Nature rages.

Flash flood splits us from the pack. The torrent is too much for the Savage to cross.

Rushing whitecaps pound into the trees toppling them over, dragging them into the current as if they are branches - not trees still attached by their roots.

Nothing can be heard over the wind, the surging water, the rain that's pelting us sideways.

"We need to move," Luki is looking at the trees that are bending their will to something more powerful.

Soaking wet, the Silk sticks heavily to my skin.

"Can you walk?" Luki looks with eyes that are scanning the surroundings - the lightning.

The wind howls unnaturally.

"I need help," Luki bends down, picking me up, shifting his pack on his shoulders. A grunt that gets carried away with the wind.

The tree to our right cracks grotesquely, falling on top of the healer. Crushing her underneath its trunk that starts to slide down the bank carrying her screaming into the rising tide.

...horrified.

Terror starts to crack through my constitution. A scream comes out when the lightning scorches the ground to our left - to our right.

Holding my breath, the wind is too much to breathe against. Clinging to Luki's chest, burying my nose into his skin, another contraction bears itself down on me.

Grueling pain sticks itself into the base of my spine. The contraction hardening the flesh of my stomach.

"We can't stay out here," Luki screams over my first real moans of true pain. My first actual taste of what it means to birth your pup from between your legs.

Vision is singular. Pointed. Without movement until the contraction eases itself. Tailbone pressure without relief after the contraction has my hand trying to relieve it. Shifting my position in Luki's arms. He nearly drops me.

"Luki, I need to be put down." Clinging to him, trying to arch my back. Oh by the moon another contraction is on its way.

Heavy cramping intensifies. Fast. Pain eats my breath.

...I can't breathe.

"Not yet, Bessa. We need to get higher, past the ridge." He's screaming out loud but the wind takes his voice away.

The water is rising.

Luki climbs up the trail, digging his feet into the soft soil, slipping down at times.

...we fall. Hard.

"Take off the pack Luki." Mud clings to Silk, weighing down my limbs, my body. I feel trapped in by the Silk.

"Never drop your pack, Luna," he says through gritted teeth. A grunt with each footstep away from the water that is drowning the land.

Trees are snapping easily, rolling down the path, sinking into the debris-filled water that is overwhelming the ground.

Monstrous, it's current, the enemy to the living.

...we slip again.

Luki screams out, flashing his War of Teeth to the storm.

Digging his feet deeper into the sliding away soil, pulling us upward by one hand, the other securely wrapped around me. Uncovering his deep strength we climb until another contraction takes over to the point all else fades away.

..nothing else matters. Not the cold rain, not the wind tearing all goodness away from the land. Nothing matters but the pinpoint pain on my tailbone.

"Luki," grabbing into his shoulder, not able to say another word.

...nothing can escape through my lungs, no sound everything is ceased up. Balled tight, hard, without give.

A pinnacle moment, I might go crazy from the pain. Shaking my head from side to side.

...I can't get through this contraction. It's not ending fast enough. Luki continues to climb.

Higher. Higher. Higher.

A release, the tension of my abdomen relaxing. I can think for a moment. Luki makes it over the ridge, flat land is now our friend. The rain blinds our vision. Nothing can be seen except broken trees that all have been blown over. Not one remains upwards, some laying on their sides the roots still attached to their bodies. While other trees have been snapped in half by gusts so powerful Luki has to bend into the bruising wind.

The rain stings my open eyes, Luki keeps walking, his head going side to side sweeping the surrounds.

"There, we will shelter there," Luki says into my ear.

Trees have fallen in such a way that it's acting as a natural wall to lessen the winds violence. Not the rain, there is no barrier to the soaking cold water.

Once behind the trees, the wind is without merit. The trunks are crammed into each other already. Nothing will move anymore. There is no threat from anything falling on us. Nothing remains standing.

"Luki put me down." Arching out of his grip. Two feet touch the ground.

A need to squat.

...remain still.

The Silk hinders everything.

Clinging to my body as a barrier.

Freezing cold, teeth chattering between sobs now.

I fear I hear a sob from Luki as well when I take the Silk off.

A need to become naked, shed the clothes off my body.

Squatting in the rain. I can't be lifted again. I won't be lifted again. Rooted in. The Nature of my body is completely taking control.

Rocking on my heels.

Crying, moaning, begging the Moon for mercy from this pain.

"Luki, I'm scared." Rain is streaming into my mouth.

...I'm choking.

"I know you are. It's alright. I'm right here. Nothing bad will happen." He gives me his hand, I crush it in my grip. Anticipation tightens, hardens my abdomen.

"Another one is starting." Luki holds my hand through it. Until my body relaxes enough I can shiver again.

"I need to make us a shelter," he shrugs off his pack, opening it up. His ax held tight by the handle. I stay squatting, rocking my self forward to take the pressure off my tailbone. Something inside me wants to curve my spine the opposite direction.

Birth blood and rainwater mix into a puddle at my feet.

Another contraction fists itself completely into the territory of my body. It takes over, nothing else can compete with the hostility to remove a Future violently from its Nest.

An internal compulsion to push, to bear down rises. My body taking over, my mind screaming out in terror.

Fire stretches..ringing itself around the lining of my opening.

Rocking. Moaning. Pushing with the onslaught of back to back contractions.

Screaming at times to Luki, screaming out for help. Begging the Savage to come to me now. I need him here now with me at my side.

I need him to lean on.

Terrified I will die, the pup will die.

...I'm terrified, horrified that this is the end.

Between the reprive of contractions, Luki makes a shelter utilizing the natural barrier to the wind.

Another contraction, vision tunnels. Nothing matters but getting through this contraction, nothing matters to my skin that is so cold it's going numb. Nothing matters but this moment.

Pain holds tight, balls up my muscles into a closed fist before it releases once again so I can focus once again on the surrounds.

The rain is relentless, vomiting up water - defecating on the ground. Everything is pushing itself out of my body.

Cleansing before the final moment.

Luki pretends not to see my mess. He looks into my eyes that are crying but drowned away in the rain. He takes a cloth and wipes me down before entering the shelter. Cleaning me as if I am an invalid who can't reach their own asshole.

He says nothing, pretending that what he did never happened. Before I can even feel embarrassed another contraction starts.

Squatting, bearing down, pushing hard. Searing, sizzling pain stretching my opening.

A scream from the both of us. Luki tries to hold it together. He tries but fails.

He's shaking. My belly heaves itself down.

"I've never been present during birth." Fright grips his voice in a shaking tone.

My legs are shaking precisely like the way he sounds.

"Luki kneel in front of me, I need to hold onto you." When he does, I hold onto his shoulders for support. My head presses into his chest, leaning on him. He holds me up underneath my arms.

The fur underneath my feet is dry. It's survival to get out of the rain.

"What do I do now?" Luki can't look between my legs, he's keeping eye contact always.

Another contraction starts, "just hold me up through it." He does just that, allowing my body to naturally push out what needs to get out. Over and over again the pushing, the pausing, the need to scream overtakes the inside of the small shelter that is protecting us from the War of the weather outside.

"Luki, when the pup comes," gritting my teeth, holding him. Rocking, he rocks with me. We rock together. He can't breathe until I take a gasping breath in once I recover from the contraction.

"You need to tie the cord when he comes out. You need to help catch him." Horrendous tremors of the muscles of my thighs are so violent that Luki begs me to lay down.

Exhaustion tips the axis of my world, swaying from side to side. He holds me steady, and upright.

Luki is shaking, but it's not because he's tired. He looks wide-eyed awake except horror is reflecting back at me.

"I can do that, Bessa." We rock together, back and forth, side to side. I grunt, he's grunting with me. I cry, he's tearing up. My cheek rests against his bare chest, closing my eyes for just a moment before another cramp shutters through me like a violent earthquake shifting, grinding its plates of the world.

"Luki," sound slips through the spaces of my teeth.

"He's coming,"

Overwhelming urges to bear down and push take over.

The female Nature within now controls all things.

Stretching beyond thought, I can feel the head. I can feel myself tearing.

...blood.

Compulsion surges, the Nature within every female rises up, bear down and push that pup out, it's screaming to me.

"Luki, you need to help guide him out," a renewal of fortitude. A grunt out, Luki's hands go between my legs.

My fingertips dig into his shoulders that are bent looking down.

"His heads out," Luki looks into my eyes, he's smiling now. Fear is gone replaced with excitement.

Bearing down, holding my breath pushing as hard as I can as if I am having a shit that's stuck up inside me.

"He's coming, his shoulder is out," Luki's voice is higher pitched, he's uncontained. I can't see because my eyes are squeezed shut.

One last heave the Future within my Nest slips out into the world.

Luki catches the male in his hands.

Everything eases up.

...a crying smile pushes away all of the pain that was just felt.

Sitting down, laying back - legs have given out. The male is placed on my chest. Luki's hands are full of my birth blood.

A scream, a wail of a newborn, makes us laugh out loud.

"We can't go through that again," Luki states with a trail of salt on his cheeks. He wipes those falling tears away smearing the blood of the birth over his face.

Looking down at my chest, the pup is sniffing my chest, head raising spastically before the nose smells my skin. He's squirming, rooting closer to one of my breasts.

He's already hungry.

"Tie the cord in two spots, Luki. I get to cut the Cord of Life." Luki makes fast work of doing what he needs to do. A clean knife placed in my hands. My hand shakes as I cut.

The cord of life between us is now severed.

My male is perfect - that's all I can think.

Perfect, he's perfect in every way.

Another involuntary push has the Nest slip out between my legs.

"Bessa, I'm going to get you off that fur. Luki lifts me with my pup now suckling contently at my breast.

He places me on the side of the shelter. We are dry, but it's cold, freezing cold.

...shivering.

Exhausted.

Holding the naked pup against me, he seems cold.

New furs pulled from his pack are rolled out. I'm placed on top of them. The ruined fur is rolled up, tossed to the side.

"I don't have anything to cover you up. I only brought the furs that I would throw away this summer." Luki looks through his pack taking a loincloth from it. He covers the pup while my teeth clatter together.

"I'm going to hold you, Bessa. Use my heat to warm your body." Luki gets close to me.

Skin to skin.

His heat is blazing hot.

The pup is content, "he looks like my brother," Luki is looking down at the pup as he speaks. When the pup pulls away from my nipple. His head raises, Luki's hand touches his bald head that holds the blood from his Nest.

The pup sniffs his hand.

"He does look like your brother," smiling, Luki's heat penetrates into the space of the shelter. Pressing myself into him, I can't stop staring at this pup that was just inside me. All the pain is gone, all the struggle to get him out of my Nest, is gone.

Relief yawns itself out.

Violent winds bend the shelter but it doesn't destroy it. It's made sturdy with experienced hands.

"Thank you, Luki." Taking his hand in mine. I kiss the palm, pressing it against my cheek, kissing his skin again and again in thanks.

Luki stills, getting quiet.

"Do you think he's warm enough?" Asking while looking into Luki's eyes. His fingers push away the strands of my hair from my face.

"I think he is," a finger trails down my cheek.

"You are the bravest female I have ever known." He holds me closer, I allow it.

Skin to skin.

His body heat is causing the shivering to ease away.

A relaxation.

The wind seems to be dying down the howling rage of Nature is ceasing in strength.

"I'm going to close my eyes for a moment." The pup is now pressed against our bodies, Luki is holding the both of us, keeping us warm. Providing us with our heat.

He's our Provider.

"Sleep, I'm right here. Nothing will get to you or him. They would have to come through me." His fingers slide up and down run up and my arm. Trickles of blood leaking out from between my legs. If the blood is running on him, Luki doesn't show that it affects him in any way. The rain is becoming a small patter against the hide of the shelter.

"Thank you, Luki." Looking into his eyes. He's focused is on me until his attention goes to the pup, whose nose is pressed against Luki's chest.

"I am honored to be part of the birth." He's choking up, the voice sticking in his throat.

"I'm honored to have as my brother, Luki. Your mate is lucky to have such an honorable male." Laying my cheek against his chest, closing my eyes. The pup doesn't move, warm secured in the space between us.

...silence.

"Your mate will have everything because of you." Cupping his cheek in my hand. Thumb sliding over his mouth.

Our faces are close together.

"I hope so," he's whispering now.

Our eyes hold.

...seconds turn to a long minute.

A harder breath from him, a struggling breath from me.

"Bessa," his cheek touches mine.

"Yes," waiting for him to speak.

A slide of skin, his mouth close to mine.

"My brother has everything in you." He pulls his face away.

...silence.

The hard beat of his heart is felt through the expanding space between my ribs.

"You saved us from death, Luki." Looking at the pup while I speak. I can't look into Luki's eyes, this is a dangerous, weakening moment.

"I didn't do anything that my brother wouldn't have done if he could have been here with you. I only provided when my brother couldn't." His fingers curl into my shoulder, soft, but firm.

"You have Provided for us." The heat of Luki sinks into the surface of my skin where his skin touches. The cold is pushed away to the spots that aren't touching skin.

The furs are damp now, soaking up the water that's leaking in from the ground.

"I only stepped in because my brother couldn't. Borson is your Provider." Luki's words grow into a pointing depth.

...silence.

"Luki, tell me the truth." "It depends on the question." Fingers running up my arm, trailing from elbow to shoulder.

"Why did you condone what your brother was doing to your brother." A trail of salt starts to leak down to drip on his chest.

"I never condoned it."

"You did by allowing it to happen." Speaking low, like the way the wind is now just a breathing breath of a breeze.

"Did you ever say anything to him, to her?" Needing to know it all. The past is dead, but it lives with me. My mind can't let go of it. I need to hold onto it all.

The ribs of my chest close in, waiting for Luki to speak.

"I have said my words to both of them." The pup is sleeping between us. Content in the heat of us.

"They kept their distance from me once my words were out. Now, my brother is my brother again. We have become friends again because of you." Luki is looking at the roof of the shelter while he speaks.

The furs underneath me are now soaked with water. Cold water clinging once again to my skin that touches the fur.

I'm starting to feel cold.

"What did you say to them?"

"I told them, that he hasn't gone across the sea yet. I told them that someone is waiting to be found. Elska slapped my face, in front of my brother. He let her do it. Both of them told me to go, that I was no longer invited to be around them." Melancholy tones out from a voice that seems hurt, crushed by the past.

"Because you spoke your mind, your brother stopped being your brother?"

"Elska hated me. She never understood why I like the things I can't help liking. She didn't want me around them. Since my brother was around her all the time. I was pushed away from them. She didn't like what I told them once. Only once I opened my mouth. From then on, I was no longer permitted in her house or my brother's when she was there." Luki swallows.

"You will always have a spot in my home. I will never turn you away. You will become a teacher to your nephew, how it is between Uncles and Nephews." Putting my hand over the head of the pup, Luki puts his hand over mine.

"I will treat him as if he is my own male. I promise this to you."

Our eyes connect, hold.

"Thank you, Luki."

"Bessa," a pause.

"Yes,"

"Thank you for the kindness you have given me."

"I'm not kind, Luki."

"Yes, you are, Bessa. You're the kindest female I have ever known."

...silence.

"I don't feel kind. I feel as if everything good inside me has disappeared. I'm this person who is not the real me anymore. I used to be happy, I used to laugh all the time. Look at my face, Luki. I used to laugh all the time." Salt trails down, soaking his bare chest.

"You can still laugh."

"No, I can't, not with him, I can't laugh with my mate. Everything is in ruins between us. I don't want to laugh with him, I don't want what they had, ever."

...silence.

"You can laugh with me, Bessa."

"I can and I will." The sad smile mimics on his face that I am holding on mine.

"Do you think the pack is alright?" Asking the questions that are edging away from focusing on my mates love for her.

"I'm not sure. The water came fast, it looks like they were taken by surprise." Luki's voice falls.

"Do you think your brother is alright?" A worry squeezes itself within the cracks of my ribs.

"Yes, he's fine." Luki squeezes my arm pulling me into him. He doesn't care that my blood now is on his thigh.

"Are you in pain, Bessa?' Luki's fingers are gently scratching my lower back, my side is pressed into his.

"I'm not in real pain anymore," nuzzling into his chest, "just cold."

Luki's arms wrap tighter, he's using all the surface he has to heat my skin.

The water soaked ground creates a puddle around us.

...shivering.

"Bessa, why don't you lay on me. It will keep you out of the water."

"Aren't you cold?"

"I've been colder, trust me. This is nothing, we train in this weather as Juveniles. This is all I've known to sleep in for a few years after my shift. My father was not a lenient Male in my training." Luki gently, so as not to cause me any pain, lifts me over top of him.

The pup now is resting on his left side, ear against Luki's beating heart. I'm on his right, consuming the heat his body is giving off. He holds me to him, so when I close my eyes, I don't slip off his body.

I'm warm, sheltered, there is no fear of dying now with Luki's arms wrapped around me.

Relaxing into him, allowing myself to rest finally.

It's the vibration of a growl that wakes me. It's a deadly threat spoken with an intent to kill.

The Savage is outside the entrance, the flapped pulled open, the sun streams in.

He drops to all fours, the War of his Teeth is bared to the roots. Nails extend into the soil. Gripping the ground.

The structure of his body shakes bones. I can feel his rage as if my bones are the ones affected by what's happening inside him.

"Luki," the word drawls itself outward. The clear intent of violence is honed in towards his brother.

Violence terrorizes the Savage's eyes in a green fury.

"Let go of my mate, brother." Seething breath of hatred, searing eyes shoves Luki further down in the puddle of water we are in.

"Stop it," Rising, the pup's entire body is covered by the loincloth.

"Don't you dare look at your brother that way." Sliding off Luki, the cold water is a few inches deep around us.

The situation could be lethal to Luki. He's holding onto the pup. Shielding him from his father who holds death in his eyes.

All our hearts are beating with War drum consistency.

Fast.

Loud.

Rapid.

"He helped me birth your pup, He provided me with shelter, he took care of me when you couldn't. Nothing more." My words do nothing to stop the Savage from pinning Luki with the threat of death.

"Nothing more?" I can tell he doesn't believe me. The Savage looks up and down my naked body, looking at Luki who wears a loincloth on his hips. Still secured with the knots he tied.

"How dare you, how dare you think that of me. I am not you! I am of a proper upbringing. I would never dishonor my Lineage with what you are thinking right now." Spitting at him.

He spits back, "don't ever spit at me again, Bessa." Luki sits up now. Violence holds in his eyes.

"Bessa has birthed your male. I was keeping her warm. There were no furs left to cover her up. The water soaked in from the ground. She was cold."

"How convenient for you, brother to hold my mate in her time of need. Thank you." Nothing is thankful in Borson's voice. Nothing is felt but a tight violent wave of fury.

"He was an honorable brother to you, he never fed me from his cock like you did to your brother's mate." Shoving my violence out at him.

"Get out of this shelter, you're not welcomed inside with me in it. Leave. Now." Trying to pull the tent flap closed. The Savage hands work fast, dismantling the structure with a few swipes of his claws. The Sun is now beating down on exposed skin.

Standing facing my mate, protecting his brother.

A slick slide of blood gushes out of my battered entrance.

...I sway.

...the axis of the world tips to the side.

The Savage is the steady to my sway.

He holds me upright.

"How dare you get angry, how dare you." I want to hit his face the way Elska slapped Luki for speaking his mind.

"Luki is kind, and he is my friend. He is more to me than you can ever hope to be. He would never betray you. Like the way, you have betrayed your brother. He is not you, remember that. He could never be you, ever." I don't spit at him, but I make my words gob out.

A harsh breath from the both of us. Luki is now standing cradling the pup to him. Protecting him from our violence.

"Give me my male!" The Savage hardly can speak, hardly see the blindness of green is swarming into my own vision.

The Savage flashes War out. He is beyond the seeing, he is beyond control.

Luki steps in front of me, handing the pup to me. Shielding me from the tone of my mate's eyes.

"I only Provided your mate with what she needed when you weren't around." Luki digs into his spot. His knees are bent, ready.

Muscles coil between the two males, shoulders.

The savagery of a growl sodomizes into the surrounding, Luki steps back, shoulders flinch.

A step is taken by the Savage. They are chest to chest now.

"Only providing her with what she needs, why is your cock hard then?" Accusations fly, Luki's head sinks low, he's looking at the ground.

...silence is interrupted by the steam of his rage.

The ribs of my chest pull in tight, no space is left.

"Walk away, Borson. Walk away and come back when you are ready to hold our Male. You need to calm yourself first. What you are thinking is not what is. Without Luki, I would have died. Without Luki we would have died. Instead of wanting to kill your brother, you should be on your knees in thanks him for Providing for us when you couldn't. Isn't that what brothers are for?"

...I wait for him to answer.

He turns himself with a long breath out.

His back faces us.

"You're right-" a pause from the Savage.

"It was a shock to find you in that position. I apologize to the both of you. I will be back when I have settled the Wild down." He walks slowly, his footprints are sinking into the ground, filling with water as he steps away.

Luki starts to gather his torn apart shelter.

I'm left standing to hold a pup to my chest.

The land has been devastated, looking around. Nothing like the way it was remains. Everything is leveled. Nothing is left standing. Trees are all gone for as far as the eye can see.

Feelings pour from the Savage, so thick is his destruction that I can taste the ruin of him.

He's ruined from the inside out, each step away holds his condemnation of himself. 

This picture is when Borson saw Bessa's eyes for the first time and what happened to him. 

A snippet of the upcoming story, Elska. 

"Elska come out of the Den to eat." 

"You need to help me get out of here." Putting my hand through the fur drape. Odin clasps it helping me to stand. His palm goes against the bulge of the thing inside me. It kicks his hand. Odin's quick to pull his hand away. Both of their hearts beat are getting faster. 

"Do you like your Den?" 

"I do brother. You and Ryeson did a good job making it for me." The chair's feet scrape against the wooden floors of the kitchen. 

Uncle Luki is outside the door, a knock before he enters my parent's home.

"Elksa, I brought your favorite and made you extra." The cookies smell is pushed underneath my nose. 

"Ryeson, Odin. You can have my share for making my Den." Feeling the bowl, it's the biggest we have. Yet I only want the smallest portion. 

Arching my back, there is a low pain traveling down my legs. 

Standing, stretching, holding the back of the chair. Everyone stops eating. 

"Elska, are you alright." There is the worry in my mother's voice again.

"I need to lay back down, I can't sit on the chair anymore." Walking towards the Den my brother's made for me inside the house. 

"Would you like a sandwich, Elska. It's easier to eat than soup laying down." Father's voice is behind me, lifting the flap to the entrance of the Den.

"I'm not hungry." 

Bending down, crawling into the entrance a gush of fluid rushes out between my legs, as if I peed.