I walked out of the bathroom and into the living room in search of my mate and husband of three years. "Charles, my water just broke."
Instantly, he was at my side. "Are you okay? You should be lying down."
"Yes, I'm fine and no, I don't need to lie down. You should call Samuel and your father, though, so that they can come over and warn the rest of the pack to stay away." Charles had been overprotective throughout my entire pregnancy, but recently he had gotten to the point where no one was allowed near me unless they were family.
As Charles walked reluctantly into the kitchen to make the calls, I wandered into the bedroom to change into a long nightgown. I then went into the spare room to make sure that everything was ready, stopping once during the process as another contraction went through me. The pain wasn't terrible just yet, but it was enough to make me breathe slowly and carefully for a minute or so afterward.
Charles entered the room at a half-run. "Samuel and Da are on their way over, and Samuel says that you need to lie down right now."
"I feel fine," I protested. And for the moment, I did. Because my mate bond allowed me to use Charles' ability to shift easily during my pregnancy and keep my unborn child alive, I wasn't nearly as tired or weak as his mother had been when she had used magic to try and do the same thing. That didn't keep Charles or his family from worrying, though. Samuel was concerned about me getting too tired by the stress of the pregnancy. Charles, naturally, took this concern and magnified it, which resulted in him being my constant shadow for the past nine months. I wasn't even allowed to run with the pack during the full moon anymore; instead, I had to shift and then stay close to town for the evening.
Coincidentally, our wolves were handling the situation better than we were. My wolf was feeling rather smug about the whole thing, and according to Charles, Brother Wolf's only concern was that no one bother his mate while she was carrying his child.
"Samuel says that if you tire yourself out now, you may not be able to last through the delivery. We don't know how long your labor is going to take," he replied as he picked me up himself, walked down the hall to the spare room, and placed me directly on the bed.
"Samuel worries too much," I retorted. Seeing the barely-concealed fear in his eyes, I softened my tone. "Everything is going to be just fine."
Charles got into the bed next to me. "You're right, of course, but I hate having to watch you go through this. I'll be happier once we can finally hold our little boy or girl." He put his arms around me, and we sat their together, silently contemplating our unborn child, until Samuel and Bran arrived.
"Everything looks good," Samuel said as he finished up his exam. He had brought along a portable ultrasound, but he kept the ultrasound pointed away so that Charles and I wouldn't see the baby until it was born. "I just have a couple to things to warn you about. It's nothing dangerous," he said as a panicked look crossed Charles' face, "It's just some things that you need to know before the labor really gets going."
"First of all, most babies are born facing the mother's back. This little one, though, has apparently decided to face the other way. It's nothing to be concerned about, and it won't affect the baby at all, but it will be important to you, Anna. Posterior babies are usually associated with a longer labor time and an increased amount of pain, especially back pain."
"I can handle the pain," I said, "as long as the baby is going to be fine."
"The baby will be perfect, I promise you," reassured Samuel. "The only other thing I feel the need to mention right now is that the baby will also be larger than normal. This shouldn't come as a surprise, knowing who the father is," he said, smirking at Charles, "but this baby is even bigger than Charles when he was born. From the looks of things, it's going to be right around ten pounds."
"Is that a problem?" Charles asked with an anxious look at me. "Will Anna be able to deliver the baby okay, or is it too big?"
"The baby is most definitely not too big, and Anna will do just fine," Samuel stated firmly. "Again, I'm telling you this not because there's any danger, but to prepare you. Bigger babies typically take more time to deliver and cause more pain while doing so."
"So, you're basically telling us that I'm going to be in labor for forever and in excruciating pain the entire time," I said in an attempt at sarcasm. From the way Charles squeezed my hand, though, I could tell that they could see through my act.
"I didn't say that," Samuel said firmly. "Every delivery is different. Some women experience little or no pain at all, and some give birth within a couple of hours. I just wanted to make you aware of the possibilities."
"Well, we'll just have to hope for a short, pain-free birth, now won't we?" Charles commented in an attempt at optimism.
Twelve hours later, and it was obvious that our hopes for a short and painless birth were never going to come true. It was now 5:00 in the morning, and I was only at eight centimeters. Because he feared me getting too tired too soon, Samuel refused to let me push until I was fully dilated, a fact that had me heaping curses on his head.
"I need to push!" I groaned.
"Not yet, love," soothed Charles from his position near my head. Amazingly, he had become completely calm once my labor had truly started, and there was no way I could have gotten this far without him.
"Just a couple more hours, Anna," Samuel encouraged.
"No! I have to push right now!" I screamed as the contraction peaked.
"Breathe, Anna, just breathe," Charles whispered in my ear. He sat down facing me on the edge of the bed and pulled me up to lean into his shoulder. "I'd take this pain from you if I could, and I want you to know what an amazing job you're doing. Thank you for giving us a baby. This is something that I never thought I'd have, and it's all because of you."
I wrapped my arms around him and pressed my face to his chest as the contraction eased. "I just want this to be over," I mumbled against him. "I just want to hold our baby."
"Soon," he said softly against my hair. "It'll all be over soon."
Two hours passed with the contractions intensifying and me trying to fight back screams. Finally, though, I heard the words that I wanted.
"You're at ten centimeters, Anna. Are you ready to push?" asked Samuel.
I nodded tiredly as I lay collapsed on the pillows.
"Okay, then. Charles, pile the pillows against the headboard and have her recline back against them. Anna, I need you to bend at the knees and spread your legs apart. When the next contraction starts, push as hard as you can for as long as you can. Try to let the contractions do most of the work for you. I'll go get Da."
As Samuel left the room and Charles helped me to change position, I gave him a tired smile. "This is it," I said. "We're finally going to have a baby."
Another two hours passed as I slowly pushed my baby into the world. If anything, pushing made the pain even worse, but it also felt good to finally be doing something to help things along.
"Good job, Anna," Samuel said from the foot of the bed. "The baby's finally crowning. Just a few more pushes and it'll all be over with."
Charles wrapped one arm around my shoulders and grabbed my hand with the other as I began pushing again.
"Charles!" I screamed as I felt the baby's head stretching me almost unbearably. "I can't do this anymore! Just pull the baby out!"
"You know I can't do that, love," he said to me as I started to fall back. "You're almost there. Lean on me and try again."
Pulling myself out of the haze of exhaustion, I rallied my strength and bore down once more.
"The head's out. Rest and breathe, Anna, and at the next contraction, give us one more good push to deliver the body," said Samuel.
Charles helped to lower me to the bed, and I lay there breathing heavily. All too soon, though, I felt the tightening of another contraction coming on, and I lifted up to begin pushing again.
"Wonderful, Anna! Excellent! Just . . . about . . . there!" exclaimed Samuel triumphantly as I felt my baby slip from my body at last.
Charles began raining kisses on my face and throat as Samuel handed the baby off to Bran to be cleaned and looked over. "You did it, love. I'm so proud of you!"
I lay back tiredly and closed my eyes. Charles continued to murmur praises as Samuel cleaned me up and dealt with the afterbirth, which came right away and with no assistance from me.
"Would you like Charles to help you rinse off before you move back to your own bedroom?" Samuel asked me. At my nod, he continued, "While you do that, then, I'll go help Da with the baby. Charles, come to me when you get Anna situated."
In the end, Charles had to strip down as well and stand with me in the shower to keep me from falling over. I stood there limply and in a daze as he rinsed the sweat from my body and washed my hair for me. He dried me off, dressed me in a clean nightgown, and carried me to our own room. Laying me on the bed with a quick kiss and an "I'll be back soon, love," he left to go see our new child.
I drifted in a half-awake state as I lay thinking on the newest member of our family. I opened my eyes and raised my head, though, as I heard the sound of the door opening. Charles shut the door softly behind him and walked over bearing a small bundle wrapped in a blue, green, and yellow patterned baby blanket. "Are you finally ready to see our son face-to-face?" he asked me.
"It's a boy?" I asked as I eagerly held out my arms.
"It's a boy," he confirmed as he passed our son to me. "Ten fingers, ten toes, and completely healthy from Samuel's report."
"He's got your hair, but he's got my eyes," I said smugly.
"What are we going to name him?" Charles asked. "Da would like to pass the information along to the rest of pack before they come to meet him next week."
"Well," I said slowly, "I like Mason for a first name."
Charles grinned back at me. "I agree. Mason suits him well. But what about a middle name?"
I thought about it for a few moments, and then I smiled. "Do you remember the werewolf that we met in the Cabinets when we were hunting that witch?" At his nod, I continued. "How about Walter for a middle name, then?"
"I like it." Charles proclaimed. He looked down at our son resting in my arms and gently rubbed his tiny head with one hand. "Let's go get Samuel and Da and introduced them to Mason Walter Cornick."