He hated the defeated sound of her voice. Help her, his dragon said. As if he wouldn’t tear up the nearest mountain with his claws if it meant he could ease his mate’s pain.
He smoothed her sweat-covered brow and placed a gentle kiss on her lips. “Don’t you dare give up on me or our children, Melanie Hall-MacLeod. There is no bloody way I’m raising twins on my own. You’d better survive or I’ll find a way to bring you back myself just to give you an earful.”
Her weak smile warmed his heart. “You stubborn man. How many times do I have to tell you that your will isn’t strong enough to do half of what you say.”
He traced her cheek with his forefinger. “Well, this time I feel lucky.”
She half-laughed, but then drew in a breath. “I think another contraction is coming.”
From the foot of the hospital-style bed, Dr. Sid spoke, “Okay, Melanie, we’re nearly there. This time I want you to push with everything you have. Another push or two should do it.”
Melanie shook her head. “I’ve been pushing for so long, Sid, and I can’t keep doing this. I’m too tired.”
Help her, his dragon repeated. If we can’t help her find her strength, we will lose her. We can’t lose her. She is our mate.
As if he didn’t know that.
Tristan kept his worry bottled up inside him, however, and did what Melanie needed—he prodded her. “Come on, my little human. Are you really going to allow two tiny dragon-shifters to best you? You’re months away from finishing your book. If you give up, it’s much more than me whining about taking care of twins.” He turned Melanie’s face toward his, forcing her to look him in the eye. “It’s even more than I will miss you and mourn you for the rest of my life, love. If you ever want your children to grow up in a world where humans might not be afraid of them, you need to live.”
For a second, she said nothing. Then Melanie drawled, “Lay it on thick, why don’t you.”
His dragon piped in. Good. Our human hasn’t lost her spark. She will live. She must live.
He pushed his dragon to the back of his mind to focus on his mate. “Grip my hand as hard as you like, but push with everything you have.”
His mate took a deep breath and then nodded first to him and then to the doctor. She was definitely tired. Energy-filled Melanie would’ve made a remark about him trying to push an orange out of his cock to see how that felt.
In about thirty seconds, Melanie’s contraction hit and she started screaming again. It took everything Tristan had to keep his dragon from snarling and taking over.
Sid said, “Good, good. I see the head.” The doctor looked up. “Do you need one contraction to rest or do you want to push harder and get the baby out?”
Melanie panted as the contraction ended. “A break. Please.”
The exhaustion in her voice went straight to his heart.
She’d been in labor for about thirty hours. Tristan hoped it would be over soon. His mate needed to rest.
He wiped her brow with a cool cloth and whispered, “Nearly there, love. Do you think the boy or the girl will come first?”
She glared at him, and he was glad to see a shadow of her normal spirit. She spat out, “I don’t fucking care which one. Just get it out of me.”
He grinned and she narrowed her eyes further at him a second before her next contraction hit. She yelled and Tristan did his best to comfort her. When it finally ended, she whispered, “I’m pushing on the next one or I won’t be able to do it.”
He nodded. “You can do it, my brave little human.”
She closed her eyes for about ninety seconds until the next contraction hit. Then she opened them as the doctor said, “Push!”
His mate gripped his hand as she screamed and after a few seconds, Sid smiled and looked up. “Your first child is a boy.”
The nurse at Sid’s side helped Sid before raising their baby so they could see his chubby little face.
Tristan had a son.
He was pink and tiny, and both the man and beast wanted nothing more than to hold him. But as the nurse nodded and took him away, he turned back to Melanie and kissed her. “Good job, my little mate. We have a son.”
Melanie looked happy despite her exhaustion. “I’m glad.”
Then another contraction hit and Sid said, “I know you’re tempted, but don’t push right now, Mel. I need to check the second baby’s position.”
Melanie gritted her teeth and clenched his hand. His dragon roared at the amount of pain she was in. Watching her suffer and not being able to do a damn thing about it tore apart both the man and the dragon.
Unlike with human children, dragon-shifter babies often died if the mother received any type of anesthetic, which ruled out both epidurals and C-sections. His human hadn’t had a choice but to deliver naturally or risk losing both of their children.
And given her personality, she hadn’t hesitated two seconds before agreeing to the natural birth despite the risk to her own health.
So far her blood pressure and toxin levels were within normal range, but that could change any moment.