Run with wolves - Ramsay Bolton (Book 1)

Chapter 25

Ava's POV

"I swear I felt her move, she just kicked me." I placed my hand on my stomach. "Quick Ramsay, she's doing it again." I turned around and he quickly placed his hand on my stomach. "Can you feel that?" I asked him. There were 2 sharp kicks to the side of me, just below my ribcage. "I can feel her." His eyes were wide as he stared. I felt my eyes glaze over with tears or relief. I had always been an emotional person, but never this much. Pregnancy did wonderful things to a woman. "I feel you princess. Are you feeling better?" He asked, as if she would answer back. I held him and he relaxed against my body. "She's okay." I whispered. "I knew she would be, I told you didn't I? She's a Bolton and she's strong." I closed my eyes and just stood there holding him for a moment. "You were right lover." He kissed the top of my head. "Less than 10 weeks until she's here, she's okay."

I had been waiting a couple of weeks to feel her move, I had become desperate, before when she kicked and wriggled around, it made me feel so uncomfortable. She stopped me sleeping at night, or woke me up at ridiculous times in the morning. But it was the best feeling in the world, and I took it for granted, when I didn't feel her I realised what I was missing. Our baby was going to be okay. "I'm so sorry for endangering her Ramsay, I thought she was gone." I wrapped my arms around his neck and squeezed him, pressing him as close to my body as possible. "It's okay lover, she's alive and kicking, and that's the main thing." She kicked again, as if she recognised her fathers voice. "Even I felt that." Ramsay chuckled. "She's just going to get stronger,"

**

The days passed by quickly, and she had been moving around a lot. The Maester had felt all over my stomach, she had shifted herself around, her head was facing downwards. "She's in the birthing position already, her head is right down in your pelvis. I don't think you'll carry to term Lady Bolton. She's more likely to make an appearance earlier as she's so low down. I wouldn't be surprised if it was around 37 weeks." I was so uncomfortable, I knew she turned when I started to have trouble getting out of bed in the mornings. I had her elbows jabbing me in the ribs, and her feet kicking with every movement, her body was getting too big for my own, I didn't stand tall at all and I wasn't anything like Walda was. I couldn't stretch that far. "Is that dangerous Wolkan?" Ramsay asked, he was panicking. He knew nothing about children and it was starting to show as anxiety. "No My Lord, most babies are full term size by 37 weeks, some just decide they've had enough and some decide to stay put."

My abdomen tightened and I gritted my teeth and inhaled. It was painful and my muscles were tight. I gripped the side of the Maester's table until my knuckles were white. "Ava?" Ramsay called. "Is she in labour?" Wolkan shook his head as he felt my muscles contracting. "These are practice pains, it's you body's way of preparing you. I'm afraid the real pains are much more intense than these." My face dropped. Nobody told me about practice pains and they definitely didn't tell me they were nothing compared to actual birthing pains. "You probably won't be able to stand when you first go into labour." He looked sympathetic. Ramsay was pale, but more of an off white than his usual beautiful snow white skin. Ramsay was scared, but he wouldn't admit it. He was as scared of fatherhood as I was childbirth.

"I suspect she has built her strength up, and that's why she's been moving so much, and why she's been able to get herself close to the birthing canal. She's nearly ready to come into the world." All I could feel was my heart exploding with love and pride, she was a strong baby, just like me when I was born. "You can't anything that will put her at risk Wolkan, I won't have it." I squeezed Ramsay's hand, for someone who wanted a son so desperately and called her a he for months and months, he had warmed to her. "I'm sorry My Lord, but I can't stop the process of childbirth, I can only guide Ava through it safely." I rubbed my eyes, I was tired and swollen and sore all the time, in a way I hoped she would be born at 37 weeks. "I was delivered about a month earlier, could that have anything to do with her being the same?" I questioned him. "Yes I would expect so, family genetics is a brilliant thing. I would get busy, set up a crib for her and appoint a nursery maid. You're going to need one." I only had one person in mind for the job.