Page 27 of Naughty Elf: Wink

“No, I want a bath,” I gritted out, and Wink didn’t argue, trusting that my body would tell me what I needed.

Not even five minutes in the tub, though, and I was shaking my head. “Nope, need to walk.”

My mate didn’t argue, just helped me out of the tub and dried me off, rubbing my back when I gripped the edge of the counter, my guttural moan echoing in the tiled room.

“Should I call the midwife?” he asked nervously.

I shook my head. “I don’t think there’s time.” I hated to admit that I hadn’t planned for this particular scenario. No matter how many times I shifted or had a conversation with my beast inside my head, I just kept falling back on this “I’m human” mentality, after being raised as one for over 20 years.

Letting my instincts take over, I wandered toward the living room where the fireplace was burning. The bedroom was all wrong for bringing my baby in this world, and I found myself pulling the afghan off the back of the couch and balling it up into a little nest in front of the fire. “Here,” I said, getting down onto all fours, the urge to push becoming all I could hear.

My poor mate was so out of his depth, but he kept his hands on me. “What do you need me to do?” he asked, biting down on his panic.

“I need a cold cloth on my neck,” I said, panting, my eyes closed as I rolled my hips.

A cold chill hit me in just the right spot, but it couldn’t have been a cloth because only three seconds had passed, and it wasn’t wet either. I cracked my eyes open to find my mate’s hands were covered in a layer of frost—magic.

I laughed, the sound coming out as a half-manic sob. “What’s so funny?” Wink asked, though it seemed like he was just happy for a reason to distract me from the pain.

“It’s just so perfect, magic playing its part in bringing our child into the world. Are elf births this hard too, or does the baby just pop out?”

He just shrugged, coasting his chilly hands down my sweat-drenched back in a soothing gesture. “I… couldn’t say.”

I narrowed my eyes at him. “Theydopop out, don’t they?!” I gritted out in an accusation as another contraction crept up. “Why couldn’t you be the one to carry the babies?”

“Babies, as in more than one?” he asked, eyebrows jumping. “Does that mean you’d be willing to go through this again?”

I had to pause the conversation for the contraction, bearing down this time as my instincts took over, my body telling me exactly what to do. When it passed, I blew out a shaky breath. “I mean, I was always lonely as an only child. Maybe I could stand to do this one more time.”

“Whatever you want, my love,” he whispered in my ear, kissing my neck gently.

The contractions seemed to stack up, one on top of the other, until it was just one constant wall of pain. I bore down hard, my mate bracing me, not saying a single word of complaint when I squeezed the hell out of his hands.

At long last, our baby came into the world, right at midnight. I collapsed back against Wink as he set our daughter into my arms. The fire had died down, but the moonlight spilled in through the window, and when I looked up, I caught a glint of silver.

“Wink, look,” I whispered, nodding toward the window. “It’s snowing.”

The three of us cuddled together, feeling the tingle of something magical. “What should we call her?” I asked, gazing down as she fed for the first time.

“Well, it is officially Christmas Eve, so maybe… Eve? What do you think?”

I smiled sleepily. “I like it.”

I could’ve sworn she smiled, so I chose to believe that she liked it too.

19

Wink

Well, the baby might not have simplypopped outlike he might’ve hoped, but the best part about Derek being a shifter was that all it took was for him to shift to his raccoon in order to access that extra healing power available to him, and that was pretty amazing magic all on its own.

His beast waddled over to me where I sat on the floor holding Eve. She was swaddled and fed, sleeping soundly. “What do you think of her?” I asked him.

He reached out one paw and patted her wrapped tummy, making a quiet clucking sound, as if trying not to wake her.

“I agree,” I said. “She’s something special. And if she ends up being a raccoon like you, I know you’ll show her the ropes.” There was no question in my mind that she carried her omega father’s genes, I could feel it pulsing inside her, dormant for now, but there might’ve also been a slight sheen to her skin, flecks that caught the moonlight, liketiny stars. Perhaps there was a little bit of elf in her blood too. I was excited to find out what this might mean for her.

I would’ve been happy to watch her all night, but eventually, she began to fuss, and my raccoon reluctantly made way for Derek to take his skin, now healed and whole, so he could feed her again.