Alekglared at Max. “If it makes you feel any better, we much rather human blood. Werewolfblood tastes like dog.” Then Alek turned on his heels and left the barn.
Istifled a laugh. “Max, you hurt his feelings.”
Maxshrugged. “He’s a vampire, Aurora.”
Kaigrowled softly. “He’s my guest.” Kai left to go after Alek and Alexa went tocheck in on Emma, leaving me alone with Max.
Maxrolled his eyes. “I could tell you stories of Kai back in the day. He hatedvampires. This new Kai is weird.”
Ichuckled. “Be nice.”
Afterleaving Max at the barn, I decided to go back home and take a nap. Being prettymuch held captive on the mountain, had left me with zero entertainment options.I was bored as hell. Pulling Luna into our bed, I knew Kai would yell at melater for it. He hated her scent on our sheets. Oh well. Luna’s deep purrrattled against my chest and helped me drift into a peaceful sleep.
‘Wakeup! Get to Emma’s. It’s happening. She’s in labor. Coming fast.’Kai’s voice slammed into my sleeping state andjarred me awake.
Ileapt out of bed and whacked my leg on the corner of a chair piled withlaundry. “Oww!” I cried out while wriggling into clothes and then took offrunning out the front door, nearly plowing Max over.
“Emma’sin labor!” I screamed as Max watched me zoom by.
“Goodluck!” Max screamed after me.
‘Isshe okay? The baby?’I asked Kai, myfeet pounded the forest floor as I ran faster than ever before.
‘Baby’sfine, she’s fine. Diya says all is going well other than she is dilating veryfast,’Kai informed me calmly.
Iflew across her lawn with vampire speed, a gift Kai and I shared. After throwingopen the door, I ran back to the guest room, which was set up as a birthingroom. Emma hadn’t set foot in the master bedroom since Devon died.
Restinginside the door frame, I let my breathing settle from the run and surveyed thescene. Diya was wearing green scrubs and white gloves. She was tinkering with ababy warming bed and setting out towels.
Emmawas sitting on a birthing ball, holding Kai’s hand, face scrunching in pain.
Crossingthe room in two big strides, I stopped in front of her and got on my knees.
“I’mhere. How are you?” I asked, still panting.
Emmalet go of Kai and grabbed my hand. “It hurts like hell. The baby keeps shiftingforms.”
Damn,I couldn’t imagine a baby in my belly shifting from werewolf to human. Itsounded awful but I wasn’t going to tell her that. Instead, I started therhythmic breathing Diya had taught me.
“Okay,okay, we got this,” I told her calmly.
Irubbed small circles in her lower back and she moaned. “This sucks, I wishDevon were here.”
Kaiand I met each other’s eyes and I had to bite the inside of my cheek to keepfrom crying. I wish he was here, too.
“Whywould you want him here? He would have passed out on the floor by now. We wouldhave needed to hire a nurse just to tend to him,” I joked.
Emmalaughed. “I love you, Aurora. You’re a good friend,” she said and then startingscreaming in pain.
Ididn’t like that she was saying things like it was a goodbye. Diya reached overand attached some electrodes to Emma’s belly. Then I helped move her onto thebed so Diya could check her cervix.
“Wow,Emma, I’ve never seen labor progress this quickly. This baby wants out. Theconstant shifting from werewolf to human is making your uterus have moreintense contractions that are changing your cervix.”
Iraised my hand. “English, please?”
Diyasmiled. “She is dilated to ten and the baby is coming. Time to push.”
Oh,shit. Kai backed up against the wall, out of the way, as I helped Diya get Emma’sfeet into the stirrups. She was pale, sweaty, and grimacing.
