Lycan Christmas

Chapter Seventeen

The next two weeks flew by. Although Melony had wanted to go see Lorent the day after she’d had the dream where he’d told her all about his past, she’d refrained from doing so—barely. It had only been a dream, after all. She now sat behind the wheel of a giant SUV waiting for Sherry to make an appearance.

She hadn’t given much thought about agreeing to take her to town since the day she’d promised to.

She’d been preoccupied with fretting over what to do about Lorent, and busy with giving haircuts. Every woman and man at Sanctuary had been groomed to perfection. She’d also helped with Christmas decorations. The place looked like a winter wonderland, and she was proud to have been a part of it. She never had gotten around to getting a tree for her cabin, but she didn’t really miss it with all the decorations that were all around her.

Sherry came out of the clearing beside the SUV, and Melony sighed in resignation. A part of her had hoped that Sherry had forgotten. She’d be one happy camper when this trip was over and Sherry was back home safe and sound. She had a bad feeling about this little foray into town, but chalked it up to nerves from doing something she shouldn’t be doing.

Sherry struggled into the passenger side, stretched the seat belt across her swollen belly, and clicked it into place. “Hey!”

Melony smiled. “Hi.”

“Ready?”

“Yeah. Let’s get this over with,” Melony murmured.

Sherry laughed. “It’s not like I’m dragging you to town to be tortured.

This will be fun. Just us girls. Besides, if something goes wrong—and it won’t—we have the long-range walkie in the glove compartment, and there are phones in town. There will only be a short time there and back that we are out of range. We’ll just call back to Sanctuary if need be, and someone will be with us in a jiff.”

“Yeah, and that’s when I get my ass tanned for helping you with this little stunt.”

“I thought you were supposed to be the optimistic one, not the Negative Nelly.” Sherry sighed. “Look. We’ll drive there. I’ll get Piers’s present, and we’ll come right back. Okay?”

Really, what could happen? It wasn’t as if people didn’t drive to town every day. “Okay.” She put the SUV into gear and started slowly down the bumpy road.

Two and a half hours later

Melony breathed a sigh of relief. So far, so good. Sherry’s shortcut—

although bumpy as hell—had taken the drive to town down to well under two hours. She’d kept true to her word, had gotten Piers’s present in no time, and now they were well into the trip back to Sanctuary. If they could get back without getting caught, Melony would be ecstatic.

“Thank you so much for doing this for me, Mel. Can I call you Mel? It’s fitting. I don’t know why I haven’t called you it before now.”

“Sure, and you’re welcome . . . again.” Melony giggled when Sherry laughed.

“I know. I know.” Sherry put her hands up in surrender. “I’ve said thank you a million times, and I hate it myself when people do that, but you have no idea how much this means to me.”

“I think I do.” Melony grinned.

She looked over at Sherry, loving the way the happiness radiated from her and knowing she had a part in it. Maybe this trip wasn’t such a bad idea after all.

“If you don’t mind me asking, why don’t you hang around with Lorent any longer?”

Melony shrugged. “It’s kind of a long, complicated story.”

“All the lycan men are complicated, Mel.”

“Yeah, I guess they are, but Lorent is just so . . . so intense.”

“Again, they all are, sweetie.” Sherry chuckled.

“Yeah, I guess they are, but he mixes me all up when I’m around him.

And the dreams. Ugh.”

“The dreams?” Sherry sat up straighter and stared at her.

“Yeah. Since I met Lorent, I’ve had some really strange dreams. They seem so real. I’ve never had ones like that before.”

“Oh hell. No one’s told you about the dreams,” Sherry muttered.

“Told me what about what dreams?”

“Mates can communicate with one another in dreams. They are as close as you can get to reality in dream world.”

“Wait. What?” Holy crap. If what Sherry was saying was true—and she had no reason to believe Sherry would lie to her—that meant . . . “I’m Lorent’s mate?”

Now that she thought back on the last dream, the one where he’d finally told her about his past, he’d said something about claiming her. Wasn’t that a mate thing? Or maybe it was just a lycan thing, although she’d never associated making love to someone with claiming them.

“Sounds like.”

“But why didn’t he tell me?” Melony was happy and pissed all at the same time.

“As I said, the lycan men are complicated.”

“Obviously.” Melony was going give Lorent a serious ass-kicking when they got back for not telling her she was his mate—if she was in fact. Maybe he didn’t tell her because he didn’t want her? But if the dreams were real, he’d come to her and confided in her about his past as she’d asked him to.

He did care for her. Damn it. Why couldn’t he have told her?

Then it dawned on her. The dreams were Lorent’s way of being himself with her without the guilt of reality weighing him down. There were no rules he had to follow, no one he had to answer to in the dreams, but himself and .

. . her? He’d opened up to her the only way he knew how. She wanted to cry in relief. He did love her, and she had to figure out a way to make him realize it.

Shortly after that thought, things went to hell in a handbasket. Sherry screamed at the same time Melony spotted a figure standing in front of them on the road. She braked hard, and the SUV skidded sideways, down an embankment, and slammed into a tree that was now wedged against and blocking the driver’s side door.

“Oh my God! Are you all right, Sherry?” Melony fumbled with her seat belt to scoot closer to Sherry.

“Yes, yes. I’m okay, but we need to get out of here.”

“I think we are stuck.” The way Sherry’s eyes darted from window to window was starting to scare Melony. “What’s wrong?”

“I think that was a rogue. If I’m right, we may be in big trouble.”

“A-A rogue? We need to use the walkie. Now!” Melony reached for the glove compartment and noticed it had been jarred open from the crash. The walkie was no longer inside, and she started searching for it frantically, figuring the impact must have thrown it under the seat or in the back.

“Um, we have another problem.”

Melony turned to Sherry. “What?”

“My water just broke.”

“Oh, Sherry. Please tell me you are joking.”

“No.” Sherry’s tearful whisper gave all the proof Melony needed that it was, indeed, not a joke.

“I’ve been having dreams about him coming early, but Piers and I talked about it and decided it was just nerves. Janine told me the same when I confided in her.”

So the unease she’d picked up on with Janine and Sherry had had some merit to it. Freaking great! This is just what she needed.

“I’ll find the walkie, and everything will be fine. Just stay calm.” Staying calm was easier said than done, but she had no choice in the matter. If she got all worked up, Sherry would as well, and that wouldn’t do either of them any good.

“I’ll try.”

Melony climbed into the backseat and searched for the walkie.

“I’m starting to have contractions, Mel!”

Great! Just what I need. Can anything else go wrong? Ask and ye shall receive.

She cried out in relief as she found the walkie, but just as she picked it up, something slammed into the side of the SUV.

“What was that?”

“Mel! It’s the rogue. Hurry, call for help.”

She pushed the button on the side of the walkie. “Can someone hear me?

Please. It’s Melony.” No answer. “Please. Can someone hear me?”

Lorent had been deep in the forest all morning while the others were in a meeting. It was his turn to patrol the property, and Brent was supposed to meet with him later to give him the details of everything discussed. He was about to head back when the walkie he had clipped to his belt hissed and a familiar voice came over it. He froze for a moment. What the hell was Melony doing on the walkie?

He slipped the walkie from his belt and pressed the button. “What are you doing on the walkie, Melony?” They usually only used the long-range walkies for emergencies.

“We’ve wrecked, and there is something—a rogue—trying to get into the vehicle with us.”

His blood ran cold. “Where are you? Who’s ‘we’?”

“Sherry is with me. We went to town, and on our way back, we wrecked.

Please, Lorent. We need help. Sherry’s water broke. I’m scared.”

“Tell me where you are.”

“Sherry says to tell you we are on the Nine Road cutoff.”

He closed his eyes. By his calculations, he was about twenty minutes from their location. Had he stayed back at Sanctuary, it would have taken him over forty minutes to reach them. “I’m on my way.”

He hit the call button on the walkie to set the ringer off, knowing someone in the meeting would hear it. Within seconds, Piers’s voice came across the line.

“Piers.”

“This is Lorent. Get Knox and anyone else available to the Nine Road cutoff. Melony is there, and a rogue is after her.”

“What the hell is she doing there?”

“I don’t know. Don’t have to time explain, but there’s more, and you aren’t going to like it. Sherry is with her, and she’s in labor.”

“I’m on my way.”

Lorent heard the deadly calm in the other man’s voice, and knew the rogue messing with Melony and Sherry would die either by his hands or Piers’s. One way or the other, it was a done deal. There would be no reformation offer in this matter.

He shed his clothes, let his wolf come to the surface, picked up the walkie in his teeth after shifting, and ran flat-out toward Melony and Sherry’s location. What if he didn’t make it in time? No! Do not think that. He’d promised Melony he’d always protect her, always keep her safe, and he would do so, no matter what it took.

“The contractions are getting closer.” Sherry cried out in pain.

Slam! The rogue hit the side of the SUV again, rocking it.

“All of the vehicles at Sanctuary have extra security. The windows are security glass and bulletproof. He’ll be able to get through it eventually, but hopefully it will hold him off until help gets here.”

Melony was happy to hear that, but by the way the rogue was repeatedly slamming into the side of the vehicle, she wasn’t sure it would last that long.

She scrambled to the back of the vehicle and found some blankets, then instructed Sherry to lie down in the front seat. She put one blanket under her head and the other over her to keep her warm.

“I can feel the baby coming, Mel. You have to help me.”

“No, no, no, no, no. You have to wait, Sherry. You can’t have your baby now. I don’t know what to do.”

“I don’t think he cares, Mel. I’m sorry. Please, he’s coming.”

Slam!

She folded the blanket back, pushed Sherry’s long skirt up her legs, and pulled her underwear off.

“Oh. My. God!”

“What?” Sherry cried out.

“I can see his head!” Oh shit, oh shit, oh shit. What the hell was she supposed to do now?

Slam!

“Hold on. Do not push yet.”

She scrambled into the back of the SUV again, grabbed the other two blankets, and hurried back up to the front seat.

“Okay. When I tell you, I want you to push.”

Slam!

“Push!”

Sherry bore down, and Melony could see more of the baby’s head appear.

“Keep pushing. Keep pushing. Keep pushing. Okay. Take a break.”

Sherry panted, and didn’t say a word.

“You ready to push again?”

Sherry nodded.

“Push! Come on. Keep pushing. He’s coming, Sherry. Your son is almost here.”

“No. I can’t push anymore.”

“Yes, you can. You can do it for him, Sherry. Now push.”

Less than a minute later, Melony held a tiny baby boy in her arms, wrapped in one of the blankets. She’d cut the umbilical cord with some scissors from the first aid kit under the seat, and had tied the end off with a piece of string holding some gauze together after soaking it in alcohol. She didn’t know if she’d done anything right, but prayed the baby was okay. If he wasn’t, no one would ever forgive her.

“Why isn’t he crying?” Sherry asked frantically.

Slam!

“I don’t know!” He had a blue tinge to him, and Melony was worried, but she didn’t want to alarm Sherry.

The baby was breathing, but the breaths were shallow. Then she remembered something she’d seen on a television show about babies. She turned him to the side and patted his back, then rubbed it in circles before patting it again.

“Come on, baby,” she whispered. “Your mommy is waiting to see you.”

She continued rubbing his back and patting it. Just when she thought all hope was lost, fluid dribbled out of his mouth, and he coughed before letting out a loud wail. Within moments, his color went from grayish blue to a healthy pink. Relief washed through Melony as she rubbed him down, wrapped him back in the blanket, and handed him to Sherry.

“He’s beautiful.” Tears streamed down Sherry’s face.

“He is beautiful. Just like his mother.”

“Mel?”

“Yeah?”

“Thank you.”

“Thank me when we make it back to Sanctuary.” Then it dawned on her that there hadn’t been a slam to the side of the SUV for several minutes.

Had the rogue realized he couldn’t get in and given up? She hoped so because she had to figure out a way to get them out of here. She didn’t know how far away Lorent was, and Sherry and the baby both needed medical attention.