“Yeah, yeah, she’s fine,” Deja says, trying and failing to roll onto her side with any grace. I don’t even care to hide my laughter because when Deja shoots daggers at me with her eyes, I know she’d give me just as much of a hard time for not being able to roll over on my own. “Help me out, you ass.”
“Care if I touch her?” I ask Dath, making sure before I do because the males can get weird during labor.
Thro was ready to rip all of us to shreds for even being in the same building as his mate when she was giving birth to their son. Marron had to pin him to the ground each time he lunged for Lyath or Beren. For three days, he was a loose cannon. Then, he spent a few weeks hidden away with his mate in their home with their new babe. When he came back after the storms, he was the same old Thro, making jokes and always laughing with everyone. So, if Thro can act so unlike himself during a moment like this, I can only imagine the damage a mate like Dath could do.
“Do what you need,” Dath says. He moves to help her before I can, though. “She is in charge during this. I do not have to know the pain, so I listen and do her bidding, yes?”
“Yes,” Deja says through gritted teeth as I help her to her hands and knees. She lets her head go limp between her shoulders and lets out a long exhale. “How fast was Vara?”
“The doctor did not even make it to the workshop once you decided she was to enter this world,” Dath says with a genuine adoration for his mate. He places a hand on her abdomen to help keep her supported. His other rubs small circles over her back. He looks up at me and then tilts his head toward the head of the bed. “Will you take her hand? It will be painful soon.”
I scurry to the top of the bed and take one of Deja’s hands in mine as she lowers herself to her elbows. Dath keeps one hand on her abdomen, the other slowly moving her skirt up and over her hips.
I try not to pay much attention to what’s happening because if I think too hard about how everything works, I might be the one who faints. If I faint, Deja will have something to hold over me for the rest of my life.
The sound of fabric tearing pulls me from my thoughts. Deja is growling, expletives about how Dath didn’t need to ruin a perfectly good pair of underwear.
“I’ll make you some more,” I laugh, “It can be a birthing gift.”
“You’ve already made me enough baby clothes to last me at least four more kids.” Deja tries to keep the smile in her voice, but the pain is making it strained. She clenches my hand in an iron grip as her face screws tight, and she lets out a pained moan.
“Only four more?” Dath asks. The humor in his voice matches Deja’s, making me wonder when they decided giving birth was a great time to banter. Was it during the second or third baby? “I think we can have more than that, surely.”
“I will rip your dick from your pocket if you think of impregnating me again before this kid is even out of me,” Deja growls and squeezes my hand even tighter.
“Fine, no talk of filling you with more young,” Dath relents, lowering his head to check on how everything is going.
I manage to look over to where he’s lowered behind Deja before I think better of it. I can’t stop the laugh that bubbles out of me. The whole thing just looks so absurd that I can’t stop it. Deja squeezes my hand again. She turns her head as much as she can to see what’s so funny, and Dath is darting his head back up
“Sorry, sorry.” I quiet my laugh enough so I can explain. “I just looked down there, and all I see is your bare ass and a pair of horns poking out from behind you.”
“Don’t look at my ass like this!” Deja shrieks as she tries to swat at my face with the hand that was holding mine.
“All right.” I nod, turning my full attention back on her face that she now has lowered back down again. “No more looking at your ass.”
“Fuck,” Deja yells as she squeezes my hand tight in hers. Dath disappears behind her again, this time the hand that was on her back disappears with him. Deja sucks in a deep breath, and as she exhales, I feel her body tense. “Fuck, fuck, fuck.”
“Good, good,” Dath says soothingly.
He doesn’t lift his head or bring his hand back up to her back. It feels like there’s a pause in the world. A baby’s cry fills the air, and Deja laughs like she didn’t just birth a baby in ten minutes flat. I don’t know how long she was actually in labor since she said her water broke this morning, but still. She made it all the way to my house and had a baby in less time than it takes me to patch a hole in one of the girls’ shorts.
Dath does something obscured by Deja’s staying on her hands and knees. Whatever it is, it only takes him a second. He stands from the bed with a very Deja-looking baby pressed against his chest in one hand. He helps Deja roll over and asks for me to help in getting her shirt off. When it’s off, he places their fourth baby girl on her chest and returns to between her legs.
“She’s beautiful, Deja,” I say, awestruck by yet another family member joining our odd little family.
“So beautiful,” Dath agrees, eyes sparkling as he helps Deja bend and open her legs. “You may stay, or you may leave now. I can help my mate with this last part.”
“Last part?” I feel a queasiness in my stomach. As much as I’m made up of the same bits as Deja, I don’t know what he’s talking about at all, and I don’t think I want to know.
Deja laughs, her eyes never leaving the crying baby on her chest. “Go before I ruin your image of me forever.”
“Too late for that,” I say with a laugh and a kiss on her forehead. “I’ve seen your ass when you’re in labor.”
“I hate you,” Deja mutters, her eyes finding mine for a moment as though she couldn’t bear to say the words while looking at her young.
“Love you too,” I say, giving her one last smile before slipping out of the room and leaving the house to find my mate and our nieces.
I’m just in time to see Beren running back through the trees, the doctor fast on his heels as they try to get to the house in case they’re needed. I stop them before they get inside, just in case Dath tries to kill either of them for seeing his mate how she is now.