Untamed Force (Force of Nature Series) (24 page)

She felt his touch seconds before he
spoke to her.
“You want this property then I suggest you let me do the
talking.”

Stacy glared at Phil. She knew that
since Myles had given her his blood, she had a connection to his maker as well.
She wasn’t thrilled by it, but simply tried to forget about it. She also knew
there was no birth certificate.

“I was about to have him for dinner. If
you let me, I’ll let you have first taste.”
She nearly choked on her glass
of water when Phil licked his lips at her. The councilman didn’t seem to think
it was funny.

“I thought you said that no record of…” The
man seemed to understand that he was in a house full of people that could and
would eat him if this went on much longer. “Let me have a look at this.”

In the forty hours he looked it over
Stacy tried to think of anything. Of course it wasn’t really that long, it just
seemed that way. She shifted on her chair again and wondered if she could have
someone find her a heating pad. Phil suddenly looked up at her.

“How long, Stacy?”

She looked at him, frowning.

“How long have you been in labor?”

“I am not in labor.” She looked at
Dallas, panicky. “I am not in labor. I have five days to go.”

He grinned. “I don’t think our son cares
about those five days. I felt your pain an hour ago. I had hoped that you’d be
finished with this gentleman and we could go to the clinic. I’ve called Clint
and told him we were coming.”

Stacy looked at Briggs. “Do you know how
to deliver a baby? If not then I would suggest that you sign that stupid paper
and let me go have my child.”

He snatched the pen that Phil was
handing him and scribbled his name over the document. She had a sudden thought
as to if he was hitting the correct line when a sudden ripping pain took her
breath away.

“Okay then” Phil put the document into
the file and looked at them all. “Dallas, pick up your lovely mate. Myles, call
the troops. I’ll get them to the hospital right—”

“No,” Dallas said loudly. “No, you’re
not taking them that way. You can’t make her sick when she’s in labor. We’ll
drive. A car. My car.”

Phil laughed. “I was going to say the
car. I wouldn’t do that to her. You maybe, but not her.”

They had her loaded in the back of the
SUV in seconds and Phil was driving them to the hospital. She was trying to get
a grip on her pain and breathing when she felt her water break. Suddenly,
things seemed to slow. She felt calm, almost like she was prepared for
anything.

She was going to be a mother and it was
going to happen now. Stacy looked at Dallas, who looked terrified. Stacy put
her hand to his cheek. Things were going to be fine. They were going to be
fine.

There seemed to be too many people
waiting for them. As soon as they stopped, all the doors flew open and she was
lifted from Dallas’ arms. The ride inside was on a gurney and she looked around
the emergency room. There seemed to be every person they knew and then some.

She had never felt so loved in her
entire life. Smiling, she was whisked to the second floor and labor and
delivery. Nancy Wolf was already there waiting.

“That nice man Myles brought me. He said
it usually made people sick to be taken that fast, but he said Phil showed him
how to do it without causing problems.” Stacy would have laughed at the
expression on Dallas’ face, but another pain took her. “Oh my, dear, you must
hurry.”

~~~

Dallas held her hand. He was exhausted
and he was sure she was too. They’d been at this for nearly three hours and
things were not progressing like they had been told it would in those labor
classes. In fact, they made it seem so easy. He looked at the monitor when it
starting beeping again.

Clint came in smiling and Dallas decided
that when this was over, he was going to have Phil drain him. There was
something purely sadistic about the man. Who left a woman in labor for this
long and smiled?

“Okay, Stacy. Let’s see how you’re
coming along.” He moved to the foot of the bed. When he hummed for the second
time, then a third, Dallas was trying to figure out what it would cost for a
hired gun. Maybe he could get a discount from Holly.

“Well?” He looked around the room when
he realized he was being stared at.
Okay
, he thought,
take a deep
breath and try again.
“Well? Is she progressing?”

“Yep.”

What kind of doctor said “yep” like a
ten-year-old anyway?

“I think we should move this along now.
I’d say you’re ripe for the picking, Stacy. I’m ready if you are.”

She nodded. Dallas didn’t. Now? They
were ready now? Before he could voice his concerns the room was filled with
people and he was being placed at the head of the table near Stacy’s head. He
nearly said stop when Clint told her to push when she felt the next
contraction.

“I think—” Stacy howled and the hair on
his arms rose up. Suddenly she had a grip on his arms that made him see stars. They
were having a baby.

They’d not wanted to know the sex. He
and Stacy had decided that when the baby came they’d be happy. Healthy was
really all they wanted and when he was born, they’d name him then. Dallas
secretly wanted to name him after his father, but didn’t want to push the
issue. Not yet at any rate. His son, the doctor said, was crowning.

Four pushes later it was finished. When
Clint put the baby onto her chest Stacy cried. It was all Dallas could do not
to join her. He looked down at his precious bundle and touched the tiny little
fingers. They were as soft as they looked.

“You should go and tell your family.”

He nodded, but didn’t move.

“Dallas, you made a promise to them. If
they did not join us in this room then you would come tell them as soon as it
was over.”

He moved to the door, glancing back
every second or so. He couldn’t have wiped the grin off his face if he’d had a
gun to his head. Entering the waiting room, he chuckled. It looked like the
entire pack, both his and Austin’s, were there.

His mom stepped forward.

“She’s all right. And so is my daughter.
All nine pounds and eleven ounces of her.”

The room erupted in congratulations and
well wishes. His mom hugged him to her and laughed. “I knew it was going to be
a girl. You’ve your work cut out for you.”

Dallas kissed her on the cheek. “We had
a girl’s name picked out. Just in case I was wrong this time. The only one we
agreed on. Her name is Nancy Janelle Force.” His mom hugged him tighter. “I
love you, Mom.”

“And I love you, son. I can’t believe…”
She looked around the room. “We’ve so much here. So much that I can’t…”

“I love you, Mom.” He wanted to go back
to Stacy, but knew that his mom needed him more than ever. “When I grow up, I
want to be just like you.”

She laughed as he’d hoped she would. He
held her while his brothers patted him on the back and congratulated him. Even
Phil, with his own baby cradled in his arms, seemed to understand that he was a
part of something huge here. He nodded as if to say he really did understand.

After his family held little Nancy and
ooed and ahhed over her they went home. Dallas sat on the chair next to Stacy’s
bed and watched his daughter breathe. It was by far the most exciting thing he’d
ever seen. When Stacy yawned again he turned off the light and held her.

“I want to have several more children,
Dallas. Would that be all right with you?”

He nodded, closing his eyes.

“And I want us to let my uncle come and
stay with us if you do not mind.”

He didn’t. He had grown very fond of the
older wolf. He grinned when he thought of his face when Dallas told him to come
to live with them. He was a man who didn’t like change. Dallas decided that he’d
ask him to be his council. That might make it easier.

“Harvey said that he would help me. I
think that I’ll ask him about it tomorrow. You and I have a nice pack to run.” Not
all that large, but it was getting bigger daily. Nearly all of Stacy’s sire’s
pack had asked to be with her. It seemed that Stacy had been helping them for
years.

“Dallas, do you think it bad if we
simply held her while she slept?” He got up and went to the little bassinet. Picking
her up, she snored slightly and he laughed. Handing her to Stacy, she smiled
and pulled her to her breast. “We have a beautiful little girl.”

“Yes. And her mother is beautiful as
well.” He reached into the little drawer beside the bed, pulled out the small
package, and handed it to her. “I love you and wanted you to have something for
making me the happiest man in the world. I know that sounds sappy, but I am.”

She handed him Nancy and opened the box.
He held his breath as she fumbled with the tape. When she tried to peel away
the wrapping without tearing it he nearly told her to simply tear it off. But
he didn’t. He smiled when she finally opened the box.

It was a bracelet. One he’d had made for
her. She took it out and held it to her cheek. He leaned over their daughter
and kissed her.

He’d talked with his brother on the design.
It had taken them nearly a month to decide on it and he’d never been so pleased
with anything like he was with this. Connor promised him that he’d never use
the design again for anything.

The wolves chasing one another were made
of white gold and encircled her wrist perfectly. The chain that held them
together was made of copper. He’d had his brother add a few stones, things he’d
found for her when they’d been walking the property. Nothing precious, but
things they’d both loved. Then there was the beautiful emerald that was on the
clasp. It had been his father’s signet ring from college. His mom had given him
the broken ring and told him to use the gold. They had. Each wolf had a little
of the white gold in them.

“I have something for you as well.” She
had him hand her the bag his mom had brought to the hospital. “It has been in
my purse for nearly a month. I wanted to surprise you with it.”

He took the small box and didn’t know
what to say. He’d never been very good at receiving gifts. He was more of a
giver. He tore the paper off much to her delight and smiled before he opened
it.

“Oh ,Stacy.” The framed picture lay
nestled in a bed of tissue paper. He didn’t even try to lift it out, terrified
that he’d break it. It wasn’t so much the frame, but the picture itself. “It’s
all of us.”

The picture was perhaps forty years old.
In it were his mom and dad and his brothers. They were standing in front of the
house he’d grown up in. He and Austin were about ten and the others just a few
years younger. His parents were looking at each other as if they were so deeply
in love. He and his brothers were standing shoulder to shoulder with their arms
around each other and the most mysterious smiles on their faces. As if they
knew as soon as the picture was taken they were going to get into trouble for
something big.

“Your mother said you broke your arm
that afternoon. She said that Austin had tossed you from a tree to see if you
could fly.” She looked at the picture with him. “Why would someone do that to
his own brother?”

“We had a bet. I was the flyer first because
I won. Austin was a little pissy because he wanted to fly first. It never
occurred to us that we couldn’t. My parents made us believe we could do
anything.” He ran his finger over his father’s face, only now realizing how
much he and Austin looked like him. “Dad said that the next time we decided to
see if we could do something that involved anything sharp or high off the
ground we had to make sure he was there to help us.”

“I am sure that he would have talked you
out of such foolishness. To think you thought you could fly.” She took Nancy
from him and he laughed. “You will not teach our daughter such tricks. She will
remain a lady.”

Dallas only nodded. With as many pack
and cousins she had already he doubted his daughter would be anything less than
a boy at heart. He smiled when he thought of Holly helping her be all the boy
she could be. Snuggling into his mate’s body, he smiled again. “You can try,
love, but I’m pretty sure when she gets old enough, neither of us will be able
to stop her.”

Stacy snorted.

“Our best bet is to try and be there
when she falls.”

“I suppose it will be good for her when
she starts to date. Knowing how to protect herself from other males.” Stacy
turned off the light.

Dallas laid there thinking of all the
things he was going to do to the first male that even looked his daughter’s
way. And he smiled the entire time. His daughter was not going to date until
she was at least thirty and then only if he was there with her. No one was going
to hurt one of his.

About the Author

I woke up one morning and decided to
give play time to the people in my head who were keeping me awake. Little did I
know that they would be so relentless and want their time right now! I wrote
for the pure joy of it and to entertain my family and friends. But mostly it
was to get more than an hour of sleep without a story playing out. Of course,
the more I write, the more they want. So…well, as a result of sleepless days (I
work through the night as a gun toting grandma – nope not a vigilantly but an
armed security guard) I have lots of stories written.