by Kallie Frost
He arched into my palm with another groan. “Don’t, not if you’re tired.”
“I’m not too tired for this,” I said. Cambry adjusted himself, trying to find a good way to reach my dick around my belly. “Don’t worry about it,” I told him. As I spoke, I slid my hand into his boxers and wrapped it around his penis. He thrust into my hand and a jolt of shared pleasure rushed though me. I moaned in response. He chuckled, knowing I was enjoying what he felt.
I pumped, slowly and gently, as he rocked back and forth against me. The pleasure built and he moaned against my neck. The purring, from both of us, intensified and Cambry reached up and rubbed his fingers against the mark where he claimed me. The contact made me gasp. Then, he leaned down and bit the side of my neck with a soft growl.
It was slow, almost lazy, as I jerked him off. He nibbled and bit at my neck, scratching that magic spot on my collarbone, as I did. With some effort, I turned, and we kissed. Our tongues swirled around each other, and I reveled in his taste. That mix of hazelnut and vanilla and… what was it?
His breath quickened and he sped up his hips. I matched his speed with my hand, feeling our shared pleasure mounting. I felt his barbs rise beneath my hands, hotter than the rest of his cock and vibrating wildly as he purred. And then, he came. The sensation made me come as well. I sank back against him with a satisfied moan. He kissed me one more time, then settled back with his arm back around me.
“Chai,” I murmured as it finally came to me.
“What, love?”
“You taste like chai tea,” I chuckled sleepily. “I’ve been trying to figure it out. When we kiss, you remind me of hazelnut, vanilla, and chai. And maybe a dash of ginger.”
Cambry laughed. “I hope that’s a good thing.”
“Better than coffee.”
He purred and kissed the back of my neck. I snuggled against him, feeling the baby kicking and wiggling as I drifted off to sleep.
Chapter Twelve
Cambry
Something disturbed me enough to wake me up. I automatically reached my arm out and found that Louis was no longer in the bed. I sat up, my eyes quickly adjusting to the dark, and saw him pacing back and forth in the small room.
“Louis?” I called softly. “Are you okay, my tabby-love?”
I could sense a vague discomfort through our bond and had a feeling that he wasn't okay. The last of the sleep fog fled my brain, as I realized we were close to the due date. “Is it the baby?”
“I think so.” Louis stopped pacing and put his hands on his stomach. “Walking isn't making it go away.”
“I'll call the doctor,” I said quickly. I sprang out of bed and grabbed my cell phone, silently thanking Segel – and every other area shifter for not being due soon – to have a free enough schedule to stay in Port Canard this week. I didn’t know what I would have done if we had to wait three hours for him to arrive. I had paid for Segel to be in a rather nice suite, as my thanks.
“Doctor Neen,” he answered somewhat groggily.
“Segel, it’s Cambry,” I said, “I think it's time.”
“Wonderful!” he said, sounding instantly awake. “I'll be right there. Do your best to make him comfortable and get some towels ready.”
“You got it,” I said. I was glad he had mentioned the towels. Our carefully rehearsed birth plan pretty much flew out the window for me the moment that Louis said walking wasn’t working.
I went quickly to him and took his hands. “Are you okay?” I asked. “Segel is on his way.”
He took a deep breath. “Yeah, yeah.” He pulled one hand free and pressed it against his lower abdomen. “It's just really getting painful.”
“Have you been timing them?” I asked.
“No,” he admitted with a wince. “I should have been.”
“That's okay. Here, Carrick told me about this app...” I quickly pulled it up on my phone and handed to Louis.
“Oh,” he said looking at it. “This is neat.”
“Here, this is where the contractions timer is.”
“Great. Thank you.”
“Can I get you anything?”
Louis made a face. “I’m kind of hungry. But, Segel said I shouldn’t eat once it starts.”
“Labor or once you start pushing?” I asked. “You could be in labor for hours.”
“I suppose a little something wouldn't hurt. Maybe just a slice of bread?”
“Absolutely,” I said. I rushed downstairs for a slice of bread, and grabbed a stack of clean towels as I did. Once upstairs, I started spreading them out on the bed and getting some pillows ready, while Louis sat and nibbled the bread.
“That's better,” he said when he finished it. “Thank you. Oh!” He doubled over. “Oh, wow, this is a bad one.”
My own abdomen felt tight and crampy. I couldn't imagine what it was like feeling it firsthand. I was uncomfortable enough. I had to take a deep breath, before pulling out my phone and starting the contraction timer.
“Let me know when it ends,” I said, even though I knew I could probably tell. He nodded and I wrapped my arms around him. I hated to see my mate in pain. And being able to sense it wasn’t very pleasant either. I could indeed tell when it started to subside.
Louis heaved a sigh of relief and leaned back against the pillows. “You can stop the timer,” he said with a groan, even as I was already doing it.
I heard the door open downstairs and the sound of rapid footsteps. Segel was up the stairs in a flash.
“How is he?”
“I'm okay,” Louis said.
Segel nodded. “How frequent are the contractions?”
“I'm afraid we've only timed one… And it was almost exactly two minutes long,” I told him.
“Good, good,” Segel said. He opened his large bag and growled. “I’m sorry, I meant to bring a gown. Do you have anything else you can wear?”
“Yeah, I've got a shirt. Cambry, can you get one of the big ones?” Louis asked.
I opened the drawer of extra Caffeinated Cat merchandise and pulled out the largest shirt I could find, and gave it to Louis. He changed into it with some difficulty. In spite of his massive belly, the shirt still hung off him like a tent.
“Think this will work?” he asked.
“That's perfect,” said Segel.
Louis awkwardly clambered back onto the bed and spread his legs out. My inner cat snarled angrily as Segel began to poke a finger into my mate. I didn't realize I was growling out loud as well, until he chuckled.
“Don't worry, Cambry. I'm a doctor.”
I flushed and swallowed hard, still feeling the urge to hiss at him. “Sorry.”
“It’s okay. You’re not the first over-protective alpha I've dealt with.” He turned his attention back to Louis. “Okay… goodness, you’re seven centimeters already.”
“Is that good?” asked Louis nervously.
Segel smiled. “Well, it means that you're progressing nice and fast. In fact, I'm going to go ahead and get you set up.”
“Is there anything I can do?” I said, up to this point, I mostly felt excited. After seeing Carrick and Rion's children, and some hazy memories of Ford when he was little, I was sure I was ready for my own. But now that it was actually happening, I was suddenly a bundle of nerves.
“You can stand there and offer moral support for now,” said Segel.
“That I can do,” I said, taking my mate’s hand. I smiled at him. “You're going to be okay. You've got this.”
“If you want an epidural, it's going to have to be now,” said Segel.
“Oh,” Louis said, “I actually hadn't thought about it. I'm a little nervous about the whole thing.”
“It's okay, I'm going to walk you through it,” Segel said. “Cambry, help him sit up. I'm going to have you sit on the edge of the bed, Louis. And as soon as your next contraction ends, we're going to go ahead and do the epidural. Okay?”
Louis nodded and I helped him into position. As another contraction started
, Segel started sanitizing a spot on Louis's lower back, explaining the procedure as he did. He started detailing the whole needle going into the back part, and told Louis that he would have to tell him if it felt like the needle was going over to one side or the other. That was when Louis started to get worried.
“Can I change my mind about this?” he asked. “This sounds kind of daunting...”
“You want an epidural,” I told him firmly. “Brooks didn't get one. And he was miserable.” I didn't add that Carrick confided in me that he felt a good amount of pain from it through the bond as well.
“Okay,” Louis said reluctantly. “Let's do it, I guess.”
Fortunately, the epidural seemed to go in without a hitch. Soon Louis was comfortably on his back with his legs up.
“Ready to push?” Segel asked him.
“What, now?!” Louis cried.
I tried to remember Carrick’s description of the birth of his son. It seemed like this was pretty low tech. “Don’t you have to, I dunno, hook him up to more stuff?”
“I'm afraid I don't have a lot of portable equipment,” Segal said apologetically.
I nodded, thinking that he should go ahead and invest in some. I couldn't believe we were the only shifter couple around here who preferred to stick with a traditional birth at home. Not to mention any that didn't want to risk the snowy roads with a pregnant omega. Then again, maybe local shifters were a little more comfortable with the snow than I was. It probably didn't help that I typically didn't do a lot of driving back home, and that I was using Louis's car here.
“I think I'm having another contraction,” Louis said.
Segel placed his hands on my mate’s stomach and felt around. Then, all at once he announced, “Okay, it's time. Let's go. Push!”
Louis started to push, squeezing my hand as hard as he could. And even with the epidural, I could feel the discomfort as he pushed.
“This is awful,” he panted.
“Keep pushing, keep pushing,” Segel instructed. “And stop.”
Louis sagged back with a groan. “How many more times do I have to do that?” he asked.
Segel smiled sympathetically. “Until the baby is out, I'm afraid.”
Louis flopped his head back on the pillow. All at once, his eyes widened. “I feel sick!”
“That can happen,” Segel said. “I can get you some medicine for that.” He left my mate’s side to get something out of his bag.
“No, I'm going to be really sick,” Louis said. He leaned to the side, which was extremely difficult looking, given his humongous belly and numb legs, and vomited all over the floor.
“There goes the bread,” he moaned, sitting back. I stepped around it and gently rubbed his shoulder.
Segel returned and looked down at the vomit. “Did you eat something recently?”
“I didn't think a piece of bread would be too bad,” Louis admitted.
Segel shook his head. “Next time you do this, don't eat once the contractions start,” he scolded. “No wonder you felt sick. Here.” He grabbed a little something and carefully injected it into my mate’s arm.
“What is this?”
“A little anti-nausea medicine. You should be feeling fine pretty quickly,” Segel said. “Of course, in my office I have a much better setup. But, we’ll get through this.”
I wrinkled my nose and made a mental note to never have another child without Dr. Nolan Craik, the best shifter doctor there was. It didn't hurt that my cousins and I knew his assistant, Asher, quite well. In fact, I was pretty sure Asher was more competent than Segel. Nothing against the man, but he was either wholly unused to doing this sort of thing without a bunch of medical equipment at his disposal, or he just did not have the knowledge and skills that decades of having a medical practice afforded Nolan. Nonetheless, this is what I was stuck with.
“Time to push again,” Segel announced,
I stood there clutching Louis's hand, wishing I could do more, and hoping that if nothing else, we would come out of this with a healthy baby. We didn't even know the gender yet, thanks to the lack of portable sonogram. I forced myself to stop comparing doctors and focus on the task at hand.
Louis pushed several more times, until at last…
“There's the head,” Segel announced. “Let's give it another good hard push. Push. Push. Keep pushing, push!”
Louis obeyed, and nearly broke my fingers as he squeezed my hand
“One more good push should do it. Come on!” Segel cried.
Louis yelled and suddenly there was a baby crying.
“Oh my god,” Louis gasped.
There, in Segel’s arms, was a little tiny, somewhat wet and gross looking baby. “Congratulations,” he said. “It's a healthy baby alpha girl!”
Chapter Thirteen
Louis
I lay back and closed my eyes, listening to the amazing sound of a child, my child crying.
“We have a daughter,” Cambry said, as if echoing my disbelief.
I laughed and opened my eyes again. “We have a daughter.”
Segel handed Cambry some medical scissors and said, “Will you do the honors, Cambry?”
He smiled and cut the umbilical cord. Then, the doctor expertly bustled about cleaning her up and handed a little wrapped bundle to Cambry. “There you go, daddy.”
“Oh my god,” Cambry said. “She's so tiny!” He studied her for a moment, head tilted to one side. “Actually, she's really tiny. Carrick’s son was a lot bigger when he was born.”
“She is a little small, but nothing I’d worry about,” Segel said. “In fact, she is…” He checked his notes. “Six pounds and two ounces!”
“That is small. I thought she was supposed to be huge, given my size,” I said with a laugh.
“Sometimes you never know,” Segel said. “Let's get you all tidied up.” He came back over to check on me. “How are you doing?”
“I’m fine,” I said. I took a deep breath, I could feel pressure again, like another contraction. “Actually, I’m a bit uncomfortable still.”
“Probably the afterbirth,” Segel said calmly. “This is going to be a little uncomfortable, but it will help.” He started pushing on my abdomen. I watched him and felt a pang of alarm as his eyes widened, then narrowed. He started pressing harder.
“Is something wrong?” I demanded.
“Not wrong,” he said slowly. “But I think you're in for a surprise… Start pushing again, please.”
“What?”
“Push now. Push!” he said quickly.
I obeyed. gritting my teeth and pushing just like I had before. “Is something wrong with the placenta?” I asked through gritted teeth.
“No,” he said. “Keep pushing.”
Cambry was hovering by my side, clutching our daughter protectively to his chest. “Is something wrong? What's going on?” he asked.
“Nothing's wrong, I assure you,” Segel said. He still looked a little stunned, but calm. “Just a little surprise for you is all. These things do happen.” He shook his head. “I should have known when the baby came out so small.”
“What things?” I demanded.
“You stopped pushing.”
With a frustrated growl, I pushed again. Hard.
Cambry cried out. “Is that another head!?”
“Yes,” Segel said with a soft chuckle. “Yes, it is.”
I froze. “What?!”
“Push please, Louis.”
I squared my shoulders, took a deep breath, and pushed with all my might.
“There we go. Good. Good. Good,” Segel said. And all at once. More crying. “There we are! Oh, look, a beta boy!” he said as he held up another baby.
“We had twins,” I cried.
“Oh my god,” Cambry said, looking stunned. “Twins?!”
“Good thing we didn't find out the gender,” Segal said with a laugh. “You would have had to come up with a whole new list of names! Now, the umbilical cord again, if you please.”
Cambry moved our daughter with what looked like ease, into one arm. I suspected he had a lot of practice with his cousins’ children. He cut the cord once again and the doctor picked up our second child, and went about cleaning him up.
“There we go. Six pounds, four ounces.”
“Twins,” I murmured in disbelief.
Segel bundled up our son and went over to Cambry. “Can you manage two?” he asked.
Cambry looked slightly panicked, so I held out my arms. “Do I get a turn?”
He laughed. “Of course, my love.”
He came over and gently set our daughter in my arms. She was so precious and tiny. I held her and looked down with a smile. She opened up a pair of brilliant green eyes and made an adorable little coo.
“Oh,” I breathed.
She turned her head and started nuzzling against my chest.
”She's ready to nurse,” Segel said.
“What do I do?” I said, suddenly feeling wholly overwhelmed.
“She knows what to do. Luckily, you're in a large shirt. Just pull down right here.” He tugged the loose neckline of the shirt down, until it hooked underneath one of the small one of the small man boobs I had developed. Our little girl nuzzled a bit more, mouth opening and closing like a little bird.
“May I?” Segel asked. I nodded, and he gently guided my nipple to her mouth.
“Ah,” I cried out, as she latched on, hard.
“It's a bit uncomfortable at first,” Segel said. “But you'll get used to it.”
Soon she was eagerly sucking. He showed me how to hold her and in a moment I was sitting there, holding our daughter, while Cambry held our son.
“Congratulations,” Segel said.
“How did we not know we were having twins?” Cambry asked, still looking quite stunned.
“I'm afraid that's my fault,” Segel said. “I haven't delivered twins in a long time. And my portable equipment isn't very sensitive. Depending on the way they were laying in the womb, it was impossible to hear the second heartbeat when we were checking for it and, to be honest, I wasn't really listening for it.”
