“If it’s a girl,” Diego said. “If it’s a boy, Carlos Robert, after my father and hers.”
“Nice,” Iona said.
“It’s a girl,” Cassidy said with conviction. “But I guess we’re going to find out.” She sucked in another deep breath, then let out a wail.
Iona was on her feet. Cassidy pushed Diego’s hand away and fought to get up and turn over on her hands and knees. She wailed again.
“Call the doctor,” Iona said frantically to Eric.
“No,” Cassidy said. “No doctor. Not unless something’s wrong.”
“I’d be happier, Cass…” Diego began, his face damp with nervous perspiration.
“We’ve been over this, Diego. I do it myself. Eric.”
“I’ve got you. Iona, help her undress. Diego, stand over here with me. We guard, and the females do the work.”
Cassidy managed a laugh. “Isn’t that typical? It’s all right, Iona. I know what to do. I’ll tell you, and you’ll help me.”
Diego did not want to leave her side. He scowled until Eric came to him, took him by the shoulders, and pulled him across the room to face the front door.
“Our job is to guard,” Eric said to him. “We don’t let anyone near her. You start protecting your cub now.”
“The males say they turn their backs because that’s the tradition,” Cassidy said to Iona. “Really, it’s because they’re squeamish.”
Iona didn’t smile as she helped Cassidy out of her pants, top, and underwear. Naked, Cassidy climbed to her hands and knees again.
“Everything you need is over there,” Cassidy said, gesturing at the longest of the counters.
Iona followed her direction and found a large basin, towels, and some scary-looking surgical instruments. She put everything on a cart and wheeled it over to Cassidy, feeling ineffectual.
“You really should have a doctor or a midwife,” Iona said.
“I am a midwife. I’ve assisted in quite a few Shifter births. Now, hold me steady and don’t let me fall. It’s going to be tough. I wish I could shift.”
“Hang in there, Cass,” Eric said without turning around.
Iona took a deep breath and put her arm around Cassidy’s bare back. “It’s all right. I’ll help.” Iona knew, as soon as she said it, that she could.
“Thanks.” Cassidy’s smile was laced with pain. “You’ll make a good alpha.”
Iona gave Cassidy the barest squeeze. That remained to be seen.
Cassidy groaned again, the groan ending on another sharp cry. “I think she’s coming.”
Iona skimmed her hand down Cassidy’s back. Cassidy had dilated quite a bit, though Iona saw nothing on its way.
“Help me,” Cassidy moaned. “This stupid table is for humans, damn it.”
Iona helped Cassidy spread her knees, making sure she didn’t fall off the narrow table. Iona then got towels ready and hoped she didn’t have to touch the gleaming instruments.
If anything went wrong enough for Iona to have to even think about grabbing an instrument, she was getting a doctor, to hell with Shifter tradition. Iona would not let Cassidy or her cub die on her watch.
Iona rubbed Cassidy’s back and hips. “You’re doing good, Cass.”
“Hope so.”
“I’m right here. Not going anywhere.”
“Thank you.”
The whisper ended in another cry of pain. Cassidy rocked her hips, her body shuddering, then suddenly, her skin became a leopard pelt, her hands, claws.
“No!” Iona shouted. “Cassidy, don’t shift.”
“Keep it together, Cass,” Eric called, and Iona heard Diego swearing in Spanish.
Cassidy shuddered again, and then she was human. “She’s coming!”
This time, Iona saw it, the head of a child coming from Cassidy’s birth canal. Iona had never seen a baby be born, and she’d feared she’d freak out and run when Cassidy’s cub actually started coming. But when Iona saw the top of the baby’s head, something inside her changed.
A new life, a new beginning, a cub struggling to take its place in the world. That cub needed help, and Iona wasn’t about to run away and abandon it.
“Come on, little one,” she said. “You can do it.”
“Do you see her?” Cassidy asked, excited.
“Yes, she’s on her way.” Iona wanted to cheer, to urge the cub on. Come on, girl!
Cassidy wailed again, the sound winding into a shriek. Iona spread the towels and reached for the cub as her head slid out. For some reason, Iona knew exactly what to do—not the human in her, but the Shifter.
“One more, Cass. You can do it.”
Cassidy screamed. Diego cried, “Fuck this!” and Iona heard his harried footfalls as he ran back to the table.
At the same time the cub, a human baby, slid into Iona’s hands.
Diego’s face nearly blotted out the baby Iona struggled to hold as he looked with great shock at his daughter. Then Eric was there, clearing the infant’s nose. The little one inhaled her first breath and blared her unhappiness to the world.
Cassidy turned, the cord still stretching from her to the cub. “Amanda,” she said.
She sounded so sure. “Yep,” Iona said in a choked voice. “It’s a little girl.”
“See?” Cassidy said to Diego, whose dark eyes streamed tears as he touched Amanda’s face. “I knew it was a girl.” And Cassidy reached to gather her into her arms.
Diego came over all fierce as soon as little Amanda was cleaned up, Cassidy nursing her, and went out to bully the staff into giving Cassidy a bedroom where she could rest. Cassidy protested that she was fine to go home, but when Diego and Eric got her to the back bedroom the clinic finally allowed them to use, she drooped.
Iona and Eric left Diego and Cass to be alone with their child, and went to celebrate with the other Shifters who waited in the lobby. Jace, all smiles, kept breaking into a gyrating dance. Because he was as handsome as his father at thirty years old, the nurses at the front desk enjoyed feasting their eyes on him.
Iona’s eyes were filled with tears. “That was so wonderful.”
Eric held her close, kissing the top of her head. Shane and Brody fell into teasing each other and laughing, loudly, the bear brothers excited. Bringing in a cub—successfully, with mother and cub alive and well—was a cause for great celebration.
Diego came down after a time to report that Cassidy and the baby were sleeping. He looked wrung out, triumphant, radiantly happy, and exhausted. Xavier put an arm around him and declared that Diego could use a drink.