Page 28 of Royal Games (The Royals of Monterra)

I was met by Zeke, the lead wrangler at the ranch. He was in charge of handling the horses. Dr.Pavich was watching two other mares who were foaling, so he wanted me to keep an eye on Autumn Rain. Adrenaline pulsed through me as we entered the barn. Usually I was just assisting. Tonight I would be on my own.

Dr.Pavich had left me supplies to help with the birth. I wasn’t really dressed for it, but I could wash off whatever gross liquids ended up all over me. Autumn Rain was pacing back and forth, clearly in the early stages of labor. I held out my hand to her, talking gently. I let myself into the stall because no one had bothered to bandage up her tail. That could cause an infection for the foal if it came into contact with it.

I shouldn’t have been surprised when Rafe walked up and stood outside the stall. He watched as I finished binding the tail. I felt the horse’s stomach, and she snorted and shied sideways. I pulled my hand away and continued talking to her softly, letting myself back out of the stall.

In the best-case scenario, she would take care of this all by herself. My job was to watch and wait. Just in case.

“You don’t have to stay,” I told him.

“I know I don’t. I want to. I’ve never seen a horse being born.”

“It might take a while,” I warned him. “I mean, she is waxing, but even then ...”

“Waxing?”

There was no comfortable way to say this, so I just didn’t look him in the face. “When mares are close to delivering, they start to wax, or make secretions out of their teats.”

Autumn Rain ate some hay and continued her pacing. “Is she okay in that stall?”

“Normally we’d let her foal out in the field, but with it being winter, that wouldn’t be safe for either one of them. In here they have security cameras, and they can monitor her and tell when it’s time. She and her foal are too valuable to be left alone.” I crossed my arms over the stall door, and Rafe did the same.

“What could go wrong?”

“A million things. The foal could be too big. It could be breech. It could have one foot turned back. Get stuck in the birth canal. The sac could rupture. She could hemorrhage.” I tried not to think about each and every terrible way this could go wrong, and how Dr.Pavich was relying on me to make it go right. It felt like a lot of responsibility.

Her pacing stopped, and she started switching from getting down on the ground to standing back up. She repeated the process until she got down one last time and, finally, her water sac appeared. Amber-colored liquid started to stream out.

“It’s time!” I said, excited and joyful to watch as another living creature came into the world.

She seemed to have a pretty easy labor. It wasn’t her first foal, and she reacted better than a newer mom might have. Not much longer after the labor started, the foal was out.

“He’s here!” I said, jumping up and down while tugging on Rafe’s arm. It might not be a he. I couldn’t tell yet. Rafe gave me a huge smile, and I couldn’t help but respond. Some piece of me was glad I’d shared this moment with him.

“Now what?” he asked.

“Now he’ll break the sac, stand up, nurse, and be fine.” We watched as the foal struggled on the ground.

“Come on, come on,” I urged. But it was no good. He wasn’t breaking the sac.

The foal couldn’t breathe. He was going to suffocate.

Chapter 9

“Crap!” I said, rummaging through the kit to find a knife. The adrenaline was back as I pulled the stall door open.

Rafe started to follow me, but I told him to stay put. I didn’t need Autumn Rain getting upset. I took the knife and carefully cut open the amnion over the foal’s nose, praying I wouldn’t slip and accidently nick him. I widened the hole to get his nostrils clear of the sac. Definitely not breathing.

“I need the suction bulb. It’s the thing with a bulb on the bottom and a tube at the top.” Dr.Pavich probably had a more technical and precise version with him, but I would make do with what I had. Rafe quickly found it and brought it to me. He stayed in the stall with me, too, but I was too busy to worry about him.

After I sucked out the mucus from the foal’s nose, I held him upside down to get the fluid out of his lungs. It rushed out, and I put him in my lap. “Come on, baby,” I urged. “Breathe!”

I slapped his ribcage, and as I was mentally running through a checklist of what I could do next, the foal took in a big, raspy breath. I laughed with relief and put him down on the ground next to his mother. Rafe and I left the stall. Both mare and foal lay there, exhausted by what they had just been through. The foal started to weakly kick at the sac, trying to get the rest of it off.

“Should you do something else?” Rafe asked as I closed the door.

“More waiting. They need to recuperate like this, because he’s still getting blood from the placenta. When she stands up, the cord will break.”

Ten minutes passed in silence while we waited. Finally, Autumn Rain began to clean the foal, and I did another internal cheer. The licking not only cleaned him, but stimulated the baby’s senses and would help bond them together. There had been a possibility that she might have rejected the foal, but her cleaning him meant that wouldn’t happen.

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