CHAPTER 23

9 months later...

"Hey, honey." I looked from my book as Nick entered the nursery.

"Hey, baby." He leaned down and kissed me then sat on the chair in front of me. "How was the meeting?"

"Exhausting. Goldstar Alpha wouldn't stop arguing with Whitestone Alpha. I almost tore their heads off. How did you handle them back when you were active?" I chuckled.

"Well, I kinda didn't have to. Everyone knew not to mess with me or try my patience. But with you, they're still trying to see if they can get you to crack under the pressure. You just gotta show them exactly who's in charge and that you're also not to be messed with." I rubbed my very hugely pregnant stomach as I spoke trying to soothe the violent kicks that the baby was making.

"Mm... thanks sweetie. So how's our little wolf doing?" He asked with a smile. His face always lights up when we talk about the baby.

"Fine, I think. Been kicking really hard a lot recently. Kinda hurts sometimes but we're both okay. I think it's because I'm around the due date." He nodded then knelt down in front of me, placing his hands on my stomach.

"Hey, don't be kicking so hard. You hurt your mommy a lot when you do that. You know your mom and I can't wait to see you. We wish you'd come soon so we can spoil you with all the love and kisses we want." I placed my hands on top of his and smiled as he continued to speak to our baby.

"So have you heard from Rayla and Antonio? They were supposed to get here yesterday." I asked as Nick helped me out of the rocking chair.

"Yeah, their flight's been delayed because it's the holidays. So they said, they might come tomorrow."

"I still don't get why they refused to come with the family jet."

"I don't get it either. They said they don't wanna impose since there could be a possibility where we would need the jet at the same time and what would we do then."

"They do realize we have three jets, right?"

"Four? I thought we had only two. The company's and the royal family's."

"Technically, they were six but I gave one each to Kara and Korra and one to Nicki, remember?"

"Wow."

"Yeah. So how long until your meeting with the elders about the new packs?"

"It's right now actually. Alec just sent me a text that they're in."

"Well then, what are you waiting for? Go, you shouldn't be late. And before you ask, I'll be with Rae. Going to her room right now."

"Alright, then I'll leave you there before I go for the meeting. I think I can spare two minutes." I sighed but nodded. He escorted me to Rae's room then gave me a peck before leaving for the meeting.

It was evening now and Nick was still in the meeting so I was in our room with Korra keeping me company.

"So how's Liam?" I asked in a teasing tone. Liam is Korra's mate. He's the Beta of the Malraux pack. They met at Nick's coronation which was a month after our wedding. Kara's already met hers too. Jordan Kyle, Alpha of Santa Fe pack in Mexico.

"He's fine. He's just been too busy of late. They've been dealing with a territory issue with the neighboring packs."

"Yeah, Nick told me about that. Elder Caius is supposed to be helping, isn't he?"

"Oh he is. It's the other packs who refuse to co-operate."

"I seriously wish I wasn't out of commission."

"Well, then you should have gotten yourself pregnant." I playfully glared at her since I knew she was kidding. I frowned a bit when a bit of pain went through my abdomen. "You okay?"

"Yeah. I'm okay." We continued to chat. As we spoke, shots of pain went through my abdomen, each more painful and longer than the previous one. Korra noticed me wincing.

"Kiara, you're not okay. You're having contractions. We gotta get you to the infirmary."

"No, no. I'm okay. They're probably just false contractions. Come on, help me up. Let's go to Rae's room." We left to Rae's room. Korra and Rae were talking when I let out a cry of pain.

"Kiara, what's wrong?" Korra asked. I cried out again before I felt something trickle down my leg.

"Kiara, your water just broke. We gotta get you to the hospital." Raelynn said. Just then, Elissa and Carissa entered.

"We can teleport you guys to car to make things faster but unfortunately we can't teleport her straight to the hospital. Wouldn't wanna create suspicion or reveal our existence to the humans there." Elissa said.

"Auriana felt it." Rissa said answering our unanswered question of how they knew. I let out another cry of pain, bringing the attention back to me.

"Ok, then one of you will have to get the bag from my room and bring it to the hospital and call Nick to meet us there." I said while panting for breath.

"I'll do it." Korra said. I nodded to thank her and nodded to Ellie and Rissa to go ahead. They snapped their fingers and soon Rae, Ellie, Rissa and I were seated in the car with Rissa in the driver's seat, Ellie in the front seat and Rae and me in the backseat. As we drove to the hospital, Rae called the doctor so when we got there, they were ready for us. I was immediately taken to the delivery room since, according to the doctor, I was almost fully dilated.

"Where the hell is Nick? He's supposed to be here." I said through gritted teeth.

"He's on his way." Rae said.

Nick's P.O.V

I was in the middle of my last meeting for the day when I felt my phone vibrating in my pocket. I took it out and saw it was Korra calling. I excused myself and answered the call.

Me: Yeah, hey. I'm still in a meeting so could you call back?

Korra: Yeah, not possible. Rae, Ellie and Rissa just took Kiara to the hospital.

Me: What? Why? What happened?

Korra: Her water broke. The baby's coming. And you need to leave that meeting right now and go to the hospital if you want to be there when your child is born.

Me: Yeah, I'm on my way. I'll be there soon.

I hung up and turned to the Wolf elders. "I'm sorry but I have to go. Could we please reschedule this meeting for another time?" I said.

"Of course, Your Majesty. We'll continue this another time. Go be with Her Majesty. You should be there when the prince or princess is born." Chief Elder Rayna said. I smiled my thanks and headed out of the meeting room with Alec following me. We rushed to the garage and drove quickly to the hospital. On the way, I called mom and dad and told them Kiara was in labor while Alec called Nicki and informed her also. Nicki gave birth to my niece a month ago. Minutes later, we arrived at the hospital and I was immediately directed to where Kiara was.

Kara's P.O.V

I was in the bathroom showering when I heard my phone ringing in the room.

"Jordan, could you check who that is for me?" I yelled to my mate.

"It's your sister, Korra."

"Could you answer and find out why she's calling."

"Sure thing, babe." I washed the shampoo and soap out of my hair and off my body then dried myself with the towel before stepping out of the bathroom, dressed in a nightie and drying my hair. Jordan hung up the call with a grin as I walked up to him

"Hey, what did she say? What's got you all smiles?"

"Get dressed. I'm gonna call Armando to get the jet ready." Jordan said, throwing on a t-shirt and a pair of black jeans.

"Why, what's up? It's almost midnight. Won't he be asleep by now?"

"You'll have to if you wanna meet your niece or nephew when he/she is born. Korra said Kiara went into labor 3 hours ago. And no, Armando's on patrol tonight."

"Are you serious? Oh my god. Why didn't they call me earlier?" I squealed going into the closet.

"I don't know. Just get dressed." I smiled a bit at how excited Jordan was. He met Kiara only months ago and they hit off immediately. I got dressed and grabbed my boots and put them on before going out of the closet.

"Since we're going now, we might as well take the bags we packed for our stay for the Christmas at the castle." I said.

"Way ahead of you, honey. Come on, Armando says the jet's ready." I squealed in excitement, making Jordan chuckle, as we went out.

Kiara's P.O.V

"I can't, I can't do this." I said, out of breath. I had been pushing for almost an hour and I just couldn't take the pain anymore.

"Just one more big push, Your Majesty." The doctor, Alexia said.

"No, I can't. I can't." I said, shaking my head.

"Yes you can, baby. Yes you can. Just think, one more push and we'll be able to see our beautiful baby. We'll be able to show him or her the world, shower him or her kisses and love. The baby's gonna be spoiled because of our love. You want that, don't you baby? All you gotta do is push one last time and we'll be able to hold our baby in our arms." Nick said from beside me, stroking my wet hair. I nodded and pushed one more time. Then we heard a baby's cry. I fell back to the bed, exhausted but happy. Nick smiled down at me and kissed the side of my head. I looked at him through tired eyes and smiled back.

"Congratulations, Your Majesties. It's a boy, a prince." Alexia said. Nick let out a breathy laugh and grinned widely as Alexia handed him the baby. I gave a weak smile in return. I could feel myself getting weaker and weaker.

"Doctor, the bleeding won't stop. She's hemorrhaging. " I heard a nurse say. My eyes began to flutter closed.

"What? That's not supposed to be happening." I heard Alexia say just before I slipped into unconsciousness.

Nick's P.O.V

I was staring down at my son happily, he was so beautiful, just like his mother, when I heard the EKG machine beeping rapidly.

""Doctor, the bleeding won't stop. She's hemorrhaging. " I heard a nurse say. My head snapped up to look at Kiara to see her eyes fluttering to close.

""What? That's not supposed to be happening." Alexia said.

"Well, it's happening, we have to do something. She's about to go into shock." The same nurse said. My son began to cry as if sensing what was going on. A nurse came and took him from me so I could go to Kiara's side.

"Alexia, what's happening? Why's her heartbeat so fast? And why do I smell a lot of her blood. Her healing should have kicked in by now." I asked, worried.

"She's hemorrhaging, Your Majesty. For some reason, her healing has been slowed down. You need to step out so we can get to work. We need to stabilize her, if not we might lose her." Alexia said. The nurses pushed me aside and outside the room. I turned to face our family who were waiting.

"Nick, what's happening? We can hear Kiara's erratic heartbeat from here." Rae asked.

"She started hemorrhaging. Something's slowed her healing." I replied her.

"Oh my god, no." Korra and Kara gasped, covering their mouths.

"They're trying to stabilize her." I said.

"This isn't a normal medical problem. Someone's doing this with magic." Elissa said.

"What?" Kara said.

"It's someone on the inside. We can counter her attack and stop her fortunately even from here. She's an amateur." Carissa said. She and Elissa nodded at each other and joined hands then began chanting under their breath. I sat down and ran my hand through my hair with worry. Alec sat beside me and patted my back.

"She's gonna be ok, man. She's strong. She'll pull through." He said, to comfort me. I nodded in appreciation for his efforts and smiled weakly and sadly.

After about an hour of waiting and worrying, Alexia came out of the room with a smile of relief on her face.

"She's ok. We were able to stabilize her and stop the hemorrhaging. And also, we manage to apprehend the one who was magically causing the hemorrhaging." She said. We all let out breaths of relief.

"Wait, how did you know it was magically induced and who it was?" Carissa asked.

"Well, I could feel the dark magic in play while I was trying to stabilize Her Majesty. So after successfully doing that, I fished out the witch. Of course, I wouldn't have been able to do that without Lady Carissa and Lady Elissa's help."

"I'm confused. How did you even feel the magic in the first place? I thought only witches could do that." Rae said.

"That's because she is one." Elissa said, realization evident in her voice.

"What?" Kara, Korra, Alec, Rae and I said.

"She's a werewolf/witch hybrid like Ellie, Auriana and me." Rissa added. Alexia nodded in confirmation.

"The only difference is that I can't fully access all my witch abilities. Only the part which allows me to heal others and also, of course, feel magic anywhere."

"Wow, that's interesting."

"Yes, anyway, Your Majesty. You can go to her room and see her now. She should be waking up any moment from now. She's in 273B. I'll have your son brought to you soon." Alexia said then left.

"A son? Nick, congratulations." Kara and Korra said. They hugged me tightly. Alec and Rae followed also congratulating me before Korra and Kara's mates also congratulated me. I then left to Kiara's room and entered just in time to see her wake up.

"Hi." She said softly.

"Hey. You gave us quite the scare there." I said, sitting in the chair by her bed. She chuckled and sat up slowly.

"Not entirely my fault. But don't worry, I'm not going anywhere anytime soon. I plan on sticking around for you and our son for a very long time. Speaking of, where is he? How is he?" I chuckled and took her hand in mine and kissed it.

"He's perfect and beautiful just like you. They're bringing him now." As if on cue, one of the nurses entered, carrying our son. Kiara gasped softly as the nurse placed him in her arms.

"Your Majesties." She bowed slightly.

"Thank you, Melissa. Could you call in our family?"

"Of course, Your Majesty." Melissa left the room then.

"What should we name him?" Kiara asked, staring down at the baby.

"I was thinking, Alejandro."

"Prince Alejandro Maximino Mendez." The baby opened his eyes then as though he had heard his name being called and smiled.

"That's a beautiful name, honey." I said. Then a knock sounded, we turned to see our family entering, including my parents and Nicki.

"Hi."

"Hey guys. Rayla, Antonio. You made it." Kiara said.

"Yeah, I sent the jet for them. So they could get here earlier." I told her.

"So, what's our little prince's name?" Kara asked.

"Everyone, meet Alejandro Maximino Mendez." I replied. Everyone cooed and awed at the baby. They all took turns in holding Alejandro before he was handed back to Kiara.

"Sorry guys, but Kiara needs to rest and so does our son." I said.

"Oh of course. We'll see you later tonight for the party, right?" Nicki said.

"Yeah, Alexa said she's all cleared to come home. So we'll be home in time for the party." I replied.

"In the meantime, Kara, Korra, think you can handle setting the party up?" Kiara asked teasingly.

"Is that even a question?" Korra said.

"I'm gonna pretend you didn't just ask us that. We'll see you at the party." Kara said, before everyone left. I took a seat beside the bed Kiara was on and watched as our son slept in her arms. He took him from her arms and laid him in the crib which had been placed in the room.

"Sleep, my love. Rest up. I'll wake you when it's time to go home."

"Will you join me?" I nodded and settled into the bed with me. She sighed in content and closed her eyes to sleep snuggling into my arms.

Kiara's P.O.V

Everyone looked to be enjoying themselves at the Christmas party. We had invited all the packs and they all seemed to be getting along. Even Miranda was here with Garret and Gia and some members of their pack. Miranda is their alpha and Garret her Beta. We had announced the birth of the prince to everyone and they had all fawned all over him. Soon the party came to an end. Everyone except the members of our family went back to their homes and packs. Some had to stay the night in the hotels around and some in the castle since we had enough rooms. Nick and I retreated to our room and placed Alejandro, who had already fallen asleep, in his crib in the nursery which was near our room and turned on the baby monitor.

"Goodnight, my prince." I said, stroking his cheek. I placed a kissed on his forehead before Nick and I finally climbed into our bed and fell asleep.

I woke 4 hours later to the sound of my son crying. I felt Nick start to get up from the bed.

"Hey, it's okay. I got it." I said.

"Are you sure, honey?" He said, his voice thick with sleep.

"Yeah. Just go back to sleep." I got up and went to check up on Alejandro. I checked his diaper and then checked if he was having any discomfort and when I saw none, I figured he was hungry. I fed him and burped him which got him to calm down but he didn't fall right back to sleep. I sat in the rocking chair and rocked back and forth to get him back to sleep. I started humming a lullaby and began to sing it to lull him to sleep.

'Where the north wind meets the sea

There's a river full of memory

Sleep, my darling, safe and sound

For in this river all is found

In her waters, deep and true

Lie the answers and a path for you

Dive down deep into her sound

But not too far or you'll be drowned.

Yes, she will sing to those who'll hear

And in her song, all magic flows

But can you brave what you most fear

Can you face what the river knows?

'Where the north wind meets the sea

There's a mother full of memory

Come, my darling, homeward bound

When all is lost, then all is found

I looked down and smiled at my son sleeping. I got up gently and placed him back in his crib. I then stood next to the window which overlooked one of the outside gardens, wrapping my night robe tighter around my body and hugged myself, remembering when mom used to sing that same lullaby to my sisters and me and smiling. A pair of arms hugged me from behind and pulled me into their body. I sighed and leaned into the body of my mate. He leaned down and put his chin in the crook of my neck.

"Hey, why aren't you back in bed yet?" He whispered.

"I just put him down. I was going to come back in a minute."

"Well, why don't you come back now?"

"Yeah, let's go." We went back to bed, our lives full and complete, with our son here now.