Chapter 125

Slightly less than nine months later

"Push, Jess!" Saffron urged.

But I was. With every muscle in my body, I strained, though the process seemed utterly hopeless, my breath coming in hard and fast.

"You must push, dear heart," Hazel said, taking my hand and squeezing. "For your child."

"I am…!" I wailed. Pain wracked my body in ways I couldn't describe. It went beyond anything I'd ever experienced and there was a lot of it. It was as if something in me fought the process. My eyes narrowed as I stared at my pale faced mates. Roan paced back and forth in one corner of the room, Arik was milk pale and Silas was sorting through Creed's bag of medicines with him, both men discussing what might help, but I knew who was at fault here. "You…!" My finger stabbed in their direction. "You're all huge, and I'm not and you got a baby in me!"

"That's not the issue here—" Saffron tried to say, but Hazel shook her head.

"Get it out, lass," she said, her eyes burning into mine. "Get it all out. If there was ever a time to curse a man, this is it."

"I can't…" One helpless little sob spurred on another, my whole body shaking with them. "I can't do this."

My hand slapped down on my belly, feeling the muscle flex and contract there without any conscious effort from me. I'd been feeling like my body wasn't my own since the moment it became obvious I was pregnant. Lords watched my belly grow with greedy eyes, imagining a boy growing there. Wolf shifters saw my size and pronounced that I had to be bearing twins. Selene tried to talk to me about what would happen if I bore a son or a daughter, but it was Roan's family that concerned me the most. His sisters all exclaimed over my size, their eyes widening, but their fear created a twin in me until their mother stepped in.

"I bore that big lunk and me and the queen are of the same height," she said, poking her son in the ribs. "You'll be alright, lass."

"You'll have to cut the children out," I told Saffron in low urgent tones. "They're the ones that must survive."

"They…?" she said with a slight frown.

"You can do that, can't you?" I searched her face, but her hesitation was unbearable. "As your queen, I command you. You will save my babies—"

"We will save our babies." Creed appeared beside me, scooping me up so my back lay against his chest, his hand grabbing mine. "We will. You've been through far worse than this, my love. There's no way you won't now."

"But Creed…"

"There's a daughter in there that will shimmy down the trellis and then run out into the forest," Arik said, drawing closer, then dropping down beside the bed. "You just need to help her get out. You can do this, love." His fingers laced with mine. "I know you can."

"Get her off the bed." Roan was as pale as milk right now, every freckle standing out plainly. "That's what my ma said to do."

"I never understood why noble born women labour horizontally," Saffron said with a shake of her head. "You're working against gravity."

"Standing up will help?" I asked, even though they'd told me just that some hours before. I tried to move then, pausing as another contraction tore through me, but even after a few rapid pants, my limbs refused to obey.

I was tired.

This had been going on for hours and what was apparently a natural process was not coming naturally to me at all. More tears dotted the floor, my sobs turning into ugly open mouthed things.

"You're too tired." Silas was like a cool, wet washcloth to my face. I nodded, pleading him mutely for help. "You can't stand up anymore." Another nod. "Well, sweetling, you know that's why you've got four mates." He looked at the others, but they were already moving me off the bed.

"Into a crouch," Hazel directed. "Just like that. It opens the pelvis right up, something you might want to remember next time your mate tries to knot you."

"Never again!" I snarled, even though six months later, I turned that statement into a lie.

"Never again," Creed agreed.

He was trying to be so calm, but I felt it, the tension in his body and theirs. His strength though, that I could depend on. They shifted me into a position that met both Hazel and Saffron's approval and then the women crouched down in front of me.

"Just one big push, with everything you've got," Saffron said. "You've got this, my queen."

I doubted her with every breath, but what could I do but try? I bore down with what was left of my strength. The baby was stuck, I was sure of it. I'd hear horrific stories when talking to other women about childbirth. Of shoulders catching in the mother's pelvis, of heads too big, which was what had to be happening now. My shaking hand went to my stomach, pressing down.

"Come on, baby…" It was with the shaking croon of a mother that I spoke. "Come on, darling. Your fathers are just waiting to meet you."

"Push!" Saffron ordered. "Push!"

Soldiers fought their bloody battles for Khean and I did the same now, pushing and pushing until…

"Oh gods…!" After an impasse that felt like it lasted aeons, I felt the baby slither free. Saffron's cries and Hazel's all melded with mine. People were talking, so much talking but I didn't hear a single thing when they handed her to me.

Her.

My daughter was a mess of blood and pink skin, but the moment they put her in my arms, I knew. This was my heart pulled free of my chest, left to exist out in the world. I loved her so fiercely my lips started to move of their own accord.

"You will never marry my daughter off against her will." My eyes burned like flames in my sockets as I stared at each man. "She will never be used as a political pawn. Promise me. Promise me!"

"My daughter…" Arik's face crumpled right then and all evidence of my sardonic prince was gone. Tears fell freely from his eyes as he reached out with shaking hands.

"I will tear the arms from any bastard that tries," Creed snarled, his wolf close to the surface. "I will live and die for her."

"Don't worry, sweetling." Silas' voice was curiously contained, but the bright red spots in his cheeks said otherwise. "Every man that comes within five feet of her will be personally vetted and if I find any evidence of ill intent, they'll be dead before the moon rises." He stared at our child like she was the most precious thing in the world, because she was. "No one will ever touch my daughter without her consent."

"Or with it." Roan shook his head slowly. "Gods, how the hell did Da cope with seven daughters? I'm going to get in so many fights. If anyone dares look at my princess…" His jaw muscles flexed and then his eyes stared into mine, something so very vulnerable there. "Can I…? Can I hold our daughter?"

I wanted him too and didn't, all in the same breath, but something reminded me that she was ours, not just mine. Tears rolled down my cheeks as I held her out to him. She was so very tiny in his arms and somehow that made me feel better, a sensation that increased as they all clustered around our child. My daughter would have a pack of fathers to defend and protect her, which should've been enough. Instead my hand slid down, another contraction pulsing through me. My head jerked up, my eyes searching Saffron's as she smiled.

"The placenta is coming."

"No." Hazel pressed down on my belly and right then I saw the golden doe and her two fawns. "Another baby. I told you she was carrying heavy. Push, sweet girl, because your little one is about to get a brother or sister!"