TEN MINUTES AFTER receiving word that Leila Savea was home safe with her people, Riley walked with Mercy in the woods near their cabin, her arm hooked into his. He refused to let go of her—his tall, lithely muscled mate looked as if she’d topple over.
“Why didn’t you put on weight anywhere else?” he growled at her. “At least you’d be more stable.”
She bared her teeth at him. “Shut up. I can keep myself upright. And for your information, I ate like a bear before hibernation, but our children are voracious hooligans.”
Riley waited when she stopped, caught her breath.
Wait, at no point in her pregnancy had Mercy ever had to catch her breath during a simple walk. “You’re having a contraction,” he accused.
“First one.” A scowl directed at him. “Only tiny anyway. Probably be a few hours yet at least.”
“Of course it will.” Knowing that any children with Mercy’s blood in their veins would be in no way predictable, he pulled out his phone and put in the call to Tamsyn.
“I’ll be there in fifteen,” the healer said, clearly already in the vicinity.
That was likely on purpose, with Mercy overdue. Not just in terms of a multiple changeling pregnancy but generally.
“Oh, crap!” Mercy almost bent over.
Heart thudding, Riley nonetheless kept his cool and began to stroke her back with the firm touch she liked. When she was ready, he helped her back up. They walked some more but stayed near the cabin.
Riley’s instinct was to hustle her into a comfortable bed, but Mercy was a leopard sentinel and she knew her body. At one point, she pressed her hands palms-down against a tree and pushed out while he massaged her back, digging in his thumbs the way she demanded.
Even when she snarled at him, her eyes dark as a result of the increasing pain, he kissed her temple and petted her, and after the contraction passed, his wild, beautiful mate turned into him. “I’m sorry.”
Riley kissed her cheeks, her lips in a caress that was all about comfort. “You can yell at me all you want. It makes me feel like I’m useful for something.” Brushing back her damp hair, he held her as long as she wanted before they began to walk again.
Mercy’s water broke a minute later.
The contractions were coming so close together by the time Tamsyn reached them that the gaps were measured in seconds rather than minutes. They didn’t make it inside. The pupcubs were born in a rush on the soft grass outside the cabin, Mercy’s hand gripping Riley’s and her back braced against his as Tamsyn caught their impatient children.
Who all decided to come out pretty much on top of one another.
Wiping off their faces, the healer placed the children in Mercy’s trembling arms. Riley slid his own under hers to help her hold them safe. “Hello,” Mercy whispered, a softness to her that, until this instant, only Riley had ever seen.
She kissed each squalling face in turn before looking up at him. “You’re a daddy now, wolf.”
His smile felt as if it would crack his face. “Hell, yeah.”
“Come around,” she murmured as the pupcubs quieted under their mother’s touch, at the skin-to-skin contact that was so important to newborn changelings. “They need to feel their daddy’s touch, too.”
Easing away his bracing hold, he came around to the side so he could support Mercy with one leg behind her back and still be able to hold their babies. He undid his shirt almost without thought and then Mercy was putting all three pupcubs in his arms. The “voracious hooligans” were strong and healthy but tiny. He nuzzled each soft face, drew in their scents, felt his heart expand again to make even more room for these three precious souls.
Tamsyn, who’d been taking care of Mercy, finally nudged them up and into the house. Only when all three pupcubs were snuggled up against Riley in the bed, skin-to-skin, did Mercy step into the shower for a minute.
Dressed in one of his T-shirts afterward, panties on underneath, she made a beeline for their babies. “Look at them. They’re so perfect.” She took a tiny foot, kissed each toe. Then did the same for the other two pupcubs as Tamsyn smiled and left them in privacy.
When Mercy took a pupcub and the baby whimpered at the touch of cotton, she tugged off the tee and snuggled their child to her heartbeat. The baby quieted at once. “Riley, we made three gorgeous babies,” she whispered in open awe, her eyes shining.
With her hair cascading in red waves over skin of cream and gold, and her face luminous as she looked first at one babe, then leaned over to kiss the loosely fisted hand of another, the head of the third, Mercy made his heart stop. “We did,” he managed to say, juggling the two pupcubs he held over onto one arm so he could close his free hand over Mercy’s nape. “You’re amazing.”
A sparkling smile. “Never forget it, wolf.” Leaning in, she nipped at his lower lip. “I want to hold them all again.” She situated herself in a slightly leaning position against the headboard, pillows piled up behind her, then Riley placed the other two pupcubs against her.
Their tiny faces seemed to smile, their soft hands spreading on her skin.
Riley watched over them, feeling a joy so deep that neither part of him could articulate it. His mate was safe, as were their pupcubs.
Riley Aedan Kincaid could ask for nothing more.