The Bear's Surrogate: A Paranormal Pregnancy Romance (14 page)

Rachel looked at Freyja quizzically and closed her eyes.  She concentrated hard to bring her body back to its natural shape.  She moaned in pain as she felt her bones and organs shift back into their usual places and the transformation ended with her prostrate at Freyja’s feet.

“Now let’s get up.  The labor should feel more natural now,” she said as she helped the mortal woman to her feet.  “Let’s walk around to get that baby moving, alright?”

Rachel took Freyja’s arm and walked around.  Each contraction came closer together over the hours they paced the cavern.

Fenrir fed the loopy Valemon water to bring him out of his daze.  “This isn’t going to work,” he said gruffly.  “Are there any fresh kills around?”

“The wolves kept bringing me organ meat from whatever they brought down, I don’t know where they kept the rest of the animal,” Rachel said between contractions. 

Fenrir sniffed the air.  “Alright, I found them.  I’ll be back.  Keep his ass in that chair.” He ghosted off into the darkness.

“Like I have enough on my plate right now,” Freyja snapped after him.  “That good for nothing piece of...” She was interrupted as Rachel doubled over as a contraction that had been stronger than the rest took hold. 

“I feel like I have to go to the bathroom,” the nude woman gasped.  Freyja nodded and guided her to the bed.

“I think it’s time for this little one to finally make an appearance,” Freyja announced. 

“Wha?” Valemon stuttered as he tried to rise from his chair. 

“You stay there,” Freyja said as she placed an invisible weight on him to keep him stationary.

“Did he try to get up?” Fenrir asked as he came in with a deer haunch over his massive shoulder.  Fenrir’s seven foot six inch size put Valemon to shame.

“Yeah.  All because I said the baby is about to make an appearance,”  Freyja sighed.  “Get that into him somehow, and give him more water.  We really don’t have time for him to be like this.”

“Well, why don’t you do something about it?” Fenrir sneered at her.  “You know, use all those god powers you have.  Ones that I don’t have because I happened to be bound with a magic chain to a damn tree.”

“Yeah, yeah, I know.  Fine, you stand at her head and keep her comfortable while I fix him up.” Freyja sighed.  “By the way, why did you decide to go against your mother in this?”

“She’s starting to lose it.  She’s been going on about how she wants to kick Ragnarok off early and all that.  Part of it was whispers from that guy over there.” He motioned to the corpse of Hans. “Like, not even father would dream of doing that.”

“I know, right?” Freyja said.  “Sometimes there is more at work than us.”  She placed her hand over Valemon’s heart and sent a warm glow of healing energy into the mortal man.  Her hand glowed a golden color as she restored his blood loss from when he turned Rachel into a bear.

“Usually we have more than one wolf contribute the offering before changing someone,” Fenrir said.  “What was he thinking?”

Freyja looked at Fenrir incredulously.  “You didn’t know?  He’s the last of the bears,” she said sadly. 

Rachel let out a loud cry as she felt the baby move down into her birth passage.  “Not for long,” Fenrir said gruffly.  “You go tend to her.  I’ll make sure Yogi here doesn’t move until he’s supposed to.”

Freyja hurried to the bed where Rachel was birthing.  “I...feel...” Rachel panted.

Freyja gently spread Rachel’s legs, inspected her and saw the baby crowning.  “You feel the baby coming; now it’s time to push. Now push!” Freyja commanded as Rachel pushed for all she was worth to get the baby out.

As Rachel pushed, the baby’s head emerged from her birth canal in a gush of clear water.  “The waters are clear, that’s a good sign,” Freyja said.  “Now one more push and the baby will be out.  One more...I know you can do it!”

Rachel took a deep breath and pushed hard.  With the final push, the baby slithered out into Freyja’s waiting hands.  She unwrapped the umbilical cord from around the child’s neck and held it up.

“It’s a boy!” she announced.  “Congratulations, you have a little boy.” 

Rachel felt hot tears of joy and relief pour from her eyes as Freyja cut the umbilical cord with one of her daggers and placed the squirming infant onto Rachel’s bare chest. 

The infant rooted for one of Rachel’s milk filled breasts and latched on with a strong suckle.  “He’s going to be strong just like his dad,” she said dreamily. 

“And this one, you won’t have to give to mother to kill,” Fenrir rumbled as he propped Valemon up to come and meet his son.

Rachel’s beaming smile was interrupted by a small grimace of pain as a lesser contraction hit.

“Oh don’t worry that’s just the after birth,” Freyja explained.  “Just push it out and I’ll go take care of it.”

Rachel complied and felt immediate relief as she passed the afterbirth.  Freyja grabbed a piece of the tattered dress Rachel had worn prior to her transformation to a bear and wrapped the afterbirth in it.  She hustled out of the cave to dispose of the contents.

Rachel looked dreamily up at Valemon while the infant suckled at her breast.  “Hey, he kinda looks like you,” she said motioning to the white fuzz on the top of the infant’s head.

“Yeah he does, doesn’t he?” Valemon replied.  “Look I’m sorry for dragging you through all this...”

“No, it’s okay.  It’s more adventure than I ever wanted, but I’ve always embraced it.”

“There’s a difference between adventure and mortal danger, though, and I dragged you into the whole mortal danger bit,” he rumbled as he gently reached out and stroked Rachel’s long blonde hair.

“Yeah, but look what we got out of it,” she said as she gently stroked the infant. 

Fenrir cleared his throat.  “Look, I’m sorry about all the trouble my mother caused.  I plan on making her existence unpleasant while she’s stuck with me.  I don’t know why Freyja’s punishing me, but I don’t really have a choice.”

Valemon reached out and shook Fenrir’s hand. “Look, she was all hell bent on wanting to be with the first of my family.  You know, Freyr and Gerda’s son.  Well, one of their many sons, all she could think of was that.  We were a line of kings once.”

“Yeah, I know,” Fenrir said sadly.  “She went and messed that all up when she whispered in Olaf’s ear.”

“Yeah.  At least we were able to get back what was taken from us, at least material wise,” Valemon said as he stared at his newborn son.

Freyja cleared her throat as she stood at the mouth of the cavern. “Alright Valemon, out with it.  Tell Rachel how you really feel.  She’s all warm and fuzzy from the bonding hormones, it’s the right time.”

Fenrir shot Freyja a wolfish grin.  “Always to the point with you, isn’t it?”

“If you’re not careful you’ll see how much of a point I really have.  Remember, you’re not exactly my favorite person.”

“Understood.”

Valemon cleared his throat and looked at Rachel with love filling his eyes.  “Rachel, I know we’ve only really known each other for a month, if that, but each moment we spent together endeared you to me like no other.  After my wife was murdered by Hans, and my hands tied by Angrboda to do anything about it, I closed myself off from any form of affection.  I didn’t want to experience the pain of losing anyone again.  But I have.  The more I pushed, the more I lost.  I almost lost you, and if that happened, I wouldn’t be able to live with myself.  It’s bad enough I have to live with Igor’s death on my conscience.” Valemon started to choke up.  “What I’m trying to say is...”

Rachel looked up at the normally stoic man, his silver hair and beard shining in the torch light, and his naked, muscular body rippled as he shifted nervously.  His giant, gentle hands gently caressed the downy hair of their newborn son as he suckled eagerly. 

“I don’t want to give him up,” she said.  “I know it’s a violation of the contract but...”

“You won’t have to,” Valemon replied.  “Especially if you choose to be with me for always.”

“Wait, are you proposing to me?” Rachel asked.

“Well, if you put it that way,” Valemon replied, “I think I am.”

Rachel felt tears welling up in her eyes as she looked down at the newborn babe.  She knew she loved Valemon and knew he would be a very gentle partner.  She was now a bear as well, so it wasn’t like she could just go out and live without him.  They were meant to be together. “I will.  I’ll stay.  I love you too much to just go off and leave, anyway.  You risked everything for me; I can’t even imagine what you went through.”

Freyja coughed nervously at the cavern entrance.  “You know, now that all this crap with Angrboda is done and over with, maybe we can take care of that curse thing.  The one that causes you a boatload of pain whenever you change shapes.  We don’t want the little guy to deal with that, now do we?”

“No, we don’t,” Fenrir said.  “Seriously, it’s time to end the bad blood between our clans.  Well, what’s left, anyway.” 

Valemon stood tall.  “You’re right.  We have been at war for far too long over a really stupid slight.”

Freyja walked to Valemon and placed her hands on his muscular bare chest.  “From here on out, the agony of change will no longer afflict you.” With those words of benediction, a warm glow spread through Valemon as the blessing took hold.

Freyja placed her hands on Rachel, and then the baby and repeated the incantation over them.  “There we go.  Now you and your child’s progeny will never feel pain while changing form, as it was intended.  You will now live out your lives free from that kind of pain.”

“Thank you for your intervention, milady.” Valemon rumbled. 

“Seriously, I waited way too long to get involved.  This was mostly my fault.  I kind of forgot that mortals have a shorter time frame than we do, and that millennia is a significant amount of time for you people down here on Midgard,” Freyja apologized.

“Also it was sort of my fault too for not reigning in Mother when I should have,” Fenrir said as he stroked his closely cropped black beard.  “Don’t worry though.  I’ll make her life rather unpleasant when Tyr gets done with her.” 

Valemon laughed.  “Thank you.  Now we need to figure out how to get home.  We’re sort of naked right now and that doesn’t make for pleasant traveling”

“No, it doesn’t,” Freyja said.  “And it isn’t healthy for you, Rachel, to change forms so soon after giving birth.”

Rachel nodded as she moved the baby to her other breast.  “Well, I hope we can figure something out.  We can’t really live here for the rest of our lives.”

Freyja looked at Fenrir.  “How far are we from the ocean?”

“Not far, there’s a beach not even an hour away from here,” he replied.

“Awesome.  Valemon, you’ll have to carry Rachel on your back, but I have an idea.”

Valemon nodded and smiled.  “First we need to find something for her to wear though. Especially around her waist to catch the...”

“Yeah, I know,” Freyja said as she looked around.  She spotted an alcove with folded robes inside.  “There we go.   You might not have anything to pack between your legs right now, but maybe if you folded a few of these and sat on them, it might help for now.”

Rachel nodded as she swung her legs around to get off the bed.  She noticed it getting lighter outside the cavern. “No time like the present to get going,” she said.  “I really would like to get home and have a nice hot shower.”

Valemon smiled at her mention of home and placed his arm around her shoulders.   “Mind if I hold him while you get dressed?” he asked.

“Go for it,” Rachel replied as she handed the tiny, naked infant to the massive Valemon.  He gently cradled the tiny babe in his massive hands as Rachel put on another white robe.   He was in awe at the perfection of the tiny being as he snoozed in his father’s giant hands.  Everything about the child was so tiny, he couldn’t believe it.

Once Rachel was dressed, he handed the infant back to her and changed into his bear form.  He tensed reflexively in anticipation for the agony but found none as his form morphed into that of a giant bruin.  

Fenrir placed some folded towels on Valemon’s back and lifted Rachel up on top of them.  “There, now she won’t get her blood all over your shiny white fur, you vain bastard,” he said with a smirk. 

Valemon turned around and let out a rancid cloud of flatulence in Fenrir’s general direction and shambled out of the cave, leaving the wolf man coughing and laughing at the same time.   Freyja rolled her eyes and looked up at Rachel.  “Boys...”

Rachel smiled at the goddess that saved her life.  “Thank you so much for all of this, Freyja.”

“No need to thank me.  This is my atonement for not acting as soon as Angrboda decided to throw her temper tantrum,” Freyja explained. 

Fenrir overcame his fit of laughter and coughing and changed into his natural form of a massive dire wolf.  “This way,” he said through his muzzle.

Valemon followed the gigantic black wolf through the forest, taking great care as to not knock Rachel off his back as she cradled their infant son.   After an hour, the sharp tang of the sea reached his sensitive nostrils.  He poked his head out from between two massive fir trees and saw a grey gravel beach.

Fenrir shifted into his human form and lifted Rachel down from Valemon’s broad back.   Valemon then shifted back into his human form and looked at Freyja.