ZER:

Kate is grunting, she has been for a while, a few hours I think, but I don't know the exact number. Her face is on the crook of my neck as her dull teeth biting my shoulder hard. I don't mind, if hurting me taking away even the slightest pain she is enduring now, I'd gladly be her biting meat. Sweat covering all over her body, my hand lifts to cradle her head and run my fingers through her hair. Finally, she agreed to cut her hair short again, I was so happy to be able to see her collarbones playing hide and seek every time she moves. But her shiny, healthy hair is now dull and sticks to her neck. Her face is slightly pale and her lips are dry, there is darkness around her eyes, which is telling me how tired she must be feeling now.

My arms are around her as she kneels on the bed in front of me. Kate is magnificent, inside out. She is a strong woman, mentally and physically, but even now, I have a fear deep inside me that something might not go right tonight. I always do on the nights she gave birth.

"Let me die... just let me die..." She whispers weakly losing her strength.

I hold her tight against my front while my stomach drops to the other side of this planet. I will not allow it. You will fight, and I will be here with you, you'll be victorious. I tell her. She has to, I cannot lose her. The kids cannot lose their mothers.

"I will never have sex with you ever again in my life." She vows.

As you wish, wife.

Her body goes rigid, I know another wave of contraction is about to come. She has them very close together now, a sign that I learned that soon she will have to push the baby out.

Push, wife, for me and our children.

Kate takes a deep breath and groans loudly with one hand reaching down between her legs. I'm not ashamed to admit that I'm terrified of what is going on between her legs. I had a peek when she gave birth to our first child, and I was traumatized. Kate was very small, and our daughter was almost the same size as her stomach.

"The head is out." She says tiredly.

She takes another breath and when the next contraction comes, she pushes hard and a baby slides out of her.

"It's a boy," She says lovingly. Our baby boy's crying fills the room. I quickly get up to get Kate some water. She is cradling him on her chest as she wraps him in a fresh towel.

"He looks like you." She says full of emotions. I take a look at my second son. He does look like me. My second born looks exactly like Kate, with her skin color and facial features, except that he has black eyes and black teeth, and black tongue, and black nails. Our first is a mix between us two, she has her mother's nose and lips, and if I look closely, I can see speckles of green irises on her pitch-black eyes.

What would you like to call him?

"I still don't know, I like a lot of names, I think when I see him again tomorrow I will know which name suits him the best."

I hum in agreement. The newborn cuddles closer to his mother's chest looking for a nipple to suck. Kate expertly holds him with one arm with ease and guides him to one of her breasts. We bask in the quiet moment for a minute or two before her body goes rigid again.

Last baby, wife. I promise you I will not impregnate you anymore. And I'm not lying. She was done with Dominik, but I'm greedy of this thing called fatherhood and my wife loves me so much she put aside her needs just to give into my greed. There is nothing that can compare to the feeling of cradling your flesh and blood, especially after I knew what losing a child feels like.

I remember the first time I had Natasha in my arms, Kate told me I was frozen in place for a total of fifteen minutes, she had to shout my name to startled our baby to get me out of my amazement moment to help her clean and wrap Nat in a clean towel.

Halfway through this pregnancy, I found Kate crying on the bed, she then told me that she thinks there are two babies inside her. I felt so bad that I was overjoyed when Kate was terrified. I hold her tight that night whispering comfortable affirmations to help her ease her fears away. But I was so happy, I could not sleep a wink. Two babies. I was so proud of myself, and her. I know some of the men had jokingly said, that since the day we arrived, Kate was had been not pregnant for long.

I took their words as compliments.

The love I felt for my wife is the most certain thing I ever know and every day I make sure to show her just how much I love her, and her body tells me back how much she loves me by turning my seeds into souls. I must have done something right for the universe to grant me her as my wife.

Kate makes me rich without any money. She makes me powerful without any battles. She makes me happy without knowing sadness. She walked into my life and turns my life better, in every aspect, and in every way.

Her groan snaps me back into the present moment. Our boy was oblivious to his mother's pain and agony as she gives birth to his sibling, this one is faster than him, it takes only three pushes and my youngest is born, which I'm grateful for. When both of my wife's arms are full with newborns, I get up to clean up the mess, cut their cords, get water, and more blankets and towels.

My daughter Nat and my son Dom are with the rest of the males. I remember the day I introduce Nat to the rest, they all just look at the small baby half horrified, half in awe. Lor was the first one who asked if he could carry her, and I have never seen him so stiff, and so rigid in my life. Although I have to say, the first time I carried Nat in my arms, I flexed all of my muscles just to make sure I don't accidentally drop her. Soon, it was a battle to take him from Lor.

I will pick them up tomorrow, but tonight, I will have my wife and the twins all by myself before I have to share them with the rest.

When I'm back with fresh sheets I see my wife had our babies cleaned and wrapped in a blanket, their chubby faces are contrasting with the white fabric of the blanket. My heart beats slower, it always does whenever I see my babies. It's amazing how fast Kate's body healed and how fast she can conceive again. Nat is only a few months old and Dom was born not even two months ago. Although Kate always tells me that she is in her early forties according to human age.

Kate groans as she tries to sit up, I quickly stand by her side and carry her to the bathroom. I had a bath ready for her, gently, I place her in the middle as she sighs in relieves.

"Thank God for these herbs." She mumbles tiredly. I kiss her on her forehead and make sure the water is at the right temperature, it's an easy task if you can control heat.

She washes her sweat and blood away, while I slip back inside the bedroom to throw all the blood-stained linens to the laundry and to check on my newborns. My last babies.

Extraordinary, both of them are extraordinary.

"You've been staring at them for a while," Kate says walking slowly to the bed, I was lost in their beauty I didn't realize she is out of the tub.

You should have called me, I'd have carried you back to bed. Quickly I scoop her in my arms, not wanting her to move too much yet. She just won yet again another battle. I'm well aware that a lot of things could have gone wrong, I knew since the first birthing that my small, delicate wife had to fight to bring our babies into this world, while also fighting for her life.

The gratitude I feel for her is endless.

"I'm fine, just exhausted," Her whole face lifts at the sight of our latest additions. "Look at them, husband, they are perfect." She says in awe.

They truly are. I agree.

I hold her tight in my chest, thanking the universe for this love and happiness around me. Thanking the universe for bringing her to me, I don't know what would I do if I didn't meet her. If I refused to go to the pairing event that day if I was ten minutes late.

Thank you. I say sincerely.

Kate reaches for my face with her small hand and pulls the side of my face down for her to plant a kiss.

"Thank you," She whispers.

We should sleep now, this will be the last sleep before they start demanding milk every hour.

Kate chuckles and lays down, with both babies between us, I lay down with my eyes wide open, unable to sleep when I have three beautiful beings next to me. I lay down for a while until I decided there is no point in trying to sleep, I scoop up the closest baby with me, I will need a while to see which one is which, they look the same now, but I know as they grow their features will grow too. I unfold the blanket and see that this one is my daughter.

I have two daughters and two sons.

I have to sit down from feeling overwhelmed. I remember the day of the pairing event as clear as it was only yesterday. I remember how I stayed in bed longer than I used to, I always dreaded the day that I had to go to a pairing event. It reminds me of my unsuccessful first marriage and how devastating it made me. Never in my mind, I had even the slightest wish that I'd get paired that day.

But I was, and it was the best thing that ever happened in my life. Not when they announced me as the Leader of Universe United Battalion, not when they trusted me as the ruler of the exile galaxy, not when I brought victory after seventeen years of war, and not when they appointed me to protect Relish. It was when her small delicate fingers fixed the silver thin chains on my wrist.

My fingers immediately found the silver chains, which I still wear and will never take off. This is the first thing Kate ever gave me, and since this thing, she hasn't stopped giving her everything to me. Her life, her heart, her mind, he time, her attention, her trust. She just keeps giving and giving.

I was not supposed to get paired that day, but then again, what Kate did, didn't go against the law. The moment I saw her walking towards me slightly scared, but determined, how odd I found her behaving on the first days... if only I knew.

The moment I had her in my arms, carrying her inside the house, I shouldn't stop at the living room, I should have walked straight to the bedroom and laid her there, make love to her for days and night. Tell her that now she has me, my mind, my body, and my soul. That all she wishes would be my command, I should have shown her, how much I appreciated her for giving me the chance to be her husband, I should tell her, and showed her, and convince her, that her happy days was just begun.

But it doesn't matter now.

I keep telling myself, I have her now, and I have our children. I'm where I'm supposed to be, around people who I suppose to help.

I sit on the rocking chair, one that she asked me to make. She loves to sit here when she fed our babies. She told me that she will only breastfeed our children for four hundred days, not more, not less. I think she should feed them until eight hundred, but I don't argue with her. It's her body, and she had done so much bringing them to this world.

Whatever she wants, she shall get.

Like this rocking chair.

The chair is too small for me, but I don't mind. I cradle my baby girl close to my heart, Kate once told me that it's good to put newborn skin against skin, so I unwrapped my baby girl and placed her flat on my chest. My daughter is sound asleep as I rock us back and forth. With one palm supporting her head and the other on her bums.

I don't know how long have we stayed like this until I see my son starts fussing, Kate is awake immediately and place him on her breast, her eyes scanning the room looking for her daughter and when she sees us on the chair, a small smile painted on her beautiful face.

Oh, how much do I love her.