Free Conri by Kerryn Bryant

turning.
    “Darma what have we got?”
    “I don’t know yet dear. All I know is that Lina is in
more pain than she should be and is refusing to push. I think I see the head
but I can’t be sure; it doesn’t...” Darma cut herself off, and glanced at Dahne.
“It doesn’t look right.” She whispered.
    Sarai was being dressed in scrubs and gloves by Lilly
as Darma talked. Now she stepped up and checked on Lina. “Lina, I’m Sarai.”
    “I know.” Lina panted. “Save him.”
    “I have to find out what’s wrong first.”
    “He doesn’t... want... to come... out.” Lina gasped.
    Sarai prodded the woman and swore under her breath. “Lina
is this your first birth?”
    “No. Two girls, dead.”
    “What’s wrong Sarai?”
    Sarai looked at Darma, “Prolapsed uterus. We’ll have
to go in from above.” Sarai moved around to the head of the table. “I’m sorry
Lina we are going to have to operate. I can save him but... you may not have
any more children.”
    Lina growled, “I don’t care, just save him.”
    “Where are you taking her! ”
Dahne screamed around his extended teeth.
    “To surgery.”
    “NO! Deliver my son here.”
    “Take her!” Sarai demanded of Darma. She turned back
to Dahne, “I am the only one who can save your mate and your son. So SHUT THE
HELL UP or get out of my OR. I understand you’re scared but that is NOT helping
her. Stop screwing with me or they will both die!”
    Dahne whimpered and Sarai
glanced at Conri. He nodded once and she disappeared behind the operating
doors.

 
    *

 
    Sarai tossed her gloves into the dispenser as Lina
listened to Darma on how to nurse. Sarai smiled and exited through the double
doors.
    “My mate?” Dahne was
squatting on the floor, his head in his hands. He looked up when Sarai walked
out and Conri and Luke stepped up next to him. Core was holding Stella who was
crying softly. She had been in nursing school and had been taking her sweet
time with courses when they had decided to go ATV’ing that fateful day. So she knew what a prolapsed uterus could mean.
    Sarai smiled and Conri and Luke relaxed. “She is
learning to nurse.”
    Dahne stood up so fast Conri tensed again. “She is
well?”
    Sarai nodded, “She will need some time to recover but
you will not be able to have any more cubs. She will not survive another one.”
Dahne nodded.
    “And the young?”
    Sarai smiled wider. She held her hands in front of her
like she was holding a newborn baby just out of the womb. “He shifted, right in
my arms. I pulled him out of her stomach and he looked right up at me with the
brightest yellow eyes I have ever seen. He was perfect, ten fingers- ten toes
and then...” She sighed contently, “ he was abruptly covered
in the softest white fur I have ever felt.” She looked up at Dahne, “Then he
was a human baby again, like it had never happened.”
    Dahne’s mouth fell open and Conri slapped him on the
back. “A true Alpha you got there. How many males can say that of their sons?”
Right before Sarai’s eyes the most stoic of males broke down into tears. He
sobbed for a total of ten seconds before he wiped his face and headed towards
the double doors. Before he entered he turned back to Sarai.
    “My deepest thanks Mi ’ Lady.”
He dropped fully to one knee, head bowed and all and then was on his feet and
through the doors before Sarai could react.
    Stella gasped, Core covered her mouth, Luke looked
away but Conri met here stare.
    “What was that?”
    “He showed you respect for saving his mate and his
cub.”
    “I’m not buying it.” Sarai ripped off her scrubs and
tossed them into a sanitation bin. Lilly stepped forward from the other side of
the room, Sarai had not seen her a moment ago; that female was as stealthy as a
single shadow on a cloudy night. Sarai pointed a finger at Conri, opened her
mouth and then shut it. When she spoke her voice was a whisper and her teeth
clenched. “I have a bone to pick with you. But I am not