“Finn!” Amie demanded.

“Whu?” I asked, as I had been asleep only seconds earlier and hadn’t managed to wake my brain entirely.

“I need you to wake up,” she told me. My brain worked on muscle memory, and since it wasn’t a muscle, it didn’t do a good job.

“You’re pregnant again?” I asked. I could hear her groaning, and it wasn’t a happy one. It was definitely an irritated one. It made me speed up the waking-up process.

“I’m still pregnant with the first one, at least a little longer,” she pointed out. It was true, I realized. It made my question a moment earlier look a little stupid.

“Are you okay?” I asked, almost entirely awake. I put my hand on her large belly out of habit, and as I did, I felt it harden and Amie whimpered. I was wide awake. “Amie?” The panic was clear in my voice.

“It’s okay, Finn. I think our pup is coming,” she told me.

“Now?” I asked.

“Yes, now. Why are you surprised? I am already a week past the due date!”

“Right. I knew this was coming. We have prepared for this,” I told her and tried to sound like I was in control of the situation. In my mind, I was trying to think of what we had planned to do. And I was drawing a blank. My brain had zero information in it; it was a miracle it still remembered how to keep me breathing.

“Wake my parents, I will mindlink Meadow and Matilda,” she told me.

“Right,” I said, getting out of bed and heading towards the door.

“Love, pants,” she told me. I stopped and looked down at my naked body.

“Right, they don’t need to see that,” I agreed. I heard Amie giggling from our bed. I threw on some pants and headed to our guest room. I knocked on the door and a moment later Ron opened the door, thankfully also wearing pants.

“Is it time?” he asked.

“Yes,” I said.

“I’ll be right there. Mindlink the healer,” I heard Amie’s mom call from the room.

“Will do!” I headed back to Amie; I didn’t want her to be alone. I mindlinked our healer, and Hugo said he would be right over with his colleague. I trusted Ron would mindlink Elder. He, Becky, and Mino had come along with Amie’s parents. As our second guest room was now a nursery, Elder and his family stayed in the pack house. Amie was sitting on the edge of the bed, wearing one of my t-shirts. “How are you holding up?” I asked as I walked up to her.

“I’m okay. Happy to finally get this over with,” she told me and leaned her head against me. I massaged her scalp with my fingers, and she sighed happily.

“Jake, Amie is in labor. I’m handing the pack off to you and Shelly for a couple of days,” I mindlinked Jake.

“Congratulations! We will stop by in a while,” he told me. There was a knock on the door, and Amie’s mother and my aunt walked in. My aunt had been put on mate-keeping duty by Amie. She was there to make sure I didn’t kill a healer or something like that. I huffed. I was an Alpha. I had my dignity and my self-constraint was top level.

An hour later, I had Hugo pinned against the wall.

“You will make the pain stop!” I growled at him as I felt my claws grow. My wolf and I were in agreement. If he couldn’t take away the pain our mate was feeling, he deserved to die. He was the healer; his sole purpose was to make people feel better. If he couldn’t do it, he was useless. A sharp pain radiated through me, and I yelped.

“You will let the nice healer go, and you will focus on your mate. Amie needs you,” my aunt told me as she twisted my ear.

“I will,” I promised.

“Grown-ass Alpha acting like this,” she muttered as she dragged me by the ear back to the bed where Amie’s mom was talking to Amie in a hushed voice. Guilt hit me for abandoning Amie to go after the healer. Part of me still thought he deserved it, but Amie was more important. When I got to Amie’s side, my aunt let go of my ear. I was grateful it was still attached to my head. Both Amie and her mom smiled at me, even though Amie’s looked a little more tense.