Falling in Love with the King of Beasts

RETH

The following hours were the most horrifying and helpless feeling Reth had ever experienced—even more than throwing Elia into that damned Portal by herself. Watching her writhe on the bed, tears in her eyes from pain, and Aymora and Jayah work so hard to ease her, to stop her body trying to push this cub out before her time… it twisted his stomach in knots and made him want to fight something, or someone. 

But the enemy wasn't a person. It wasn't even a force. It was Elia's own body.

There was a moment when Aymora's voice became very clear and tense, and Reth's heart raced so fast he thought he might faint. But when he tried to ask, she only growled at him to wait and pray, that no one had control there except the Creator himself.

The following minutes were so tense that Reth's hands clenched to fists and he wanted to growl. At one point he considered plowing into Lerrin's prison and challenging him, just to have a way to vent his fear and frustration.

He couldn't do a damned thing except stand next to the sleeping platform, petting Elia's hair and watching while the females tried to save his mate, and his cub.. It was the first time in his life that he couldn't control the win. 

He couldn't win, at all.  He couldn't dominate. He couldn't over-power. He couldn't persuade. Nothing.

He was useless. And so he prayed.

At least Elia was in human form this time—and after a heated debate between them, Aymora, reluctantly, gave her the tonic again to make sure she stayed that way. But the fact that Elia was no longer a beast just meant that he could see her eyes and the pain they held. The paleness of her skin. How thin her arms and legs were. How weak she looked—even more weak than she'd been before, which seemed impossible.

How had she become Anima and ended up weaker?

"Pull it together," Aymora hissed at him at one point, when Jayah had Elia's attention and was explaining to her that they had to examine her to see if she had begun to dilate. "Your Mate is fighting for her own life and the life of her cub and you're standing here looking like a cub who got lost chasing a butterfly. Snap out of it, King Reth!" she sneered.

Reth growled, and opened his mouth to tell her exactly how much bigger than a cub he was, when Aymora broke into a relieved smile. 

"Much better," she said, then turned on her heel, muttering something about Alpha pussy cats. 

Reth humphed. But he didn't have time to focus on Aymora's manipulation. 

"She's dilated, but only two centimeters," Jayah said to Aymora who took a deep breath. "That would be natural for anyone this late in the pregnancy," Jayah added to Reth directly. "It's a good sign. These contractions… we should be able to stop them."

It seemed like he held his breath for an hour. But between the herbs they were able to give her, and the relaxation exercises Aymora talked Elia through for what seemed like hours on end, eventually the sheen of sweat on Elia's forehead dried, and her eyes stopped pinching.

At some point, Aymora slumped, leaning on the sleeping platform. "Okay… I think she's okay." She said quietly.

Elia lay on her side, one arm around her belly in a protective gesture Reth had seen of every pregnant female, no matter her tribe, the other tucked under her pillow. Her eyes were closed, and the deep purple bruises underneath them weren't quite as stark. There was a hint of color back in her cheeks.

Reth leaned his forehead on her temple and stroked her hair. 

Her hand came off her belly to find his cheek and cup it, though she didn't open her eyes. "I'm okay, Reth. I'm okay. We're both okay."

"For now," Aymora said, that steely disapproval back in her tone. She had paled slightly as well, some of gray at her temples plastered to the sides of her face with sweat. "But you absolutely cannot do that again."

Reth bared his teeth.

Aymora growled first. "How could you have been so thoughtless? Is it worth the life of your cub just to wet your prick?!"

"I had no idea it would affect her in that way!"

"Oh, please, Reth. You are not a stupid male!"

"Perhaps in these matters I am."

"Then hear me clearly: You do not touch her. You do not bring her pleasure. You do not take her in any way until this cub is born. Anything that stimulates her is at risk of setting off contractions again, and I cannot safely keep giving her these tonics! She has at least two or three weeks left before your cub will be big enough to deliver safely. And she is to stay off her feet during that time as much as possible."

Reth blinked. "Two or three weeks? She should have months! What the hell has happened?"

Aymora's jaw tightened. "I do not know, exactly. But that cub fits the size and development of an Anima pregnancy of seven months. She seems to be developing three or four times faster than a normal pregnancy."

Reth's jaw dropped. "How can that be?"

"It's the blood," Elia said faintly. He and Aymora both turned to look at her. Reth's stomach dropped. Was she losing touch with reality again? 

"What did you say, Love?" he asked carefully.

Elia opened her eyes to give him a distinctly flinty look. "I am physically weak, not mentally, Reth," she said dryly, though her voice lacked power. "And I'm telling you, I think it was the blood. The blood they gave me when Lucine cut me. And your blood that you gave me because of my arm. Kalle thought my bloodstream must have mixed with the baby's. And maybe that's part of it. But… but if it's a blood thing, my money's on the blood sharing. Somehow it made Elreth grow quickly, and made me… change."

*****

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