Inside fels space, the atmosphere had reached a point of terrifying, suffocating tension.
Dimitri, Exile, and Damien slammed through the door, their faces pale and wild with an obsessive, desperate panic. The space had already shifted to provide exactly what she needed to give birth in. The room expanded slightly, grounding its temperature into a deep, radiating warmth. The massive bed at the centre of the room widened, its silk sheets rippling to reveal stacks upon stacks of thick, clean, sterile white towels piled neatly at the foot of the mattress. Large basins of steaming hot water materialised on the cedar side tables, vapour rising to clear the scent of blood from the air.
Felicity was in absolute agony. Her small frame was completely soaked in sweat, her blonde hair plastered to her forehead as her spine arched violently off the silk sheets. Her little fennec ears were twitching in deep distress.
In a desperate, feral attempt to ground her consciousness against the blinding pain ripping her apart, Felicity pulled her right arm up to her face and bit down savagely on her own wrist. Her sharp fennec teeth sliced instantly through her pale skin, drawing a bright, clean line of crimson blood.
"No! No, no, no, please, my sun, don’t do that! Don’t hurt yourself!" Ivan roared, his heart dropping straight into his boots at the sight of her self-inflicted wounds.
Without a single care for his own safety, Ivan shoved his massive, leather-armoured forearm directly into her mouth, his thick fingers gently but firmly prying her jaws away from her own bloodied wrist.
"Bite me," Ivan choked out, his voice cracking with an agonising mixture of devotion and fear as he used his other hand to cradle the back of her sweat-slicked head, pulling her tiny frame against his chest. "Bite me, little fox. Take it all. Tear the flesh right off my bones if it helps, just don’t touch yourself. I’m right here. Ivan’s got you."
Felicity didn’t have the capacity to argue. Blinded by a fresh wave of labour pains that felt like a localised blizzard was trying to tear its way out of her spine, she sank her teeth deep into Ivan’s forearm. Her jaw clamped down with terrifying strength, her teeth puncturing his thick hide until his dark blood began to stain her lips and chin. Ivan didn’t even flinch. He didn’t register the pain of his own muscle being crushed; his entire soul was consumed by the agonising reality of her suffering.
"Felicity!" Dimitri choked out, the proud albino leopard alpha dropping to his knees at the side of the nest. His large hands immediately grasped her small, cold fingers, pressing his face against her palm. His body trembled violently as he felt the erratic, frantic rhythm of her pulse. "I’m here; we are all here, little fox. Look at me, breathe for me."
"Move over," Voss commanded, his voice suddenly dropping into a cold, clinical tone that surprised all of the men, not used to Voss taking charge.
The wolf stepped into the nest / bed, throwing his blood-stained clothes onto the floor without a care for where they landed. He didn’t look like a crazed husband anymore; he looked like a professional soldier who had just stepped into an active triage unit. He ripped the sleeves of his shirt off with two clean jerks, exposing his thick, heavily scarred arms, and immediately plunged his hands into one of the basins of steaming water, scrubbing them thoroughly until they were completely clean.
"Voss?" Felicity whimpered, her teeth finally releasing Ivan’s arm as a brief, three-second intermission between contractions allowed her to gasp for air. Her blue eyes were wide with a mixture of terror and cute, pathetic confusion as she looked at his bare, scarred arms.
"Why do you look like you’re about to fix a tractor engine? It hurts... Voss, it feels like there’s a wild beast trying to dig its way out of my ribs..."
Through the absolute, bone-crushing agony, her natural wit still tried to fight its way to the surface, a desperate, stubborn defence mechanism against the terrifying depth of their overbearing devotion. They looked at her like she was a dying star; she just wanted the pain to stop so she could take a nap.
"It’s not a beast, little fox. It’s just our cubs," Voss said, his voice surprisingly gentle as he positioned himself at the foot of the nest, his amber eyes scanning her with professional precision. "Listen to me, Fel. I need you to let go of Ivan’s arm. You’re going to hold Exile’s hands, and when I tell you to push, you’re going to push with every single ounce of strength you have left. Do you understand me?"
Felicity blinked, a fat, clear tear spilling over her blonde eyelashes and tracking through the sweat on her cheek.
"Voss... since when do you know how to do this? You’re a mercenary. Your entire life has been about taking things apart, not putting them together."
For a split second, Felicity’s vision cleared. She took in Exile’s face, the way his lips were drawn tight with fear and his amber eyes were glossy with panic. She looked past him, past Ivan’s blood-splattered biceps and Dimitri’s trembling hands, and let her focus settle on Voss.
Even amidst her own suffering, she recognised the transformation in him. There was a chilling, surgical calm in his movements as he rolled another towel with pristine precision, his fingers never hesitating, never fluttering. Then he snapped his focus upward, locking eyes with her.
"I spent four years in the northern border trenches before I ever met Victor," Voss answered, his fingers gently checking her progress with practised ease.
He paused, as if assembling the next part of the memory required a conscious act of violence. He exhaled, the sound like gravel scraping on sheet metal. "In a place like that, you fix what you can. If you can’t, you watch it die, and then you bury it." His hands were steady as he checked the progress of the labour, quick, efficient, but as gentle as if he were handling a bomb. "Felicity, this is going to get a lot worse before it gets better. But it will get better. I promise you."
Visit and read more novel to help us update chapter quickly. Thank you so much!
Use arrow keys (or A / D) to PREV/NEXT chapter