~ JESSE ~
My world was pain. And panting.
I lay, twisted in the sheets in a bedroom I didn't recognize, trying to conserve what little energy I had while Maya checked my progress and smiled, patting my leg when I gritted my teeth and tried to breathe through another contraction, then slumped, nearly weeping with both the pain, and frustration.
She'd taken us, all of us, and it hadn't even cost her.
I'd been in that thicket, Reeca talking me through because the contractions were regular, which meant labor probably wasn't going to stop. And I'd been terrified of delivering out in the forest, in the dark, with no equipment or even blankets.
But Reeca had gently assured me wolves had been born in this manner for millennia, and she would help.
The guards stood in a circle among the trees, facing out to give us privacy. And suddenly Maya was there.