Identical Alpha Twins and Silver Shackles

Chapter 29

I watched as the last pieces of furniture were carefully placed in the nursery next to our bedroom and decided to go sit by the lake. It was quickly becoming one of my favourite places. I chatted to Angel after mind linking the boys and truth be told I was feeling really relaxed. Last night's sleep had been a lot more relaxing than I’d experienced for a couple of weeks and the sun in the sky was warming my skin without making me feel like I was cooking. I knew I’d been at the lake more than an hour because Anna from the kitchens had brought me a fresh milkshake and chips. We chatted a little as she showed me the progress of her own little bump and I went back to relaxing and watching the wildlife on and in the lake. The water made me feel calm but it also made me need to pee, a feeling that wasn’t helped a couple of minutes later when one of the babies drop kicked my bladder. I groaned as I moved onto my knees to prepare to stand and was shocked when a sudden force clamped onto and around my stomach, the pain took my breath away and I struggled to stand upright. I stood confused and scared for a couple of minutes as the waves caused by the sensation settled down. I called out softly for my boys and sooner than should have been possible they were at my side. I explained what happened a laughed a little at myself for being so on edge but they were as always very kind and caring. They offered to walk with me back to the house when another crushing, constricting pain pulled my stomach apart. This one scared the boys but I laughed as I felt warm liquid dribble down my leg. The boys had all but made it a competition to see which one of them could get me to pee myself from laughing during the later stages of my pregnancy and now I’d done it to myself. I looked to the boys to share the silliness but neither looked amused. Rogan lifted me into his arms and
they both took off running. I’d assumed they were taking me to the house so I could clean up and not be embarrassed but they ran in the opposite direction, straight to the hospital. As I saw the building I was becoming all too familiar with, loom towards me I looked down at my legs and saw the streaks of water and blood that had cascaded down them. I looked
sideways at Rio for confirmation and he grinned back
“It’s baby time, baby”
I laughed but it was short lived as more pain contracted my tummy muscles and I groaned as the sensation made its way into my back. We were quickly hustled into a private room as the doctor tried to give me instructions on how to position myself but her words flew over me as more pain crashed over me. Angel was giving all her strength to me but it was doing very little to stop the convulsions that now
seemed to be affecting my entire body. The doctor had positioned herself between my legs and she let out a low whistle
“These are big pups you’ve grown”
She said it as though I might not have been aware, like I hadn’t carried the weight all these months but the thought was interrupted as she started pushing and pressing on parts of me that only the boys had touched. I yelped and she apologised as the boys growled at her but she soothed us as she explained that she was trying to help so that ‘we’ could minimise
‘ripping’ or ‘tearing’. The words she’d used made me shudder and I grimaced at the boys who had started to look a little ill.
“Ok , next round of pain I want you to try and push, see how it feels”
I panicked as she spoke, did this bit not normally take longer to get to? I had spoken to lots of females in our pack who’d had pups already and some of them had said labour could take days but this hadn’t even lasted an hour yet. I tried to mentally prepare myself but the
stirrings of pain only gave me long enough to suck in a breath before they were everywhere again. I tried to do as the doctor instructed but the pain was clouding my brain. The boys spoke gently in my head and with their help I breathed in and pushed down 5 or 6 more
times. I was exhausted and plastered in sweat when the doctor cheerily told me she could see the baby's crown which I understood to mean the top of its head. All that effort and pain and that was all that was visible! I had already exerted more strength than I thought I had but it wasn’t enough.
“Help”
I pleaded, of no-one in particular. I knew this was on me, I’d read the books but nothing could have prepared me for the toll it would take on my body. I took a few shallow breaths and a lot of larger ones as I tried to calm myself. Rio gently laid a cold compress on my
forehead and Rogan gave me a sliver of ice to keep on my tongue. I smiled and mouthed that I loved them, they responded out loud and clasped one of my hands in both of theirs before we were wrapped back up in the process of birthing a baby. The doctor seemed determined that the next push would see more results so I prepared myself and pushed down with so much force I might have burst a blood vessel somewhere
but it seemed to have done something
“We have a head”
The doctor called triumphantly and I felt relieved momentarily until I remembered that there was more to come. I had done my research and I knew that the shoulders were more difficult than the head, if I was going to be damaged it would be those that would do it. Exactly 32 minutes after I’d started to properly push our first beautiful little boy was born, he weighed 8
pounds and 9 ounces and had a head full of dark brown hair. The doctor laid him on my chest and I marvelled at how perfect he was. The idea that he had been living and growing inside me and now he was here sleeping on my chest made my mind spin but it was short lived. I growled as the doctor removed him from me but the pain followed quickly to remind
me I had more work to do. The next contractions hit quickly and they felt so much worse on my already exhausted body. I was trying so hard to focus on the doctor and the instructions she was giving me but my attention was being pulled to my left where Rogan stood cuddling our whimpering, wriggling son. I gasped as a lightning bolt of pain crossed my stomach and
fluid gushed out from between my legs again. I huffed, pushed and cried for another 28 minutes before a second gorgeous little boy appeared, 8 pounds and 6 ounces of identical, wriggling, crying perfection. The boys looked ecstatic and shell shocked as they each held one of their sons and I cried in relief that they were here and healthy and for now at least, asleep.
“What will their names be?”
Rogan, as always the most organised, had aimed the question at me, while he looked in awe of what I had just done he still seemed to think I was still capable of reasonable decision making. Oddly as soon as he’d voiced the question and regardless of how insane my brain seemed to think he was to be asking me questions right now, I knew the answer
“Alexander and Zakhary, Alex and Zack”
I had no clue where the names came from but they felt correct and the twins seemed to agree as they nodded their approval
“Do the two of you have middle names?”
I asked in wonderment as I realised I genuinely didn’t know the answer. It felt weird to me that I didn’t know but we had only been together for 9 ish months and we’d never really discussed our names or why we were called what we were. The boys exchanged pained expressions with each other and answered through gritted teeth
“My middle name is John, Rogan John”
“I’m Rio Johnathon”
Rio scowled as he said it outloud and Rogan explained that Lissa’s dad's name was John and Marcus’s dad was Johnathon. I desperately wanted to laugh but the looks on their faces advised against it.
“So Alex John and Zack Johnathon then”
I offered it as a light hearted comment to break their sudden mood but the resounding NO made it clear they didn’t find it funny. I was on the verge of suggesting we use their names when the nurse appeared with the baby wristbands and I realised that she had overheard the first bit but not the rejection and had written the babies names as I’d said them on to their I.D bracelets. The boys looked furious but accepted that the fates had middle named our babies for us. I couldn’t help the laugh that escaped me and within seconds I was rolling in mirth, unfortunately this appeared to anger my freshly tortured womb and the pain from it made me throw up.
“Ah that will be the placenta trying to escape”
She sounded far too cheerful for my liking and actually laughed when I growled at her for it. The boys slowly and carefully placed our babies onto their cots and came back to hold my hands as we dealt with the next part of the labour process. The nurse gently placed her hand on the top of my stomach and began ‘helping’ to push down as she explained it would help to free the placenta but it didn’t help anything. The pain was building again and I hissed as the force came back to my stomach. The nurse pulled a face as my stomach contorted
“Oh bare with me”
Was all she said as she fled out of the room
“Where the fuck did she go!?”
I roared out as the pain claimed me again. I was only barely aware of it when the room began to fill with doctors and medical staff again. I looked in confusion at my Alphas but their faces mirrored my own. Lissa and Marcus had agreed to give us our space while the babies were being born but we knew they were in the hospital. Evidently the sudden rush of hospital
personnel back into our room was too much to keep them at bay and they entered the room with the original delivery doctor. Lissa came to me immediately kissing my forehead and apologising for the intrusion but in truth I was happy to see her. She made quick work of scanning the medical equipment I was being hooked back up to and was in the middle of explaining what she thought was happening when a burst of fluid splattered the floor for the 3rd time. I could hear everyone talking but nothing made sense
‘Listen to your body’
Angel’s voice was soft and calm, it allowed me to calm down and assess what my body needed from me. As another wave of pain made itself known I focussed on the messages from my stomach and pushed down yet again. I pushed and pushed in time with every crippling pain and ignorant to what else was going on around me. I pushed eight more times as my body requested and quite suddenly the noise in the room which had been boarding on deafening went deadly quiet. The doctor emerged from between my legs with a squawking, tiny baby. I looked at the bottom of the bed in astonishment. We had been told the other
babies had passed away, that I had bled them out while in a coma but the wriggling, crying baby the doctor laid on my chest was most definitely alive and evidently unhappy about being Earthside. I couldn’t believe the smallness of her after the bigger boys. She was thankfully still healthy at 5 pounds and 4 ounces and I kissed her head while crying and trying not to think about the fluids she was covered in.
“Is it, what is it”
Rio looked tentative but was clearly trying to hold back excitement, he hadn’t seen her front as she was handed to me. I carefully handed him his daughter so he could see for himself and I cried more as he visibly shook with happiness.
“Ready to go again?”
I honestly thought the doctor was joking as she positioned herself once more between my legs but seconds later I knew that she wasn’t. I did as Angel had said and listened to my body. The contractions seemed weaker this time and I didn’t feel like my body was putting as much effort into the process as it had before. The smell of blood in the room was becoming
stronger and my need to get the 4th baby out was becoming more insistent by the second. I tried not to let fear cloud my focus or my energy but this didn’t feel right. The doctor emerged after some pulling on her part with another smaller baby but this time there was no squawking or tears, just silence.
“Give her to me!”
I spread my arms out for the baby but the doctor seemed reluctant to give her to me.
“GIVE ME MY BABY”
My demand was answered as the doctor gingerly laid her on my chest in the same location her brothers and sister had been. I rubbed her tiny back trying to coax some warmth and movement into her but she was stubbornly still. I moved myself up into a sitting position
when I coughed, I hadn’t realised how dry my throat was. The noise and movement stirred the pup and she cried. It was a singular almost silent noise but in a room filled with anxious wolves it might as well have been a siren. The doctor reached forward and whipped the baby away from me as I tried to grab her back. They were attaching tubes and wires to her and taking blood from her
“Lissa”
I whined, sounding more petulant than I had meant to. She stroked my cheek and wiped my tears while reassuring me.
“She’ll be ok, she just didn’t get as much of the stimulants and nutrients that the boys did so she is a bit smaller and will need some extra help but she will be ok”
“She is 4 pounds and 2 ounces”
Rio informed me while stroking circles onto the back of my hand
“She needs a name, Princess, a big strong name, her sister does too”
I stopped for a second and thought about everything. I couldn’t imagine the mess I’d made at the bottom of the bed. The doctor had declared that with the fourth baby the placenta had also come out and I could feel the relief in my body. I looked to the sides of the bed, to Lissa and Rogan on the left and Rio and Marcus on the right as my eyes caught the hand rails for the bed lying either side, on the floor. I had evidently done some remodelling while I had been pushing and was temporarily embarrassed to remember that the effort involved had caused me to snarl and growl as I had tried to build the strength to do what needed done. I
could still feel the power it had required coursing through me and I realised there was more than just adrenaline running through my system. I looked over at the tiny tot kicking and wriggling inside the incubator and at the look of pride on Rio and Rogan’s faces.
“The first magical little girl will be Ariabella Marie and that little warrior will be Zaraphine Melissa”
Rio pointed and laughed at his mum's scowl but she inclined her head in acceptance of the names and smiled with good humour. Rogan looked at each cot and pointed in turn
“Alex, Zack, Aria, Zara”
I smiled as my energy ran out completely and I fell into an exhausted sleep.