THE NEW ARRIVAL

ROWAN

EIGHT MONTHS LATER.

“I am telling you, she is about to pop!”

“And I am telling you to be quiet! You are making her more nervous.”

“She can't hear me, we are outside.”

“You underestimate how annoyingly loud and irritating your voice is!”

I can't help but chuckle at their banter, only for another lance of pain to cut it short.

“Damn it!” I curse, wincing as another contraction rips through my body.

This is hell.

“Ro!” Rina exclaims as they both rush in. “Are you okay?”

“Not really, where were you two?” I ask. “You weren't here when I woke up.”

Here is a wooden cottage that we had come across a few weeks ago during our roaming.

The girls as well as I, had been worried as to where we could stay, especially with what looks like my due date coming up.

It was a well furnished home with all necessary appliances required for a comfortable living.

Lisa had theorized that it belonged to some human who had probably migrated to the city for the winter.

Either way, we thanked the goddess for the gift and moved right in.

Which was heaven.

It was the first time since I left- got thrown out of the pack that I had seen a bed much less laid on one.

The girls had taken the couches as it looked like it was a cottage made for one person.

It worked out well for us.

“We went out for food,” Lisa answers as she heads to the kitchen counter. “And supplies.”

“Supplies?” I ask.

“Baby stuff,” Rina supplies. “You look like you are about to pop any day soon.”

“I feel like I am about to pop any minute soon,” I remark. “Where did you get them?”

“We raided a store.”

“What?!”

“It was Lisa’s idea,” Rina quickly and unapologetically confesses.

“What?!” Lisa asks, challenged. “You need it more than they do.”

“I am pretty sure that they are selling it because they need the money,” I retort.

“Not my problem.”

I sigh at her indifference.

“At least, tell me you were careful.”

“Of course we were. We made sure to avoid all the cameras and stuff like that. We are not amateurs.”

“That is what you said the last time and we had their police chasing after us.”

“I am pretty sure that was Rina's fault.”

“What? Excuse me!” Rina snaps. “I wasn't the one who punched the security guard for doing his job!”

“Yeah, whatever. Even if we missed a camera, the only thing they are going to see is a wolf stealing stuff.”

“You changed into your wolf, of course, you did,” I say with a shake of my head before another contraction rips through me.

“Whoa! What was that?” she asks as she hurries to me, whip Rina grips my hand in worry.

“I think…” I say after inhaling a deep breath to push down the pain. “... they are contractions.”

“Contractions?!” Rina exclaims, panic clear in her eyes. “You mean the baby is coming?”

“When did they start?”

“This morning,” I gasp out, riding through another spasm. “They were what woke me up.”

“And their duration apart?”

“Um, I think… two minutes apart now. I stopped counting when one made me see stars.”

“Oh boy!” Rina pants. “Oh boy, oh boy, oh boy. What are we going to do?! We have no idea how to help someone put to bed! We have never done it before.

“Snap out of it, Ri. Do as I tell you, First, go get me those bedsheets we kept on the shelves. The white ones,” Lisa orders as she settles before me and gently pries my leg open.

Rina runs off to do just that and soon returns with the sheets.

“I can't see the baby yet, which means we still have a little time,” she continues. “Here, give me your hand. Ri, spread the sheets on the floor, we don't want to leave the owner with a blood stained bed.”

Naturally.

Once Rina has done that, they both help me to my feet and lead me to the floor. Within that short time, I go through a set of three more contractions and I immediately begin crying.

“It is okay, everything is okay. We got you,” Lisa whispers as she lays me down. Ri, go boil some water. It is time.”

I won't bore you with the gory details of the child birth but I will tell you one thing.

I have never hated Dominick more than I did at that moment of pushing the baby out of me.

Rage and curses fill my head as my body is ripped from within.

Rage that instantly vanishes once I hear the baby's cry.

“What… who… where,” I gasp out as my eyes rove around to see my child.

“Congratulations, Ro,” Lisa says with the softest smile I have ever seen on her face. *You have a baby girl.”

A girl.

I have a girl.

I am a mother.

As Lisa places the child on my chest I burst out into another round of tears.

I am a mother.

I made it.

She made it.

“Hello, little one,” I coo at her as I poke down on her bloody, scrunched up face.

She is beautiful.

The room is silent as we all watch the miracle that is the baby before Lisa reaches for her again.

“We need to wash her as do you. Rina will help you,” she says.

I watch as she walks away with my baby, heading towards the sink where a basin is.

“Come on, Ro, can you stand?” Rina asks as she reaches for me.

Except the moment she touches me, another cloud of pain one almost equal to the one I had just gone through takes over my body.

Burning.

Breaking.

Pain.

It hurts.

I'm what feels like an eternity, my body goes through torture only for it to come to an instant stop.

I look up at the girls and I am first surprised by the distance between us and then by the gobsmacked look of panic on their face.

I look down to see what has them shocked and I am startled by what I see.

Paws.

I have …paws.

I am in wolf form.