so this is it

Aliana did her best to ignore the looks of surprise and apprehension from Siren and Dalila when she'd arrived to offer her assistance with the queen's birthing. They really shouldn't have been as shocked or apprehensive as they seemed. Outside of Siren, who was the active patient currently, Aliana was the only one who'd had any experience with delivering pups, and Siren was certainly in no position to be handling things herself right now. She'd been the one to save Cerberus' life when he was born. What if something went wrong with either Siren or the children within her? In that case Chimera would have been furious to find out she hadn't been in attendance to help his sister when she could have.

Speak of the devil and he shall appear. No sooner had that thought left her mind, the giant monochromatic king of the island came rushing into the room, claws scratching and scrabbling across the worn wood floors. Ali watched him position himself around his tiny sister for comfort and offered him a small smile and bow of her crown in greeting. Siren's contractions were getting more frequent; Chimera had arrived in the nick of time. It was always still surprising for her to see this sweet side of him. It almost made him seem... loving, fatherly. Noble traits in an otherwise unsavory character. She thought about what Siren had said to her once about a wolf's aura, about Chimera's being sinister in nature, and had a hard time believing that was all his essence was when she saw him like this.

Ali glanced up at Chimera and their gazes locked. He was staring at her with such a harsh intensity it made her heart stop. She sucked in an anxious breath, but didn't look away from him. He'd smelled her. Of course he would have in this confined room, but the way he looked at her... It was predatory at best, and at worst... Ali shuddered and pushed the thoughts away as quickly as she could. Holding his stare, she wordlessly motioned with her muzzle back to Siren. Whatever urges he was feeling, Siren had to be their priority. She would help keep him on track if she had to, but Siren and the pups were the important thing to focus on right now. It didn't stop her from dreading what he might try to do to her after the birth was finished though. Maybe if she was fast enough, she'd be able to hightail it to another isolated part of the island, keep her distance from Chimera until he'd settled down and could think rationally again. The island didn't need another litter of puppies, especially not when the pack was still so fresh. Hopefully he'd understand that too.

Aliana watched Siren as she whimpered and struggled in time with her contractions. Dalila helped where she could and Chimera did his best to soothe her. After some painful pushing, Siren birthed her first child into the world: a tiny slate-gray and cream marked girl. She was beautiful to behold, and Aliana received her in the silken cloths as soon as she was free of her mother, helping clear her airways for this first whining cries to be heard. Her colors were... unexpected, given her parents' genes. She supposed she had no way of knowing what traits lay dormant in the incestuous siblings from their own parents, but the math didn't add up at first blush. She would have to reflect on this with more thought later.

"Congratulations, you have a daughter!" She packaged the doubt in the back of her mind for the time being to focus on the small nugget of a wolf in her paws, beaming down at the little life so fresh to the world while she passed her over to Dalila to give to Siren. Aliana then began to set up with a second cloth to receive the next pup, doing her best to keep her nervous eyes away from Chimera all the while.

"Aliana"