Casey stared grimly out the window, letting out a continuous high-pitched growl as the contraction went on. It let up just as they passed the Entering Olmsted County sign, and Casey gasped in a breath and snarled out, “I am not giving birth in the back seat of your car.”

“Well,” Adam said tightly, “It’s gonna be a choice of front seat or side of the road, then, if your little passenger doesn’t agree with you on that.”

“He is not little,” Casey snapped, because Adam was welcome to have six or seven pounds of baby and thirty extra pounds of baby-habitat crushing his internal organs out of shape any fucking time now.

“Yeah, well, he’s definitely yours,” Adam said, jamming on the gas to pull around a semi-truck. “Contrariest werewolf pup I’ve ever heard of, wanting to get born on the empty moon instead of the full.”

“As your own study fucking demonstrated,” Casey gritted out as another contraction started. “He is only in the top five percent of contrariness. And I was born on the full fucking moon, so I don’t know why you think he gets this from me, he’s probably taking after you, all fucking—tall—and—” Casey lost track of words and resorted to growling again.

He didn’t bother picking up the thread of argument when he got his breath back, and after a few seconds Adam said, “Music?”

“Finnish black metal playlist,” Casey confirmed, nodding hard.

Adam tapped a couple of buttons and then turned up the volume and let Moonsorrow do the snarling for a while.

Casey was pretty sure that he was not actually in transition yet—and the sun and moon hadn’t quite set—when Adam parked in front of the Midwives’ House. “Can I—”

“Don’t fucking touch me,” Casey snapped. “Get the bags.”

Adam nodded, and grabbed everything while Casey maneuvered himself out of the car. By the time Casey reached the porch steps, Ethan and Granny Tyne were there, each offering him an arm on his way up.

“What, no Rory?” Casey asked.

“Eh, thought we shouldn’t scare him when it’s this close to his turn,” Ethan said. “And also it’s Beau’s only night not on call for another month, so.”

“Fair,” Casey agreed, and glanced over at Ethan with a crooked smile. “Not gonna scare you?”

Ethan glanced down pointedly at his own flat belly and said, “Not more than witnessing every birth in the Mactire’s pack since my own already did, no. I’m already fully convinced it’s a terrible idea.”

Casey snorted agreement at that, and then they were in the house and Casey was looking up the stairs.

“We can set you up in the downstairs bedroom, or the kitchen,” Granny Tyne said dryly.

Casey shook his head. “Adam. Adam.”

Adam was there, then, the other omegas backing off instantly; Casey was dimly aware of being on the receiving end of humor the laboring mother as much as you can, there’s going to be enough that isn’t negotiable before it’s over. “What can I do?”

“Carry me,” Casey said, turning to loop his arms around Adam’s neck. Adam lifted him up without further commentary, and it felt like he had them up to the second floor in about four strides.

The door to the room that had been Pappa Otso’s stood open, and there was already a fire burning in the fireplace—just a small one, with summer not quite over, but welcome anyway on an empty moon night. The two stools were already set up in front of the fireplace—one just a low bench, the other heavily constructed with a cut-out seat, a slanted back, and places to brace hands and feet. Both were old, dark wood, darkened further here and there with generations of stains; they stood on a very practical canvas sheet, also stained. The rug had already been rolled up and put away somewhere.

Casey laughed a little. “First baby I ever caught was right here. Auntie Helen’s youngest. I was fifteen, everyone else was out, it was—” Casey’s breath caught as another contraction took hold, and he buried his face against Adam’s shoulder and let Adam do the breathing for both of them until Casey remembered how.

When it passed, he let himself go limp. After a while he realized Adam was still standing just inside the door, holding him in his arms.

“Sit,” Casey muttered, waving not toward either of the stools but the armchair by the window. He wasn’t in imminent danger of making a mess, and he’d stay cuddled up to Adam as long as he could bear it. It was, on top of everything else, the night of the empty moon, after all.

Adam sat, settling Casey on his lap, and for a minute Casey just leaned against him, catching his breath. It was all right now; they were home, where it was right for this baby to get born, for Casey to give birth. They were together and home and safe on the empty moon, and by the end of the night they’d have their baby in their arms, all of them together in a different way.

“Oh, fuck,” Casey groaned, turning to press his forehead against Adam’s shoulder. “Fuck, I’m gonna have the baby now. I’m not gonna be pregnant anymore.”

“Yeah,” Adam said, running a hand gingerly up and down Casey’s spine. “That... seems like how this usually works, but you’re the midwife.”

“I don’t like you at all,” Casey muttered, and that familiar joke was slightly less funny given what he had to follow it up with. “No, I mean—the bond, Adam, we’re not going to be bonded anymore, and don’t you fucking tell me it won’t go away completely, it won’t be the same. Fuck, fuck, I meant to talk about this, why is our kid such a fucking weirdo?”

“I mean,” Adam said, infuriatingly calm. “Consider the source, Case. And anyway, he’s only in the top five percent for weirdness.”

“Adam! I’m saying—fucking dammit—” Casey gave up on speaking as another contraction caught him. It was harder this time, the pain moving; his body knew as well as his brain did that they were safely denned up now and they could move this along. But they couldn’t, not until—

“I’m saying,” Casey snapped, as soon as he had breath for it, “we need to get properly fucking bonded right now, and this isn’t just labor talking, I mean it.”

“Okay,” Adam said, and Casey was so stunned he just stared.

“Sorry,” Adam said, “was that a keep-arguing-to-distract-you-from-being-in-labor thing? Because it felt like you meant it. And I mean it. I thought we’d have another couple weeks to talk about it, although honestly we probably still would’ve ended up putting it off until you were in labor anyway.”

Casey closed his eyes, and then started to laugh. “We would’ve, wouldn’t—ow, ow, fuck, ow—” He remembered to pant through the contraction this time, but they were definitely getting stronger.

“Now,” Casey said, struggling to pull his shirt off. “Now, now, I’m gonna be in transition soon and I won’t want you touching me.”

“Okay,” Adam said again, helping Casey get his shirt off and gathering him close again. He nuzzled at the crook of Casey’s neck, making him shiver a little. Casey tilted his head to give access, and then Adam’s hand tightened on his hip and Adam’s teeth sank in.

It was a different kind of pain from labor, or maybe the same kind—pain with a purpose, but this one was accomplished in an instant, a welling of blood and the soft swipe of Adam’s tongue. A sharpened awareness bloomed between them as the pain of the bite began to fade to incongruous pleasure and the burn of healing.

It was barely done before the next contraction seized him, and Casey clung to whatever parts of Adam his hands landed on until it was over.

Adam blew out a breath against the bite and said, “So, if what you were aiming for was letting me really feel what giving birth feels like—”

Casey groaned, laughing a little, “Dammit, I meant to be able to feel what not giving birth feels like, was I supposed to bite you for that?”

“We can try that next,” Adam promised. “You need to move?”

Casey nodded and stood, and walked gingerly over to the door. Ethan and Granny Tyne were waiting in the hallway, both looking amused and fond.

“Come on,” Casey said. “I think this is about to get exciting.”

“Isn’t everything, always, with you,” Granny Tyne said, smiling, and she cupped his cheek for a moment before she took charge, scolding him through getting properly ready to give birth.

The baby arrived a little after midnight, and by one o’clock Casey was able to lie in bed, with Adam curled around him according to Casey’s exact instructions for what to prop up and where not to touch. The baby lay on Casey’s chest, having made one drowsy attempt to nurse and immediately dozed off.

He really was tiny, removed from all the internal works that had fed and housed him for seven and a half months, and his head was covered with downy black hair that would probably all fall out before his real hair grew in. His eyes had been the uninformative slate blue of any newborn’s eyes, for the little time he’d spent with them open.

“No teeth, at least,” Casey murmured, when they’d both been lying there just staring at the baby in silence for a while. “I was born with two, I don’t know how Mama handled it.”

“Well, you were fifth, she was probably used to it by then,” Adam said, resting his hand lightly on the baby’s back, covering half his tiny body. “If Declan was born with teeth, then there might’ve been trouble.”

“Mm,” Casey said. “I guess we have to pick a name for him, huh?”

“I like all the ones on the short list.” Adam said, rubbing a thumb over their baby’s tiny shoulder. They’d agreed already that it would be an awful ill-wish to name the baby after anyone in either of their families, and decided to give him a name that didn’t belong to anyone they knew. “God, he’s so quiet. Were you quiet? I’m pretty sure I screamed a lot.”

“Full moon,” Casey said, leaning his head against Adam’s shoulder. “S’why so many wolf babies are born on the full, it gets them moving. They want out, and they’re riled up when they get here. Empty moon babies... want to be closer to their family, I guess. Cozy and safe.”

“The womb wasn’t cozy and safe enough?” Adam shook his head a little, but he was beaming as besottedly as Casey was, and there was nothing but exhausted happiness bouncing back and forth through their bond. “High standards, pup.”

“We’re gonna keep him safe, though,” Casey said firmly. “We will. We’re gonna get this right for him.”

“Imagine that,” Adam said. “What are the two of us going to do with a kid who’s quiet and calm and doesn’t have anything to be scared of?”

“Our best,” Casey said. “Which is all we could do anyway.” The same as their own parents had done for them, though hopefully with better results.

The baby stirred and stretched, and opened his eyes to peer up at them, looking unconcerned but curious about these giants staring at him.

“Hello there, baby,” Casey whispered. “Your name is Sebastian Vinick-Niemi, and we’re your parents. And we’re gonna fuck it up, probably, but we’ll do our best for you.”