"AAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHH!!" Kara screamed. She was on the floor on top of a mattress with her legs spread open. Nine months had come and gone quick for the couple. Sous egged her mate on during the labor. She saw the head and gently began to pull.
"Come on, you can do this," the Alpha said, coaching her Omega along.
Kara held on tight to the mattress, grabbing at what she could to get through the pain as another contraction ripped through her. Sweat plastered strands of dark red hair to her forehead.
Sous' hands, steady but urgent, guided the tiny head emerging between Kara's thighs. The room smelled sharply of salt and exertion, mingling with the sterile tang of antiseptic lingering from earlier preparations.
Kara's breaths came in ragged bursts, each exhale a shuddering release of pain and effort. Her gaze fixed blindly on the ceiling, jaw clenched against the primal urge to scream again.
Sous' touch remained firm, fingers tracing the curve of the baby's crown with practiced care, easing the passage inch by agonizing inch.
The baby was pulled out, a girl, and as Sous smelt it, she called out she was an Alpha, laughing as she covered the baby in a towel. But Kara was still in labor. Sous quickly put the baby down in a small basket and got back to Kara, another head began to poke through.
Opting to have the child naturally, they went against going to the hospital. Spending months and even taking classes on doing a home birth. Mainly because they lived so far out from the city that many villagers recommended the home birth. Even though Sous had wings, it was just too dangerous to fly with a screaming pregnant spouse.
Kara's body arched off the mattress, muscles straining against a fresh wave of pressure that dwarfed the first. Sous' hands, slick with amniotic fluid and blood, slid back to cradle the emerging second head, smaller but crowning just as insistently.
The air thickened with the coppery scent of blood now, sharp and primal, cutting through the earlier smells of sweat and antiseptic.
A low, guttural groan tore from her throat, raw and animalistic, as her body pushed without conscious command.
The second baby came, Sous bit the umbilical cord and wrapped that one in a blanket as well, noting that it was a female Alpha as well. But again, it didn't stop there! Sous saw another head and with the effort of ease, she was able to pull out a male Alpha, and then again, another one. This time a female Omega.
All four babies were wrapped in blankets, crying while Sous wiped the forehead of her mate and gave her some water.
"Four," Sous said as Kara was going in and out of sleep. "Three Alphas and one Omega."
Kara was exhausted. She had been pushing for hours. The pain was still fresh in her mind. She could feel the soreness in her body. The mattress beneath her was soaked with sweat and blood.
The room was warm, almost too warm. The smell of iron hung heavy in the air. Sous moved quickly, cleaning up as best she could. The babies were placed in a bassinet nearby.
Their cries filled the small room. Kara watched them through half-closed eyes. She felt a mix of relief and disbelief. Four babies. Twins were expected given she had eight kids already so it was inevitable, but quadruplets? That was a shock.
Sous brought Kara a damp cloth once more. She wiped her mate's face gently. The coolness felt good against Kara's skin. Sous' touch was steady, reassuring.
Kara tried to sit up, but her body protested. Every muscle ached. She sank back onto the pillows. Sous handed her a glass of water. Kara sipped slowly. The water tasted clean, refreshing.
Outside, the first light of dawn began to filter through the curtains. The night had been long, endless. Now, a new day was starting. A day with four new lives in it. Kara looked at Sous. Her mate's eyes were tired but bright with pride.
The years went by fast with four mouths to feed, soon Sous was forty and Kara thirty-nine and they were starting to see personalities come out. Puimo was the first to be taken from the womb, then was Pietra, followed by Priema, and then finally Pamoen.
It was Pamoen that made Sous raise an eyebrow. When she spoke, she spoke in a stutter. Also when she was really happy and excited, she got loud and screamed, her body spasmed. There have been times when Sous had to usher the small little Omega out of stores because of her outburst. They were a bit embarrassing.
Kara; on the other hand, began to notice something about Sous. Sous began to focus more and more on the Alphas and not Pamoen. Sous got involved in a small wolf community here in Faelock. They would go on hunts, hunts Sous would take the Alphas but not Pamoen.
Sous would say she wanted to do all the Alpha things she couldn't do as a kid when Kara brought it up.
Pamoen would ask Sous to play with her, to put together little model cars and airplanes together but Sous would have an excuse. Work or something. By the time Pamoen was seven, she had stopped asking.
The girl had grown quiet, retreating into herself. Her voice became a hesitant whisper, stutters thickening whenever she had to speak to Sous. Kara watched this unfold, a knot tightening in her chest each time Pamoen flinched away from her Alpha sire's dismissive glance. The scent of Sous' indifference hung heavy in the air, bitter and sharp, contrasting sharply with the warm, comforting aroma of baking bread Kara often made to fill the silence.
Sous, she was mixed with so many things that she couldn't smell it. Sous couldn't smell that Pamoen was anxious around her, even fearful of her sire. She released a high stress pheromone when Sous would get in her vicinity, and it was Kara who had to release her own pheromones to try and calm Pamoen down.
"Sous," Kara said one night as the two were in bed together. Sous was on her laptop reading some visual novel she had recently downloaded. "Pamoen is afraid of you."
Sous laughed. "Nah, she's just shy."
Kara shook her head. "She's seven years old. When was the last time you interacted with her? You're always so focused on the Alphas.
Sous closed her laptop. "I'll hang out with her tomorrow after work," the Alpha said. "Problem done."
Kara shook her head. Sous was being ignorant to their Omega daughter. At this rate, Sous was going to lose the small closeness she had to Pamoen if she didn't attempt to get close to the Omega. And Kara just had a bad feeling it would come to bite Sous in the ass later on.