Chapter 186: Warm welcome

Chapter 186: Warm welcome
Ruelle’s POV

No no no. This cannot be happening right now. 

My eyes are glued to the wet spot between my legs, my hands fisting my dress as everything else around me fades away. The voices around me sound just like background noise in comparison to the turmoil going on in my head, and I was certain that there was a certain pain that should come with this moment, but I was yet to register it. 

All I could think about was one thing. One person. And that is the exact name that falls from my lips the first time I open them. 

“Thorne. Thorne. Someone get Thorne. Get Thorne please.”  I ramble out, my hands violently shaking and my body beginning to tremble. I have no recollection of being brought to my room, or how I somehow ended up in my bed. But that is where I find myself when I finally come to. 

I do not know who I am speaking to in particular, because there are several maidens moving around me. Rushing in and out of my room. Voices fade in and fade out, but my mind registers nothing. I feel a slight touch on my arm and snap my head to the source, Morra is staring at me with worried eyes. Her lips move fast but I cannot figure out a word she says. My ears ring. The loud pitched sound culminates to the highest level before exploding back into a flood of blurry and muffled voices in my head. 

I start to hear the voices around me and what they say, little by little.

“Have you gotten the midwife?!”  Someone yells from the door. It’s Morra. She is yelling at the guards to get Thorne, and also a midwife. I would much prefer if the former comes first. 

Back to my body. The pain starts small, then spreads through my abdomen and my legs. I shake my head repeatedly. 

“I can’t do this alone.”  The words fall out broken and weak. “Get him. Someone get him please.”

“We have sent word, my Lady. He would be here soon.”  Morra comforts me, but that sounds like one of her lies and does nothing to ease me. 

My fingers fist at the sheets beside me and pull them up with a groan the moment a sharp pain pierces through my waist. I feel it coming so strongly and I don’t know for how much longer I may be able to hold it. 

The door of the room is suddenly pushed open and a two aged female wolves file inside,  dropping their bags by the bed and immediately getting to work on me. One of them, the older one, kneels in front of me on the bed and starts pushing up my dress. My knees are raised and legs spread and she positions herself between them. I shake my head, pushing her hands away and my dress back over my knees. She gives me a puzzled look. 

“I’m not delivering until my husband gets here.”  I tell her and her eyes widen in bewilderment. I don’t care. My head tips back with another loud groan as another contraction rips through me so violently that it brings tears to my eyes. The midwife in front of me exchanges a few befuddled looks with her companion, then places her palm on my thigh, leaning forward to speak to me. 

“Pardon me, my lady. But that is not a wise choice. It is better to do it now that you still have contractions than to wait—”

“Noo! No. I’m not doing it alone.”  My voice cracks into a sob and my body shakes. The pain is too much. “I need Thorne here, I can’t do it alone.”

“Now you can, my lady. That is usually how these things go. It is better to push now while you have the support from within—”. She cuts off by herself when she sees me shake my head vehemently. She sighs and sends a pleading look to Morra, who places her hand on my arm. She parts her lips to speak but I simply shake my head again. 

“Just get him, please. Get him here and then I’ll push.”

“I am certain he is on his way, my Lady.”

“I’ll wait. I can… I can wait—”

“You will do no such thing!”  Another voice resounds in the room and I snap my head to the open door, a gasp leaving my lips as my Mama walks through it. 

“Mom…”

“You need to push your baby, Ruelle”. She kneels by the bed, and Morra scrambles to her feet to allow her space to sit. “You are killing yourself by waiting.”  She grabs my hand and squeezes, kissing my knuckles. 

“But Thorne…”

“He knows.”  She nods her head, holding my gaze. “It was him who sent me here.”

I frown. “What were you doing here…?”  I start, but trail off when it starts to click. This is the time for the brawl with the big Alphas, and Mom is here, but Thorne is not. Which means…

“Thorne is currently brawling against your father. He can’t leave.”  She confirms my thoughts for me. 
My chest rises and falls with a deep exhale, my lips pressing together as Mama squeezes my hand one last time. “Now… push your baby.”  She says. 

A few minutes later into the labor, and this has to be worse than dying. My entire body is soaked with sweat and sore from pushing so much, my fingers are fisting the sheets so tightly that my nails tear through them and pierce moons into my own palm. And my vocal cords are fried from screaming.

“Aaarrrrghhhh!!”  I roar, my eyes tightly shut as I try to push the baby through my hole. 

“Breathe with me. In and out come on.”  Mama urges on, her palm squeezing mine tightly. Or maybe it’s the other way around. I am not really registering anything other than the searing pain emanating from between my legs. 
I do just as Mama says. In and out a few times before crying out again, squeezing my stomach to another push. 

“Yes, keep going you’re almost there! I can see the head already. Come on!”  The midwife calls, tapping my thighs to urge me on. I shake my head with a groan, tears streaming down my temple unto the already soaked pillowcase. 

“I can’t… I c-can’t…”. I cry out, my words coming out strangled as exhaustion spreads through me. 

“No no no…”. The midwife taps on my cheeks, but I am already shutting my eyes. 

Mama’s words in my ear, Morra’s hands on my arm and the midwife’s hands between my legs. That is the last thing I remember before I black out. 

The next time I open my eyes, a soft cry fills the room. And the mere sound of it causes a pull in my chest. I ache all over, but I still turn to find the source. 

“There she is…”. A voice coos. Mama. She is holding a wrapped tiny human in her hand that she stretches towards me. 

I take it with a sigh, sitting up. 

My baby is here.