After lunch and a walk around the den, I took a little cat nap and found myself brought back to life, that was until this sudden pain I'd never felt before developed in my lower abdomen and built in pressure like menstrual cramps, but ten times worse.

I couldn't get myself to roll out of bed or call for Eros. My entire back hurt and my inner thighs did too.

Though I had to go to the bathroom really bad, I was afraid that I was having pre-labor contractions and could end up delivering my babies into the toilet, if I weren't careful.

That would be horrific and I would never forgive myself if it happened.

But what was I going to do?

Lie here and wet the bed?

No, I'm not going to do that, I decided.

With a pained groan, I grabbed the headboard and used it as leverage to pull myself up, hesitating between going to the bathroom or not.

I felt like I was in between a rock and a hard place. But I had to go to the bathroom because I didn't want to pee myself and sit in it. I'd done that before and it was not a good feeling.

When I managed to get upright and on my shaking feet, Eros came in from the lip of the cave and immediately appeared in front of me.

"I really need to go to the bathroom," I panted as he helped me up and into the bathroom.

I didn't dare to sit on the toilet because of my strange fear of giving birth on the toilet seat, so I decided to pee standing up.

My legs were shaking and my heart was pounding rapidly, probably in timing with the terrible contractions that were giving me the sweats.

After I finished and cleaned myself off, Eros helped me out of the shower.

"I think you're going into labor, Emira. I just called Khanh to come over." Though Eros' face was rather calm, I could feel his anxiety and nervousness just from the way his hands shook as he held me to him.

It was amazing that Eros was able to tell all this when I could not. Being that this was the first time that I was pregnant, I wasn't too sure what the signs were and it made me really nervous.

I didn't want to be a bother and make Khanh come here for nothing, that would be quite embarrassing.

"I think you're right, Eros. My water just broke," I said, feeling warm liquid gush uncontrollably out from between my legs and on to the tiled floor.

Damn it. Why couldn't my water break when I was in the shower? Now there was a nasty mess on the floor someone had to clean. And that someone was most likely to be Eros...

Sorry, Eros.

"Khanh is on her way. She'll probably be here in around three minutes," he reassured.

Eros helped me wipe my legs down and got me out of the bathroom.

He carried me over to the piles of fur on the floor and placed me gently down, before he kneeled next to me and held my shaking hand, trying to comfort me the best way he knew how.

As I lay there in pain, I couldn't help but become nervous, thinking of what was to come.

My mind was whirling almost one hundred miles a minute with unnecessary thoughts that weren't even relevant to the situation, like usual. But after a few seconds of deep breathing and seeing that Eros was just as nervous as me, I calmed down and lay my head back on the fur to look at the rocky ceiling, feeling beads of sweat collect on my upper lip, nose, and forehead before dripping down from my temple to wet my neck.

The pain was still coming and going, sometimes hurting badly in my core before settling down to a dull ache accompanied by a rippling sensation in my lower belly.

When the pain was bad, I felt as if I would burst into tears, throw up, or poop. But I didn't really have the energy to do any of that. Though I'd read that some women have puked or did the number two during delivery. I just hoped that I wasn't one of them because that would be very gross.

As my brain came up with more distracting and disturbing images of what my birthing would look like, Khanh came into the cave with Rora on her trail, holding a giant white case, probably filled with items required for my delivery.

"Hi, Emi," Khanh greeted.

"Hi," I greeted back, shakily, with a smile that didn't really reach my eyes.

"Let me go wash my hands and set up." Khanh grabbed a bag from her case and went into the bathroom.

By the time she was done sanitizing and setting up, I was already dead exhausted just from the pain in my abdomen and vaginal area.

I hadn't given birth yet and I felt like giving up already.

Noticing my pained expression, Khanh kneeled in front of my spread legs and asked, "Would you like to have an epidural?"

Epidural or no epidural?

That was the real question I'd been mulling over the last few days, yet I still had no clue if getting an epidural was a good choice.

There were pros, like no pain at all during delivery, and cons, like having back pain when the weather was cold for the rest of my life, if I were lucky enough to hit that jackpot.

After a moment to catch my breath and think of all the pros and cons I'd read online, I shook my head and decided to go without.

I would endure this pain to remind myself of the trials and tribulations related to unprotected sex... well, unable-to-protect sex, if that made any sense.

Because, you know, Eros' semen is stronger than the average condom.

At least that was what I was going to say until I forgot what this pain felt like and hopped into bed with Eros, again.

"No, thank you," I croaked, wondering why I was torturing myself like this when I could have just taken the easy way out. But that wouldn't be me if I did.

"Okay. Let me check to see how much you've dilated," she said, pushing my legs a little wider to get a better view.

At this time, I felt glad that Eros had helped me shave just before all this went down.

Khanh checked with gloved hands and nodded her head, "We're good and dilated. You can start pushing now."

I'd originally thought that it would take a long time to dilate because of what I'd read online, but I was glad that I didn't have to walk around to get myself even more dilated.

That would be way more agonizing, especially because of this pain coursing through my entire body.

I'd been holding back the urge to push a couple of minutes earlier in fear of messing up the procedures. But now that it was time to push, I felt like I was too tired to.

My arms and legs felt like overcooked jelly and my brain felt too sluggish to command the rest of my body to do anything.

With a deep inhale of breath, I tightened my muscles and forced myself to push as hard as I could. I wasn't too sure how long I could do this with all the babies I had to push out, but I knew that I had to. No matter what.

This felt like an out of body experience, and I soon lost the ability to think or keep any thoughts other than to push and push and push.

The veins on my hands were popping up, so I knew that the ones on my forehead were probably swollen with how much effort I was putting in.

Heaving a deep, pained breath, I continued to push as Eros used a towel to wipe off the sweat trickling down the side of my face. My body felt like it was no longer mine and my vagina felt like it was being torn apart and cut into tiny little pieces.

It hurt so badly that I was crying with my eyes closed, begging for it to be over soon, begging for enough strength to finish.

Though I felt like screaming at the top of my lungs, I didn't want to hurt the three occupants in the room with sensitive hearing. So I stuck with clenching my teeth tight and swallowing down all the angry screaming that was bubbling up my lungs.

Eros noticed that I was clenching my jaw and grinding my teeth so he rolled a small towel into a log and had me bite on it to keep me from chipping a tooth and swallowing it.

After a couple of minutes of pushing with everything I had and crying like a river, something was gradually pulled out of my body, but I didn't dare to look because I feared that I would faint if I saw what had come out.

'Eros,' I wailed inside of my head.

'I'm right here, Emira. I'm right here,' he replied, wiping off the never-ending sweat coming from all over my face and neck, along with the instinctual tears of pain that wouldn't stop falling from my closed eyes.

'Eros, you're never going to put it in again,' I threatened through the mind-link I'd rarely used since Eros was with me twenty-four-seven now.

Eros chuckled under his breath and patted my hand.

'I'm not kidding,' I said through gritted teeth, trying to hold back a scream of pain.

'I know, Emira,' he answered, wiping my stream of tears with his thumb and forefinger.

From the corner of my eye, I saw Khanh set down a ball of black on some thick white towels and had to do a double take.

What is that?!

Oh my g—Khanh set another one down right next to the first squirming black ball of fur. And just the sight of the wet fur made me want to pass out right on the spot.

I think I'm going to be even sicker than I already am.

Khanh kept taking one out after another, and I was almost too shocked to feel any pain as I pushed myself to remain conscious throughout the entire process.

How many are there?!

I nervously glanced over at Eros whose gaze was entirely focused on me and how I was doing instead of the black squirming balls Khanh was continuously extracting from between my legs.

I didn't dare to look at the increasing amount of babies being placed on the towel. So instead, I kept my focus on Eros and our intertwined fingers, locked and laced together like they were born to be that way.

As the time dragged on and Khanh called for me to push one last time, I thought that I was on the brink of shutting down. My brain felt like it was completely melted into a pile of goo, while my vision slowly became black in the corners.

At this point, I was scared that if I fell asleep bad things could happen to the babies still left inside of me, so I had to force myself to continue.

My face had become deathly pale and sweat was raining down my skin and wetting my nightgown in patches on my chest and underarms.

From where I lay, the warm liquid that had stained the towel underneath my butt and abdomen started to become cold against my skin, especially because of the slight draft that was circulating in the cave.

Holding back a shiver, I gritted my teeth and clenched my hands hard in order to use the last of my energy to finish this delivery. Though my labor didn't last hours or days like some poor, poor women, I felt as if it were a lifetime that had passed. Three lifetimes, to be exact.

Any longer and I might have to ask for a Snickers break and continue later. Ha. Ha. Ha. I was kidding. My hallucinations were probably kicking in.

"We're all clear, Emi. You did a great job," Khanh said as she cut off the umbilical cord connecting me to the last baby.

I gave her a weak, probably tired and ugly, smile and tried to force myself to stay awake instead of giving in to the darkness.

My breath was coming out in pants and my vision was bleary. I was drained. Completely drained. Not even food could make me feel any better.

But I wanted to see my babies, at least one glance at all of them before I let myself get carried away by the darkness. Eros knew what I was thinking so he moved out of the way to let me take a look.

At the sight of all the babies, I couldn't help but force myself to count, wanting to confirm that there weren't thirty-eight babies like I had deliriously thought. Because if there were... I would probably be sobbing myself into a coma.

One... two... three... four... five... six... seven... eight... ni—Good gods! There were nine wet balls of black fur spread out on the stained towels, waiting to be cleaned as they squirmed and kicked each other.

Looking at all of them, I couldn't really see a difference. They all looked the same in their wolf forms.

Same black fur, same little claws, same raised snout, and same closed eyes.

I couldn't see a face to give a name to, and I couldn't help but think that this was a lot more difficult than I'd originally thought. Because nothing came to mind. Not even one name.

What in the world are we going to do?

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A/N: Isn't nine just the perfect amount?

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P.S.S. Chapter 10 and 11 are up on Inkitt. The link is in my bio.

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