Tal opened his mouth to respond when the biggest, hardest, and sharpest contraction of his intense labor tore through him. He screamed in agony, his head thrown back, the sound deafening and chilling. Something had to be wrong. He didn't know how he knew, but he knew something had gone wrong with his babies.
His scream worked as a great distraction. So fascinated and thrilled by the idea of Tal's immense pain and suffering, none of the occupants scented or noticed the gray wolf until he silently leapt and ripped out the throat of Freud. The man never saw it coming and never had the opportunity to shift.
The same could not be said for Anglania and Elder Bryce, both of whom quickly ripped off their clothes and changed form. Even while he struggled to breathe through his labor pains and not deliver his babies without their father, Tal found he couldn't stop the crazed words of pain from launching from his mouth.
"You stupid cocksuckers! I hope he kills you all! FUCK! Where the hell is Blaze?" Tal screamed.
He didn't even care about being ignored as his hero faced off against Anglania and Elder Bryce.
Anglania became a very beautiful, but very vicious small white wolf that snarled, growled, and seemed more extremely angry than Tal thought she had any right to be. Elder Bryce didn't pull off a complete shift, however, for while his legs, arms, and face went to wolf form and he had a tail, he still had the body of a man, though he stood on all fours. The sight horrified Tal and he pleaded with the One and the Scions that his children would be able to fully change. He watched in fear as Anglania and what used to be Elder Bryce circled the small gray wolf that had attempted to rescue him. He wrapped his arms around his convulsing stomach as the pressure increased and caused him to curl into a ball.
He didn't know who his savior was, but Tal pleaded with every known deity he'd ever heard mentioned for the gray wolf to survive the fight and they would be saved. No sooner had he completed his prayer than he watched in terror when Anglania turned and leapt forward towards him and Elder Bryce lunged for the gray wolf.
Neither of them caught their prey. Two extremely large wolves, both black, one much larger than the other, leapt through the air and collided with the smaller animanls. The wolves savagely attacked Anglania and Elder Bryce, both of whom tried to fight back with little success. Tal's eyes connected with those of the gray wolf and he shifted back into the male form of his best friend Mailon.
"Mailon!" he exclaimed. "You saved my life!" he panted.
The first of his children attempted to push their way out of the birthing slit. Holy fucking hell, should it happen that fast? And gods almighty did it have to feel as if something wanted to thrust its way out of him? Although, in a way, exactly that would soon happen.
Mailon shook his head modestly. "I had to protect you, Your Highness. You're too important to too many people. Besides, you're my best friend," he remarked as he quickly assessed Tal for any bruises or wounds.
"Please Mailon, get me out of this room. I'm about to deliver these babies and I will not do it in a sadistic man's prison cell," Tal panted again.
He glanced over in the direction of the earlier fight and discovered the two wolves had killed his kidnappers. Blaze and Buck stood, drawing in heaving breaths, nude, and covered in blood.
"Whenever you're ready to stop fucking around with those flesh covered bags of shit and be my mate again, please join me outside. Or wherever I'm going because I'm about to give birth to your children," he admonished the larger man.
"Now?" Blaze rasped and quickly scooped Tal into his arms and carried him out of the room, up the stairs, through Elder Bryce's home, and towards the waiting palace shuttle.
Buck followed close behind, Mailon leading the way out of the home as they left the dead bodies of Talon's would be assassins behind to rot and decay in shame.
"No, dumbass, tomorrow," Tal groaned.
The hand of one of his children pressed upwards at the birthing slit.
Tal looked up and growled. "Hurry the fuck up, Blaze! Or I swear I'll give birth outside on the front lawn!"
* * * *
"I am having these babies right here, right now, Blaze, I don't care!" Tal shouted.
Blaze winced at the shrill tone his lover's voice had taken, almost like a woman's. Not that he would ever tell Tal. Blaze liked his balls right where they were—attached to his body.
"I really think it would be best if we wait until we return to the palace, my love," Blaze hedged nervously.
Tal punched him. Hard. Blaze grabbed his mouth, squaring his jaw against the pain.
"You think we should wait?" Tal yelled angrily.
He furiously pulled off his pants and lay back on the cushioned bench in the shuttle. "You don't have to wait for shit, Blaze! These babies are going to be born now! So I suggest you make yourself useful and prepare to deliver your own children!" he commanded and lifted his dirty tunic up to his neck.
Blaze's wolf possessively growled at the sight of his nude mate in front of everyone. Tal blithely ignored the furious animal. Blaze glared at the soldiers who surrounded the outside of the shuttle and watched in satisfaction when they all turned their heads away in embarrassment.
"Alpha?" Mailon spoke up timidly. "I have studied the birth of children to a Vermithian male along with Percy. It was something I started reviewing when I first met Tal in the chat room and I continued studying once I found out he was expecting. Percy's fascination with Vermithians has been an obsession for him since he was a kid. I took him with me to the library and we studied not only the pregnancy of Vermithians and the birth of Vermithian children, but the labor of the fathers. I can assist if need be," he offered.
Blaze sighed with relief, his eyes closing briefly. He'd never been more thankful for the Epsilon Elder than at that moment, hell during the entire day. He'd saved his mate's life and now he would help deliver his children. "Yes, yes, Elder Mailon. You will assist in the birth of my children, the heirs to the throne. The rest of you…" He pointed to the four other guards and Buck, all waiting anxiously, all looking pointedly away from Tal's sweating and heaving nude body.
Luckily for them. The blood lust still thrummed through his veins and had they been looking at Tal, he would have had to kill them all… his brother included.
"Prepare for a quick return to the palace and burn this home to the ground and all of the bodies within it. I want that basement demolished as well," he ordered.
He turned back to Tal and watched in fascination when a raised line, which he hadn't noticed before, appeared to darken and grow longer vertically from below Tal's belly button to the top of his groin. The line divided and Tal's belly opened as if sliced. Blaze's mouth dropped open in fascinated horror when his mate's body worked to deliver their firstborn child.
"Your children are coming, Your Highness," Mailon breathed.
Tal grunted and pushed, and the first baby appeared. A squalling, bloody pink baby boy.
Tal began crying and Blaze looked up in confusion.
"I'm so, sorry Blaze. I didn't mean what I said. I love you so much. You know that, right? I love you," Tal babbled.
In that moment, Blaze realized he'd felt the emotion for his mate for quite some time, but he had never said it to him before.
Leaning over to wipe away Tal's tears, Blaze let his mouth stretch into a smile. "I know, Tal, I love you, too."
"Your heir, Alpha," Mailon interrupted, his voice filled with awe when he passed the screaming baby into his father's arms.
Blaze looked down at his eldest child and his heart clenched when the newborn boy continued to scream and try to fight his way through of some imaginary battle, his tiny fists waving in the air. In that moment, Blaze knew his eldest son, his heir to the throne would be a warrior, a fighter, and so he named him accordingly.
"His name is Runequio Joshua Roughshire, Alpha Prince of Tumaro," Blaze loudly proclaimed before gently wrapping the newborn in one of the cloths sitting on the shelf beside the shuttle's window.
He'd have to make sure he thanked Josie the next time he saw her. She'd encouraged him to always keep extra cloths and clothes in every mode of transportation Tal would take, due to his mate's constant need to eat and his habit of spilling food.
"You named our son Runequio?" Tal exclaimed, sounding horrified. "That's a terrible name! He's going to get teased in school. It sounds like a name for an old man! What the fuck were you thinking, Blaze?" Tal's words got cut off and he groaned again, gritting his teeth and pushing.
His mate leaned forward, towards Mailon, before he reached up and grabbed Blaze's free hand to squeeze. Blaze maintained a stoic expression on his face, even though he wanted to wince because Tal developed some sort of super-Vermithian strength and almost crushed the bones in Blaze's hand. The line in Tal's stomach opened once again and their second child, another boy, appeared. Blaze gathered his second heir close to his chest, after Mailon handed the squirming, squalling newborn over.
He looked around frantically for a place to put the babies. No way would he be able to hold five babies in his arms and Tal didn't seem to be in the right frame of mind to hold their children, especially since he still delivered them. It took Blaze a moment to realize the shuttle had started moving and he could only hope they would get back to the palace soon.
No sooner had the thought crossed his mind, than the panel leading to the front of the shuttle opened and Buck stepped into the small seating room where they all gathered around Tal. Buck's eyes stayed trained on the very large, velvet-lined, and cushioned box he held in his hands. Blaze thought it looked as if it had been cut in half and only contained the bottom section. Buck gazed at the box rather intently and Blaze wondered what significance it held.
"I thought you may want to put the babies here until we arrive at the palace," he said and offered the box to Blaze.
"You want to put my children in a box? Like they're animals? Are you crazy?" Tal exclaimed in the high-pitched wail Blaze had quickly grown to hate.
Then he groaned in pain.
"Tal, it's your box. The one from your shuttle? When I heard you were in labor and we were coming to rescue you, I grabbed it. I thought you'd appreciate it," Buck said in aggravation.
Blaze could have happily throttled his brother in that moment. Didn't he know that no one should make the monster angry?
"What's the second baby's name, Blaze?" Tal asked, effectively ignoring Buck's reasoning. "I'm not pushing out this third baby until the second one is named. So get on that, like, now."
Blaze allowed himself a second to bristle at the commanding note in his mate's tone and then realized Tal had experienced a very traumatic day and happened to be in labor. With that thought in mind, Blaze looked down at the second baby. He noticed the slight differences between the newborn second son and his older brother. Whereas Runequio had been a large, pink baby, the second appeared slightly smaller and his skin much tanner than his brother's. Runequio had hair so light it almost seemed transparent and his second son had a head full of black hair.
"Samuei Roughshire," Blaze named the baby who had ceased crying the moment he heard his father's voice.
Blaze's heart clenched and grew to make room for the newborn boy who seemed to be pressing his body closer to his father's chest.
With a quick and apologetic glance in Tal's direction, Blaze placed the two newborns in the cushioned box and turned back to Tal, ready to receive their next child. Blaze leaned over Tal to kiss his forehead, his lips barely grazing the other man's clammy skin, when his air supply got cut off. His eyes widened when he realized Tal had his hand around Blaze's throat. It only lasted for a brief moment before Tal eased his grip and clutched Blaze's shirt, hauling him closer. Blaze looked over at Mailon in shock and noticed the Elder pointedly looking away from him, soft snorts emanating from his throat as if he were trying not to laugh.
Two more sons were born, extremely close together, holding hands, in fact. Tal screamed when he pushed them through the opening in his belly, neither one of them wanting to let go of the other. Blaze named them Maximus and Maximillion, to the disappointment of his mate who said Blaze would never be known as a 'naming genius or even a name wizard'. Blaze didn't quite understand the phrase and decided to ignore it, rather than ask his already temperamental mate about it. He wondered at the sound of growling he heard coming from the front of the shuttle, where the other guards sat, but pushed it from his mind when Mailon looked at him with a worried expression.
They had arrived at the palace but still their youngest baby, the last of the bunch and their only daughter, had not yet been born. Blaze grew concerned, for with each passing minute Tal groaned in more pain, panted, bled from the slit in his stomach, and grew weaker. Blaze refused to lose his mate. Something had to be done, and quickly.
"What's wrong with the last baby? Is she okay?" he demanded.
His skin stretched taut across his bones as his wolf demanded that he shift in order to handle the situation.
"I am uncertain, Your Highness," Mailon responded.
"You're uncertain?" Blaze exclaimed. "Are you fucking kidding me? You know what? You're fucking fired," he growled.