Chapter 216
"Sorry, couldn't stop these two freight trains fighting to get in." Cesar apologizes in his usual calm and dad tone, and Jasper releases Carmen to walk past her as he comes to my side.
"Hey sis. You look like it hurts a lot. We'll be outside and close if you need us, we just all wanted to see you. We're excited and worried and I'm sorry about those two. You know how they are." He brushes a gentle finger over my face and gives Colton's a quick smile that translates to 'you're doing good'.
These two are firm brothers nowadays. So much so that Matteo has been a little jealous with the bromance and Radar's new position as Colton's father figure. He feels left out.
"It does. It's worse than I thought it would be."
"Hang in there. Midwife is on her way, she was delaing with some early pains from a half term femme. The pack is all waking up and eagerly pacing their homes for the arrival of their Princessa's."
"I'm scared." I whisper back at him, a tear collecting in the corner of my eye, and we sigh in unison. Once again more bearable and able to communicate in between the highs of this labor.
"You'll be fine. We wolves very rarely lose pups in childbirth, and you are strong. Stronger than most. Colton is right here, and your two crazy femme sisters won't leave the room. Varro will hightail it here to see his prized girl producing his much-awaited grandkids. You have nothing to worry about except how to be a mom very soon."
"I know. That's when I'll really be scared." I smile weakly, trying for humor, the pain once again subsiding to a bearable ache of nothing and relaxing my body.
In the past weeks Varro has come here every single week without fail. Showering me with affection and gifts and getting to know all those around me like a real father would. It was hard at first to see past what he is, and how terrifying he looks, but now even some of the pack children have started to come out to meet him upon arrival, calling him Uncle Varro. The enemy who became family and our world is completely different to what it was some months ago.
I can admit that I have love for him, and our relationship grows with every meeting. I never thought I would ever see the day I willingly called him father or dad, but I do, and I miss him when I don't see him.
"Won't be long before it's you." I prod him in the cheek knowing fine well he has convinced Carmen to start trying for a family already. Since they marked, they have been an inseparable smitten couple and he seems to know how to handle the fire that is Carmen so well. She's healing and growing as a person. Letting love in warmed her up and made her less defensive around some of us. Although Jasper is the only one who gets to experience all her softness and she can still be bristly with Meadow, even though they love one another on some level.
Now the war is over a lot of Lychan have decided to try for pups and settle into our new peaceful life with real hope for a bright future. I feel like the twins are the beginning of the Santo pack stepping into a new life.
"Yeah. Hopefully soon, it's not like we aren't trying. Meadow beat us to it and Carmen just can't forgive her for that." Jasper laughs at the ongoing rivalry between the two, that's so obviously skin deep.
Pain hits again, severe and knocks my breath away, clutching at the bed covers and rocketed back to that place of misery. Colton shoos Jasper out of the way so he can come and take my hands and this time tries to breathe with me to guide me through it.
"These are fast, I don't think we have long to wait to meet our daughters. Midwife just got here. Try and stay calm baby." He croons and softly kisses my forehead, grazing lips gently over my head and then my lips.
"I just want it to be over." I exhale in a breathless whoosh, clinging to him and close my eyes once more to try and find the way through what I know is only going to get worse.
"I'm here, everyone except Mom and Daddy, out. You don't need to be in here unless I call you. We have babies to deliver." Marda the most experienced midwife of the Santo back sweeps in with authority and reassurance and despite not being able to respond to her, my heart calms a little knowing she is here.
She has delivered hundreds of pups over the years, she ever delivered me. I can relax into her care and know that I'm in safe hands and she will help me through this whatever way it needs to be done.
"I know these babies are a little different, but don't worry. Whatever they throw at us we can handle it. You're not our first mix breed birth under my watch.
****A New Life
"You did it, baby. Look at our girls!" Colton's excited tone pulls me out of my fatigue as he mops my brow and tries to dry up the sweat that's cascading like a waterfall. The cries of newborns ringing in my ears after what seems like the longest and most hellish night of my life. I can barely stay awake. A new day is peeking at us from outside the curtains which he drew at some point when the light got too intense. Everything feels surreal and it's hard now to imagine I just spent so many hours going through the trauma of childbirth while the world is still. The memory of the pain is already subsiding.
My emotions are fried and the eagerness to lay eyes on them is the only thing keeping me conscious while my limbs cry to give out. My body is tender and heavy like a deadweight, but I am so glad it's finally over. I should turn to self heal but I can't muster the energy and would rather sleep after holding my babies.
"Here you are, momma. Two healthy girls and beautiful, just like you." Marda leans down over me and places one from each arm on my chest. Instinctively I nurse them against me as they look to be fed and Colton helps pull open my nightdress shirt and assists. He's a natural and been so good these past hours, keeping me sane, anticipating my needs and watching over me. I don't think I could have done this without him.
My eyes mist with tears as this insane overwhelming love and adoration fills my heart to brimming at the mere presence of these two tiny lives. An all-encompassing emotion that I have never experienced before until I laid eyes on the beauty of our girls. It's that knowledge that from here on in I will do anything to protect and love them, even die to ensure their safety. Perfect in every way and my priority now. Small and delicate but completely formed in miniature.
Each has a spattering of fine light hair, downy soft, much like mine, even if they are still covered in the mess from birth. The sallower skin of Colton and his Columbian genes, but the features are a combination of both of us as children in one face. I watch in fascination at one and then the other as they try to latch on to nurse. Finding their own way instinctively to source my milk and without hesitation. Little tiny eyelashes flickering open as I lock eyes for the first time on the new creations that have been growing within me for months. It doesn't feel real and I can't believe that we made these precious little beings.