19. Nia

The sound of squealing children is the first and only warning I get before my front door is thrown open, and three little girls are running into my home. I set my sewing off to the side, just in time for Vara and Lara to jump into my lap and wrap their little arms around me. Mara is growing older now and thinks jumping into my lap and giving me a giant bear hug isn’t cool anymore. I’m sure she’ll outgrow that at some point.

“Where’s your mama?” I ask. I push Vara’s wild and curly hair back and start to tie it in a bun that she’ll have loose in about five minutes. My sunlight gets blocked, and I call out over my shoulder, not needing to turn around to know it’s Dath. “Where’s your mate?”

“She is speaking to yours outside,” Dath says as he moves further into my home.

He takes Mara’s hand when she tries to hide behind him. She’s a shy little girl right now, probably realizing that while she and her sisters do look a lot like their mom, they don’t really look that much like the other creatures on this planet. Even the other alien-human hybrid babies look more like their fathers than Deja and Dath’s girls do. We’re all curious to see if baby number four will look like their sisters when they’re finally born.

“I thought we were coming to you guys since she’s so close to going into labor,” I say, getting to my feet and keeping Lara on my hip since she’s the smallest of the girls. Vara wraps her arms around my leg and stares up at me with a smile on her lips.

“Deja decided she needed a trip out to get fresh air,” Dath says, his eyes straying to the open front door. “I told her that the air is the same here as it is in the tribe’s wall, but my mate can be stubborn.”

I let out a snort of a laugh before turning my attention down to the young. Simone’s already braided Mara and Lara’s hair, and I’m pretty sure Vara is next up when Simone has a free afternoon. “I’m making the three of you some new shorts since your mom keeps telling me you’ve been growing out of them too fast.”

“Are there young females here?” Lyath asks, popping his head out of the bedroom and looking over all of us. His face scrunches up when he sees Dath and makes a motion in front of his face like he is trying to fan away a smell. “Three beautiful females and one stinky male. Why do you punish me so?”

Vara and Lara giggle at Lyath’s joke, but sweet little Mara doesn’t like anyone making fun of her father, even if it’s all in jest. She pouts, her little eyes narrowing up at her uncle. She’s just about to say something when Lyath’s eyes fall down to where she’s standing. She’s still partially obscured by Dath’s legs. Her eyes go wide, and she scrambles further behind him.

“Let us go outside so I do not need to smell your stinky father, yes?” Lyath says with a smile in his eyes.

“He doesn’t smell,” Mara pouts quietly to her father’s legs instead of to any of us. Dath shakes his head, a smile tugging at his lips as he reaches behind his back and pulls his daughter in front of him. She turns her eyes up to her father, who gives her another squeeze. “What? You don’t.”

“No, no, of course.” Lyath grabs Lara and tosses her into the air before hoisting her onto one of his shoulders and walking outside. Lara squeals in delight, her fingers wrapping around one of Lyath’s horns, and shakes it in an attempt to get him to throw her again. He doesn’t because he knows it scares the shit out of me. Dath only laughs along with his daughters and promises them he will toss them into the air later when they are at home.

“I don’t think you’re supposed to be walking this far from your home when you look like you could pop any minute now,” I tell Deja when I step outside and see her talking with Beren.

He has one of his arms propped in front of him, letting Deja lean against it for support as she tries to take deep, steadying breaths. It takes me a second to take in the scene in front of me. Deja is leaning against Beren’s forearm, her forehead pressing against it as her fingers press hard into his scales. Her breathing is deep, almost pained, and her jaw is clenched tight.

“I forgot walking can help speed along labor,” Deja says, rolling her head against Beren’s forearm until she’s facing us. She gives me a small smile and then tries to stand back up. Beren takes a step toward her, his free arm on her back, making sure she’s safe to stand on her own. “My water may have broken earlier this morning, but I thought there was some more time.”

“Well, fudge,” I say, making sure not to say the other word I want to say since there are so many impressionable minds around us.

I pass Vara over to Lyath who is staring wide-eyed at Deja like she might be contagious. Thankfully, he doesn’t need to do anything but keep the young safe while I get everything else done.

“Time for the girls to go play with Uncle Lyath,” I say as cheerfully as I can. Even Mara seems to understand things have changed and takes Lyath’s free hand.

“I will keep the young occupied,” Lyath says as he nods over and over.

I shoo him away, not needing him to pass out on all of us at just the thought of someone giving birth. He passed out when Jen had her baby, and that was just from hearing her scream during labor. Who knows what he’ll do if he actually witnesses a contraction? Beren’s being a good sport about all of it, not rushing Deja to take her mate’s hand and letting her rely on him with ease.

“You can use the girls’ room,” I say. I make sure that everyone is following me, even if it’s at a snail’s pace. I duck into the house and go straight toward the spare room.

The room used to belong to Jen and Tori before they found mates. We never use it except when we have the nieces over for sleepovers so their parents can work and give them even more siblings. Sometimes, it’s used when Jen or Tori wants to stay with us. The demons are all big on family, and it’s rubbed off on many of the humans, too.

Last year, during one of the storms, Jen and Thro stayed with us to weather the storm. What we didn’t expect was that she would go into labor while trapped out here. Thankfully, she and the babe were both fine. We were able to get them back to the tribe during a lull in the storms so they could bond in their own home.

“Do you want me to go get the doctor?” Beren asks as he leads Deja into the room and helps her get into bed.

Dath is right behind them, the sleeves on his tunic already rolled up like he’s about to pull this baby out. From the determined look in his eyes, he might do just that.

“Run for him just in case,” Dath says coolly, his red gaze softening when he looks down at his mate. “Your female mate may stay to help me if Deja is fine with it.”

“Yeah, yeah, she’s fine,” Deja says, trying and failing to roll onto her side with any grace. I don’t even care to hide my laughter because when Deja shoots daggers at me with her eyes, I know she’d give me just as much of a hard time for not being able to roll over on my own. “Help me out, you ass.”

“Care if I touch her?” I ask Dath, making sure before I do because the males can get weird during labor.

Thro was ready to rip all of us to shreds for even being in the same building as his mate when she was giving birth to their son. Marron had to pin him to the ground each time he lunged for Lyath or Beren. For three days, he was a loose cannon. Then, he spent a few weeks hidden away with his mate in their home with their new babe. When he came back after the storms, he was the same old Thro, making jokes and always laughing with everyone. So, if Thro can act so unlike himself during a moment like this, I can only imagine the damage a mate like Dath could do.

“Do what you need,” Dath says. He moves to help her before I can, though. “She is in charge during this. I do not have to know the pain, so I listen and do her bidding, yes?”

“Yes,” Deja says through gritted teeth as I help her to her hands and knees. She lets her head go limp between her shoulders and lets out a long exhale. “How fast was Vara?”

“The doctor did not even make it to the workshop once you decided she was to enter this world,” Dath says with a genuine adoration for his mate. He places a hand on her abdomen to help keep her supported. His other rubs small circles over her back. He looks up at me and then tilts his head toward the head of the bed. “Will you take her hand? It will be painful soon.”

I scurry to the top of the bed and take one of Deja’s hands in mine as she lowers herself to her elbows. Dath keeps one hand on her abdomen, the other slowly moving her skirt up and over her hips.

I try not to pay much attention to what’s happening because if I think too hard about how everything works, I might be the one who faints. If I faint, Deja will have something to hold over me for the rest of my life.

The sound of fabric tearing pulls me from my thoughts. Deja is growling, expletives about how Dath didn’t need to ruin a perfectly good pair of underwear.

“I’ll make you some more,” I laugh, “It can be a birthing gift.”

“You’ve already made me enough baby clothes to last me at least four more kids.” Deja tries to keep the smile in her voice, but the pain is making it strained. She clenches my hand in an iron grip as her face screws tight, and she lets out a pained moan.

“Only four more?” Dath asks. The humor in his voice matches Deja’s, making me wonder when they decided giving birth was a great time to banter. Was it during the second or third baby? “I think we can have more than that, surely.”

“I will rip your dick from your pocket if you think of impregnating me again before this kid is even out of me,” Deja growls and squeezes my hand even tighter.

“Fine, no talk of filling you with more young,” Dath relents, lowering his head to check on how everything is going.

I manage to look over to where he’s lowered behind Deja before I think better of it. I can’t stop the laugh that bubbles out of me. The whole thing just looks so absurd that I can’t stop it. Deja squeezes my hand again. She turns her head as much as she can to see what’s so funny, and Dath is darting his head back up

“Sorry, sorry.” I quiet my laugh enough so I can explain. “I just looked down there, and all I see is your bare ass and a pair of horns poking out from behind you.”

“Don’t look at my ass like this!” Deja shrieks as she tries to swat at my face with the hand that was holding mine.

“All right.” I nod, turning my full attention back on her face that she now has lowered back down again. “No more looking at your ass.”

“Fuck,” Deja yells as she squeezes my hand tight in hers. Dath disappears behind her again, this time the hand that was on her back disappears with him. Deja sucks in a deep breath, and as she exhales, I feel her body tense. “Fuck, fuck, fuck.”

“Good, good,” Dath says soothingly.

He doesn’t lift his head or bring his hand back up to her back. It feels like there’s a pause in the world. A baby’s cry fills the air, and Deja laughs like she didn’t just birth a baby in ten minutes flat. I don’t know how long she was actually in labor since she said her water broke this morning, but still. She made it all the way to my house and had a baby in less time than it takes me to patch a hole in one of the girls’ shorts.

Dath does something obscured by Deja’s staying on her hands and knees. Whatever it is, it only takes him a second. He stands from the bed with a very Deja-looking baby pressed against his chest in one hand. He helps Deja roll over and asks for me to help in getting her shirt off. When it’s off, he places their fourth baby girl on her chest and returns to between her legs.

“She’s beautiful, Deja,” I say, awestruck by yet another family member joining our odd little family.

“So beautiful,” Dath agrees, eyes sparkling as he helps Deja bend and open her legs. “You may stay, or you may leave now. I can help my mate with this last part.”

“Last part?” I feel a queasiness in my stomach. As much as I’m made up of the same bits as Deja, I don’t know what he’s talking about at all, and I don’t think I want to know.

Deja laughs, her eyes never leaving the crying baby on her chest. “Go before I ruin your image of me forever.”

“Too late for that,” I say with a laugh and a kiss on her forehead. “I’ve seen your ass when you’re in labor.”

“I hate you,” Deja mutters, her eyes finding mine for a moment as though she couldn’t bear to say the words while looking at her young.

“Love you too,” I say, giving her one last smile before slipping out of the room and leaving the house to find my mate and our nieces.

I’m just in time to see Beren running back through the trees, the doctor fast on his heels as they try to get to the house in case they’re needed. I stop them before they get inside, just in case Dath tries to kill either of them for seeing his mate how she is now.

“Babe’s born and crying already. I’m sure he’ll let you check on her when he finishes whatever else he had to do.”

“The afterbirth.” Vex nods as though that makes any of it better and doesn’t make me frown in disgust. “May I wait out here until they’re done?”

“Of course,” Beren says. His hands are on his knees as he sucks in deep breaths from running so fast. “I am going to find Lyath and the girls, you will join me?” He looks at me and offers me his hand before straightening.

There’s a small clearing just past the fourth field that’s always filled with the prettiest wildflowers. The girls love going to the field and picking flowers. I have no doubt that’s where Lyath has them now. Beren must think the same because he heads that way without saying anything. We walk in silence for a moment before Beren looks down at me, a question on his mind that I can see he doesn’t want to ask.

“I don’t want a babe,” I tell him, already knowing it’s what he’s not asking me. “First, I just learned there’s such a thing as afterbirth.” I shudder and gag at just the idea of what that is. “Second, Lyath would pass out about twenty times if I were to get pregnant, and that’s before I even go into labor. And third, I really like just being with the two of you. I don’t need a baby to make me feel complete because we have like eight between all of the nieces and nephews.”

“You are not upset that none of them are yours?” Beren asks. We’ve had variations of this conversation every time one of the females in our lives has a baby, and each time, I tell him the same thing. I don’t fault him for asking. He feels like it’s somehow his responsibility to provide me with a young, even though we all know it’s just not going to happen.

“They are mine,” I nudge his arm to keep him walking to the clearing. We hear their giggling and squealing before we see them, and it makes my smile bright and warm. “Our family isn’t traditional, but it’s ours, and that’s what makes it so great.”

“So true,” Beren murmurs as he holds me tighter to him.

The girls are too busy playing to notice Beren and me when we join Lyath’s side. We get a moment all to ourselves before being bombarded with all sorts of questions about their new sister and their mother. Beren wraps his arms over each of our shoulders, and I wrap my fingers in Lyath’s behind his back. This is our family, and there’s nothing I would change about it.