The Unexpected Yuletide Baby (Starscale Mates #3)

Chapter Twelve

Medwin

The birthing class was a bit poofy or a bit too out there. A curtain of rainbow beads marked the doorway to the classroom, and I nearly turned back. The instructor, an old fox named Barley, had delivered over ten thousand live births before retiring. He had two kids of his own and specialized in first time live birthers. He was a blonde on the short side with a stocky build. His baggy tie-dye yoga pants hung loose and only stayed on because his hips caught them. He didn’t wear a shirt or shoes and asked us to take ours off too.

We were the second couple to arrive. The first, a man and a woman, smelled young enough to be our grandchildren. Hell, they smelled younger than some of our grandchildren.

“Be nice,” Clarence whispered in my ear as Barley introduced himself.

When I called to check for openings, he offered us a private class due to our status as leaders, but I decided against it. I didn’t mind taking perks here and there but I wanted other omegas to know it was okay to seek out help during pregnancy. Sure, it meant the word about my own would get out. It worried Clarence but I knew he would keep me safe and failing that my dragon’s instincts had yet to fail me.

Slowly, the classroom filled up and each couple claimed their own huge yoga mat space. There were pillows and blankets and towels. Everything someone might need to keep themselves upright and comfy. Still, I wasn’t all too sure about getting down on the floor. I almost flat refused. Sure, Clarence would get me back up if I needed help but running with my pregnancy-expanded ass on the floor wouldn’t be easy.

“Fire shoots up too,” my dragon reminded me and I held out a hand to Clarence to help me sit down.

I leaned back against him, and he wrapped his arms proactively over my belly. I let my eyes drift shut for a moment. This was surreal. We’d never been against PDA, but we were never big on it either. In our younger days, we didn’t want to be seen as soft. Now we knew better. Loving someone when the world wanted nothing to do with love and kindness was sort of badass because it meant you had someone worth fighting for. So, I leaned back against my mate, wiggling until I found the most comfortable spot and let him hold me. He kissed the top of my ear, and I blushed, hoping no one was paying that close of attention to us.

The class was pretty simple as I expected a first class to be. Mostly it involved Barley leading us in several breathing exercises that were meant to relax our muscles. A few of my classmates fell asleep but no one bothered to wake them up. Pregnancy was tiring sometimes and for all I knew, this was the first chance they had to sit down all day. We provided pregnancy leave of course. Every business was required to provide such a paid leave under flight law but there was more to life than work and some days were busy whether or not you were pregnant.

Barely ended the class with everyone laying on their sides, facing their partners, and practicing more deep breathing exercises. My dragon cracked a few jokes about us being at a near orgy before he finally settled down. Clarence held my gaze as we breathed. I was no stranger to our heartbeats syncing up. That was a common occurrence with true-mates after all. Only this time was different. This time the world almost disappeared. The other couples weren’t ours to worry about at the moment. It was me and him and the little baby growing inside me. They’d grow up a wolf amongst dragons. They wouldn’t be the only furry shifter in the flight but they’d be our first wolf pup.

“If we were at home I’d nibble on you,” Clarence said over our mating link.

“If we were at home I’d let you nibble on me.”

“So, how do you like class? Do you feel better?”

“If I could be this relaxed when I gave birth, I doubt I’d be worried at all but I don’t think it’ll work that way. Right now there isn’t a giant head trying to push itself out into the world.”

“I’ve been reading books,” Clarence said. “I know how lame that sounds. We didn’t even do that as young people.”

“It’s not lame. It’s sorta hot.”

“Books about what sires should do during live births.”

“Still hot. Hotter than before maybe,” I grinned at him.

“Some of the advice is stuff like this – breathing exercises and the like. Some sounds kinky like telling you that you’re a good boy and you’re doing great.”

“I’d kick you. Not in general but in front of Marria I’d kick you. It would be like saying it in front of a high school kid. I mean, she has kids of her own but---”

“You don’t like her as much as you want Teal to think, huh?”

“Nope but she’s the best of them for the moment. Fucking war drove all the midwives away.”

“Breathe. Keep breathing. Barley is staring at us now. It’s like he’s trying to bore a hole in my head or something.”

“Maybe he thinks you’re aren’t being a good boy,” I said and scooted closer to Clarence to press my forehead against his.

“Well, that’s not his decision to make.”

As I shifted closer, Clarence’s hard dick brushed against my thigh. Could Barley see that from where he stood? I sniffed Clarence. His pheromone blocker spray was holding up. I sprayed him down before leaving the house because he smelled like a dragon on his way to pillage and burn an elven village and I didn’t want him frightening our classmates.

“You can take as long as you need,” Barley said and I glanced around the room to see what everyone else was doing.

They were gone. Not a single one of our classmates remained on this side of the beaded curtains. Had we chased them off? How had they left without us noticing?

“This happens occasionally,” Barley smiled as I patted Clarence on the knee so he’d help me up. “Usually with newly met mates or mates who have been together a long time. It’s fine. Like I said, the next class isn’t for three hours. So take as long as you need.”

***

We didn’t make love on our tie-dye yoga mat that first week, but we barely made it home and to our room before we stripped our clothes off. The triplets had the baby and didn’t know we were home yet. So we took another hour for ourselves. We lay panting when we finished, and Clarence declared that maybe there was something to all these ‘hippy-dippy’ practices after all.

The second week was much like the first, except Barley walked us through several live birth positions. There was some giggling as those of us with more bulk around our middles than we usually carried tried to contort ourselves.

“You’ll just have to hold me up and shake the baby out of me,” one young omega teased her mate as she flopped on him instead of squatting down.

“That doesn’t work,” Barley interjected and helped her assume the position.

“This must be how a dog feels when he relieves himself at the park,” I said to Clarence over our mating link.

“So not this one then?”

“I don’t even lay eggs this way. We have shins for a reason. You can sit on them after all,” I told him.

He held out his hands and stood up. Some things were too ‘hippy-dippy’ for me. Wasn’t that why I wanted a home birth and a midwife that was old enough to remember a couple of wars?

Clarence pulled me into a tight embrace and kissed my forehead. I could’ve stayed there in the safe haven of his arms forever. Suddenly, I wished we had music to slow dance too. I swayed in place and Clarence followed along with me. I rested my forehead against his shoulder and forgot all about the natural but scary as shit journey ahead of us.

“We’ll make it. I’m not saying it’ll be easy,” Clarence said over our mating link, “but we will make it. Before you know it our baby will be here with us, the triplets, and Acadian.”

“Do you think they’ll stay on after the baby comes?”

“Teal will,” Clarence nodded. “He’s still not ready to go back and see his ex with his new true-mate.”

“I’ll miss Cobalt and Indigo if they go.”

“Maybe they won’t go, then,” Clarence said but we both knew sooner or later all three of them would want to get back to the real world. There wasn’t a hot dating scene at Moonscale Manor.