Chapter 10: 10: Chapter 10

LEAH

I hold Maria under my arm as we are walking around in the garden. Boris, my new bodyguard, walks a few meters behind us. He really is a man of few words. When we greeted each other this morning, he just nodded in response. He is tall and heavily built, with ice-blue eyes and light hair. He has a terrifying aura around him, an energy that screams “fuck off.”

I am happy for Zeke who is back to his mate and his position as a general, but I miss his happy presence. I miss John too; he’s been gone for days now, and not a single trace of him has been found. The guards at the entrance saw him enter the castle but no one has seen him leave. It’s a real mystery, as if he has gone up in smoke?

“Ouch,” Maria hisses and stops.

“What’s wrong?” I grab her other arm to support her as she crouches forward.

“I don’t know… I’ve had a dull ache all day and it feels like it’s getting stronger.”

“Shit! Are you in labor?”

Maria closes her eyes as she takes a deep breath as the next pain wave goes through her body. “Yes, I am probably having contractions,” she says, laughing nervously.

~“Mateo! Maria is having contractions, meet us at the pack hospital!”~

~“Shit, okay, I’m on my way!”~ Mateo replies via mind-link.

“Mateo is on his way to the doctor, let’s go there now, okay?” I hook my arm under hers again as I begin to lead her toward the hospital section.

We need to stop a few times for her when she gets some contractions, so it takes longer than usual to walk the distance toward the hospital premises. When we arrive, we are greeted by a stressed Mateo who immediately takes Maria’s hand in his.

“Babe, breathe, okay? Deep breaths,” he whispers in her ear as we both help her into the building.

“Hey! Can we get some help?” I call toward the reception.

A nurse arrives directly with a wheelchair that Maria sits in.

“Your Majesty,” she greets before leading Maria’s wheelchair off to an examination room. I follow closely behind and stand next to the hospital bed Maria is placed in. She breathes heavily and squeezes her eyes shut when the contractions come.

“You’re doing really good, breathe, babe, I love you, you’re so strong,” Mateo whispers as he caresses her arms.

“Your Majesty,” says Boris, who has now stepped into the room.

“Yes?”

“The alarm went off at the southwestern border, I have to take you to safety,” he says briefly with a heavy Russian accent.

“No, I’m not leaving Maria, she needs me.” I place myself closer to the hospital bed as I take her hand in mine.

“That’s not a question, Your Majesty,” he replies.

“If you want me to leave this room, you have to use force to get me out of here. And I don’t think you will, Boris. I am your queen and I tell you that I will stay. It’s not a question either.” I look at him knowing it’s a gamble. He could overpower me instantly. We stare angrily at each other as the door to the room opens and in comes the pack doctor.

“Congratulations, is it the parents-to-be?” she says, smiling widely. Her smile fades when she sees Boris’s angry expression. She gives me a worried look and I shrug my shoulders at her in response.

“I’m going to give Mommy a check, so those of you who aren’t family can leave the room,” she says as she pulls a blood pressure monitor out of the pocket of her coat.

“I’m just outside, okay, I’m not leaving you,” I say and Mateo and Maria nod in response.

I walk out of the room with Boris close behind.

“I have orders from the king to take you to your safe room,” he says, grabbing my arm.

I swing around and jerk my arm out of his grasp. “Don’t touch me,” I spit out.

“Leah, rogues are trying to get behind the borders. You must go to safety,” I hear Ares’s voice say.

“No, Maria is about to give birth! I will stay here.”

“Leah! I order you to let Boris bring you to safety!”

Orders! How dare he talk to me in this way? I will not leave Maria; she is like my sister.

“No, Ares, I’ll stay here,” I announce to him before I close the connection between us. I can’t bear to listen to his commands, even though I know he’s going to go crazy now that I’m blocking him.

Boris is silent as I sit down on a chair outside Maria’s examination room. He stands by the wall with his arms folded while giving me the evil eye.

The doctor lets me back into the room after the examination is finished and I ask Boris to wait outside. He obeys me reluctantly and stands in front of the doorway so that his body covers the entire surface.

I squeeze Maria’s hand, she is in a lot of pain now, her contractions tighter and tighter with each passing moment. My gaze lands on the window that shows the corridor outside, behind the sheer curtains I see people running back and forth. I try not to worry Maria, so I try to focus on her even though a small part of me is getting worried that the rogues have made it past the guards and are on the castle grounds.

Suddenly, I see Boris’s backboard turn into a wolf. Maria screams out in pain as Mateo and I exchange a glance with each other.

~“It’s rogues… You have to leave, Your Majesty,” ~Mateo says through the mind-link.

I shake my head and look down at Maria. I wipe the sweat off her forehead gently when the next contraction comes.

“He’s coming now!” she screams, laboriously getting up on the bed. She kneels on the mattress with her stomach against the back of the bed and pulls up the hospital gown she is wearing. “Get the doctor!” she roars as she’s having a contraction.

“I’ve got you, babe, you’re doing so good, you’re awesome,” Mateo whispers, caressing her back.

I glance at the window nervously as I bite my cheek. Suddenly blood splashes up onto the frosted window. I see the outline of Boris’s gray wolf take off once again as he jumps toward another wolf.

Maria screams loudly as she pushes as hard as she can.

“I can see the head!” Mateo shouts as he places his hands under Maria.

“Where is the doctor?!” Maria roars, now furious and full of panic.

“Maria, the doctor is coming soon, you’re doing really good!” I say to reassure her and keep her gaze away from the glass window toward the hallway.

She screams as Mateo has his hands on the baby’s head, which is now slowly being squeezed out of her womb. When the contraction is over, she breathes heavily, and I place myself behind the bed so that she can hold me when she is about to push one last time. Our eyes meet and I nod at her to push all that she can. She grips my shoulders tightly and squeezes everything she has when she suddenly stops screaming and looks down in shock at Mateo’s hands that have caught the crying baby.

“He’s perfect,” Mateo says, lifting him off the mattress so Maria can turn around and sit down. He puts the baby on her chest, fetches a blanket, and covers the two of them.

“Wow, Maria…,” I say in shock as I look at the sticky little creature crying in her arms.

“Yeah… it’s crazy,” she replies simply, enchanted by the fact that a human being has come out of her body.

Suddenly, the door slams open, and we all scream, unprepared for the loud noise that was made by the door hitting the wall.

Two masked men with dirty clothes and black eyes take a few steps into the room and Mateo places himself directly between the men and us.

“Get out of here,” he growls.

Cautiously, I try to look over his shoulder and lock eyes with one of the men nodding at his friend in my direction.

“We want the queen,” he says briefly in a raspy voice.

“Never,” Mateo replies, baring his teeth.

“If Your Highness is so kind as to come voluntarily, we won’t have to maim her friends,” says the other masked man in an uncomfortably cheerful voice. He is holding a knife in one hand with which he cleans his nails on the other hand.

I look at Maria who is panicking, holding her newborn baby, tears streaming down her cheeks. She has given the baby the breast and he has fallen asleep while breastfeeding. Our eyes meet, and I give her a small smile before I step forward from Mateo’s protective stance.

“I’ll go with you,” I say out loud, taking a few steps past Mateo, who immediately grabs my arm.

“No!” he hisses, holding me back.

“Mateo, please, I’ll be fine. You need to take care of your mate and your baby, okay? I can’t let anything happen to you guys.” I put a hand on his shoulder as I’m squeezing it. “I’ll be fine, I promise.”

His gaze travels between me, Maria, and the baby frenetically. He lets go of me reluctantly after a moment of silence, and I take a few steps forward until I am standing in front of him.

“You must promise not to hurt them, and I will go along voluntarily.”

The masked men give each other a glance before they both nod in response, backing away and leaving room for me to walk through the doorway.

Before I take the final step out of the room, I look back at Maria and Mateo and give them a reassuring smile.