"Hate to break up girl talk this important," Eli said quickly before the glare on Clytie's face could become actual words. "But Rebecca is having her baby and she asked for Margaret."
Both women jumped up in a flurry knocking over whatever stood in their way to get to the door, and neither noticed. Eli reached out his hand without thinking and Margaret took it the same way. Letting him pull her fast through the small luxury beach bungalow and out across the powdery sands. They ran back to the hotel, and it never occurred to Margaret to pull away.
"What happened?" he asked Lucas as soon as they reached him. He stood in the main hall heading for the staff nursing station that had be refitted to be a birthing room. "I thought we had a few weeks yet."
"Seems the baby had other ideas," Lucas answered and the grim tone in his voice was mirrored on the worried looks of the others that had gathered.
Margaret listened briefly and then headed for the door, still breathing hard from the run, her hand dropping from his as she got farther away.
He had to let her go eventually, he thought, trying not to dislike the feel of her letting go. And he knew she had other things on her mind, so it was not really a surprise when they reached the door of the hotel infirmary where the nurse they had hired that was also a midwife worked, and she was through the door without even looking his way. The door closing between them and leaving him with the Lionsgate pack that had gathered in the hall to await the birth along with the bulk of Rebecca's pack should not have had the significance that it seemed to. Eli shook off his own weird feelings. Surely, he did not need her to hold his hand just because he was so bloody uncomfortable in this situation.
He wished he could blame it on the crowd around him. Between the fifteen or so wolves that comprised the Hale pack and some of Lionsgate, it was a crowded hall. Even as wide and well-appointed as it was, it was not going to be comfortable to wait a long period of time, but people could come and go into the other rooms they had opened for just this reason. No one knew how long it would take, but even as early as the baby was coming, between the mother being part shifter, the father shifter and having a healer of Miley's caliber on hand, chances were good.
But he could not help but feel out of place and quite frankly useless in these circumstances. He was a protector by nature, a soldier, and a warrior, and here he was in a situation where there was not a damn thing he could do to protect the woman who was fighting her own battle. He did not even want to think about how this must be making the woman's actual mates feel.
"I think I know why human males are always getting drunk for the births of their children, Logan muttered pacing up and down the hall a short distance up the hallway.
Xena rolled her eyes at her mate’s obvious discomfort. Then she looked them all over and did it again when her eyes met Cleo's. "You would think this was the first baby ever to be born."
"Wait until it’s one of ours," Cleo muttered back and had every Lionsgate male lasering in on her and growling.
"That is not something I want to think about right now Cleo," her father growled at her while she unrepentantly laughed at their reactions.
Eli could appreciate the humor and fought his natural inclination to play with them, even as the thought of little Cleo doing what Rebecca was presently doing had him wanting to punch Shawn in the face. He would have glared at the man on principle but since everyone else already was Eli bit back a laugh instead. Shawn, he noticed, was too busy glaring at his mate to notice the attention he was getting.
Eli cleared his throat of the laughter that was tickling his throat and had to say it. "Yeah, wait until it's Cleo's. What do you think of that Grampa?" The look Lucas sent him could have boiled the skin from his bones.
Just at that moment there was a scream behind the sick room door, and even Eli lost all humor along with all the color in his face. Come to think of it, the thought of Cleo going through what Rebecca was right now while they had to stand around with their thumbs up their asses. Not that funny. The wave of restless unease was followed by a profound silence while everyone strained to hear what was happening in that room, at the same time wishing they were any the fuck where else.
Since Clytie had wanted to change out of her beach wear she and Demon had stayed behind to follow. Now the two of them followed by Ian and Liam, who had joined them at some point, stepped out of the elevator and came down the hall. To a man every Lionsgate male looked from her face to her small baby bump and went even grimmer. At the look on all their faces, Clytie stumbled and looked from face to face. "What is it? Are mother and baby alright?"
At that moment another scream came through the doors. Demon cursed and wrapped his arm around his pregnant mate’s shoulders looking like he wanted nothing more than to carry her off to safety. Unfortunately, in this case she carried the danger with her, and he had been the one to put her in it. The thoughts must have flashed through Demon's mind as they did Eli's because he started out looking grim and ended looking damn near ferocious. Even Eli did not have the heart to poke at the big man about this. Not when the screams were ringing in his ears through the door.
Clytie understood almost immediately, because she turned and pushed her mate back away from the door and the rest of them, wrapping her arms around him and tucking her head into his chest.
"I'm fine Demon," she whispered and only his shifter hearing allowed Eli to hear her words. "Nothing is going to happen to me or the baby. Rebecca is going to scream, she's giving birth, but that doesn't mean bad things are happening to her, or that they will happen to me."
To her whispered words Demon growled low and long in his throat and pulled her as close as he could get her. Which meant her feet came off the ground and she wrapped her legs around his waist and tucked her head in his neck, holding on as hard as he needed her to. They stood like that while the rest of the shifters in the hall paced or hunched in on themselves, sharing worried looks with their pack and generally feeling useless and inadequate to the situation. No one spoke after that, not willing to crack jokes now with Demon and his pregnant mate within hearing distance, even if it was just to diffuse the tension.
Maggie walked into the room and had no idea where she was supposed to stand. Three mates, Miley, who Margaret was surprised to see as well as the midwife took up all the available space. Not to mention she was pretty sure her job was to hold Rebecca's hand and there were already three large males taking the position, with Griffin behind her on the bed bracing her back while she huffed and puffed through her contractions.
"Should I wait outside?" she asked quietly when she caught Linc's eye from his place beside Rebecca. He looked stoic and moved with a precision that told Margaret that he was holding on to his emotions with an iron grip. He shook his head at her and motioned her over.
"She wants you," he said simply, and moved over to give her room at Becca's side. Griffin sat like a stone at her back while Rebecca sucked in breath after breath and he looked, daunting. But he held her friend with a soft gentleness that was at odds with that fierce look in his eyes. And the words he murmured in her ear did nothing but encourage and praise.
Margaret took Becca's hand and could not help that her own grasp was as tight as the mother to be. As if she could impart her own strength through the grip. "How is your day going?" She asked blandly, as if Becca had not just been screaming in pain a moment ago.
Becca laughed, a short burst through her tears as if it was surprised out of her.
Tired eyes smiled at her under sweat drenched locks of hair. "I've had better," was her simple answer. Some tension in the room dispersed with her answer and her friends three mates relaxed marginally. "You?"
Maggie thought about everything that had happened in the short time since she woke up and went with. "Had a picnic on the beach."
Becca smiled again. "That sounds better than my morning. Trade you?"
"Sure, you say that now," Margaret scoffed. "but once the baby gets here you'll be singing a different tune." She squeezed her
friends hand. "I'll be lucky if I get to hold baby Gilbert with all the competition in the hall."
"Gilbert?" Becca snorted out a laugh even as the strain returned to her face. "This is why you were banned from the baby name talks," Becca said her voice already breaking, her breath hitching as another contraction started. The tight grip she had on her hand turned bone grinding very quickly.
"I guess you'll have to finally make your choice in about a minute," she said smiling with an effort at her friend. Then she felt Linc get closer and she looked up seeing he had eyes only for his mate and understood what they all needed. She passed the tightening hand over to him and backed up so that the three men were where they needed to be. With the midwife Janey and Miley there she soon found herself almost in the corner. Watching them all from a distance. She would have liked to have continued to hold her friend’s hand but that was more about her than what Becca needed.
Her eyes drifted from the mother to be and her protective mates, down to the two other women in the room. She knew Janey was a midwife and nurse, but she did not know what Miley's role in the birth room was. The gorgeous golden... mate, she supposed, of Lucas Gibbs stood with the midwife and at Becca’s right hip. Her hands were on the swell of Rebecca's belly and... Margaret blinked thinking she was imagining the glow of light under the woman’s hands, but no, she was glowing. Was it a shifter thing? Clytie had not mentioned that Miley had an animal form, so what exactly was she and what was she doing to her friend. Raising her eyes with an effort Becca looked from that mesmerizing glow to the rest of the occupants. No one either noticed or cared that Miley was shooting light from her hands into her friend’s pregnant belly, and then she caught the look on Miley's face and realized that whatever she was doing it was hurting her. Margaret’s eyes flew to Becca. Becca who was no longer struggling with as much pain, if her face was any indication. She looked back at Miley completely fascinated. Was she some kind of healer? Did they have those too? What else did they have in this new world she had stumbled into. Then her friend screamed, and the rest became academic because it was obvious even to Margaret that something was wrong with that scream.
Miley gasped and her hands glowed brighter. She raised pain filled eyes to the midwife. "We need to get him out. Now."
"We have a doctor on standby upstairs," Griffin growled grimly. "Becca did not want him but we didn't want to take the chance."
"Get him," Miley said her voice flat and her eyes communicating more than words could to the man.
Griffin looked at Jacob who stood holding Becca's right hand. Margaret blinked, and the man was out of the room, the door slamming open against the wall, probably leaving a permanent dent. She could hear him bellowing orders out in the hall before he came back in to the room and right back to his mate's side. "He'll be here," he said. His voice communicating that someone would die if he was not. So, it was no surprise when a short, burly, older gentleman with fly away hair was shoved into the room breathless from what had to have been a flat run.
Margaret recognized Jax right before he shoved the doctor the final foot into the room and pulled the door closed. The doctor went from shocked to belligerent as if he was ready to lambast someone for his treatment when he got a good look at the patient and shut up. He immediately started rolling up his sleeves and issuing orders.
Margaret found herself suddenly thrust into the hall with the shapeshifters. And looking into the eyes of all the people in the hall waiting for news she had no problem seeing the beasts peaking back at her from all those intense stares.
Oh. My.
CHAPTER EIGHT
Eli watched Margaret almost as much as he watched the door leading to the birth room. She stood apart, and he was not sure whether it was because they were all shifters here, with a few exceptions, or if it was her way to stand on her own while bad things were happening. Whatever the case he lasted about five minutes, watching the woman try to shore up her crumbling defenses. But he had no real desire to see the ice queen return when he could clearly see her heart wasn't in it. The lot of them were worried, and frustrated, but Maggie had been in the room, and she looked closer to terrified. A look she was quickly attempting to hide behind a raised chin and her floundering shields.
Eli saw her take a deep shaky breath wondering in an almost academic sense if she would succeed to hide all that emotion away again, when he noticed something he just could not take. A tremble in those small elegant hands, before she clasped them together at her waist in a move so practiced he wondered how many times she had forced herself to do it, to hide the betraying tremor. And who the hell taught her that emotion equaled weakness you had to hide? Whatever her reasons or history he did not like her looking so vulnerable and alone.
Before he could think about what he was doing he was across the short hall and had her blocked from view from all the other predators in the room. As soon as his big body blocked out the light she looked up and met his eyes, her own wide and shell shocked. She met his gaze and squared her shoulders.
"I'm fine," she assured him speaking low.
"The fuck you are," he growled back just as soft, if with more of an edge. "And no one expects you to be."
She sucked in a breath her eyes still locked on his. He watched her steady and plant herself, and knew it was happening all the way to her core. "Falling apart won't do her any good." And those cool as iced steel words reflected at him in those fucking beautiful eyes. Eyes that sparkled with tears she never intended to shed.
Eli growled low in his throat and took another step toward her, forcing her to step back so that the wall was at her back and he covered her front. She was basically pinned in but protected just the same. It was an instinct he could not shake, to have her protected from all sides. He assured himself it was his bodyguard training but knew the job had fuck all to do with it. "It might do you some fucking good."
She sucked in a breath and he felt the conviction in her eyes pierce him. She swallowed hard fighting the tears that wanted to fall. With just a glimpse behind that shield he saw her fear. She wasn't just worried for her friend. She was terrified.
"Maggie?" he growled the question, moving even closer. He hated, hated that look in those devastated eyes. It gutted him, and he felt his cat come closer to the surface in reaction to her pain. Not something that had ever happened before.
She interrupted him in a shaky whisper that shut him up. "They have to cut her open to get the baby."
"Cut?" Someone said behind them, but Maggie paid no mind, her focus on him.
"I don’t..." She swallowed again with more effort, and they both ignored the reactions in the hall behind them as people started to understand that things had gone very bad. Though most realized that the second they had called for the doctor. "There aren't any machines, or surgical equipment, or monitors..." she went on not even noticing anyone else was present. "The doctor said there was no time to airlift her to the hospital. But he wanted to. I know he did."
Eli took hold of her shoulders and practically shoved her into the wall to get her attention. "Miley is a healer, and Rebecca is part wolf, the baby will be more than just part shifter. That means they will heal faster than normal, and what their bodies can't heal, Miley can. She saved Rebecca when she was shot in the stomach, she can heal whatever modern medicine can't." He said without preamble, giving away some of their most guarded secrets without a qualm. Those who had no idea Maggie knew about shifters gasped in shock behind him. None of the Lionsgate pack said a thing though, or made a noise. Even so, he could feel them rallying around his back and knew he was covered should someone in the Hale pack react badly to his information sharing. He did not think they would, but it was good to have pack at his back just in case.
"Her hands were glowing," Margaret said almost absently taking a deep steadying breath. "I wondered if she was a healer." Then her eyes narrowed, and her brows lowered. "Becca was shot?"
"It's a long story," Eli said quickly. "The point is she survived because Miley sav
ed her. No hospital could have done it, so you don't need to worry about her or the baby not going to the hospital. Once they get the baby out of her Miley can work her magic. Becca will be fine." And Eli hoped like hell he was right.
Some small sound down the hall finally drew Margaret’s attention and she stepped to the side of him to look. Eli followed her move and they both saw Clytie in the circle of Demon's arms, hands on her belly, head down and gasping. Eli felt his heart stop in his chest at the implications of that. If Becca was early, Clytie was only about three months along, her bump was barely there. No way was that a good thing.
Clytie raised her head and saw she had the attention of everyone in the hall with varying stages of horror on their faces. Demon's hand came down on her shoulder and gripped her as if afraid she would somehow slip away from him. She raised both hands out in front of her like she had to hold back the tide coming at her. "It's just gas. I'm fine, I swear. Nothing to see here!" she looked over her shoulder and gave big eyes to her mate. "Gas, Demon. Nothing else. I swear."
It took a moment for everyone in the hall to breathe again. Then Demon turned and walked a little way down the hall away from his mate and raged curses for a solid ten minutes before returning to his mate’s side to wrap her back up in his arms and grunt at her.
Eli almost laughed when Clytie met Cleo's eyes and she widened her eyes in a ‘what the hell was that’ way.
He felt a soft cool hand take hold of his, and he looked down to see Maggie had slipped her hand into his and was holding on for dear life. Whether it was Demon's terrifying ranting or her friend’s predicament in the other room he didn't care. Something about the gesture of her taking his hand made his cat lunge to the surface and his heart stutter. He did not look up into her eyes, very carefully looking at their clasped hands only, because if she saw what he was feeling at that moment, the realization that touch had garnered, she would run far and fast from him. Instead he turned to the hall keeping Margaret close to his side, with his hand locked tight around hers. He met Logan's eyes and watched the man who knew him better than most understand what had happened.
Shielding Her Page 6
