The Unexpected Yuletide Baby (Starscale Mates #3)

Chapter Fourteen

Medwin

I didn’t leave the grounds of Moonscale Manor during the last two weeks of my pregnancy. My dragon took hold, and my horns and wings stayed out, aiding in keeping my balance. I paced the nest room, holding Acadian to my chest whenever I had a free moment. Pacing was nice. Pacing kept the baby moving. It got her rotating so that her head was pointed down during those last few days. That meant I nearly pissed myself once an hour, but it was much better than her coming out ass first or trying to wave hello during a delivery.

The morning of Meda’s birth I woke up with twinges in my back. I’d read enough books and talked to enough live birthers to know that this was the biggest sign that my baby would be here soon.

“Meda,” Clarence whispered in my ear that morning.

Before that moment we hadn’t totally decided on a name but as soon as the word crossed my sleepy brain – it was the one. My back twinged again, gripping me as if it intended to rip my spine from my hip bones. It was as if his whispering her name summoned her from inside the watery depths of my womb.

Pacing helped the pain. I wanted to let Teal sleep in for as long as possible, but Clarence woke the triplets up. I wore my bathrobe and paced with the baby to my chest. Everyone kept offering to take him for me because they didn’t understand that he was the only reason my dragon wasn’t burning down the whole Frost-damned house!

Burn it to cinders.

That was the mantra my dragon repeated inside my thoughts as pain spun around me, squeezing and yanking on my insides. I swore and cursed under my breath. The curse words alternated with lullabies for our baby. Acadian had grown over the last few months, but he was still so tiny. He cooed and clutched my robe with his tiny fist. Happy to be close to me and clueless about how he was about to not be the youngest baby in the family anymore.

Eventually, I moved into the tub. I didn’t squat or lay with my feet facing the ceiling. I handed the baby to Indigo and chased all the triplets out. Unless one of us were in danger of dying they could wait outside – that’s the proper way to do a birth. No laboring parent needs an audience trying to look up inside them.

“I doubt that’s a view they want, dear,” Clarence said, sitting on the side of the tub.

“Shut up!” I growled. “And what are you doing!? Get in here! Bloody Frost on a biscuit!”

“I wasn’t sure you wanted me in there with you,” Clarence said, taking his time to disrobe.

“If I didn’t love you so much, I’d bite you. Like really bite you – bite you with my dragon’s teeth.”

“Just remember, we bite back,” Clarence said, slipping into the tub with me.

I rested my head against his bicep and considered taking a chunk out of him. Except he might end up needing both arms to help me with the baby.

“I love you,” I said instead of ripping a piece out of him.

“I love you so much,” Clarence whispered. “You can do this. Bite me if you need to, dear, but you can do this. My mate is a stubborn headstrong dragon who goes toe to toe with danger almost every day. You can do this and when it’s over we won’t have to rebuild a whole territory. We get to rock a baby. You can do this.”

I might’ve headbutted him if anyone was there to hear his sappy pep talk. The tub smelled like blood and all the stuff that came out before a baby.

Predators could be anywhere.

“WE ARE IN THE BATH!” I roared at my dragon, drowning out his voice.

We were in the bath. We were inside the house. We were inside a civilized, currently peaceful territory. Unless the spider who kept coming up the drain planned on eating us there wasn’t a single damn predator around.

It was a slow process. Stop and go and push and stop and go and push. It went round and round until I lost track of what I was doing. Everything hurt and everything blurred together as sweat dripped into my eyes. Clarence stayed by my side and helped as much as I’d let him.

When Meda’s wail cut through the air, I nearly fell into the water. Instead, I breathed as well as I could and waited for Clarence to deal with the cord. He took his time – drawing it into hours. At least it was hours inside my head. In reality it was probably less than two minutes.

Somehow I managed to push myself upright and grab my robe from the sink counter. I shrugged it on – suddenly too cold to be naked and Clarence wrapped his baby-free arm around me and helped me to the sofa. We sat together for a long moment before he took away the baby to clean up and brought her back swaddled in a blanket. Soon, we’d get a doctor to look at her but for now, she was ours and only ours. She was safe and sound and beautiful. She was incredible.

“You’re incredible,” Clarence whispered to me. “You’re so fucking incredible.”

“She’s our late Yule present,” I whispered, still riding high on the pain or the hormones or both.

“She is.”

“I love you. I’m sorry I almost ate you.”

“It’s okay. I’d gladly sacrifice a few pounds of flesh for you and our baby,” Clarence chuckled and kissed my temple.

Hello and thank you for joining us on Earthside for Yuletide! Whether this is your first book in this universe, or you’ve been around since the beginning, thank you! It means the world to me to be able to continue expanding this universe to new and exciting places!