With an uncertain, concerned glance at Drakkal, Urgand slipped one hand beneath the sheet and placed the other over Shay’s pelvis.
Drakkal growled long and low, forcing his full attention to Shay. “I’ve got you,kiraia.”
She kept her eyes locked with his, and though she didn’t speak, she lent him strength through her gaze. He loved her more than ever in that moment, even if this was backwards—he should’ve been able to hold his shit together without needing to draw comfort from her.Hewas supposed to be supportingher.
Urgand stepped back and removed his gloves. “Five centimeters. The terran charts say that’s halfway there.” He frowned and looked at Shay. “How long you been having contractions?”
“You mean the cramps?” she asked. “Since yesterday.”
“You’ve likely been in labor since then,” Samantha said.
Urgand’s frown deepened. “I’ll get you something for the pain.”
“No!” Shay hissed as soon as the word was out, her body tensing. She shook her head several times. “No drugs.”
Drakkal’s stomach churned. He caught her hand in his and gave it a squeeze. “You don’t need to suffer like this, Shay.”
“No drugs,” she repeated firmly, breathing in and out through her teeth until her body eased again. “I don’t want anything that could hurt my baby. I don’t want to chance it. I won’t chance it. I’ve dealt with pain before…and this pain will be worth it because it’ll result in somethinggood.”
Samantha placed her hand on Shay’s shoulder and smiled. “It’s your choice, Shay. I can’t wait to meet your daughter. Andjust think, you could be helping me with my baby someday soon.”
A short laugh escaped Shay between her deep, even breaths.
Drakkal leaned forward until Shay was his entire world and stared into her piercing blue eyes. “Whatever you need to do,kiraia. Give me as much of that pain as you must.”
She nodded, and despite the strain on her features, despite how exhausted she already looked, the strength he’d seen in her from the beginning remained evident in her eyes.
If the eight-minute hovercar trip to bring Shay home had felt like an eternity, Drakkal had no adequate words to describe the time he spent in that room—he’d learn later that it had been just under twelve hours, but he felt like it stretched beyond the age of the universe itself.
She squeezed his hand and dug her nails into his flesh; she gasped, moaned, and occasionally cursed—never at anyone in the room—but she did not scream. Drakkal admired her strength even as he felt weaker and more useless than ever. Watching his mate, the female he loved in a way he’d never dreamed possible, go through such agony tore him apart inside. He could do nothing for her but be there, and he couldn’t help feeling that was inadequate.
But when Shay gave that final push, fueling it with defiance for her exhaustion and for the universe that had forced so much hardship upon her, and the first cry of her little cub hit the air, time stopped.
Drakkal’s ears perked, and he watched with a strange, fluttering warmth in his chest as Urgand carefully lifted the cub, who looked so tiny and meek in the vorgal’s big, rough hands. Her cries were high and piercing andbeautiful. Though she was so small and so young, though she seemed so helpless at aglance, Drakkal could already sense the fighting spirit within her.
Urgand looked from the cub to Shay. “You terrans cut the birthing tether, don’t you?”
Shay nodded, her tired, bright eyes meeting Drakkal’s. “The father cuts it.”
The sensation within Drakkal’s chest intensified and expanded with a swelling of pride. His entire body thrummed with excitement and nervousness, so much so that he felt like he should’ve been trembling with it, but his hands were steady as he accepted the small surgical laser cutter from Urgand and sliced off the birthing tether where the vorgal had indicated. The cutter cauterized the wound, and the tether fell away.
Samantha stepped forward with a small, soft blanket, which she gently wrapped around the cub. An instant later, the cub was placed on Shay’s chest and cradled in her arms. The cries ceased.
Shay stared down into that tiny face, her own face full of wonder and love. Tears shimmered in her eyes as she smiled.
Drakkal positioned himself beside his mate, slipped his left arm around her shoulders, and stared down at her cub.Theircub. As gently as he could, he reached out with his right hand and cradled the back of that delicate little head.
The cub’s skin was ruddy and smeared with blood and fluids, and thick, dark hair was plastered to the top of her head. She looked nothing like an azheran cub—which only made sense, as terrans didn’t look much like azhera. But she washis. “Sorry,kiraia,” he said softly, “but you might only be second most beautiful now.”
Shay laughed, glancing up at Drakkal briefly. She brushed the tip of her fingers over the cub’s cheek, nose, and forehead. “She is beautiful, isn’t she?”
“What are you going to name her?” Samantha asked.
“Leah.” Shay looked up at Drakkal again, her smile widening. “Leah Audrey vor’Kanthar.”
Hearing that name—vor’Kanthar—from Shay’s lips produced a new sort of pride in Drakkal, one he’d not felt in a long while. Though he’d introduced himself to her as Drakkal vor’Kanthar, he’d left that name behind many years ago, during his time in the slave arenas. He’d thought his capture and enslavement had left him unworthy of the name of his tribe, and he’d never sought to truly reclaim it.
But his oldest memories came rushing back now, memories from his time as a cub, hazy but powerful, nonetheless. He’d been a part of a tribe, afamily, and he’d forgotten how good that felt. He’d forgotten what it meant. Shay had just given that back to him.