BY
LISA BETH DARLING

Book #2 in the Of War Series

Moon Mistress Publishing USA

Alena wasn't exactly new to the act of childbirth, she'd aided in the arrival of many babies in Ceres Agar and even before that, but it didn't prepare her for this. Up until now, she had a vague understanding of the agony involved in giving birth, or thought she did. This was like no pain she'd ever felt before; it was torturous yet it was also beautiful and filled with hopeful anticipation. Something deep within her seemed to take over her mind, telling her what to do. If he were here--where he should be--Ares would call it 'instinct'.

Certain help would never arrive in time, Alena allowed that instinct to take over. She began pushing as she gasped for breath and sweat ran into her eyes. With her knees up by her shoulders, she could nearly see between her splayed legs but as hard as she pushed, Raven's head did not emerge. He didn't even seem to move downward as she dug in with her heels and gave it all she had with the next contraction. Feeling as though her abdomen was caught in some wicked vice holding her in its unyielding grip, Alena bore down, throwing her head back against the foot board as she held onto her knees hoping for extra leverage. Blood and fluids ushered forth but Raven did not. Instead of making his way down the birth canal, Raven continued his struggle to claw his way through his mother's stomach as though he knew that was his only true way out.

"A-Ares!" She screamed without any force of breath. "Where are you?" He picked a fine time to run down to the mortal world for a gallon of milk.

Her Son was not going to wait for his Father or his Grandmother to come aid in his arrival. The contractions were so close together it felt like they never ended. Just one long burst of unending agony as she struggled to give birth and Raven fought her from inside. One hand on her knee, she tried to ease the baby downward with the other hand while she bore down again. "I know it's t-t-tight but puh-lease."

Raven wasn't having any of it; he punched upward with a force so brutal it knocked her hand away from her belly. Then continued on, stretching upward, until her undulating stomach looked like the Gut-Buster scene in 'Alien' and she was certain he would just explode out of her the way the slimy little alien had done leaving a gaping bloody hole where her innards had once been.

"N-no! D-down!" Tears streaming down her ashen cheeks, Alena tried again to coax the baby downward as she pushed and prayed with all of her might. More blood and fluid expelled and then, under her hand, she felt Raven move downward. "G-good, good boy, good," she stuttered as she tried to catch her breath. Wiping her silver hair away from her sweaty brow, she prepared to push again with the next contraction but suddenly found her body rising into the air. Looking up with startled eyes she saw Ares, he was lifting her off the floor and putting her on the bed. "I th-ough-t you'd n-never--make it."

"I'm here. I'm here." he soothed, looking at the bloody puddle on the floor. "Everything's going to be all right now."

"This place is disgusting. Why would you ever bring her down here?" Hera openly complained as she gave her surroundings a quick glance.

"I cleaned it, Mother!"

Letting out a grunt, she gave Ares a shove. "Get out of my way." Before she could maneuver between Alena's open legs to get a bead on the situation, another contraction hit. Alena bore down hard. "Stop, stop, stop," Hera commanded. "Don't push, Alena."

"I have to--"

"Stop I know it's hard, I know, but don't push." Hera looked up from between Alena's legs where Raven was just beginning to crown to Ares. "Why did you wait so long to come get me?" she hissed. "You knew how important this is!"

Panic rising within him as he tried to stay calm and hold Alena close he roared at her through lips thinner than a dime. "Do what you have to, Mother."

"It's too late." Alena had done what any woman in her position would do and she pushed with each contraction until the boy dropped just enough to get his head past those slender hips, but his shoulders were too wide to make the same squeeze and now Raven was stuck in her pelvis. Opening Alena's womb would do them no good. Pulling the boy back through the narrow opening would only result in injury to him and her. On the verge of losing her Grandson, the only thing the grand Goddess of All the Olympian Gods could do was stand here and watch both of them pass into the Underworld.

Not believing his Mother, Ares left Alena's side to stand at the end of the bed and inspect the precarious situation. As they stood there watching Alena writhe in agony as she tried to hold back the urge to push, they saw Raven's feet push upward. The little toes curled as though they were fists as he started slamming them against the inside of Alena's womb. Listening to Alena's near silent screams and seeing her face gnarl and twist in a way he never wanted to see again, his Warrior's Mind hit upon a plan. For a split-second, he tried to talk himself out of it but in his heart he knew it was the only way to save them. Reaching out cautiously with one hand, he held to it Alena's cheek as he stared into her stormy eyes. "Do you love me?"

What a question! Here she was in the deepest clutches of labor with his Son and Ares wanted to know if she loved him? If this wasn't love, what was it? "Y-yes."

He leaned in further as his hand slid down to her hip where the other was waiting on the opposite site. "Do you trust me?"

"Yes."

"I love you, Alena." With that, Ares planted his lips over hers. In one brutal but mercifully swift motion, he pushed down on her hips with all of his strength and did the unthinkable. With a loud snap, her slender hips cracked open like a clam shell. His mouth over hers silenced the shriek of utter agony that went through her.

The way to freedom suddenly open, Raven began making his way toward it with much haste. But he couldn't do it alone.

"You have to help," Hera said as she stared down at the scene in disbelief. Alena was in far too much pain to push. "Hurry, put your hand on her stomach, gently guide him down. Gently."

With his hands shaking and his mind still in shock at what he'd just done, Ares put his big mitts on Alena's stomach and, gently but firmly as he could, pushed the baby toward the opening between her legs waiting for him. No longer feeling the harsh pain of the contractions or anything below her waist other than what felt like fire, Alena buried her face in Ares' upper arm as she held onto him for comfort and strength. She was met with the sight of a nearly healed scar.

"Keep going, keep going, he's coming," Hera said excitedly. "Alena, he's almost here." She reached between Alena's spread legs to get a grip on the back of Raven's neck. As she turned him slowly so that one shoulder at a time emerged from the enlarged hole, the baby's face came into her view.

Alena screamed uncontrollably at the sight.

Raven had no face. No eyes. No nose. No mouth. Instead of features, there was only a sheet of skin.

A moment later, his buttocks and feet were slipping through her as the boy fully emerged into the world.

"It's all right, it's all right, Alena," Ares soothed. "It's just a membrane."

Hera's upper lip curled as she gazed at Ares with doubt flickering in her peacock eyes. Yes, it was just a membrane. Just a bit of excess, soon it would be easily and painlessly be cut away, revealing the baby's face. It didn't mean anything at all. Did it? There were many in this world who believed that such a veil over a newborn's face was the darkest of omens foreshadowing a mark on the child's soul. Wasn't that what Zeus had been saying? Was it another sign that Zeus was actually right and this child would be a monster?

"What are you waiting for? Cut the cord."

Drawn out of her daze, Hera looked down to see that she had the cord in one hand and the dagger in the other. "Don't rush me." Cutting and tying off the umbilical cord, Hera held the baby out to his Father, who already had a blade at the ready.

Holding his bloody newborn Son in the crook of his left arm, Ares used to his dagger to very carefully cut the swath of skin away from Raven's face. It peeled away easily, almost like a snake shedding its skin. The second it was gone, Raven cried loudly as his greasy body started squirming in his Father's arms.

Alena felt a wave of relief wash through her when Ares brought him to her. "Oh, look, look," she whispered anxiously. Raven had Ares mass of dark wavy hair with a prominent gray streak, his dark skin and--

"Look at that," Ares remarked as the baby opened his eyes for the first time to reveal they were as gray as a stormy sea with pupils gold as amber.

"One more little push, ok?" Hera asked as she gazed upon the scene of the proud new parents. Giving a tug on the umbilical cord still sticking out of her and Alena doing what she could to muster enough strength to give a little help, the placenta slipped out and onto the floor where it burst open. Looking down at it, it seemed as though a werewolf had tried to claw its way through the birthing sac. Hera began to worry just as she began to hope that all foreboding signs were nothing more than coincidence. "All right, now to you, my dear. Ares take your Son for a moment."

Alena didn't want to let go of Raven now that he was here; she wanted to hold him forever. Kiss him. Hug him. Never stop telling him that she loved him. It was with a bit of hesitancy she handed him to Ares, who took the boy in his brawny arms and beamed down at the infant with pride.

"Make them a little wider, Mother, so we don't have this problem next time," Ares encouraged.

Using her powers, Hera healed Alena's broken hips, leaving them as nature, and not the golden chastity belt, intended; a little bit wider.

II

While Alena lay on the clean sheets of the bed that they shared in the Master Bedroom, Ares and Hera stood by the hearth taking in the scene of the new Mother with the baby at her breast. It was heartwarming to say the least but the air between Hera and her Son was cold. "You almost lost both of them tonight; why did you wait so long to come get me?" Hera admonished, knowing how close they'd all come to having an unwanted visit from Hades. Hera moved in a little closer as she dropped her voice to a tight whisper. "You stink of Aphrodite. That's where you were, isn't it? I thought things had changed with you, Ares. You so bitterly disappoint me."

Sitting there with his arms folded across his brawny chest, Ares wanted nothing more than to tell her what happened in her absence and just how it came to be that both Alena and Raven were nearly lost to them. He wanted to tell her what a deviant son of a bitch her Husband was being. A promise was a promise and in this case breaking it could have deadly consequences. Dropping his stare from hers, "It's not your concern, Mother."

Gracefully rising to her feet with slow purpose, Hera drew in a breath and gave her Son a wan smile. "I see my presence is no longer required." With no more words for Ares, she nearly floated over to the bed where Alena was smiling endlessly at Raven. "You did very well tonight, my dear. He's beautiful."

"Thank you, Great Mother."

"Get some rest now and in a few days you'll be up and dancing around with him in your arms. Congratulations, Alena, he's a fine boy." Hera bestowed a kiss on Alena's forehead and another on Raven's soft cheek. "Good night, my dear."

Still standing by the hearth, Ares watched and listened as her Mother bid Alena a good evening, knowing that she would soon ask him where he'd been. From the sound of things, she was about to do it in perfect speech. How like Zeus to keep his word at a moment so opportune for him. At least it seemed the old man intended to keep his word; Alena's gray eyes were clearer than he'd seen them in weeks. They were sparkling at Raven as she ran her finger along his chubby little cheek. In a few moments when she looked up at him and posed the question: Where were you?--he would have no plausible answer.

"Aren't you...going to...come over here? With us?" Alena invited. She was running on what was left of the adrenaline still coursing through her system and nothing more as she lay there with every muscle in her body quaking from the suddenly violent strain of delivery.

"Not yet."

"Ares--." It was no good; he walked out of the bedroom without looking back.