Sworn to the Wolf (28 page)
Authors: Lauren Dane
Laurent came into the room from outside and saw the group. Growling, he stalked toward them, his wolf shimmering toward the surface. Skye and Phillip backed off, both being lesser males and also knowing that showing any dominance in the face of how Laurent was reacting would only cause a fight.
Rain, feeling grumpy and annoyed, got to her feet and into Laurent’s face. “Knock it off for god’s sake! This is ridiculous.”
“Their hands were all over you!” he growled more than shouted.
“On my
feet
! My swollen feet. This isn’t
Pulp Fiction
, Laurent. A man can massage a woman’s feet without fucking her on the side. Perri had been massaging the muscles of my lower abdomen where
your
baby is pushing against and causing me pain a few minutes ago, are you going to rumble with her too? In case you hadn’t noticed there are at least twenty people in the room, Laurent. What did you think was going to happen?”
“I could have done that,” he responded, trying to get himself under control.
“But you didn’t. You were out on a run instead while I was stuck here. Did you have a nice time, Laurent? Running free and easy while I was beached in here, sore and
huge
as I gestated for you? How dare you come in here after that, looking relaxed and give me shit about getting a foot rub!”
“Rain, you’re spilling sex all over the place!” Laurent took her hands, kissing them.
“Oh for goodness’ sake! It’s not the first time a pregnant female has done it, it’s a common thing. Generations of wolves have dealt with it just fine. So just stuff a sock in ...OUCH!” She bent over, yanking her hands away and grabbing her stomach.
“Baby? What’s wrong?” Spat forgotten immediately, Laurent grabbed her arm and helped her back down to the couch.
“Damn it! This hurts!” she said, gasping.
Emma smiled and put her hands on Rain’s stomach. “A contraction. Let’s watch and see what happens. It might be time to have that baby. I know it was time to end that stupid fight.”
Laurent grinned and then looked sheepishly at Skye and Phillip who shrugged and smiled at him. He knelt in front of Rain and held her hand, stroking a thumb across her knuckles to calm her.
She was breathing normally again and had relaxed. Kari rushed in with Andreas. “Is it time?”
“It seems to have stopped. Oh. My. God!” Rain yelled and doubled over again. “Laurent,” she gasped out. “I want to go and lie down.”
“Emma?” Laurent asked.
“Let’s get her to your house. The room we’ve prepared to deliver in is all ready, if it’s time we can deliver, if not she can get some rest.”
Andreas went out to grab the cart. Laurent helped Rain stand and then she doubled over again. He picked her up and Emma nodded to Kari. “It’s time I think. Can you run up to the lodge and let them know we’re coming?” Kari nodded and went out the back door.
Laurent carried Rain to the second floor bedroom that they’d prepared for the home birth. Anna and Jade came in and helped get Rain into a front-opening gown for the labor and delivery. Emma scrubbed her hands and felt Rain’s abdomen. “Head down it feels like. Good. Now I need to check you and see how dilated you are. I won’t lie, it’s going to hurt but I’ll be as quick as I can. Just try to relax as much as you can and try to remember to breathe.” Emma put on gloves and checked Rain, who moaned in pain.
“Honey, you’re at six centimeters. You have a ways to go. Let’s get you walking, all right? It will help with the pain and keep the labor progressing.”
“Fuck that! I want drugs,” she screamed as another contraction hit and her water broke. “Gah, what the hell
is
that? Gross.”
“Your bag of waters just ruptured. You should move along faster now,” Emma said, ignoring the request for painkillers, their metabolisms rendered them useless anyway.
Elaine and Ellen came into the room and got scrubbed and prepared. Laurent walked with Rain all around the second floor. Rain labored on for another six hours and she was still only at seven centimeters.
“What? Six hours for one centimeter? At this rate I won’t have this child for months!”
Laurent rubbed the small of her back by rolling a tennis ball over it.
Exhausted and at the end of her rope, Rain slumped back on the bed, refusing to walk another step. “Laurent, I can’t do this. Honestly. Take me to a hospital and do a C-section. Cut this baby out of me. Please,” she begged him.
“
Mon coeur
, you’ll be all right. You’re at nine centimeters, you’ll be pushing soon and then we’ll have Grace or Philippe in our arms. You can do this, baby, you have to. You survived a bullet, you can do this,” he urged her.
“Which one of us has a baby pressing down on her pelvic floor?” Rain snarled. “I can do it?
You
do it! Your heart, my ass. You made me this way, Laurent.” She continued to mutter and Emma tried not to laugh.
“Into the shower with you, Rain. It’ll help, I promise.” Emma shooed Rain and Laurent into the bathroom.
After standing in the shower under the hot spray until the water cooled over and over, Rain walked back toward the bedroom and suddenly an agonizing pressure brought a gasp from her lips as she bore down to relieve it.
Only
,
was that the head?
“Oh my goodness, Laurent, the baby, it’s coming out!”
Laurent picked her up and ran into the room, waking up everyone in the process.
Ellen ordered Anna and Jade to prop pillows up behind her back. “Oh yeah, that’s the head all right. Okay, Laurent, you get this leg, Skye, you get the other, push back and give her a counterpoint to push against. Rain, sweetheart, you’re not only ready but the head’s crowning right this second. On the next contraction I want you to take a deep breath in and bear down, count to ten, suck in a breath and push again. All right?”
Rain nodded. Andreas, Phillip, Ryan, Alek, Perri, Devon and Sean were all in the room, sharing the moment. The contraction came and Rain did as she was told and in one push the baby was out and the pain evaporated.
“After twenty hours of labor you push twice and the baby is born,” Kari said with a huge grin.
“A baby girl. Here, sweetheart, nuzzle up to your momma.” Emma placed the wrapped-up bundle on Rain’s chest and Rain felt the shock of recognition rush through her. Her daughter. She and Laurent made this tiny, precious gift.
Pursed pink lips rooted as big, wide blue eyes stared up into Rain’s. She brought the baby to her breast and she latched on the second try and both Rain and the baby relaxed.
“Grace Karin Cole, welcome to the world,” Rain crooned. Laurent beamed at his women and stroked a finger over the shock of black troll-doll hair on that sweet-smelling head. “Ah, Rain, baby, you’ve given me the best gift. She’s perfect,” he whispered, kissing Grace and then Rain.
Skye kissed them both as well. “This is the fourth birth I’ve been lucky enough to witness. Thank you both so much for sharing it with me.”
“Ah, another life come to the Cherchez Clan. Rain and Laurent, you’ve honored Kari and me. Grace, your Alphas welcome you to this world,” Andreas said in a gentle rumble and stroked the tiny back of the bundle at Rain’s breast. “Almost makes me wish for another baby,” he said wistfully.
“Almost,” cracked Kari, who shoved the big men aside and kissed Rain’s forehead and then baby Grace.
“Another reason to change Pack culture,” Rain said to Kari and Emma.
Laurent groaned and gave a wry grin in Andreas’s direction. “Only you, my love, would start talking revolution less than five minutes after giving birth. I love you.”
“It’s my job, Laurent. Our daughter deserves as much of a chance as a son would have. And I love you too but I’m not going to do this again for a while.”
Laurent chuckled and Emma shooed everyone out of the room so Rain, Grace and Laurent could be alone.
Laurent carried Rain, who held Grace, downstairs to their room and they settled into the big bed with Grace between them, tiny and sleeping. Laurent’s hair was loose around his shoulders as he gazed down at his daughter and back up into his Mate’s face. He caressed the line of her jaw. “We’ve got quite a future ahead of us,
mon amour
. I for one can’t wait.”
Rain smiled and looked down at the tiny bundle, the combination of their genes, of their love. She ran a finger over the clasped fist, the skin as smooth as velvet. “Me either.”
* * * * *
Acknowledgments
Thanks go to Twitter user @Jenesuispasgoth for the French translation assistance!
The amazing, on the ball and awesome Carina Press team make my job so much easier as well as being totally rad. Thank you, each and every one!
To my magical and fierce editor, Angela James—yes, you do deserve all the chocolate all the time.
Don’t miss sexy paranormal romance
DIABLO LAKE: MOONSTRUCK
by Lauren Dane
available June 2016 wherever Carina Press eBooks are
sold.
In Diablo Lake, Washington, a town populated by werewolves,
witches, and more, magic woven deep into the earth protects the town’s
secrets from outsiders.
Katie Grady left Diablo Lake to get over a humiliating
breakup; but her family needs her help, so she’s back, in a sublet right across
the hall from the guy she’s lusted after for years. Jace Dooley is hotter than
ever, and their friendship picks up along with massive doses of grown-up
chemistry.
The very scent of Katie sharpens Jace’s canines, makes the
wolf within him stir. There’s nothing more alluring to a Pack Alpha than a sexy
female who is so very in charge. She won’t be coddled, but if he plays his hand
just right she might be convinced to become his.
Katie presents a challenge to Jace’s wolf nature, whose chief
instinct is to protect. Especially now that she’s coming into the magic that is
her birthright—and suddenly Jace isn’t the only one who’s interested in Katie,
or the raw power she’s just learning to use.
Also available from
Lauren
Dane
and Carina Press
Sworn to the Wolf
Goddess with a Blade series:
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Dane
and
HQN
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Cosmopolitan
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Dane
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Also watch for the next book in the Goddess with a
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About the Author
The story goes like this: While on pregnancy bed rest, Lauren Dane had plenty of downtime, so her husband took her comments about “giving that writing thing a serious go” to heart and brought home a secondhand laptop. She wrote her first book on it before it gave up the ghost. Even better, she sold that book and never looked back.
Today Lauren is an award-winning
New York Times
and
USA TODAY
bestselling author of over sixty novels and novellas across several genres.
Find out more about Lauren’s books at
www.laurendane.com
.
Discover
the
fantastic
adventures
of
Rowan
Summerwaite
in
the
Goddess with a Blade
series
!
Rowan Summerwaite was raised by the leader of the Vampire
Nation and is a supercharged Hunter with the power to slay any Vampire who
violates the age-old treaty.
GODDESS WITH A BLADE,
Goddess with
a Blade
, book one
BLADE TO THE KEEP,
Goddess with a
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BLADE ON THE HUNT,
Goddess with a
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, book three
AT BLADE’S EDGE,
Goddess with a
Blade
, book four
“If you have not tried the versatile and oh-so-gifted Dane’s
absorbing [
Goddess with a Blade
] series, then you’ve been missing out.
This ride is filled with high-stakes action, sizzling sensuality and devious
politics!”
—
RT Book Reviews
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