B+Bs: To Stand In A Beast's World

67. Hello Spring

The cold weather was slowly warming up, but it was not time for the new season yet. Even so, the tiger castle was alive and filled with energy. Their queen was pregnant and that was a miracle worth celebrating.

I laid on my back as Harvey and Shuu pampered me with a full-body massage. Unlike my first pregnancy, this one had been a bear. I was always crabby, my back ached, and I was dying for deep-fried chicken. I didn't even like deep-fried chicken before; it was too greasy for me. But I could kill for some now.

Harvey was doing his very best to replicate it, but so far, I couldn't be satisfied. My belly was already swollen despite having another two weeks left. But with five babies squished in there, I suppose it would be big.

I had no idea what I was going to do with five puppies aside from adore them, but Shuu had a much clearer idea. He was over the moon and extra mushy since he found out. The rest were acting like proud dads despite it not being their litter.

Five was a lot and something to be proud of it seemed. Normal litter sizes average two to four, but here I was with my five.

As grumpy as I was, I made sure to take my walks around the castle and go up and down the stairs often. But I did not get much other activity, not even the bedroom kind. I couldn't get in the mood at all, so it's only happened twice. More for my pups' benefits than anything else.

The day the weather warmed up was the day I gave birth. It was six days early, but I had no stress to blame this time. Because of the cruddy timing, I couldn't greet Curtis when he came out of his form of hibernation. Winston had to take him the three goats that were left while the rest of my spouses gathered around.

I cussed them out and felt very bad about it later, but not right then. Muir kindly got the hell out, but Harvey and Shuu stayed. Shuu held me up to let gravity assist while keeping crystals in one hand.

I was in labor for half the day. Again, the contractions started way earlier than necessary. Why is that? It isn't like I have to push out a big human baby, but I guess my body doesn't understand that.

Once the babies were ready to come out, they came out fast. I felt the first one sort of, but not the rest. It took Harvey telling me I was done to know it. I took the transparent crystal offered to me without a second thought. Then I breathed.

Harvey cleansed all of the cubs before handing them to me one by one. I thought the tiger cubs were small, but the pups were smaller.

"Congratulations," said a sweating Harvey. "Despite being a little early, they are bigger than average."

I inspected the little, wet fur balls. I was pleasantly surprised to find that they weren't all the same color. I know not all wolves in the city are black or grey, but most are. One of my cubs had brown fur and another was a mix of greys and black. The other three were solid black or solid dark grey.

Once I made certain that they were all breathing, I handed them off to their eager dad.

Five healthy pups... that's good.

I didn't leave the room for a day, not even to say hello to Curtis. I didn't leave the next day or the next either. I only ate one other crystal for a total of two and made a near-full recovery.

I still received reports during this downtime. Winston fed Curtis, and the grumpy snake was now haunting the staircase. Presumably, he was waiting for me to come down. I sighed and put it off one more day. My spouses were still high-strung from the birth, and I had to recollect all the thoughts that were thrown out in the wake of the contractions.