SCT-Novel Chapter 437: The Baby’s coming
Chapter 437: The Baby’s coming
The weeks dissolved into a blur of falling snow and the steady hum of my expanding kingdom. Before I could even mentally prepare myself for the reality of it, the fifty-day mark arrived right in the dead of mid-winter.
At least this time, it didn’t catch me by surprise and came a few days earlier. But it doesn’t make the experience less easy.
Outside, the blizzard was howling against the dark stone walls of the West Way, but inside the Sovereign Wing, the air was a stifling, tropical furnace. True to his word, Damar hadn’t set a single foot outdoors since the first real dawn of winter.
He was absolutely terrified that a random draft of arctic wind would trigger his serpent instincts and force him into a deep hibernation before he could witness the birth of our child.
And I was entirely in support of it.
If he was going to sleep through the winter, it would only be after he held his baby and gave them a name.
But as the afternoon sun hit its peak behind the heavy grey clouds, the peaceful indoor sanctuary shattered.
The contraction hit me out of nowhere—a sudden, crushing grip that made my vision warp and my knees completely buckle.
"Damar!" I gasped, my hands flying to the heavy, solid dome of my stomach.
The room erupted into instant chaos. Noah and Fenric were by my side in a heartbeat, lifting me effortlessly from the stone floor and carrying me straight toward the inner chamber.
Thalor was already barking orders to the guards outside to fetch the bunny midwife and her medical team, his water powers subtly shifting the humidity in the room to keep the air from suffocating me.
Unlike the triplets or the twins, my body wasn’t trying to push out a whole army this time. There was only one life inside me, but because it carried the pure, unyielding genes of a silver Serpent, the pressure was entirely different.
It felt heavy, slow, and incredibly agonizing, as if my body was fighting to reshape its own mammalian structure to accommodate the cold-blooded royalty growing within.
By the time the rabbit midwife burst through the doors, her long ears twitching with familiar, no-nonsense authority, I was already drenched in sweat, clutching the plush furs beneath me.
"Move, move! Out of the way, you giant piles of fur!" she yelled, instantly shoving Fenric aside as she knelt between my legs.
She checked my alignment, her brow furrowing with that sharp focus. "The pressure is high, Queen. This one is stubborn. It’s a single birth, but the serpent’s core is dense. You’re going to have to give me everything you’ve got on the very first try!"
"Noah..." I rasped, my breath coming in jagged, desperate hitches.
Noah caught my left hand, his tanned knuckles white as he squeezed back, his dark eyes filled with a raw, heartbreaking worry that he could never hide.
Fenric hovered right over my head, his ruby eyes wide with panic, while Thalor stood at the foot of the bed, his fingers gripping the carved wood so hard I could hear the stone floor beneath him groan.
But it was Damar who looked the most undone.
The usually cool, calculating Serpent was kneeling right beside my pillow, his face entirely pale and his emerald eyes dilated with a primal, helpless terror. He looked worse than the last time. And he looked like he could collapse with the amount of worry weighing him down.
He offered his forearm for me to bite in place of Fenric but I didn’t accept it. So he reached out his other trembling hand, locking his fingers tightly with mine, his cool skin offering a desperate contrast to the fever raging in my blood.
"Ari... please," Damar whispered, his voice cracking into a low, vibrating hiss as he bowed his head over our joined hands. He was actively praying to the beast gods, his entire body shaking with a desperate plea for my safety. "Just stay with me. Breathe. Don’t let the dark take you."
"I’m... I’m trying!" I screamed, a white-hot wave of pain ripping through my spine. "They aren’t... taking me anywhere! Ahhh!"
It was a soul-splitting agony, worse than any fever, worse than the previous labors because it felt so solid, so massive. My veins bulged against my neck, and my face went entirely red.
"Now, Queen! Push!" the midwife commanded.
I buried my face into the pillows, screaming into the humid air as I poured every ounce of my remaining strength into the push once the contraction was at its peak.
I squeezed Damar’s hand so hard I could hear the faint, sharp crack of his bones shifting, but he didn’t care. He didn’t even flinch. He just held on, his cool forehead resting against my knuckles, his scent of fresh mint and river water filling my senses and keeping me from sliding into unconsciousness.
The struggle felt like it lasted for hours, a brutal tug-of-war between life and death in the heart of winter. But I was Arinya. I was the Queen and the Land Mother. I hadn’t dismantled an entire tribe and built an empire just to be defeated by a single delivery.
With one final, earth-shattering surge of feral willpower, I let out a loud cry, and the heavy pressure suddenly snapped, replaced by the immediate, distinct splash of new life entering the midwife’s waiting hands.
The silence that followed was thick, broken only by my ragged, exhausted gasps.
And then, a tiny, surprisingly sharp and clear cry echoed through the room.
"It’s a boy!" the rabbit midwife cheered, a rare, soft smile breaking across her sandpaper face as she quickly cleaned the infant in warmed linens. "A strong, healthy prince."
Damar let out a long, broken sound—something between a sob and a hiss—his forehead slumping completely against my shoulder as the sheer, suffocating terror finally left his body.
I pushed out the placenta and the fox girl handled the disposal, which marked the end of the delivery. Ah, save for the stitching. Help me.
"Look at him, Arinya," Noah whispered, his dark eyes shining with tears as he leaned closer, his hand gently wiping the sweat-soaked hair from my forehead.
The midwife carefully brought the bundle over, settling him against my bare chest. I opened my blurry eyes, my heart swelling until it felt like it would burst right out of my ribs.
He was absolutely beautiful.