Page 23 of Once Upon a Rec Center Wish
I didn’t want that. I wanted Vern to be with me, needed him by my side to get through the ordeal. He was my reason for all of this.
Without the help of Walter and Rauh, I wouldn’t have made it to the village. My legs gave out multiple times, and I needed to stop each time a contraction beat my body from the inside. They picked me back up after each one and carried me as far as they could get before the next one hit.
Seeing Vern’s face inside the birthing center was a temporary reprieve. I wanted to kiss him until the next bout of agony rocketed up my spine and I remembered he was the reason I experienced the pain in the first place.
“Let’s get you in the tub.” My mate took Walter’s place beside me and helped Rauh lift me to stand in the tub.
Walter closed the door to the center and Rauh collected what he needed for my delivery while Vern helped me to remove my clothing and get comfortable in the tub. The buoyancy of the water proved some relief from the constant torture, but it seemed my body was doing everything it could to expel my babies. Another contraction hit, and I grabbed Vern’s arm, clinging to him as the pain ricocheted around my lower torso.
“It’s too much.” I gasped, barely able to breathe as the torment held on. “I don’t know if I’ll survive this.”
“Chew on this.” Rauh held a bunch of leaves in front of my face.
I gladly accepted whatever it was, hoping it would somehow help. It had a familiar flavor, but I couldn’t focus enough to place it.
“And, Vern,” the healer ordered. “Get into the tub and rub this on Falco’s lower back and up his spine. It will help with the pain.”
My mate quickly removed his tool belt and hat to do as Rauh ordered. With shaky hands, he rubbed the magical lotion into the skin across my hip bones and along my spine. It seemed to numb those parts so the next contraction only felt like a twinge back there compared to the previous ones, focusing its efforts more on my lower belly and groin.
With the slight ease to my misery, I caught my breath and looked up at Rauh. “How much longer? If I’m suffering this much, what are our babies experiencing inside me?”
“They’re being pushed out.” Rauh stepped into the tub with us. “If you’ll let me, I’ll check to see how far along you are to know if you can push yet.”
I nodded. “Please.”
The healer reached between my legs and pressed against my opening, the skin there feeling as if it were on fire. “You’ve dilated enough. On the next contraction, go ahead and push. It may take a few contractions to get them all out, but we’ll see how it goes. Vern, if you want to keep massaging his back, I will catch the babies as they come out.”
I felt my mate hesitate. Was he torn between helping me and being the first one to greet our babies? I would be in his position, but instead, I got to experience all the pain of the process.
The next contraction hit with a new force. Vern’s touch did nothing to alleviate the stress on my body. But I managed to push. Felt like I had to. I pushed with all the effort I could. I didn’t know if it was enough, but I felt a new sensation between my legs. Something was there. Something was coming out. Thecontraction eased, but I didn’t stop pushing. I wanted to see my babies. I needed to know all of this was worth it.
Unfortunately, it took one more contraction to push my first baby out. And three more to deliver the second into the waiting hands of Vern.
Two babies. That’s what I had. Two little beavers that would one day be able to absorb the magic of this world and shift into a human form to look like me. They were both adorable and fuzzy like a stuffed animal. But they were born with sharp teeth, so nursing them was out of the question. Instead, once Rauh helped get me cleaned up and I changed into dry clothes, Vern and I fed our babies a soupy mixture made from water, tree bark, and pond vegetation. Not something I would personally consume, but it was what they needed to start their life until they could eat the bark and vegetation on their own in a few weeks.
Holding one of my babies in my arms made me realize what I went through was worth it to bring both of them into the world. In fact, I started to forget the pain, instead focusing on how precious my mate looked with our other child in his arms. I really did get lucky in running into him on the day I arrived in the Enchanted Forest. I couldn’t imagine experiencing my first days here or raising our kids with anyone else. And I remained thankful to Ahmed for giving me that card in the first place.
Chapter Twenty
Vern
I never expected to be a father. Heck, I never expected to have a mate. Yet, I ended up with both a mate and children. Two children who rarely stopped moving. For the first couple weeks, they slept in between eating the special beaver mush Rauh had provided the recipe for, food that would give them all the nutrients they needed to help them grow and fill their little bellies. Their naps gave Falco time to sleep in between as well. I didn’t spend as much time away from home during that time, trying to finish up the birthing center in between helping my mate with our babies.
But as our two little ones grew, they started to refuse their kit food, wanting to eat in the forest or at the pond instead. And their nap time disappeared. We were lucky just to get them to sleep at night. Yet, neither one of them had shown any indication of being ready to shift. Though Falco had nicknames for them both, we struggled to keep their real names a secret until they were finally able to absorb the magic of our land and take human form.
While at the pond, Holden and his children offered to watch our two kits to give us a moment to ourselves, or time to sleep, but we were afraid we would miss their first transformation if we did. So, in our exhaustion, we waited. Some of my brothers even stopped by on occasion, surprising me more than Falco. They no longer held any animosity toward me for being the first to have a mate but hoped to be the uncle who caught the first shift in order to brag to the others. And it just so happened that Bucky stood at our front door, having just knocked when one of our little ones changed form for the first time. Though I didn’t know it was him.
I was on the floor, in my beaver form, playing with the boys while my mate slept, when I heard the rapping. I immediately shifted to my human form to answer the door, but I didn’t expect one of my children to rush past me, looking very much like a little human boy. No cry of pain during his shift. No getting stuck in between forms as I had my first time. Just a beaver one moment and a human boy the next. It made me wonder if he’d shifted on his own and neither Falco nor I had noticed.
My boy brushed his dark-brown hair away from his blue eyes, the same color as my mate’s. Then he reached for the door handle. “I got it, Papa.”
“No, wait.” I didn’t want him opening the door when I didn’t know who stood on the other side at that time. Plus, I needed to wake Falco and show him that one of our boys had shifted. “Hang on a minute,” I shouted to the person on the other side of the door.
Our other son remained in his beaver form but stood on his hind legs and reached up for me like he wanted to be picked up.
I patted his head. “You hang on, too. I must go wake your daddy.”
Rushing into the bedroom, I contemplated the best way to wake my mate. He was always so tired and needed rest, but he would be hurt if he didn’t see either of our boys in their shifted form before someone from outside our household saw them. I didn’t want to jolt him awake, instead running my palm across the side of his face. “Falco?”
