The Rise of the Alpha

(Third Person POV) On a cool, crisp night in the land of Nerovia, the pregnant luna Lavinia Cambridge of the River Falls Pack had just felt her first contraction. At long, long last, it was finally go time! She woke her sleeping alpha, the ever-doting, well-respected, wisdom-filled Mark Cambridge, and they sprang into immediate action, grabbing their already-packed duffle bags and rushing away from the comfort of home headed for hospital to welcome their baby – their one and only child – into the world. For years since Mark's father, the late Alpha Obadiah Cambridge, handed him the title and stepped down together with his wife, Lucy, due to the pair getting older and growing more tired by the day, Mark and Lavinia had had a rather difficult time trying to conceive a child. The pack exercised great patience year after year in wait for their future alpha or luna to be born, and the Cambridges were on the cusp of throwing in the towel altogether. Thankfully, though, the stars aligned somehow...someway...and thus, their long-awaited child was at last conceived. Word of the luna's labor spread like wildfire throughout the pack, and excitement abounded in the hearts of everyone! The pack came together at once to begin celebrating. They popped open champagne bottles and danced in the Commonplace (which is exactly what it sounds like – a common place for people to gather). Men set up tents under the illuminating light of the beautiful moon, women sang whatever songs sporadically popped into their heads, and children ran amok with glee. The merriment in the atmosphere was undeniable, for the whole of River Falls would soon get to meet their future leader…and they were simply over the moon about it! ***** (hours later, in the delivery room) "Breathe, Luna. Like we practiced, remember?" the sympathetic nurse gently urged the laboring Lavinia. "Trust me, it really does help-" "Ugh! I'm trying, Rosie, but it's so effing difficult to manage right now!" snapped the luna, fresh tears welling up in her eyes as she spoke. "How the hell am I still feeling these contractions?! What in goddess's name happened with that epidural?!" "I'm not really sure, ma'am," Rosie sighed, "but my guess is that the needle might've hit just barely off-center. It happens sometimes." Sweet, caring Rose was trying to redirect her luna's fixation on the pain to the breathing technique the latter had been taught upon her arrival hours ago, but to seemingly no avail. "I can administer some pain medications via your IV, but there's not much else I can do for you here." "I don't know how much more of this pain I can take! I mean, look at me! I can hardly lift my leg!" Lavinia f.ired right back, attempting and failing to raise her right leg as the words came out. That poor leg of hers was abnormally and painfully swollen with an excess of fluid, and when Rose touched the corresponding foot, Lavinia felt nothing. A few tense, dragging minutes later, another contraction hit her. "Oooh! Where is my husband?! Mark! I need you!" she yelled, frustrated and with tears now spilling over her tired eyes. "Alpha Mark should be back momentarily, ma'am," Rose tried to console the painstricken luna, 'tried' being the key word there. "He's just refilling his coffee and-" "I'm right here, my love," interrupted Mark as he rushed into the room, then he placed his piping-hot cup on the bedside table and took his luna's hand into his. He saw the pain etched clearly across her features, and it tugged roughly at his heartstrings, making his whimpering wolf, Magnus, pace about with fret in his mind. Trying to disregard the animal within, Mark smiled down at the flushed beauty lying in the bed then slowly pressed his forehead to hers, and rather quickly, the woman calmed a smidge and the pair's breathing synced. "You are so beautiful, my love," he spoke softly to her, bringing a hand to her cheek to gently caress it. "Oh, how I love you so." "I love you, too, my alpha," the luna cooed in return, her wolf, Jenna, purring in the presence of its beloved mate. A couple of minutes later, another god-forsaken contraction hit the laboring luna, making her grimace and push her movable foot hard against the footrail. "Ughhh! Damn it all to Hell!" she cursed the pain, an atypical action on her part, but one to be expected nonetheless. The busy nurse, Rose, who had been moseying about the room doing this thing and that one as quietly as a field mouse roams the woods, checked the woman's cervix again. "You're nearly in the home stretch, madam," she announced, but she didn't get to finish her statement given the fact that Mark interrupted her. "Isn't there anything more you can do for her pain?" he inquired. "The meds clearly aren't enough." "I'm sorry, Alpha, but that's all I can do considering how progressed she is," she admitted with a sigh, "but the good news is that hopefully it won't be too much longer now." ***** (a couple of hours later) With the borderline-unbearable pains of the luna's contractions growing even more intense and closer together, the only thing that Mark could manage to do was pace dully-colored room and think...pace and think...pace and think…until, at long last, Rose checked the luna over and declared that the baby was crowning, nearly ready to be birthed into the world. "Alright, Luna, you're just barely crowing now, so when you feel your next contraction, I need you to push for me, okay?" she instructed. A slightly-panting, highly-uncomfortable Lavinia replied with a nod then fell backward, bringing her fingertips to her temples to massage them as her head hit the pillow. She'd had enough of feeling like she'd been running a marathon after being smashed by a semi-truck, swearing to the heavens that if her baby didn't hurry up and exit willingly, she'd go in after it and drag it out herself. Tender, caring Mark grabbed a tissue and dabbed it lightly across his wife's brow, collecting the tiny yet visible beads of perspiration with each gentle dab. "You've done wonderfully, Love ... and it's almost over," he praised with genuine sincerity, then he brought the hand that he was holding up to his lips and kissed the top of it. All too soon, another excrutiating contraction hit Lavinia, prompting the nurse to get into position at the foot of the bed. Lavinia ignored everything in the room except for her husband and the widespread pain actively pulsating through her body, squeezing her eyes shut and gritting her teeth as she made an attempt to push the life from within her womb. Her labored breathing and obvious discomfort had Mark's wolf howling yet again, most eager to surface and comfort his hurting mate; each grimace yanked his poor heart in the most vicious of ways! "Good, Luna! Now, I need you to push again, okay?" Rose instructed the woman, the latter of whom complied straightaway, mumble-spewing every obscenity under the sun all the while. Mark broke away from the scene long enough to snag another tissue and wipe Lavinia's forehead again, then a short minute and a half later, another contraction struck, eliciting that familiar grimace and those heartbreaking cries from the luna yet again. Ever ready was remarkable Rose! "I need you to push again, okay?" she instructed with urgency, watching closely the happenings in the luna's southern region. "I swear to you, Rosie ... that good-for-nothing anesthesiologist has administered his last-ever epidural in this entire land, you hear me?! He'll be out of his job before I leave this place!" Lavinia snapped at the innocent nurse, the latter of whom looked up just long enough to offer a sad, apologetic half-smile in return. "I mean it, Rose! I've been in excruciating pain with every f*cking contraction I've had! This is ridiculous!" "I'm so, so deeply sorry, Luna...," sweet Rose tried to console the worked-up woman. "Truly, if there were anything I could possibly do right now, I undoubtedly would." "Get a witch in here or something then!" Lavinia bit out through gritted teeth, trying her best to suppress the aggravated and equally-pained wolf within her Rose, however, dared shake her head in initial response. "You know I can't do that, Luna," she replied, her tone expressing her deepest sympathy toward the laboring woman and the situation in general. "Magic mustn't be used during the labor process. It has the ability to cause irreversible damage to the child, and not only that-" "Well, something's gotta give, damn it! I can't take it anymore!" wailed the luna, squeezing the life out of her poor husband's hand. Mark is an exceptional individual, of course, the proof of such being that he had yet to let up on speaking his soothing sentiments to Lavinia via mindlink. He was prepared to take the brunt of any and all of the pain that she could possibly pass on to him via the squeezing to death of his hand, and besides, even if she ended up breaking it, it would heal rather quickly. The doctor slipped in and took his position, then a minute or so later, another contraction came. "Push, Luna! Push!" commanded Rose with even more urgency this time, watching the head of the baby as it jutted forward the slightest bit more. "It's almost here! Push! Push! Push!" As the commands flew from her lips, a knock sounded at the door, and another nurse barreled in immediately afterward. Rose and this other nurse, Gracie, grabbed hold of the luna's legs to help move the process forward, and several mighty pushes later, the birth was c.omplete. "She's here, Ms. Lavinia, and she's oh so beautiful," Rose announced with pride, wiping the after-birth mess away from the oddly-silent baby cradled in her arms. Tears of joy (at first) began to slide down the luna's heated cheeks, but it didn't take even a millisecond for her to realize that something wasn't right at all. "Wait ... why is she not crying?" she demanded to know, attempting to sit upright and catch a glimpse of her terrifyingly-quiet newborn.