Moon Bound

Chapter 16- Their Scents of Pride

I kept my expression neutral, but the feelings that churned in my chest were anything but calm. What I saw on the little monitor made anxiety and worry toss my stomach about. "It's okay —s'okay" I said gently,  keeping my voice as even as possible. I stroked  Elena's hand trying to reassure her.

A long howl of pain left her as another spasm racked her petite body. Andrei held her other hand and whispered softly in her ear.

"Iubita mea—Iubita mea," he crooned in Romanian as he swept her beautiful fiery hair off her sweat drenched forehead.

Codrin's intimidating form hovered over us all, watching tensely, before returning to his infernal pacing of the room. I glanced to him, I was finding his restlessness distracting. His typically detached demeanor was gone. He had all the composure of a fretting father, and looked just as anxious on the outside as I felt on the inside.

"Is she going into labor? What's happening?" he demanded to know.

I kept my focus on Elena.

"Just breathe through it Elena —in through the nose —out through the mouth". I modeled for her, encouraging her to focus her breaths in time with my own. She whimpered and tried to hold my gaze through her tear filled eyes.

I watched the little screen, my chest squeezing in horror, as the baby again shifted inside her. She screamed out, a horrible gut wrenching shriek, as her body convulsed.

"Aster  —I need a shot of valerian serum. Quickly please."

Aster didn't hesitate. She found what I asked for and immediately handed it over, then came to stand beside me to view the monitor herself.

I spoke quietly to Elena, reassuring her.

"This well help you to rest through the pain, Elena." I administered the shot carefully into her arm keeping a tight grip in case she thrashed about again. The effects were almost immediate. I felt her arm relax in my grip and in less than a minute her head lulled to the side.

She was out.

I breathed a sigh of relief and said a silent prayer to the Moon Goddess.

"Help me get the bed laid back." I said to Aster. "Not too far," —I cautioned as we made the necessary adjustments —"she can't be prone."

I cleaned the ultrasound jelly off her swollen belly and attached the fetal heartbeat monitor before pulling the blankets up around her.

Her mate Andrei sat with his elbows on the bed clutching her hand to his face. His eyes were closed. I could hear faint mumbles, although I couldn't understand the words, the intonation sounded like prayers.

"Andrei?" I called his name softly.

His bloodshot eyes fluttered up to mine.

"Elena is resting now. She will be resting for a while. Aster and I need to step out into the hall for a minute...okay? We won't be far. Just right outside the door."

He nodded then went back to his muttered invocations.

We eased out through the door and Aster immediately turned to me visibly shaken.

"W-what was that?" She asked, her voice low so it wouldn't carry through the lab door.

My eyebrows drew in and I shook my head, "honestly I don't know. I've never seen anything —or heard of anything like it —and my training as a healer began very early. I would assist my mother even as a young child. Admittedly —in werewolf terms— I'm still very young, but as you know part of healer training involves studying relevant texts and journals from our history..."