Sweetest Sin

DaggersBloodPain

Chapter Sixteen

The Next Wolf Prince and the Western Heir

The Western Palace was not quite prepared for the challenge having two pregnant Uke's within the walls would cause. Kouga and Sesshomaru got bigger and grouchier as time passed. Ayame had managed to come through the worst phase of hers with relative calm, but after her captivity that was to be expected.

Their seme mates were driven to distraction by their constant need for contact. One minute they were happy, cheerful, and discussing the pups future, the next they were angry or in tears for no apparent reason. Inuyasha would have laughed at the emotions Sesshomaru was displaying if he wasn't quite so worried the older youkai would carry out his threats the moment their pup was born and it was safe to do so.

Miroku was having similar problems with Kouga, and yet Kouga was much worse than Sesshomaru was. For starters Kouga was still not completely content with his Uke status causing anybody who brought undue attention to the fact was cut down and quickly. In addition, Kouga had always been more hot-tempered than Sesshomaru, he flew off the handle that much easier, Sesshomaru at least tried to control himself. The others in the castle might have been a bit more compassionate towards Miroku if tales of his wandering hands hadn't spread like wild fire. If the man was so eager to have children he could deal with the side effects having them brought about.

Sesshomaru continued to have occasional scares with the pregnancy, and the healers continued to say all was well with the pup and things would turn out all right in the end. It caused no small amount of panic whenever it happened and the show of support was warming to the normally cold and distant Youkai.

Rin and Ayame were healing from their capture slowly, and Rin was showing great interest in the new baby, and the ones to come. Reminding the others in a few years, she too would be old enough to start thinking of creating a family with someone she loved. Right now, she was still in the baby-doll stage where she enjoyed watching Kaori and playing with her the small bit she was allowed to, she didn't really understand what it meant to be a mother yet.

The air was thick with waiting, until the halls of the Palace were rendered alive by the screams of pain emanating from one of the guest rooms. Kouga's time had come, and mixed with his cries, were the ones from Miroku who felt every bone in his hand get crushed with the force of his mate's pain.

He was not granted the quick painful delivery of Ayame, but a long drawn out battle. He labored for hours with the agonizing pain. His body was tough enough to handle it, he was stronger than Ayame's fragile body, but even the toughest demon would be worn out after two nights and a day of labor. His body not only had to labor the baby lower into his body, but the birth canal had to form as well, causing the excruciatingly long labor.

He lost a lot of blood, but finally at dawn on his second day of labor he was finally able to push his child into the world. His body so tired it took him half an hour of pushing to free the small cub from his body.

A son, Miroku and him had created a son. The boy was laid in Kouga's arms for the first time just as the dawn's first light fell onto the bed from the window. That inspired the boy's name, Akemi.

Little Akemi drew just as much attention as Kaori did. The little boy had jet black hair, and only faintly pointed ears, but the new parents soon found out that the boy already had a set of developed fangs. A born predator, there was no doubt he was a wolf youkai, despite being a Hanyou. Kouga breathed a sigh of relief when he saw their son was safe and healthy, and didn't suffer from the problems most Hanyous had.

Now they were just waiting for Sesshomaru to deliver.

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Inuyasha raised his head up from the bed he shared with his mate. Normally it took an act of atomic bomb proportions to wake him, but tonight it was one tiny little thing. Sesshomaru was not in bed with him anymore. He was used to his pregnant mate's frequent trips to empty his bladder but he had been gone for too long. Inuyasha's necessity forged instincts told him something wasn't right.

Following the freshest trail he couldn't help but get even more frightened as he realized he smelt Sesshomaru's blood. His steps became more urgent as he realized his brother's footsteps were not heading towards the healers, but instead outside, more towards the hot springs than anywhere else.

He found Sesshomaru in one of the shallower pools, quietly groaning in pain.

"What are you doing Sesshomaru!" Inuyasha scolded him, realizing what the pain meant. "We need to get you to a healer right now." He told him moving to help his brother out of the spring, but Sesshomaru wouldn't budge.

"Don't want a healer," Sesshomaru's normally sharp voice was clipped by pain. "Stay here, water feels good." He tried to communicate as another contraction took his breath away.

"You were going to try and give birth ALONE!" Inuyasha raged, but unable to stay mad at his mate he slipped into the hot spring next to his laboring mate. "Just how long have you been in labor?"

"A day and a half," Sesshomaru admitted once the contraction was over. "It didn't get bad until a few hours ago. This is something I wanted to do without the healers poking and prodding."

"Why didn't you tell me? This is something you tell alright," Inuyasha asked as he watched yet another contraction ripple through the skin of Sesshomaru's abdomen.

"I thought you wouldn't let me do it with just us, now it is too late to move, I can't walk anymore." Sesshomaru almost whined, and Inuyasha knew that was due to the pain coursing through his body.

In three more contractions, "The pup is coming," Sesshomaru called out eyes wide as the pressure in his lower abdomen became unbearable and he wanted to push down with the pain.

That is when Inuyasha looked down and saw their child's head already visible. Apparently, their pup was eager to enter the world. "Push Sesshomaru!" Inuyasha ordered, and Sesshomaru didn't need the command, as the next pain was demanding, he couldn't not push even if he wanted to.

The head was born in a single push, pulling a scream from Sesshomaru's lips for the first time in years. The next push had the slippery little body out and in Inuyasha's waiting hands. Only when the little Pup's head was out of the water did he take a breath. Settling the heir to the west on Sesshomaru's chest, he couldn't help but stare at the family he had been gifted. It was perfect, even if Sesshomaru's stubborn pride almost made him miss the birth of his son.

XXXX

It was a bit of a shock when the new family came back into the palace. The new heir held close to their Lord's body. Sesshomaru earned himself a very long lecture as the healers looked over every inch of both the child and him. Their son was small, due to the troubled pregnancy most likely, but healthy. Sesshomaru actually had the least damage from the birth out of the three.

The instincts that led him to the spring were the right ones to follow. It just proved that birth should be interfered with as little as possible. It was just the fact the pregnancy had not been easy that worried the healers. Who would have expected the one with the hardest pregnancy would have the easiest labor?

It took Sesshomaru and Inuyasha the longest to pick out a name for their son. He was almost a full twenty-four hours old by the time they settled on the right name, Toshiro.