Logan broke away from our kiss, but kept my hand firmly interlocked within his. “Let’s see if there’s anything we can do,” he said, to Keegan and I.
We both nodded and made our way past the outer guard, which basically looked like a bunch of Dominics, big meaty shifters strapped to the high heavens with guns and even grenades. How much did a grenade even cost? We were definitely going to need to sell those scales. As Logan and I stepped into the foyer, I saw that a few shifters were stationed at each window in the living room. They nodded as we passed, the new ones giving a deep head nod to their new alpha Keegan. That meant Dee was back at home base with her pack, protecting Casey and Geoff. Minus Nadine who was needed here for her medical skills. Isaac must be back at the land too, because I didn’t see my mentor either.
A loud scream came from the bedroom—Lynn—a painful cry mixed with a deep guttural moan. Chills ran up my arms as my dragon slithered against my skin. I’d always thought women who had children without drugs were goddesses. To be able to give life without any sort of numbing agent … it was a superpower in my opinion. That, however, was not my birth plan. When that day came, I would make sure we had some shifter anesthesiologist ready to make all the pain go bye-bye.
“LOGAN!” Nadine shouted from the room, and all the color drained from my mate’s face. He dropped my hand and tore down the hall, following the noise. I ran after him, staff in hand, ready to fight whatever it was that was making Nadine sound so scared.
When we burst into the room, I expected to see a druid hovering over Lynn’s body, but instead I just saw Tony holding her hand and looking terrified at the orange scales that ran along her arms. There was a white drape over her lower half, keeping her modesty.
“She’s shifting!” Nadine screeched. Eva was right there, cloth in hand, ready to take the baby from Nadine once she came out. I saw the blue baby pool just behind Eva, Danny tending to the spell. The water flickered between yellow and pink, smoke rising up above it.
“Should I put her in a dragon’s sleep?” Logan asked frantically, intuiting why Nadine had called him.
Tony looked amazed. “You can do that?”
“Yes!” Lynn begged between grunts. Her forehead glistened with sweat and she looked to be in some massive amounts of pain. I was wincing just watching her.
“No! Not yet. She’s needs to push the baby out first,” Nadine countered.
Lynn growled. “It hurts too much. My dragon is going to take over.” Scales dotted the edges of her face and I knew it must be taking immense concentration to keep from fully shifting.
Someone get this woman some drugs!
“One more push. You can do this!” Nadine told her.
Lynn looked at Logan. “If I start to full shift, put me in the sleep and cut the baby out.”
Logan blanched but nodded. I knew we weren’t prepared for a c-section; but that was a last resort. My mate stepped up and took her other hand. “If you shift, the druids will come for you and your baby. Tell your dragon that. Tell her you’re safer without her here right now.”
Logan had spoken to me like this before. Dragon whisperer. He was always trying to tuck my dragon away when she wanted to come out. I just hoped Lynn had more restraint than I did.
Lynn nodded, taking a deep breath, and a few of the scales retreated.
Tony stroked his wife’s arm. “You’ve done this before with Geoff. You can do it again.”
Lynn just glared at her husband. “No more children,” she told him, and he chuckled.
“Here we go,” Nadine said as Lynn’s belly flinched, rock hard. “Push…”
With a roar akin to a warrior running into battle, Lynn screamed. The hair on my arms was standing up as I flattened myself against the wall, preparing to witness the miracle of life.
“Yes! Here she is, don’t stop,” Nadine coaxed her.
My nerves were fried. I stood there rigidly, waiting to see what would happen. When an honest to God baby popped into Nadine’s outstretched arms, I was shocked a little. I don’t know why. I knew there was a baby in there, but to actually see it … whoa. Nadine quickly suctioned the little girl’s mouth and cut the cord as the room was accosted with a high-pitched baby’s wail.
Lynn and Tony broke down crying, and dammit I was crying too. That sweet sound, it meant she was healthy and alive—and it also reminded me of Isaac’s goat. Nadine quickly handed the baby to Eva. This was going to work! The second Eva’s hands wrapped around the baby, orange and cream scales began to form on her skin.
“No!” Eva shouted, nearly tripping backward to get the baby into the bath.
By the time Eva had lowered the baby into the water fully, only leaving her head out to breathe, she was a full-blown, adorable, orange and cream dragon.
“Babies shift extremely fast. I’d forgotten that,” Logan said in a hollow voice.
No one said a word. We just stared at this tiny winged creature and tried not to think of it as the harbinger of death.
“It didn’t work in time,” Eva finally said.
“Plan B,” Keegan declared, and all of a sudden I was being dragged by the underarm out into the hall and then into the living room.
“Plan B!” Keegan shouted, and activity erupted around the house.
Logan slipped in beside me and gave me a firm but chaste kiss. “I love you. I’ll see you soon,” he promised.
“Wait. We split up? Right now?” I mean, I’d just learned of this new rule. It felt too soon.
He nodded and then Ruben was there with a set of car keys. “Come on.”
“Maybe I should be the one to stay,” I argued. I mean, I was the one with the badass staff.
Keegan shook his head. “I’m sorry, Sloane, but you’re too important.” With that, Ruben gently but firmly, grabbed my wrist and started dragging me out the front door.
‘What are you going to do?’ I asked my mate. This felt all wrong. If the druids were coming, I should be here to help defend everyone.
‘We’ll get Lynn stable and move her and the baby to a second location. I’ll see you in a few hours. I promise.’
I knew that was a promise he couldn’t keep, but I took it anyway. What else could I do? He was right. If we stayed apart, the druids couldn’t kill us simultaneously.
Within three minutes, we were speeding down the road in a rental car, Ruben at the wheel. Everything was happening so fast I wasn’t able to process it all.
“Are we going to—?” I wasn’t able to finish my sentence. A tall druid appeared before our car and hurtled a red fireball at it. Ruben swerved, but the red ball crashed into the hood and everything in the car went black. The engine cut and we were coasting.
Steven.
Did he just throw a freaking EMP ball at our car? I really wanted that asshole dead. I gripped my staff and braced for impact.
Ruben careened the car up into the curb, grinding it to a stop and pulling the e-brake without a major collision.
“Stay in the car. If I die, run back to the house, where the others can protect you,” Ruben said, pulling out his gun and leaping out of the open door.