“You do not want to witness this part, my son,” Savvy said softly, placing a paw on Sath’s arm. He shook it off, and she frowned. “The day you were born, I thought that I would be split in half. I cursed everyone that was anywhere near me, including the Sahi Kalah, waiting in the next room to take you away from me and to your father.”
“What?” Sath raised a furry eyebrow as he studied his mother. “Take me where?”
“That is a story for another time, my love, my Sathlir,” she said, reaching out to stroke the fur on the side of his face. Begrudgingly he allowed it, and she purred loudly. “You will have your cub in your arms very soon; let my ladies do their work now.” She sat down on a large cushion, and then patted the one next to her. “Will you come to sit with me?” she asked. Sath said nothing, remaining rooted to the spot and trying to see into the bedchamber. Savvy sighed. Kazhmere crossed the room and plopped down next to her mother but kept her distance. “I am the luckiest female alive,” Savvy said, smiling sadly. “I have two beautiful and healthy cubs and am about to have a grandchild as well.”
As if on cue, Anni let out a blood-curdling wail from the back, setting Sath’s fur on end from the tips of his ears down to his tail. There was silence for a moment, and then the mewling cry of a newborn cub could be heard. Sath raced to the door that led to the bedchamber but was stopped by a fierce-looking midwife. “Not so fast, Highness,” she said. “Your mate wishes a moment alone with your son.”
“Of course…wait, my what? Son?” Sath stammered. He grabbed the midwife by her shoulders and hugged her tightly. “I have a son!” The female wriggled out of his grasp, and he pushed past her into the bedchamber. The tang of blood in the air stopped him as his eyes adjusted to the dim light in the room. “Annilanshi?”
“Sathlir,” she said, her voice very weak. “Your son is strong, just like you. I fear I am not so strong.” He moved to her side to stare down at her and the wriggling cub in her arms. “I will be fine, but he has put up a fight from beginning to end. Would you like to hold him?”
“Do you think that is wise?” he asked. “I might drop him or -” Anni smiled up at him, humming as she always did, and he obediently held out his hands. With a grunt, she lifted the squirming bundle and placed the cub in his arms. Sath wrapped his arms around the young one and looked down into his face. “What shall we call you, my son?”
“You could…name the cub after your father?” Anni suggested, her humming getting louder. “Why don’t you take him out to meet his grandmother and send Kazhi in here to see me?” Sath nodded and then leaned down to plant a gentle kiss on Anni’s forehead.
“Thank you, my mate, you have given me the most precious gift today,” he whispered. Anni smiled and closed her eyes.
“Stop, please,” Gin said as she rose from her seat by the fire and walked a few steps away, her arms wrapped tightly around her chest. Tears traced their way down her cheeks. Sath sprang to his feet, at her side in the blink of an eye. He reached out to touch her shoulder, but she pulled away from him. “I thought I could hear that, but you know what I heard Sath? Not the love for your son that I know you have, but your love for the female that gave you…” Gin stopped a moment, her hands flying to her mouth to stop the words that she had not dared admit even to herself until now.
“That gave me what?”
Gin did not turn around to face him. She tightened her grip on her own midsection and took a few deep breaths before she spoke. “The female that was able to give you what I can’t, Sath…a child.” She turned then and looked up at him, and the pain in her eyes struck him to the core. “I cannot be your mate, not in the true sense of the word. We cannot produce offspring. I never knew how much I wanted to be a Qatu so that I could be with you until Tairn cast that illusion spell on me that helped me get into Qatu’anari when…when…” She sniffled and fell silent a moment. “But it was just an illusion. I could have her cast that spell every day for the rest of our lives, and it would not change the fact that on the inside I am not Qatu, and we cannot…we do not fit.”
Sath stood, dumbfounded and staring, not saying a word. “It had never entered my mind that we would have a child. I wasn’t sure that you felt the same way for me that I do for you. I spent a long time believing that any chance of a relationship with you was destroyed after the fiasco with Anni. But anything more than having you with me in Qatu’anari had not occurred to me at all.” He raised an eyebrow as he locked eyes with her. “Gin, do you think that is all I want from a mate? Offspring?”
“You are Rajah now, you have to think about things like that.”
“Listen, if Annilanshi had not been part of Taeben’s plan to separate us, I would have chosen to be with you, Rajah or not. I fell in love with you long before I knew you when
