For the Love of Cupidity: A Valentine’s Day Novella (Heart Hassle Book 4)

It took precisely two minutes for my mates to clean up, get dressed, and put me into the tub. I’m now clean, and my vagina has stopped spewing out liquid, so that’s good. What’s not good? The fact that my contractions hit, and I am in total fucking agony.

I’ve been moved to the bed, the genfin midwife is here, and all four of my mates are in the bedroom, trying to tend to me.

I’m walking in circles in our bedroom, wearing nothing but a loose nightdress, clinging onto Ronak’s arms as he walks backwards with me, keeping me steady.

I’m panting, my pink hair is plastered against my forehead, and my red wings keep popping in and out.

“This. Fucking. Sucks!” I yell through clenched teeth.

I stop walking as yet another contraction hits, leaning over until my face is smashed against Ronak’s arm. When it gets particularly painful, I open my mouth and bite down on Ronak’s arm with a scream.

A pained grunt escapes him, but that’s all. The poor guy doesn’t even try to get his arm away from my teeth. He just takes it. That’s strength right there.

When the contraction ends, I finally release his flesh and lean back up. “Oh gods. That was a bad one. I kinda hate you all right now. So much. I wanna punch you. Also them. Oh, you’re bleeding.”

Ronak and I look at his mangled skin. There are very clear teeth marks decorating his forearm, with blood beading up.

“Sorry,” I say guiltily. “I love you. I d-didn’t mean to hurt you!” Now I’m sobbing.

Ronak shakes his head. “It’s okay, little demon. You’re in pain.”

“I know b-but I don’t wa-want you to b-be in pain, too!” I cry.

Then another contraction hits.

“Oh, shit, shit, shit!” I cringe, squeezing my eyes shut tight as I brace against Ronak again. “I swear to all the freaking shits in all the fucking fae realm, I hate you and your perfect stupid fucking dicks!” I yell. “I will tie your cocks into a noose and hang you all if you ever try to have sex with me again!”

My entire body clamps down like I’m having three million period cramps combined at one time and, yeah. “I’m pretty sure I’m gonna die.”

“You’re not going to die, my beloved,” Okot tells me, and I feel him petting my sweat-drenched hair. “Would you like to bite my arm next?”

“Aww, you’re so sweet,” I gasp.

“And her contraction is over,” Evert smirks, the amusement evident in his tone.

I straighten up from my hunched position, and the midwife immediately fusses over me. She just plops a squat right between my legs where I stand, lifts up my nightdress, and checks things down under. I don’t even care. She already saw everything there was to see when I gave birth to Amorette. I pretty much lost all modesty once she rifled through my whiskerwallet and helped stretch out my lovelips. There’s just no coming back from that.

“Drink this,” she says, passing me another tonic of who-the-heck-knows-what mixed with those damn poppleberries.

“These stupid poppleberries don’t help at all,” I complain, right before I down it all in one swig.

“It does help,” she tells me sternly. I want to rip her eyebrows off.

She blinks at me and covers her brows. Oh. I guess I said that out loud.

Before I can apologize, another contraction takes over, and I’m right back to cursing, screaming, and unintentionally inflicting pain on my mates. When the pain gets so bad that I start hissing through my teeth, I take the glass cup and hurl it against the wall. I hear a very satisfying sound of glass shattering.

When the haze of pain ebbs away at the end of the contraction, I open my eyes and blink over at the broken glass. “Whoops.”

“It’s alright, my beloved,” Okot assures me.

“It was a good throw,” Ronak says behind me, looking oddly proud. Weird alpha male.

I realize that I’m now being supported by Evert and Sylred. The guys keep tagging out. I notice that Ronak’s arm is now bandaged. So is Okot’s finger. And Sylred’s cheek. Wow. I really do a number on these guys.

But I can’t be held responsible. Not when it feels like my body is trapped in some cruel version of a Chinese finger trap.

“Oh gods, it hurts. It hurts!” I groan, shifting my weight from side to side as I brace against the wall. Someone is rubbing my back. Too softly. Way too softly.

“Harder!” I snap.

Hands start kneading into my knotted and tense muscles, as I try to breathe in and out. “That’s too hard!” I complain at the massaging hands. “Stop touching me wrong!”

The hands immediately go away.

So. Much. Pain.

“Get it out! Get it out!” I scream at the room.

“You will,” Sylred assures me.

“No. You get it out! Be useful! Don’t just stand there!”

“She’s ready to push,” I hear the midwife say.

I straighten up again and whirl around on my heels like I’m going to fight her off. “No! I’m not ready! I don’t wanna push!”

“You have to,” the genfin female tells me gently.

“Gimme some more popplefuckinberries!”

She shakes her head at me. “You cannot have more than you’ve already had.”

I’m pretty sure I make a keening sound, before making up some new swear words that aren’t completely coherent. I also may or may not accidentally threaten her life.

“Come on, honey, let’s get you onto the bed,” the midwife croons. “So you can start pushing.”

“Don’t make me,” I sob.

Ronak comes in front of me and takes my face in his hands. “You can do this,” he tells me.

I shake my head. “I’ve been having contractions for hours and hours, all because your stupidly well-endowed cocks make me go into labor! I’m so tired. And it hurts. And I can’t. I just can’t, Ronak. I don’t have it in me,” I whimper, feeling the tears drip down my cheeks. I’m so incredibly tired and terrified that my entire body starts to shake, and my eyes shut as panic closes in on me.

“Look at me,” Ronak says in his strong, sure voice. My eyes lift to his, and I stare into his black irises, focusing on the steady tone of his voice. “You are persistent. You have done impossible things. You saved an entire realm. You saved us. You’re strong. And you can do this. You hear me, mate?” he asks, his touch firm against my jaw. “You. Can. Do. This.”

I nod and take a shaky breath.

“Then let’s get you onto the bed, and soon, we can meet our baby.”

My face crumples, and he wipes away my tears with the pads of his thumbs.

With his help, I make my way onto the bed, which is covered with extra padding for the birth, and to make sure our mattress is protected from all the incoming fluids.

When Ronak starts to help me sit down, I squeeze his hand. “I need you all,” I say desperately. “Don’t leave.”

He looks me steadily in the eye. “Never.”

Ronak nods to the guys, and they take their places. I sit on the bed between Okot’s legs, my back resting against his chest. Ronak takes my right side, while Evert is on my left, and Sylred stays beside Evert, rubbing my feet and aching legs.

The midwife settles at the foot of the bed and checks me. Her furry brown wings are tucked neatly at her back and her hair is pulled into a tight bun. “Okay, dear. Next contraction, I want you to push.”

So I do.

Again, and again, and a-fucking-gain.

Until finally…

I collapse back against Okot, my chest heaving.

“What is it?” I ask, watching as the midwife gathers the baby. The telltale sound of an infant cry erupts in the room, and I smile tiredly at the sound. All four of my mates simultaneously tense up with nervousness and excitement as they strain to see the baby.

The midwife lifts the baby up to me, and I see the second most adorable face I’ve ever seen in my life, after Amorette.

“A little girl,” the midwife declares proudly.

“Genfin tail?” Ronak asks.

The midwife turns the baby so we can see. “Pink hair like her mama, but no genfin tail,” the midwife answers. “She has red-ringed eyes. She’s a lamassu.”

I feel Okot tense beside me, and then Ronak does some crazy alpha handling business stuff, and Okot moves from behind me and gets up from the bed to take the baby.

The beaming midwife passes her over, and Okot takes her in his huge arms, cradling her like she’s the most precious, fragile thing in all the realms. Tears fall from my eyes at the expression of wonder on his face.

“Hello, little love,” he says to her, and her own cries instantly dry up.

Her tiny hand wraps around his finger, and Okot smiles. He looks up at me, and our eyes lock, my heart near bursting when I see his wet with joy.

“Thank you, my beloved,” he whispers in total reverence.

I bite my shaking lip and taste the salty tears that drip down.

The other guys move to get a look at our sweet new baby girl, cooing words of adoration.

“Alright, let’s get this afterbirth delivered,” the midwife says, but I’m already contracting, and I cry out from the intense pain that takes me by surprise.

The midwife hurries between my legs, but I’m already pushing. The guys scramble around me, confused. The midwife looks up from my hoo-ha and beams. “There’s another baby!”

I blink at her. “Come again?”

She nods. “Twins! You’re having twins! You need to push!”

Cocklehearts in a cottonhole. I’m gonna kill someone.