Page 89 of Prayers for the Prickly

Shit, shit, what do I do?he squealed along with the frantic thoughts he sent.

Snuffling, I growled low, short, rumbly sounds as I attempted to reassure him but also encourage our little whelplet as it slipped out more. Seconds later, my first child slid out of my mate and instinct took over. From the videos we’d watched, I knew I needed to nudge and stimulate the little one to breathe and move, so that was just what I did, using my nose to nuzzle until I got the tiniest rumbling in return as the little one wiggled toward me.

Are they okay?

August’s thoughts were edged with pain and we still had four more to go.

I think so but I will feel so much better when your mom and Aunty Eunice get here.

You and me both,he thought back. At least it doesn’t hurt as bad as it did a minute ago.

That’s good, right?

I sure hope so.

Our little one had wiggled until they were by my cheek, tiny wet body pressed against my fur and trembling. Using nose and claws, I got the blanket wrapped around them and tucked my head close to provide some warmth.

Wolverine or hedgehog?he thought after several seconds of silence.

It was probably good that he was resting before those contractions revved up again, but I really hoped backup arrived before the next one came, because I was seriously out of my element. I could have used my old man or even Uncle Curtis or Uncle Atlas as a lifeline at the moment, but I hadn’t even thought to shoot a text to any of them or Mom to let them know what was going on.

Tiny little wolverine and so fuckin’ adorable.

The sound of feet on the steps was the best sound I’d ever heard in my life. Fuck the waves, fuck the scrape of a chisel on wood, hell, even the sounds my mate made when we were passionately making love was nothing compared to the sound of those footsteps. I raised my head, made eye contact with Aunty Eunice and wasn’t sure how to communicate with her or August’s mom in that form.

Fortunately, I didn’t need to. August’s mom quickly removed her shoes and stepped over the side of the nest to sit beside her son, while Aunty Eunice’s shrewd gaze quickly spotted the whelplet in the blanket and took charge there.

“Someone got impatient,” she cooed as she reached to cradle and lift the little one, blanket and all, for a quick exam.

I wanted to ask if they were okay, but in this form, all I could do was let out of a few low growls and stare up beseechingly for her to tell me something. With tender care and practiced ease she tended to my new whelplet while August’s mom stroked his head.

“Beautiful job, honey,” his mother said, running a fingertip over his belly right before I saw it contract again. “Just a few more to go.”

Four was more than a few, after how much pain he’d been in with the first one, but I knew this was the process. Just needed to keep from losing my shit but dammit all, it was hard seeing my mate in pain.

Oh yeah. Breathe. That was the one thing I could do.

“Let’s just set this little girl right over here by me until the rest of her littermates make an appearance,” Aunty Eunice said. “Good job, Papa, you did everything right. Go ahead and stretch back out by your mate now, talk to him and keep encouraging him. Hopefully, we have a short afternoon ahead rather than a long night, but I won’t lie to either of you, sometimes the last few like to linger like they’re waiting for an eviction notice.”

A grumbled growl burst from me in place of a chuckle, her little joke easing the tension that had left me digging claws into the blankets.

We have a little girl,I conveyed, not certain of how much of the conversation he was tracking.

So cool. Can’t wait to hold her. All of them, if they’d just get the hell out of me.

Ohh, yeah, time for me to stretch out and do what I could to help keep him calm without getting a chunk of my ear bitten off for thinking the wrong thing or chuckling through our mind link at his fervent declaration.

Soon,I thought, hoping that was safe.

Not soon enough.

Licking his belly had helped before, so I tried it again and he sighed, and once again pressed one tiny foot against my ear. As much as it had thrilled me to see my wolverine daughter be born, I really hoped the other four were hedgehogs, because after our daughter’s birth, they were sure to be easier, or at least, I hoped they’d be. Tradition, in both of our families, had always been to have our babies at home. Hell, most of the families in town had the same practice, unless there was some kind of complication expected. Personally, I’d considered five flippin’ babies as a gods be damned complication, but when I’d suggested that two weeks back, during family dinner here, just about everyone around the table, including my mate, had looked at me like I’d just been dropped from an alien spaceship.

I understood why now, as I watched Aunty Eunice help him bring a second whelplet into the world. Smaller than the first, who’d already been tiny, this one was a wolverine, too. No way we were having all wolverines, that just, that hadn’t been in any of the scenarios we’d pondered, let alone planned for.

While I looked from August, with his eyes closes and his tiny feet splayed on both sides of that round belly, I decided there was just no way, no way at all, there were three more babies that size inside of him.

No fuckin’ way.

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