The day everyone expected has finally arrived six days later.
The morning—or what should have been a quiet mid-morning—shifted without warning.
Alex had been sitting in the sun-warmed courtyard, back supported by a mountain of furs Sally had painstakingly arranged, one hand resting on the enormous, tight round. The four cubs inside him had been unusually active since dawn, rolling and stretching with enough force that the swell shifted visibly under his loose tunic. His lower back throbbed in steady, deep pulses. His hips felt loose and unstable. The pressure low in his pelvis had become a constant, heavy ache that made every small movement feel like he was balancing on the edge of something inevitable.
Then the first real contraction hit.
