17.

Chapter Seventeen

Luhan’s water breaks at 2 in the morning.

It jolts him from a semi-peaceful sleep, the fluid seeping all over his bed and clothes. A stab of pain pierces his side and he cries out. Immediately, Baekhyun rises from the bed next to him, taking one glance at Luhan’s drenched sheets and pained expression before running to get Yixing. They both return moments later, Yixing shouting directions that Luhan can’t hear over the thrumming in his ears. They pain is so sharp and biting that Luhan’s vision dims a bit at the edges, his consciousness beginning to fade.

“Luhan!” the younger can see Baekhyun saying, although his voice is faint, as if the elder was far away, “Luhan, can you hear me?”

Underneath him, Luhan can feel someone moving his legs and stomach, leaning him onto his side. Baekhyun leaves his vision and there’s a prick on his back. Slowly, as everything comes back into focus, Luhan begins to the voices of Baekhyun and Yixing and the sounds of the machines in the room beeping and whirring.

“Luhannie? Can you hear me now?” Baekhyun asks, brushing back the younger’s bangs.

“Yeah,” Luhan manages to croak, “I’m here.”

The elder sighs in relief, “That’s good, Yixing was spouting about you going into shock and surgery and other scary stuff. You had me scared there, kid.”

Luhan smiles weakly, wincing as stab of pain washed through him, although much more softer than before, “Sorry, hyung.”

“It’s alright, just hang in there. Yixing administered some pain medication so that you won’t do...whatever that just was again. I also just sent someone for mom and Kai, but they’re both on rotations right now...so it might just be me and you, Lu,” Baekhyun smiles, but it looks anxious and worried, just like Luhan knows he is.

“I’m okay, hyung. I can do this,” the younger nods and raises a shaking fist for Baekhyun to bump.

Baekhyun obliges him and chuckles, dragging a chair over and settling next to the bed, “Make sure to tell me when the next contraction comes, I’m supposed to time them so Yixing can know when it’s time.”

Luhan hums, saying the word, “Contraction” each time he feels one. They first start as 10-15 minutes apart, but shorten as the hour ticks away. His aunt arrives when the contractions have shortened to 3 minutes apart and Yixing shortly follows, wearing gloves and rolling in a standard hospital bassinet.

“You’re almost ready, Lu. Let’s do this!” Yixing says cheerfully, before turning to his aunt, “Beta Sooyeon, if you’d be so kind to wash your hands, throw on a scrub and some gloves, you can be the baby-catcher,” his aunt nods and disappears through the door after kissing Luhan on the forehead.

“Okay, Lu, when your contractions are less than a minute apart, I’m going to tell you to push. When I do, I want you to give it your all, every inch of your being. I want you to do that each time I tell you to push, okay?” Yixing puts a thumb up in question and Luhan hums.

A few minutes of speeding contractions later, Sooyeon is back and scrubbed and Yixing tells Luhan to push. Like he promised, Luhan gives it all, pushing every muscle towards his stomach.

“Ah, lovely, I’m seeing a head, some shoulders and elbows...one more push should do it, Lu. Another just like that last one.” Yixing calls.

Luhan pushes again and then promptly deflates, exhausted, when Yixing yells, “And there...he! is!”

“A boy?” Luhan manages to croak, looking toward to Baekhyun, who looks positively enamoured.

“Yeah, Lu, a little boy. He’s so--” Baekhyun is suddenly drowned out by the baby’s shrill cries, “Loud?”  

The younger manages to chuckle softly, feeling drained. His eyes flutter shut, too heavy to hold up.

“Luhan!”

~

“Alpha!” Jongdae calls, stirring Kai out of his guarding daze.

Immediately, Kai shifts, meeting him halfway, “What is going on?”

“At the riverbanks, their crossing and heading for the centre. It was an ambush, a few were running border and a group of eight crossed. One fatality for them, one for us.”

Kai’s stomach drops and he gulps, trying to drown the panic rising in his stomach, “Okay, go down to all of the checkpoints, take one or two fighters and convene at the pack centre. Make sure that no one else crosses into this territory.”

“Yes, Alpha,” is all the response Kai needs before he’s shifting, running at top speed to toward the pack centre.

Once he reaches the tree break, Kai howls, loud and clear. It says one thing to all of the pack: intruders. Up ahead, he can smell the unfamiliar scent of foreign wolves, as well as blood, and Kai sprints faster, skidding into the scene and latching onto an enemy wolf, taking him out almost instantly. After dropping the body, Kai assesses the scene in front of him: six foreign wolves and three of this pack’s. One is Sooyeon and the other is Yifan, both of them facing off two wolves, leaving Kai to cover the last two.

Both wolves dart for him and Kai stands still, waiting until the faster one reaches him and then crashes with him head on, also bulldozing the second over. The first wolf and Kai grapple, but Kai quickly gets the upper hand, ripping into the other’s throat and then turns to face the second wolf. They circle around for a few moments until Kai launches forward, aiming for wolf’s injured arm. He can feel the wolf’s teeth snagging on his ear, but ignores it, digging his claws onto the wolf’s chest until a crack sounds. The wolf slumps to the ground, dead, and Kai turns back to his packmates, more reinforcements have arrived are making quick work of the other four wolves.

A distress howl is heard shortly after and Kai barks, throwing his snout toward the west and his packmates quickly fall into line, blocking the entrance of the park centre where the buildings turn into homes.

Within a few minutes, a larger group of at least a dozen breaks from the treeline. They run in point, a leader clearly outlined by standing the front. Kai also steps forward, growling and challenging the other leader. The head alpha howls once and kicks at the ground in front of him, beckoning the leader to a duel.

The wolf in him preens when the other leader struts forward, clearly smelling a strong beta and not an alpha. Kai growls again, a warning before he lunges, tackling the beta in one go. Beta, the wolf may be, he is strong and doesn’t give up easily, clawing down Kai’s side and reopening old wounds. The young alpha pays the pain no mind, more concerned with trying to get at the other wolf’s throat. With another rake down open wounds, the beta manages to flip Kai over, getting the upper hand for a moment until Kai uses his greater weight against the beta and pins him down again. His hold is unstable and Kai struggles to get the clean shot at the beta’s neck. Instead, Kai bites down onto the beta’s flank causing enough pain for the other to temporarily slow down. This gives Kai a chance at the beta’s throat, and he goes for it, putting all of his power behind it, quickly snapping the beta’s neck. Instantly, the other wolf goes slack in Kai’s grip, hanging limply as the alpha drags the body to the beta’s pack.

He manages to shift and stands in front of the pack, their dead leader at his feet.

“Since I have killed your leader, I am your alpha now. Stand down or die in battle.” Kai says, standing tall, “And after you have fought, there will be no place for you in my pack or anywhere else, for that matter.”

There is a moment of silence and stillness, only interrupted by the movement of the first wolves bowing. They drop to the ground, baring their necks in submission. The first few wolves have a domino effect on the rest, until they all are kneeling, necks stretched out to Kai. Even behind him, Kai’s pack bows and his wolf ripples with pride. He is the head alpha.

~

Luhan’s eyes flutter under the harsh light in front of his eyes and open to see Yixing standing above him, eyes worried.

“Luhan? Can you hear me?” he asks, loudly, moving the flashlight around.

“Yes, I can. What happened?” Luhan asks dazedly.

“You passed out. It’s only a been about 30 minutes since you gave birth,” the healer answers, “How do you feel? Any dizziness? Shortness of breath?”

“No, no, none of that. Where is my baby? I want to see him,” Luhan demands, blinking against the light in Yixing’s hand.

The healer clicks the light off, pushing over the bassinet Luhan had seen before. Through the glass, he could see a little bundle, all pink, white, blue, and wrinkly. The sight stops Luhan’s breath in his chest.

“C-Can I hold him?” Luhan near whispers.

“Of course, you need to have skin-to-skin contact shortly after birth, anyway,” Yixing carefully lifts him out of the bassinet, unraveling the blanket and then pulling back Luhan’s gown so he could place the baby on his chest. As soon as his head touches Luhan’s chest, he feels complete. More complete than he felt when the baby pressed around in his stomach or when he first saw him on the ultrasound, more than he has felt in his entire life.

“Tae-oh,” Luhan says after a few moments of silence.

“The greatest,” Yixing replies, an odd smile on his face, “I knew it.”

At this, the younger male frowns, “What do you--” he’s cut off by Baekhyun and Sooyeon who rush in, expressions confused and troubled.

“You can feel it, can’t you?” Yixing says they enter, “His power, it’s so strong already.”

“Oh bloody hell,” Baekhyun says, looking wide-eyed at Tae-oh, “Holy fu--”

“What?” Luhan says worriedly, clutching Tae-oh, “Is he okay? What’s going on?”

“Nothing has happened, Luhan,” Yixing chuckles weakly, “Just nothing short of a miracle, that’s all.”

Luhan, although less scared, is even more confused by his statement, “I’m so confused, what in the hell are you guys all talking about? What miracle?”

“Luhan,” Sooyeon begins, voice b with disbelief, “The baby-- he’s an alpha. One of the most powerful I’ve seen in a long time.”