“I know.Where’s Ryan?”she asked.
Trip shrugged.Even though he was still stuck in his lion form, he had been present often.It wasn’t lost on her or anyone else that he had gradually grown more and more distant in the past weeks.El sighed, she couldn’t force him to come, and she knew being around and not being able to interact had to be tough on him.
“Well, let’s get started,” she said enthusiastically.
El bent over to take off the lid to one of the paint cans, and pain like she had never experienced before shot up her back.She cried out in pain and clutched her stomach.Her three mates swarmed her.
“Move her to a bed, I’ll go get Willow,” Trip called.
El couldn’t walk, the pain had her locked up tight.She swatted their hands away when they would try to touch her.Finally, the pain began to subside.El took several deep breaths before she decided to try and straighten herself back up and walk.Slowly, she was able to come back upright, and then she slowly took step after step, while Shawn and Marcus held onto her.Just as they got her in the closest bedroom, another pain consumed her.
Willow and Trip entered the room, and Willow instantly took charge.She barked orders at the men, and she laid her hands on El.
“You’re in labor,” Willow told her, although El had a feeling that’s what was happening.
“Find Ryan,” she managed to say before another pain took her voice.
Willow helped her onto the bed after she stripped it of all its oversized comforters leaving El with two pillows and the fitted sheet on the bed.
“I know it’s hard but try to take deep breaths through the pain.”
El nodded and tried to do as she asked.The men came rushing back, led by Ryan, who filled the room with his lion form.El started to say something to them, but another pain gripped her, and she screamed instead.
“Breathe, El!”Willow ordered her.
Willow was busy undressing El from the waist down.El would have been happy if she would have taken all of her clothes off, everything that touched her made her skin crawl.The pain was unbearable.Willow had told her that there would be no epidural or pain meds because they don’t work on shifters anyways.El would have given anything to have something available to her to help ease the pain.
“You’re doing wonderful, El.Your body is progressing nicely.You’ve dilated six already.Have you been having back pain?”
El nodded.Her lower back had been aching for a day or so, but her stomach was gigantic, so it seemed like a natural thing.
“A lot of women only feel labor in their back,” Willow commented as she started organizing all the things the men had brought to her.
“Call my dad,” El told Shawn who nodded, immediately taking his phone out of his pocket.
A soft knock on the door came, and Willow went over to answer it.She turned and looked at El a couple of times.El knew who was at the door; she could hear her mother’s voice.El wished their relationship had got to the point where she wanted to experience the joy of having her first child with her mother, but it hadn’t.When Willow turned and looked at El, she shook her head.This time was for her and her mates.
Willow shut the door and returned to El’s side.She patted El’s forehead with a cool washcloth.
“How long do you think?”El asked.
“It’s hard to tell honestly, labor is different with each woman.”
“No, not that.I mean after.”
Willow stopped patting El’s forehead and looked at her with soft, empathetic eyes.
“I wish I knew, but that’s one thing I was never told.”
El nodded, her eyes briefly catching Shawn’s.She saw the fear in his eyes.It would be the most amazing day any of them had experienced thus far, but it would also be the most heartbreaking.El pushed the thoughts aside and focused on her labor.Her mates gathered around her.They were amazing throughout the entire experience.They whispered words of encouragement, held her legs when she pushed, and cheered her on.
Seven hours later, she heard the first cry from her beautiful baby girl’s tiny lungs.Willow immediately brought her to El and laid her on her chest.El held on for dear life and soaked in every precious second with her baby.She couldn’t kiss her enough or tell her she loved her enough.Her mates were right there with her.Ryan paced the bed and sniffed both of them.It was the only way his lion could ensure they were fine.
El felt the first pull of death thirty minutes after delivery.She begged the Mother to let her stay as she held her baby tighter against her.When her eyes met those of her mates, they knew too.
“Please, no,” Shawn roared as he hit his knees.
Marcus leaned his head down and put it against El’s.
