. You needed to wash him up and make sure no gunk was in his mouth or nose. Then you cuddled the hell out of him while he suckled. That was how you took care of a baby post birth. Then, of course, you did need a doctor, for the vaccinations but at least for a little while he’d carry the immunity he gained from my own vaccinations while he grew inside my womb.
As soon as my water broke all those plans went straight out of my head and I was never so grateful for anything as I was that I made my wishes and needs explicitly clear to Marsin in the week leading up to the big day. He locked the door and opened the window just long enough to stick his head out and howl to signal my parents what was what. His howl wasn’t too wolfy, but it was passable and if anyone made fun of him for it, I’d fucking eat their faces off as soon as I finished giving birth to the watermelon trying to claw his way out of me. That’s what I should’ve named him. Baby Watermelon Raylin.
Despite his shaky hands and his rush to get towels and hot water, Marsin took a second to laugh at my joke. That was the real test of a good mate. Could they laugh with you even when you were down to the wire? If fate didn’t allow me to live out my life and to be an old wolf, grey and white in the muzzle, I hoped to die laughing with Marsin. It wouldn’t make up for all the missed years but at least it would be a good last memory to carry into the Other World with me.
“Hey! No thinking about that! We’re going to live to be so old that you’re toothless from age and I lose all my scales!” Marsin said, sticking his head back under the bed. “Those are the rules.”
“Green!” I whimpered over our mating link.
“Green for? Talking? Being a smart ass?”
“Yes! Green!”
“And we’re gonna have so many pups that you don’t even have time to think about any doors unless it’s the backdoor where all the paw prints are,” Marsin continued. “We’ll have so many kids that your parents will finally buy that land behind the farm they keep eyeing just so we have somewhere to keep them all.”
“I hope you’re planning on carrying some of these kids.”
“If I could carry your baby I would,” Marsin said, and I sniffed the air.
He wasn’t lying. It was easier to offer to do something that was impossible, but I let it go. Starscale Dragons were a different breed and for all I knew he’d actually do it given the chance to put his money where his mouth was. Either way, he spent the next six hours cooing to me, massaging my belly, and feeding me the tiniest star-shaped ice cubes. They were fucking adorable and do you know how cute something has to be for someone in labor to notice they’re fucking adorable? They were that damn cute. Then again, maybe that was all the love hormones hitting my brain at once.
Those six hours might as well have been six days, six weeks, or six years because it was only much later I was told how long I was in labor with Baby Raylin. Six freaking hours.
But those six freaking hours were worth it once my grey little wolf pup with scales around his eyes and nose was suckling at my belly. He was beautiful and he was ours. He smelled healthy and had all the parts that one expected to find on a wolf pup even if his little eyes weren’t open yet.
“He’s so fucking perfect,” Marsin cooed, running a single big finger down Baby Raylin’s back. “You did so well. You’re so strong.”
He was laying it on thick, but I didn’t stop him. If there was anytime in life where developing a praise kink was appropriate it was during childbirth and squeezing out a baby watermelon. So he could just keep the complements coming and he did until we both dozed off with our baby. Marsin wrapped his big draconic wings around both of us, putting us in a cocoon together. This was the good life. This was the life I worked my ass off for. This was the reason I was so willing to talk to Dern’s apple. Maybe I was a crazy wolf. Hell, maybe you had to be a crazy wolf to get fate’s attention and find your mate. It all worked out in the end, though didn’t it?
My thoughts had softened into a gooey, dreamlike state when someone banged on the door like they had the shits and we were tucked away inside the only bathroom in the house. Marsin chuckled at the joke but didn’t register the knock.
“Alpha,” I hissed over our mating link. “I think I need you to eat someone.”
He started to sit up, but I knocked his head back down onto the pillow with my paw until he remembered we were under the bed.
THUD! THUD! Whack!
The door crashed open, and I heard my mother growl. Teddy cursed and wings swept through the air.
“What the fuck?” Marsin swung out from under the bed. “Stay here!”
Magic crackled through the air and moved so I laid on top of Baby Raylin. The door slammed shut and the metal scraped against metals as the screws wound back into their rightful homes inside the hinges. The whole damn room smelled like metal and an angry omega.
“Dern?” I yipped.
“Sorry, y’all, but this is the way it has to be. We’re going to wait things out.”
Marsin growled and his feet disappeared from view. Dern dodged and snarled, “Call off your attack lizard, pup! I have a gun and I’m not afraid to shoot him! I promised I wouldn’t hurt you, but I never made any such promise about him!”
My heart skipped a beat. The rest of the house was in chaos, but I couldn’t move. I couldn’t leave Baby Raylin alone and from my angle under the bed I couldn’t even reach Dern’s boot clad toes. No! No! NO! No! NO!
“What do you want?” I growled.
“I have to do this for Ormund. We’ll just wait it out. If Marsin here calms his scaley balls down we can talk! I’m not some crazy old hound! I’m not imagining things! Just because you’re a witch doesn’t mean you know everything there is to know! I won’t have my story told like that and we won’t let Ormund’s promise go unfulfilled!”
“You’re fucking crazy!” Marsin roared and I cringed.
“Please don’t get shot! Please don’t get shot! We just had a baby! Please don’t get shot!” I chanted over our mating link.
“No one’s gonna make up the fact you were crazy because you are crazy! You’re insane! Who barges into a room with a fucking newborn in their own damn pack, waving a gun around like a fucking madman!”
Could dragons get shot? Could bullets pass through scales? I wish I paid more attention in shifter biology in school.
“I am not crazy! Ormund is right here! He’s always been right here! He’s never left me! That’s what real love is! He’s stayed with me because he’s a real fucking alpha!”
“And what? I’m not? What would you have me do Dern? Pick you bone from bone and suck out the damn marrow?” Marsin growled back at him. “Would that have made you happy? Is that what a real alpha would’ve done to protect Astral?”
“He’s senile, Marsin!” I growled over our mating link. “Calm him down! Don’t rile him up! I don’t need you getting shot and I don’t need anyone tearing him limb from limb so gotdamn close to my pup!”
Wood splintered and I growled again. It was the only thing I could do unless Dern crawled right under the bed with us.