Page 38 of A Drink of Destiny
“Mate, you’re not dressed,” Alvis said, trying and failing not to laugh. “You should at least put some pants on. No one here cares if you’re running naked but the hospital might.”
“If the hospital hasn’t seen a penis…” I started but Crilus handed me the pants to put on.
“I doubt they’ve seen one like yours,” Alvis pointed out.
I rolled my eyes at Earthside customs and did up the fly. My daughter wanted to be born, and everyone was worried about me covering up my dick as if it would somehow impede everyone doing their job. I took a deep breath and let it out before sliding behind the wheel. I leaned over and grabbed Alvis’s seatbelt strapping him and our baby in.
“Do we have time to get to the hospital?” I asked.
“We have plenty of time. No speeding or breaking any laws,” Alvis said, but he was holding onto the oh-shit handle for dear life. His pain radiated into me, and I almost shifted back. Pain almost always meant a fight and my lion usually took over for those. Only this wasn’t that sort of fight. This was the sort where I needed to keep my head in the game and get my mate to the hospital in one piece. Little Fangs Midwives Clinic wasn’t too far away fortunately.
While I drove, Alvis managed to text the clinic and let them know we were on our way.
“You’re doing so well, mate. You’re so big and strong,” I said, and Alvis reached over to squeeze my leg.
Another pain hit him and he squeezed harder. No one had warned me that I’d feel his labor too. That his pain would be mine, but it made sense. If his pleasure was mine, why wouldn’t I feel his pain too? I panted as I stopped at a red light. Irolled down the window desperate for fresh air an older draconic woman in the next car over asked if we were alright.
“Having baby,” I said. Just those two words because all the other Earthside words I knew left my head.
She said something congratulatory, but I didn’t quite wrap my head around what she said before the light changed to green.
A few moments later, I fish-tailed the car into the parking lot and swore under my breath. Was I trying to kill my mate. My pants had blood on them from where Alvis dug his nails into me. He tried to apologize but I shook my head as I undid his seatbelt.
“Don’t you dare apologize. My leg is fine. It’s there for whatever you need. Squeezing, biting, whatever,” I said, getting out of the car to open his door. A tall woman was already there and my arm was around her ready to toss her across the parking lot and out of my way until I realized she smelled like a blueberry scone because she was a nurse and not because she was some fruit-scented assassin.
“Don’t!” Alvis said and I let go of her.
“I’m sorry he’s like that. He’s a first time sire and…” his words devolved into a scream of pain.
“Hurry up and give him the medicine!” I roared.
The nurse flinched and I felt like an utter asshole.
“Raiel, get my bag and stop yelling at the nurse! She’s young! Looks like she’s barely out of school,” Alvis said to me before turning his attention to the nurse and assuring her that he’d done this five times over and that she’d be fine if she just stuck with him.
While I got the bag Alvis allowed the young blueberry nurse to help him into a wheelchair. She started pushing it across the parking lot and I almost hipchecked her out of the way before reminding myself that she was supposed to help. She wasn’t some object in the way. She wasn’t some person trying to steal my laboring mate away. She was a nurse, and this was her job.She was like a beta back home trying to help out. Though, betas were few and far between these days.
Ophelian was there when the door opened, and I had never been so glad to see his unmoving face. He took over giving the nurse directions and taking the bag away from me so that I could hold onto Alvis’s hand. Inside a cozy birthing room, I helped him undress while the blueberry nurse grabbed him a gown to wear. Everything happened so fast. The midwife and nurses all talked in circles using words that I’d forgotten the meaning of but soon Alvis was settled in with enough pain meds to make things more bearable. Once things were calmer, I picked up the important details over our mating link. He was almost dilated enough to push, and it was all happening quickly. The doctor was going to come back in and do another ultrasound because he’d only seen him a few hours ago and no one was sure about how things changed so quickly.
“I think the baby shifted into her cat form,” I whispered in his ear. “I think wolves and the like do it too, but it’s really common for babies to shift for us. It makes delivery easier most of the time.”
“Come lay with me,” he said.
“Am I allowed?”
“If they try to stop you, I’ll drink them dry, Raiel. Hospital or not, this is the birth of our child, and they aren’t in charge,” he said.
“It’s sexy when you talk like that,” I said, crawling into bed with him and offering him my wrist.
He took it and kissed it, but shook his head and said, “not yet. I’m okay for now.”
“It’s normal for the baby to shift,” I whispered in his ear.
“I know that,” he nodded. “I’ve been penpaling with your carrier. I want our daughter to know all sides of her family tree and heritage. I want to know how to take care of a little cat. Iknow you’ll be there but I never want to be in a spot where I don’t know if something with our kid is normal or an emergency. Like, kittens can lose teeth over and over and it’s okay. That broke my brain a little. And if you lose a sabertooth it will grow back!”
“I’m aware,” I grinned. “Eventually, you’ll have one of those to carve your amulets.”
“I like the claw,” he said, touching the claw that sat on a cord around his neck. “Most of all I like having a piece of you with me everywhere I go.”
