Chapter 197

Shawna POV

"It fucking hurts," Lynn screams as she doubles over in pain. My own abdomen does not make it easy for me to guide her to the chair, but I do so.

"I will call Clint," I say. "We need to get you to the hospital. Can you walk?" I ask, as I see beads of sweat running down her brow.

"I can't walk to the hospital," she cries. "I can't hardly stand up," she clutches her belly and screams again.

"Okay," I pace back and forth as I call Clint's number. It just keeps going to voicemail. "Is he working?" I ask.

"Of course he is," she bites back. She immediately looks remorseful. "I'm sorry, Shawna, I don't mean to yell."

I nod and dial Michael's number next. He answers me after I call three times; he, too, is working. "Is everything okay?" he asks.

"I'm fine, but Lynn is in labor and I can't reach Clint. I need help to get her to the hospital, but can someone go down to the lower pasture and get Clint?" I ask in a rush.

"Oh shit yes, hold on, babe," I hear him cover the phone and start barking orders at his warriors. When he gets back on the line, he takes a deep breath. "I'm coming to help you get Lynn to the hospital. Call Constance and let her know we are on the way, okay?"

"Yes, okay." We hang up, and I call Doctor Constance.

"Clinic," a chipper voice answers the line.

"Hi, can you please let Doctor Constance know that we are coming in with Lynn, she's in labor," I tell Mabel.

"Oh my, yes of course," she screams out at someone, her voice ringing in my ear. "Get the labor and delivery room ready."

She is calm as can be when she gets back to me, "Okay, Shawna, how soon will you be here?" she asks.

"I don't know." The front door flies open, and Michael stands there in just a pair of gym shorts, sweat dripping from his body. I giggle at the sight of him. "Five minutes," I tell Mabel and hang up.

"What's so funny?" Michael asks as he walks towards my sister. "I came as fast as I could." He leans over like he's going to pick Lynn up; her eyes fly open.

"Oh Goddess no," she blurts. "You smell like a sweaty wolf. I can't have you carrying me to the hospital." She wrinkles her nose. "What will my mate say with your stench all over me?"

"Your mate is not a werewolf," Michael points out. "He won't notice, now let's go." He tries again to bend over her, and she swats him away.

"I will walk," she says, standing up, her hand resting on her stomach.

Michael looks at her and shakes his head. "You won't make it."

"Go shower," I say to him. "I can drive her in the truck if she can at least make it to the door." She nods and waddles out the front door to the porch. Michael shrugs and runs up the stairs. I hear the shower flip on and then grab his truck keys off the hook. "Let's go, little sister," I say.

"Little?" she asks. "Have you seen me?" I roll my eyes and help her down the stairs. When she reaches the bottom step, a contraction runs through her body, and she screams and then bends over and clutches her belly. Just then, a puddle of water runs down her leg and onto the earth.

"Thank Goddess you didn't do that in my house," I joke. She glares at me and then breathes through the pain. When the contraction subsides, I walk her to the truck.

"Let me just sit in the bed of the truck," she says. "It's better that way."

"You aren't cattle," I tell her.

"I feel like I am," she says, hauling her body into the back of the truck without my help. "Get me to the hospital before I drop this kid out right here in the dirt."

I nod and climb into the driver's seat and start the truck. I back out and head down the very short distance to the clinic. By the time I pull up in the front, Michael is there, clean and dressed. He helps me get Lynn out of the back and into the clinic. As we help her onto a gurney, Clint comes running in the main entrance. He's clearly been working. He reeks of the scent of cattle and horse sweat, his clothes filthy, boots leaving behind a trail of dirt and what appears to be manure. "Stop right there, young man," Mabel hollers at him. "You're going to have to change out of those filthy clothes if you want to be with your mate for this." She tosses him some scrubs and a pair of slipper socks. "Sorry, that's all I've got." She points to a men's locker room. "In there, shower quick too, you stink." Clint holds the scrubs in one hand and raises his arm to smell his armpit. He shrugs and runs into the locker room. I don't think he even turned on the water for more than ten seconds. He comes out, hair not even damp. He has changed, and he does smell better, but we have stronger noses than humans, so what he doesn't smell, Mabel wrinkles her nose at and goes back to work, ignoring us.

"Seems to be a day of smelly men," I joke and Michael gives me a look as Constance comes out from behind the curtain they wheeled Lynn behind.

"Where is Clint? I'm taking her to the delivery room. Her water broke, she is fully dilated and I can see this little girl making her way out into the world right quick like," she says.

"I'm here," Clint says.

"Perfect, you two wait in the waiting room," Constance says, pushing us towards the other side of the room. She grabs Clint's arm and pulls him with her. "She's going to be fine. The nurse is taking her into the other room to prepare her. Now, how are you?" I hear her ask.

"Fine, doc, I've seen many farm animals be born, I'm going to be fine," he says. Constance laughs.

"Sure you will," she jokes, and they disappear through a door.

"Did you notice anything about Connie?" Michael asks me.

"Like what?" I ask.

"Her scent," he wrinkles her nose. "It's different."

I smirk and grab his hand. "Babe, you're not naive. What do you think is going on with Connie?"

"Oh," he says. That's the end of that conversation. I smile as we settle in to wait for my niece to join us in this world, my heart full for my sister and Clint.