“You did it, baby. Look at our girls!” Colton’s excited tone pulls me out of my fatigue as he mops my brow and tries to dry up the sweat that’s cascading like a waterfall. The cries of newborns rang in my ears after what seemed like the longest and most hellish night of my life. I can barely stay awake. A new day is peaking at us from outside the curtains, which he drew at some point when the light got too intense. Everything feels surreal, and it’s hard now to imagine I just spent so many hours going through the trauma of childbirth while the world was still. The memory of the pain is already subsiding.
My emotions are fried, and the eagerness to look at them keeps me conscious while my limbs cry to give out. My body is tender and heavy, like a deadweight, but I am glad it’s finally over. I should turn to self-heal, but I can’t muster the energy and would rather sleep after holding my babies.
“Here you are, momma. Two healthy girls and beautiful, just like you.” Marda leans down over me and places one from each arm on my chest. Instinctively I nurse them against me as they look to be fed and Colton helps pull open my nightdress shirt and assists. He’s a natural and has been so good these past hours, keeping me sane, anticipating my needs, and watching over me. I don’t think I could have done this without him.
My eyes mist with tears as this insane overwhelming love and adoration fill my heart, brimming at the mere presence of these two tiny lives. I had never experienced an all-encompassing emotion until I laid eyes on the beauty of our girls. Small and delicate but completely formed in miniature. It’s that knowledge that from here on in, I will do anything to protect and love them, even die to ensure their safety. Perfect in every way and my priority now.
Each has a spattering of fine light hair, downy soft, much like mine, even if they are still covered in a mess from birth. The sallower skin of Colton and his Columbian genes, but the features are a combination of both of us as children in one face. I watch in fascination at one and then the other as they try to latch on to nurse. Finding their way instinctively to source my milk without hesitation. Little tiny eyelashes flicker open as I lock eyes for the first time with the new creations that had been growing within me for months. It doesn’t feel real, and I can’t believe we made these precious little beings.
I stop mid-breath as the first one flickers bright glowing blue my way, blinking and sleepy-eyed, a sign of Colton’s magic within and the other glows red. As clear as switching on a light in the pitch dark. Both stare at me for a moment, somehow focusing on the body they seem to recognize as mother, and Colton sees it too, before they drift closed and concentrate on suckling. My heart leaps into my throat, and my mind slides into frantic overtime at what this might mean. We always knew the genetics might mean the girls would not be as Lycan as we hoped or that they might have obvious gifts like Colton and I now do, but I didn’t expect it to be prominent from the get-go.
We exchange concerned glances, that inner fear of their differences from normal pups, and Marda pats me atop my head with a motherly smile. Seeing our worry and sensing the sudden change in atmosphere between us.
“Gifts are present at birth only fleetingly; it doesn’t mean anything right now. As they grow, what they can do will become more prominent, and sometimes things fade away. It’s just an eye color. They all change quickly into the daytime human shade soon enough. Lycan babies are born with glowing amber. It doesn’t mean anything.”
I eye her dubiously, thinking back to my childhood and the lack of my abilities until my awakening ceremony. I’m not sure that Colton’s magical gifts would have been so concealed if Sierra hadn’t bound us, so I can’t be assured that our babies won’t have something in infancy that shows up.
“It doesn’t matter what is more prominent. They’re our girls, and the pack knows they might be different from them. If Lycan isn’t the dominant gene, then we won’t care and will love them regardless. We’ll deal with whatever gifts are thrown at us.” Colton scoops my hand in his and soothes me with his words. That tone of dominant alpha is on show because he’s stubborn and means every word.
“I don’t want them to feel different and unwanted. I want them to grow up feeling they fit in.” Something I never did, and it worries me now that they will be noticeably different from Lycan pups. Pups don’t have gifts in childhood at all, not until their awakening. I never knew they were born with amber eyes, so maybe I am worrying about nothing, and my babies won’t display any difference from other children for a long time. I might be overthinking.
I pull them closer and snuggle my face nearer, inhaling that baby scent that’s unique and now part of them. A smell I know I will become addicted to in time and will eventually pine for when it fades as they age. Colton leans in and gently strokes them over their tiny crowns before kissing both on the forehead. He is immersed in his own overflowing love for his daughters. I can feel it in him, and we share the emotions while smiling down at two gorgeous little heads.
“They’re perfect. The pack will welcome them with open arms and love them as much as we do.” Marda wanders away, folding muslin cloths and filling a bowl with fresh water before strolling back and offering it to Colton to keep tending to my face and neck. I’ve stopped sweating, but my skin is damp and clammy, and she nods as he takes it to administer some care to me.