Legacies Amid Ruins

Legacies Amid Ruins
Thane
My claws broke through into empty space. The next piece of stone came away with almost no resistance, and stale air rushed through the opening hard enough to carry dust into my face. Ayla’s scent hit me with it.
Blood.
So much blood I lost the lavender beneath it.
Ronan snarled through me.
“Ayla!”
I dropped lower and ripped at the edges of the opening, widening it until blue light flickered somewhere below. Damon shouted for everyone to stop moving.
I barely heard him. The light came again, faint beneath the rubble, and this time I saw the curve of her shield.
It was wrapped tightly around her body.
There was no room wasted on a dome or open space. The blue followed the shape of her shoulders, her stomach, her legs, thin enough in places that I could see it pulse when she breathed.
She was curled on her side beneath it and not moving. Ronan's panic surged through the Lycan form, and my claws sank into the stone.
Little wolf.
The bond gave me nothing I could recognize as an answer. I pulled another section free.
Damon grabbed my shoulder. “Slow down. The pocket is holding because the weight is balanced around her.”
I turned on him with enough of Ronan in my face that his hand dropped away. “She is right there.”
“I know. If you bring the rest of it down, she stays there.”
Ayla was underneath everything my body wanted to destroy. It was the hardest thing I had ever done, slowly.
The opening widened a few inches at a time. Guards took every piece from me as soon as it came free. Cyrus moved in beside Damon, bracing whatever shifted while Raven stayed close enough that I could hear her whispering Ayla’s name.
Then the last slab between us came loose.
I lifted it clear.
Ayla lay beneath me.
I couldn't believe what I was seeing. Her hair was matted with dust and blood. Her face had gone so pale that her lips looked almost blue, and the shield around her was barely more than a translucent film.
Blood had soaked through her clothes and spread beneath her hip.
Ronan howled within me.  “No.”
Cyrus caught my arm before I reached through the opening. “Thane.”
I tried to pull away, but he held on. “You need to shift back. Look at yourself.”
I did.
Black claws.
Fur.
Hands large enough to cover most of Ayla’s rib cage.
Cyrus’s grip tightened. “She’s hurt. She’s waking up buried under a mountain. Don't make her wake up to something she doesn't recognize.”
I wanted to tell him she would recognize us in any form, but the shield was fading, and when I finally touched her, I needed hands that could hold her without claws.
I forced the Lycan form down.
It fought me.
My spine shortened first, then my shoulders pulled inward with a deep ache as the extra mass receded. Fur disappeared beneath my skin. My claws retracted last, and I flexed fingers that would not stop shaking.
Ronan remained threaded through every part of me. I dropped beside the opening.
“Ayla.”
The shield pulsed. I froze with my fingers on it.
“Ayla, it’s me.”
Another faint tremor moved through her power. The bond pulled at the same time. She had heard me. I put my palm against the shield.
“Little wolf, let me in.”
The shield density changed beneath my hand but held. I could feel what it was doing now.
Protecting her stomach.
Protecting the pups.
The last instruction she had given her power while the mountain came down was still running through it.
Of course it was. Even unconscious, bleeding, and buried, Ayla had spent everything she had on them.
My throat became tight and hoarse. “I know what you’re doing.” I kept my palm against the shield. “You kept them safe. Let me take over now.”
Her power flickered, and her fingers moved against the stone. Behind me, Raven sobbed as Cyrus held her shoulders. She shook with restraint to get to Ayla, and I understood it, but she respected my space.
“You did it, love. We found you. Drop the shield and let me hold you.”
Nothing happened. Ronan tugged the mating bond, holding onto her with everything we had left to give.
Little wolf. The shield weakened. “Come on.”
A thin seam opened beneath my palm. Ayla's eyebrows pinched together. Then her power receded from her.
It disappeared slowly from her shoulders, then her legs, drawing inward until the last of it lingered over her stomach.
I understood. “So fucking stubborn.” The words broke when I tried to laugh. “You can let that go too. I’ve got them.”
The final blue light faded. I grabbed her instantly. Her body was terrifyingly limp when I lifted her out. Warm blood covered my hands immediately. I pulled her against my chest and found the pulse in her throat with shaking fingers.
Weak, but there. “Ayla.”
Her breath caught. I barely heard it. I pressed my forehead against hers. “Open your eyes.”
Ronan held the bond so tightly that I could feel the faintest movement from her side of it.
Then her lashes moved. Her eyes opened only a fraction. “Thane?” It sounded hoarse and weak.
And nearly destroyed me. “I’m here.” Her hand moved against my chest but did not have enough strength to close around my shirt. “I’ve got you.”
Pain seized her before I could say anything else. Her entire body tightened in my arms. She cried out and grabbed weakly for me while fresh blood spread beneath her.
“Mikhail!” He was already dropping beside us. Golden light filled his hands before his knees hit the ground.
“Lay her back.”
I did, keeping one arm beneath Ayla's shoulders while Mikhail put his hands over her abdomen and lower pelvis. His expression changed slightly.
“What?”
“She's bleeding from the placenta.”
I stared at him. “Fix it.”
“I am.” His power brightened. Ayla whimpered and tried to curl toward me. I gathered her upper body against my chest without moving her hips.
“Dad?”
“I’m here, sweetheart.”
Mikhail did not look away from what he was doing. Another contraction tightened through Ayla. Her fingers caught in my shirt. “It hurts.”
“I know.” There was nothing useful I could say to that. I held her. “You’re here with me. Keep looking at me.”
Her eyes found mine for less than a second before squeezing shut again. “Thane—”
“I know, little wolf.”
The contraction finally released enough for her body to soften against me. Mikhail's light never dimmed. Blood still ran beneath her, but not as quickly.
“The separation is partial,” he said. “I can slow the bleeding. I may be able to stabilize it.”
“May?” His eyes lifted to mine.
That was all it took.
Ronan ripped through the mating bond again, and for a second the world narrowed to Mikhail’s hands, Ayla’s blood, and the pulse beating too quickly beneath my fingers.
“Do it.” 
Mikhail went back to work. “I am.”
I bent over Ayla and put my face against her hair. She smelled like blood, dust, and the chemical filth from whatever had been buried beneath this mountain.
Underneath all of it, she still smelled like herself. I breathed her in because I needed proof she was here.
The bleeding slowed. Mikhail shifted one hand and watched her carefully. “The tear is closing.”
I didn't feel relief. Not yet. “Can we move her?”
“No.” 
I looked up. “We take her to the clinic.”
“There isn’t time.”
Ronan gave a low growl through my chest. Mikhail heard it and did not care. “She is in active labor, Thane.”
“She is too early.”
“I know.”
“Then stop it.”
“If I could safely stop it, I would.”
Another contraction started before I could answer. Ayla made a broken sound and tightened around my hand. Mikhail's attention dropped lower.
“How close?”
He didn't answer immediately.
“Mikhail.”
“She is progressing too quickly.”
I looked past him at the mountain around us.
Dust still hung in the air. Broken stone surrounded us. Wolves crowded the opening we had torn through the collapse, some bloody from digging, others holding lights so Mikhail could see.
“You are not delivering my pups here.”
Mikhail met my gaze. “I would very much prefer not to.” That was the closest thing to humor either of us could manage. Then his face hardened again. “Moving her now risks worsening the abruption, and she is already too far into labor. We make this as safe as we can.”
The words refused to fit together in my head.
Ayla was supposed to have time.
We were supposed to be home.
There was supposed to be Mikhail's clinic, a bed, clean blankets, an entire building full of wolves who knew exactly what they were doing while I stood there and tried not to become a problem.
Instead, my mate was bleeding in my arms under a collapsed mountain.
Ayla opened her eyes. “They’re coming?”
The fear in her voice snapped me back to her. I touched her face.
“Yes.”
“Thane, I’m sorry.”
“No.” The word came out hard enough that she startled. I softened my hand against her cheek. “Do not apologize to me.”
“I went—”
“I know where you went.”
“I shouldn't have—”
“We can have that fight later.”
Her mouth trembled. “I’m serious. You can yell at me.”
“I intend to.” A weak sound escaped her that might have been a laugh.
There she was. Ronan settled around the mating bond for half a heartbeat. I kissed her forehead. “You are staying here long enough for me to be unbearable about this.”
Her eyes closed. Mikhail looked at her.
“Open them, Ayla.”
She tried. They fluttered open again. Mikhail glanced at me. “Keep her awake.” Fear rose so fast I tasted it. “She has lost too much blood, and she is exhausted. I need her conscious enough to work with the contractions.”
Ayla's eyes drifted again. I cupped her face. “Little wolf.” She made a faint sound. “Look at me.” Her lashes lifted. “Good. Stay there.”
“I’m tired.”
“I know.”
“I want to sleep.”
“No.”
Her brow pulled together. “Bossy.”
“Yes.”
That almost gave me another laugh from her.
I would have taken anything.
Behind Mikhail, Raven knelt with both hands over her mouth. Cyrus had one arm around her shoulders, although his own face looked almost as wrecked as hers.
Rhonda stood nearby with blood and dirt covering both hands.
“If she dies,” Rhonda said, “I’m killing her.” 
Ayla's eyes moved slightly toward the voice. “Rhonda?”
“Unfortunately.”
“Good,” Mikhail said. “Keep talking to her.”
Everyone understood. Raven moved closer. “You scared the shit out of me.”
“Sorry.”
“Stop apologizing.”
Cyrus crouched beside her. “For once in your life, listen to Fireball.”
Ayla breathed something that sounded suspiciously like, “Fuck you.”
Cyrus laughed and wiped his face with a dirty forearm.
I closed my eyes for half a second, and another contraction came. Ayla crushed my fingers with considerably more strength than she had possessed a minute earlier and cried out against my chest.
Mikhail moved closer. “Do not fight it.”
“I’m not trying to!”
“I know. Let your body do what it is doing.”
She made a strangled sound somewhere between a sob and a laugh. The contraction went on too long. I felt every second through the bond.
Ronan did too.
There was no separating his fear from mine anymore. It moved through my hands, my hearing, the way I tracked every change in Ayla’s breathing and every movement Mikhail made.
The mountain could have collapsed again around us, and I might not have looked up.
All I could see was her.
When the contraction finally released, Ayla sagged against me. “My babies.”
Mikhail's expression softened. “They are still fighting.”
“Are they okay?”
“They are early, and they have been through a great deal. I am not going to lie to you.”
Ayla went very still. Mikhail continued before fear could take over. “They are alive. Their heartbeats are there. Right now, that is what matters.”
Ayla nodded once. “I saw them.”
I looked down at her. “What?”
Her eyes found mine. “In the meadow.”
Mikhail's hands paused for the smallest fraction of a second. Ayla was already slipping toward another contraction. “One black,” she whispered. “One white.”
I watched her in confusion. “What did you say?”
Pain overcame her before she could answer. Ayla cried out and grabbed me again. Mikhail's attention snapped downward. “This one is different.”
“What does that mean?”
“It means we are done talking.” He shifted into position. “Ayla, listen to me.”
She was crying now. “I don't know how to do this.”
“You don't have to know everything,” Mikhail said. “When I tell you to push, you push.”
Her eyes went straight to me, and panic flooded the bond. I took her face between my hands.
“You look at me.”
“I’m scared.”
“I know.”
“What if—”
“No.” I kissed her forehead. “No what-ifs. Not now.”
Her fingers locked around my wrist. Mikhail looked at me. “Thane.”
I knew before he said it.
Ayla knew too.
Her entire body tightened.
“Now, sweetheart.”
She screamed.
I held her.
Ronan wrapped the bond around her so tightly I could feel nothing beyond the three lives connected to mine.
And somewhere beneath the blood and dust, beneath Mikhail's orders and Ayla's cries, I understood what was happening.
Our pups were coming.
Here.
Now.
Far too early.
I tightened my arms around my mate when the next wave started.
“I've got you, little wolf.”
This time, when she looked at me, she stayed.