Page 56 of Stray Omega

Embla gave Leros another worried look.

“We help?” she asked. “What do?”

Leros gave her a reassuring smile and rubbed her bare shoulder with his big hand.

“Don’t worry. Luna knows what to do. We’ll just stay close by and watch, in case there is a problem. Then we’ll help.”

Embla nodded.

She understood everything Leros had said. She could not have spoken something that complex, but her listening skills were far ahead of her speaking. Sometimes, Embla even surprised herself with how rapidly her linguistic abilities were coming back. She remembered a great deal from when she was very little. It had just faded through disuse.

Embla drew herself close to Leros, the young alpha put his arm around her, and together they watched Luna give birth.

After a little while, a grayish sac began to drop from Luna’s vulva. Not long after that, a tiny wriggling creature came out of her, followed by a greenish-black afterbirth on the end of a thin cord. Luna took care of everything. She gently nipped the membrane and licked it away so the newborn could breathe.

“Little dog,” Embla said with wonder in her voice.

“Puppy,” Leros whispered.

“Puppy?”

Leros nodded. “A little dog is called a puppy.”

Goodness, there were so many words to learn. It seemed like there was a word for every single thing in the world. But Embla especially liked this new word “puppy,” and she practiced it a few times, enjoying the way the sounds bubbled from her mouth.

Luna licked her first little puppy, and it started to cry in the tiniest squeakiest voice Embla had ever heard. Her eyes filled with tears of joy and love at the sight of that small, helpless, and adorable new life.

“Puppy.”

Next, Luna carefully chewed away the umbilical cord and licked the little pup. It was a blind, pink, trembling thing that nestled into the warmth of its mother’s body. Three more puppies followed, making four in total. All of them were healthy and happy.

As Embla looked at the puppies crying and snuggling against Luna’s belly, and the four male dogs surrounding them protectively, her heart welled with so much love it hurt.

“We keep?” she asked Leros.

The young alpha hugged her close.

“We’ll keep one, probably. The others will go to other alpha hunting packs.”

Embla frowned.

“Don’t worry,” Leros chuckled. “They will be cared for very well. They will be fed and loved, and they will grow up to be strong and happy hunting dogs.”

“Okay,” Embla said, accepting this. After a moment, she added thoughtfully, “How Luna make puppies?”

Leros looked surprised. “You don’t know?”

Embla worried her lip and shook her head.

“Well, she didn’t make the puppies all by herself. The male dogs are her mates, just like me and Ark and Orwen are your mates now. The males filled her with their seed, and it made Luna pregnant.”

“Pregnant?”

Leros moved his hand in a gesture meant to illustrate a big round tummy.

“Ohhh,” Embla said. She grinned. “I want pregnant.”

The flap of the alpha’s loincloth lifted instantly, and in the torchlight, Embla saw the glint of his piercing peeking out from beneath the hem of the leather. She giggled and reached down, stroking him. The flesh of his shaft was hard and feverishly hot.

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