Beauties and Beasts

Chapter 133: brought to you by D-day

...holy crap, you're still reading this?

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Hane was not too far from the desert border. Just far enough to make the trip from there to the homestead not completely ridiculous. Apparently, the more legs you had, the quicker you were over rough terrain. Even so, he was irritated at being summoned back not long after he'd been kicked out. But he knew he had no place to complain.

Even at full six legged speed, he didn't make it back until late at night, roughly two hours after Oda's water had broken.

"Why hasn't it been born yet?" he asked on hearing she'd been in labor for hours already.

Oda let out a plaintive, high pitched mewl of pain from his arms. Angry welts had already appeared on his biceps, despite his tough, male skin.

"Females are much larger than males," Shay said.

Shay was already beginning to sweat beneath the all encompassing head wrap Curtis had equipped her with. Only her eyes were left uncovered, and even then a long length over them made it so she could only see what was in the immediate direction of her nostrils. She'd pinned it back with a bone needle, despite Curtis's warnings to keep even her eyes covered, and worked like that. Fortunately, Hane must have been too caught up in the horror of labor to pay much attention to any beauty, for he didn't comment or stare.

Shay and Harve had already done what they could to relieve her pain and stress by burning lavender in the fire and massaging her hips, but one could only do so much for labor pains, especially with a girl who'd never experienced this kind of labor before. Fear played a large part with pain.

"How impossibly large must they be?" Hane asked, looking at her enormous, swollen belly with growing fear. "Will she...can she..."

"You need to stay calm for her. Stress makes it hurt more. You're her support right now."

Hane's eyebrows danced in his confusion. Shay imagined he had never had to control his emotions much in a male dominated society where only the strong survived. Even now he held Oda awkwardly, more like letting him lean against her chest while his arms hung in the air than actively holding her. Every time a contraction ran through her, wringing her in pain, he'd flinch and draw back into the wood wall, as though terrified of her pain. On her heart he may be, but Shay couldn't help but wonder if this scorpion simply didn't know how to love above a shallow pity and need to protect.

Harvey seemed more affected by it than Shay.

"Stroke her arm or her hair. Hold her," he barely refrained from snapping. "Let her know everything is going to be okay."

"But I don't know if everything..." Hane's arms came down to her sides uncertainly. Oda, who had herselt pressed hard against his chest, ducked her head from where she had smothered against his collarbone to let out a strangled scream. Her legs kicked and bucked, and Hane jumped. His eyes looked wild.

"This--there's got to be something wrong," he almost squeaked.

"This is labor," said Harvey harshly.

"But scorpion eggs--"

"Are like jelly and probably came out like passing soft feces, but this is body of flesh and bone. It hurts, but it's natural."

Shay, who had been focusing on Oda's pressure points in her feet, bit her lip at Harvey's rising tension. He'd stopped massaging Oda hips and she could see the hardness to his clenched jaw.

"Harvey, get Ryan and take a break."

His attention flashed over to her, dismayed, but only for an instant as he understood. He didn't seem happy about it, though.