Page 39 of A Drink of Destiny
We lay there in silence for a few minutes. I rubbed the big pregnant zenith of my mate’s belly and his eyes drifted shut. He wasn’t asleep, but breathing as we had in those classes he wanted to take. I fell into rhythmic, breathing with him and tried to ignore the little aches and pain I still felt. I let my mind wander. We hadn’t set a name in stone yet.
“It’s got to be fierce,” Alvis whispered. “Her name needs to be fierce because that’s what she’s going to be.”
“Any name we give her will be fierce then. That’s how names gain their associations,” I whispered. “So, choose one you like.”
“You have to like it too,” he opened his eyes just enough to look at me.
“I will like it because it will belong to our daughter,” I said and kissed his forehead.
The midwife came back and in a few seconds the monitor high on the wall showed our little girl in her lion form, head down and ready to come out. I informed him that it was indeed normal for primal cats to do that and that it was okay for her not to have her big teeth yet. They came in later, when she’d need them in the wild.
“I’m glad she doesn’t have them. I’d like not to be scratched on the inside,” Alvis giggled and it took me a moment to realize he was a bit giddy from whatever they’d given him for pain. Ifought off the urge to sniff his neck to discover how messed up he was. Whatever happened, I’d keep him safe.
We talked the name issue in circles until it was time for him to push. The waiting room was full, and the chitchat of the people out there wafted into the room in small undiscernible bits. It felt as if everyone we knew had come out to meet our daughter and she wasn’t even officially born yet.
In between contractions, Alvis drank my blood. A tall pale man who smelled like peach cobbler was in charge of being my nurse and he kept giving me electrolyte water to drink and trying to get me to snack. Mostly, he was an annoying distraction even if his job was to keep me tasty food for my mate. A few times he’d whispered to the midwife that he thought I was giving too much. To his credit, Ophelian didn’t respond and trusted me to know my limits. Sure, I’d be tired later, but my daughter and my mate would be safe and sound and healthy. Besides, my lion had more blood than most people did.
Slowly but surely our daughter was born. I was anxious to cut the cord and get her to where she belonged but we had talked about it ahead of time and would wait until all the blood from the cord made it into the baby’s small, crying form.
“For a little girl she has a big cry,” I said and kissed my mate on the cheek.
“She gets that from you,” Alvis teased.
He smelled exhausted but happy. I put my wrist back to his mouth and he drank. The peach cobbler nurse shoved a straw in my mouth, and I took a long drink of a chocolate milkshake. Before he or anyone else could protest, I took it and gave it to my mate. He was the one who had just given birth to the most beautiful baby in the world, not me. He deserved the chocolate treat.
The nurse looked to the midwife who shrugged. No birth was easy, but our baby came into the world withoutcomplication. Alvis drinking a little milkshake treat, wasn’t going to hurt anyone.
When the cord was pale and bloodless, I cut it with a trembling hand. It almost felt like blasphemy to cut her off from the safe comfort of her carrier’s body and force her to take her last step into the solid world with the rest of us. She stared at me with big kitten eyes as if I would whip out a teat for her to drink from.
I reached out to pick her up, but the midwife whisked her away. I started after her but stopped. Alvis had warned me about this part. They needed to clean her up, vaccinate her against cooties, and give her some vitamins that she might not have gotten enough of in the womb. Still my arms ached for her. Instead of following the midwife and my daughter, I helped my mate change into a big comfy robe and tucked him in after the sheets were changed. A few moments later, they brought our baby back to us and placed her on Alvis’s chest. She was still in her cat form. A tawny ball of yawning fur. She was a perfect little lioness who deserved the world, and I’d lay whatever she wanted at her feet. This world and every other one would be hers for the taking because I already knew there wasn’t anything I wouldn’t give up or do for our baby.
“Helen,” Alvis whispered to our kitten. “Helen, like the woman in that old story who had a whole war fought over her because she was so beautiful that she made all those straight guys into idiots.”
“I’m not straight but I’d fight a war to keep her safe and you too,” I whispered wrapping an arm around them both.
“I love you, mate,” Alvis yawned. “I love you so much.”
“I love you too,” I said and kissed his temple.
Epilogue
Mori
The Other World
“You’ve got to stop coming in through the bathroom mirror,” Dern sighed, standing akimbo in his hallway that led to the kitchen. “You’re going to waltz in on me takin’ a shit!”
“Well, get another mirror. I don’t want to come out of the one in the bedroom.”
“You’d rather walk in on me taking a shit than making love?” Dern laughed and shook his head.
“If it’s all equal, I’d rather not walk in on you doing anything.”
“I’ll see what we can do about that. Now tell me. How’s that new baby doing?” Dern asked, sliding into his usual seat at his kitchen table.
“Helen? She’s good. Really good,” I grinned. “Alvis is constantly sending photos of her.”
Dern looked around before asking to see them. Three Pit Hounds ran back and forth in the backyard just visible out of the kitchen window. I fought off a frown and tried not to wonder too hard about what Dern left out of his life story that landed him in the Pit.
