Chapter 490: Time Grows Short

Five and a Half Months Later

Ella

There’s a strange atmosphere in the palace today and I admit that I don’t quite no how to feel, because

everything is half dread and half excited anticipation.

At least, that’s how it is for everyone else.

For me? For me it’s just a great deal of discomfort.

“Ella,” Cora scolds as I try to bend over and pick up one of Rafe’s socks from the floor. “Let me do that

– ”

“I can do it!” I gasp, reaching for it –

But then I stumble and almost fall over, and Cora catches me by the shoulders.

“Enough!” she snaps, shaking her head at me. “Back to the nest! Stop getting out of it! You’re six full

months pregnant, Ella – full term! For heaven’s sake, if you fall over I’m scared you’ll split like a

watermelon and just spill the baby out.”

“That might be better,” I mutter, glaring at the errant sock and doing as my sister says, heading back for

my bed. “This baby is big, and I’m not precisely looking forward to pushing her out.”

“Well, what did you expect,” Cora says, flipping the sock into a hamper and walking behind me to the

bed. ” You decided to have babies with the most gigantic man I’ve ever seen.”

“First,” I say, holding up one finger as I sink down on to my bed and start to tuck my legs under the

covers, “I did not choose to have children with that gigantic man, I chose a nice slim sperm donor for

my first child -”

“Yeah well, you chose to have the second baby,” Cora reminds me, raising an eyebrow at me as she

sits down on the edge of the bed.

“And second,” I say, choosing to ignore her logic, “Rafe was a little baby. It’s not my fault that this one is

very content to stay in for as long as she possibly can.” I sigh, resting my head back against my pillows

and putting my hands on either side of my belly.

“Poor sister,” Cora coos, reaching out to stroke my stomach as well. “She’ll be here soon enough.”

What Cora says is true I’ve been in pre-labor for a couple of hours now. I’m having mild, irregular

contractions which Cora says is unlikely to be Braxton Hicks at this late stage. So, baby girl is coming

soon, even if she’s taking her time about this as well.

“Remember how crazy it was?” I say softly, my mind turning to the past. ” When Rafe was born?”

“I do,” she replies. “Do you miss it?”

I peek through my eyelids at her, smirking a bit. “Do I miss almost dying and fearing for my life, having

to stop and give birth in a strange palace because the roads to the hospital were blocked?”

She shrugs. “Well, do you?”

“Maybe a little,” I murmur, and then I laugh, shaking my head. “It was all very exciting. Poor baby girl

needs a fuss too.”

“We’ll give her plenty of fuss,” Cora says, running her hand comfortingly across my stomach. “Besides,

two months from now we get to have her baptism, and then it’s Aunt Cora’s revenge.”

“Cora,” I groan. “Honestly, it wasn’t so bad -”

“I’m going to come back from it soaked,” she says, grinning at me, ” covered in mud, with an insane

story about your daughter’s future – ”

“You know,” I say, sitting up on my elbows and glaring at her, “you don’t have to be her godmother – ”

“Oh whatever, Ella,” Cora says, rolling her eyes and laughing. “Like you have any other friends.”

“I have plenty of friends – -“I protest, my mouth falling open, but our completely unserious fight ends

abruptly when the door opens and our mates come in, our sons in their arms.

Rafe turns in Sinclair’s arms and gives a happy little cry when he sees me. ” Mama!” he calls, raising

his hands above his head and then leaning over, reaching for me.

“Whoa, kid,” Sinclair says, laughing and catching Rafe before he hurl himself to the floor in his

eagerness to get to me. When they’re about halfway across the room, Sinclair puts Rafe on his feet

and he totters over to the bed, absolutely breaking my heart with how cute he is.

“Hey, Rafey!” I call, reaching out for him. He bangs into the side of the bed and giggles, reaching for

me, and Cora obliges him by lifting him up so that he can crawl over to me and cuddle up in my arms.

“God, when did he get so big?” Cora murmurs, shaking her head at Rafe.

“Don’t remind me,” I say with a sigh, tugging my little boy close and giving him a big kiss on the head.

He’s one now. I cried the entire day of his birthday. Sinclair was honestly a little freaked out.

“He’s a show off,” Roger says, his voice a little bitter as he sits down next to Cora with Jesse in his lap.

Sinclair moves to the other side of the bed so he can sit in his spot next to me.

“Roger’s just jealous,” he says, leaning over to kiss me on the cheek. ” Because Rafe is faster than

Jesse.”

“Jesse’s six months old,” Cora says, rolling her eyes at the dads.

“He could be faster for six months,” Sinclair says dryly, trying to hold his smirk.

“Don’t worry, Jesse,” Roger says fondly to his son, softly petting the silky brown hair that’s started

growing on his head. “You’ll beat that meatball someday – you’re lighter and quicker –

I burst out laughing at the ridiculousness of my family, shaking my head at all of them. “I can’t believe

you’re debating which kid is going to win a footrace,” I say, “when I’m laying here, in agony – ”

“She’s not in agony,” Cora says, waving a dismissive hand, “not yet at least – ”

“In agony,” I insist, reaching forward to smack her on the arm.

“Sorry, my Queen,” Sinclair sighs, wrapping his arms around me. “But the good news is that

everything’s wrapped up for now Roger and I have cleared our calendars, so now there’s nothing to do

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“Yeah, so you’d better make it fun,” Roger quips. “When Cora was in labor, there were drinks – you’ve

got to live up to this, Ella.”

Cora laughs and smacks her mate, shaking her head at him. He flinches and then falls back on the

mattress in pretend agony, taking Jesse with him and making the baby laugh, muttering something

about an abusive wife and mother.

I laugh at them but turn to put my head on Sinclair’s shoulder. “How’s it going out there?” I ask.

“Everything okay?”

“Nothing for you to worry about,” he murmurs.

“I know that,” I say quietly, watching him closely. “Doesn’t mean I don’t want to know. It’s my nation

too.”

Sinclair gives me a sad little smile and presses his forehead to mine. Then he passes a bunch of

information down our bond at once, letting me see and feel that the Atalaxians have been pressing

their advantage. They’re aware that our military is rapidly getting itself together and the Atalaxians

losing the leverage they had. It means that everything is going according to plan, but it also means an

increase in actual fighting along the front.

“I’m sorry, Dominic,” I murmur, putting a hand on his cheek. “I know it’s not easy to send people to war.”

“Nothing for us to worry about today,” he sighs, turning his head and pressing a kiss to my palm. “Today

is about you, and the baby.”

I nod, agreeing, letting us turn to that better thought instead. It’s been harder than I thought it would be,

to separate our happy personal life from the trials of war when you’re the King and Queen…in so many

ways, the two bleed into each other.

But we’ve been pretty good about celebrating our happy moments when we get them. It’s pretty much

all we can do.

“I can’t believe you haven’t named the baby yet,” Roger says, interrupting us with a frown. “Didn’t you

have Rafe named like, from the get-go?”

“We did,” I say quietly, running my hand over my stomach. “But he was easy – he told us what he

liked.”

“With this one, we’ve got names we like picked out,” Sinclair says. “But we’ve said them to her, like you

did with Jesse, and she didn’t indicate any standouts.”

“So, we’re waiting to see what she looks like when she’s born. See if something clicks.”

“I think that’s sweet,” Cora says, smiling at me softly. “Very old-school, very human, when so much

about these wolf kids is already known before they’re born.”

“I know,” I say, smiling down at my stomach. “I think it’s kind of cool that she’s so different.”

“Next one we have,” Roger says, laying Jesse out flat on his stomach so that Jesse can practice lifting

his head with some tummy time, “we’re just picking the name out of a hat. Keeping it spicy.”

Cora lowers her eyelids a little and shakes her head at me, making me laugh.

But the laughter very quickly ends when another contraction starts. I exhale a long breath, pressing my

eyes shut as my body tightens somewhere low within me. It’s not precisely painful yet – but it is

intense.

“Time to get the stopwatch ready, daddy,” Cora says, nodding to Sinclair. “I think these are close

enough together to start timing them.”

“I’m on it,” Sinclair says, pressing a kiss to my cheek as he hops out of bed. ” And in between, we can

put the boys on the floor and use the stopwatch on them, see which one really is faster – ”

“Oh my god,” I mutter, breathing through the pain.

Cora laughs. “We’re not racing the babies while we wait for Ella to go into delivery!” she says, shouting

after my mate as he ducks into the closet to find the stopwatch he uses in the gym.

“Oh, baby,” Roger says, sitting up with Jesse in his arms, patting Cora consolingly on the knee. “Yes…

yes we are.”