Rind.

Adotre shook his mate urgently in the large, fur-pile bed which they shared. Please wake up please wake up please -
"Mate?"
"I have to go outside."
Iorir pulled himself to a sitting position and rubbed at his eyes.
"What?"
"I need to go outside, Airu, please, let me out, let me go, please."
Iorir shook his head.
"Adotre, it's the middle of night. You can go out in the morning."
"No!"
Iorir blinked his eyes brightly at the desperation in his mate's voice.
"No, I need to go outside right now, mate, please, I - oh, no."
The last words were strained, pitiful-sounding, and suddenly Iorir felt the disorienting feeling of the bed around him growing wet. He leapt backwards immediately, away from the source of the dampness, and peered forward to see what was going on. Adotre was sitting, perched on the edge of the bed, his stomach distended and eyes bright and wide in the semi-darkness. He was trembling. He looked fearfully up at his mate.
"I'm sorry."
Understanding hit Iorir all at once.
"Adotre!"
"I'm sorry, Airu! I'm sorry!" the Layer put his hands up in defense, and Iorir calmed his voice immediately.
"No, little one, it's fine. I'm not mad at you." Iorir rounded the bed to come closer to his mate. He couldn't the half-smile that hit his face as he began to understand. "I'm not mad at all. It's your water, sweetheart. You're laying."
Adotre nodded vigorously.
"I'm sorry. I tried to go outside - "
Iorir frowned.
"You're not going outside. My cubs will not be born into a pile of leaves. Come, let's go to the cubbing den. We made a room for this, remember? I can carry you." Iorir cooed to his mate as he came closer. "I'll take you there. It's beautiful. And safe. It smells of the trees."
Adotre, sitting on the bed, continued to tremble. He looked frightened, and a little disoriented.
"Can we go right now?"
Iorir nodded, reaching out to gather up his little mate.
"Yes, we can go right now."
Adotre wriggled a little as he was lifted into the wolfe's arms.
"Airu? Iorir?"
"I'm here, little one."
"I'm scared."
Iorir kissed the side of his head.
"I know. But you're brave. And you'll be fine."

+++++

"Kellan?! KELLAN!! KUSKELLANAR!!!"
Gustin screamed out his mate's name as the next contraction hit. The healer, focused on her work, did not bother soothing him. That was work for the harried-looking Mellozsian, her new trainee, who stood just to Gustin's left and held his hand as they waited for the chew to kick in.
"Oh, FUCK that still hurts!" Gus groaned, panting as the pain subsided. Balefully, he turned his foggy gaze to the Melloz. "Where's my Kellan?"
The young trainee, sweat beading his forehead, patted Gus' shoulder.
"The driver's gone to find him. He'll be here soon."
Gus nodded and dropped his head back onto the makeshift pillow behind him.
"Is it coming out soon?" he asked the healer, his words slurring slightly. "I want it out now. But don't want Kellan to - he'll miss it. And Kellan can't miss it because then he won't know where it is."
The healer laughed a little at the garbled sentence.
"Don't worry about your mate, little one. The cub will come when it comes. Your job is just to listen to it. If the cub wants to wait for his appa, he will."
Gus felt the insidious tightness begin again.
"Fuck. Fuck. It's not going to wait, is it? It's not going to wait for Kuskellan. It's just going to - AUUUGGGGHHH FUCK THAT HURTSSS!!"
The healer winced and indicated her bag with her head.
"Tilo. Go. Get him some bark. Let him bite that. It will help."
Gus shook his head.
"No bark. No bark. Wolfes don't bark."
The healer nodded.
"I know, sweetheart."
The healer disappeared then, ducking down into the little tent she'd built around Gustin's spread legs, leaving the human alone with the Mellozsian. Gus winced as she poked him, but managed to focus enough to reach out and grab the young assistant's shirt to pull him closer.
"Listen to me. Listen."
The Mellozsian looked terrified.
"Listen!" Gus demanded.
"I'm listening!" he answered, quickly.
"The moon got me pregnant." Gus tried to focus his eyes on one thing, but found it impossible. He settled for glaring at a group of moving spots just above the Melloz's shoulder. "So it's HER who should be having this cub, not me! It's a mistake!" Gus shoved the young man away. "This is all a mistake!"
Suddenly, the healer was appearing, her face smiling, her hands messy.
"No, Gustin. It's not a mistake. A cub is a gift. And this one is an impatient gift, too. It doesn't look like your cub wants to wait for his appa to get here. Are you ready to push?"
Gus shook his head furiously and the healer shrugged.
"OK. On the count of three."

+++++

"AAAIIIRRRRUUU!"
"I'm here. I'm here, little one. Just one more push and it's over, alright? One more push and the egg is right out. Can you do one more for me?"
Adotre whimpered, but took a deep breath, gathered up his strength, and with every bit of energy he had left in him, pushed the last push that caused the egg to slip completely free and plop wetly into his father's hands.
Iorir stared at the thing in his hands for a moment, briefly fascinated and absolutely entranced by the life he held. The eggshell was thin, leathery, and in places almost transparent. There, the outline of a cub showed through.
His cub.
His cub with Adotre.
Iorir was in heaven.
Then the Layer whimpered desperately and lost his grip on consciousness all at once, collapsing into a boneless, furry pile in the middle of the pine needles, just inches away from his egg.
Iorir had never been prouder of his mate in his life.

Iorir checked his mate for bleeding and cleaned him up, moving him closer to the center of the room.
The center of the room.
Iorir knew what he had to do next.
The center of the room already had a pit dug in it - the result of hours of hard work, going inch by inch through the clay. The pit was just deep enough, and wide enough to be lined with pine needles, soft blankets, leaves, cotton fluff and anything else warm and soft that Adotre could get his hands on. Iorir crept over to the pit and gently, gently placed the egg in it.
A large part of him didn't want to let it go. But he had to, he knew. It was the only way for Layer eggs to survive. Iorir laid the egg in its incubation nest and covered it with two blankets. Then he and the sleeping Adotre curled up around the pit, and Iorir covered them both with a blanket.
They slept there, a little family, until daylight.

+++++