Wolf Bargain (Wolfish 3)

And this pain doesn’t simply pass.

It isn’t like the poisoning. It isn’t like the abrupt movement of the pups inside me.

This so much more. It sends me falling to me knees, my head thrown back, and forces a noise from my mouth that sounds a bit like a howl.

More than a bit.

It is a howl.

26

Sabrina

Instantly all three boys are at my side, each one holding me up as my knees buckle beneath me.

“What is it?” Rory asks. “What’s wrong?”

I don’t know how I know, but I just do.

“The babies are coming,” I say as I clench my teeth together to bite back the blinding pain.

“Now?” Kaleb asks, his face a mask of shock. “Are you sure?”

I scream and wriggle out of their arms so that I can drop down to the ground onto all fours.

“I’d say she’s sure,” Marlowe says. “We need to get her back to the house.”

But I cry out again, my hands digging into the earth as my hips buck back, expletives streaming from my mouth like running water.

“No,” I growl. “I’m not going anywhere.”

For once, Rory agrees with me.

“We can’t move her,” he says, dropping down to my side. “There’s no time.”

I roll over onto my back and hold on to my stomach as Marlowe crouches behind me and rests my head in his lap. He sweeps the hair out of my eyes that is already starting to stick to my sweating forehead. Kaleb gives me his hands and I squeeze them so hard that I worry about shattering his bones.

“It’s okay,” Rory says. “You can do this.” His eyes are a blazing gold in the moonlight.

“We can do this,” I say as I look to at each of them in turn. All of their eyes begin to shine fiercely as we get ready to bring our pups into the world.

I thought I knew pain before.

It was nothing compared to this.

Not even the pure exhaustion that I feel can keep me from staring into the three new sets of eyes that look at me now. I rest up against Marlowe’s lap as he cradles my body between his legs, and I hold one of our precious babies in my arms. Kaleb and Rory sit beside me, each holding another one of our children. All three are healthy and beautiful; one girl and two boys.

Suddenly, it doesn’t matter what happens tomorrow or the day after that, or any of the days that come next—if we’re lucky enough to have days that come next.

None of us are thinking about that yet. How could we be? We’re only thinking about these three tiny miracles that look up at us with big, curious eyes.

“I can’t believe we’re parents,” Kaleb says as he looks down at the tiny pup in his arms. Tiny baby. He wriggles his fingers next to him until he grips onto Kaleb’s big thumb with both hands. Then he leans down to softly kiss his son’s forehead.

There’s nothing outwardly distinguishing them from human babies. Well, nothing other than the otherworldly glow from deep within their eyes when they lock eyes with me.

“This entire time,” Rory says in awe, his head bowed over my lap—his hand outstretched towards, but not touching, the tiny girl in my arms. “The whole time that you’ve been keeping up with us and dealing with all of the ridiculously stressful things that have happened to you, you’ve been growing these little lives inside of you. I just can’t believe how strong you are, Sabrina.”

I look over at him for a minute, and after only the slightest hesitation, hold out our daughter for him to hold. The feel of her warmth leaving my skin is like agony, until I see the way her eyes glow up at him as he gazes back at her in wonder.