Page 30 of Sassy Embrace

“Yes!” she hissed. “Stay with me until that idiot gets here. Please.”

Her voice was sharp and angry. The nurses had given her an epidural, but it did not take. That was unfortunately often the case with wolf children, particularly, wolf and vampire children.

She held his hand and breathed hard as she began to push. Her face went scarlet as the nurses marveled at her abilities.

Claude thought she just might break the bones in his hand before the kid emerged.

“I’m here! I’m here!”

Trevan arrived a good twenty minutes after Claude had made the phone call. The vampire gave him a sullen look, then handed over the reins of Aria’s clawed, tight grip.

“Good of you to make it,” Claude said, snarling.

Trevan ignored him and went to his wife. She was in the middle of hollering when Claude left the room, giving the couple the privacy they needed.

Claude entered the hallway and got himself a coffee, feeling a sharp decline in the adrenaline that had pushed him while aiding Aria. He closed his eyes and breathed deeply.

Leigh floated into his mind again. It calmed him like an injection straight into his veins. He held the coffee cup on his knee and slowly drifted away into some distant future…

A future with Leigh. Holding him in her arms. Making love in the early hours of morning. Hanging out in bed, naked, laughing all day. The space in his chest flourished like a bed of roses.

Claude forced his eyes open. He was back in reality, in the cold hallways of the hospital. Nurses and doctors walked up and down nonchalantly. Heart rate monitors beeped incessantly. He took a long gulp of his coffee and decided to move around. The adrenaline had evolved into a fantasy that he couldn't afford to enjoy too much.

He turned the corner to the cafeteria with one hand in his pocket. He began to pick up an enchanting scent, a field of wildflowers and fresh morning dew.

Leigh was there.

FIFTEEN

LEIGH

Leigh hadn’t left her apartment since the announcement at Embraced. She knew that it wasn’t really the reaction to the announcement about vampires and wolves being welcomed into the club—that in itself was hurtful, but she expected nothing less from the general public. She had enough experience to know that the supernaturals would need some time to lean into this fresh reality. Change took adjustment.

But that wasn’t why she was feeling down.

Leigh stayed in her sweatpants and loose T-shirt, meandering from room to room, feeling like a ghost in her own home. Claude had rejected her—or, at least, he hadn’t fought for her. That wasn’t how mates were supposed to behave, was it? He was supposed to pull her back into his arms, stare deep into her soul with those dark eyes, and profess thathe wasn’t going anywhere.

That was what she had heard over the years about fated mates. It once lingered like a fable in her mind, not something she precisely pursued, but something she longed for. When she met Claude, it struck her like a lightning bolt. She would be one of the handful of wolves who were lucky enough to find their mate.

But the man was a vampire. He fucking drank blood, for fuck’s sake. Vampires didn’t have the fated mate sense like wolves did. Whatever she had been to him was likely somewhat of a distraction. Something used, then discarded.

Leigh felt like tossed-away garbage.

She still managed to stay on track with the opening of Embraced, answering emails and sending out letters of acceptance to employees. But she did it on autopilot, listening to the depressing scattering of rain out her window and the crestfallen crackles of thunder.

She reached for her wine glass a few too many times. Wolves had high tolerances, but that didn’t mean one wasn't capable of pushing it too far. Three days after Claude’s rejection, she drank nearly two full-bodied merlots and sank into a restless slumber on the couch.

She shook awake at the striking sound of someone knocking on the door. Then, her headache hit, pulsing like a heartbeat at the center of her forehead.

“Okay!” she snarled, peeling herself from off the couch. “I’m coming, hold your fucking horses…”

She swung the door open and gulped down the remainder of her obscenities.

Standing there was Barbara Wolfe, holding two coffees and a package of pastries. She was smiling, bemused.

“Good morning, Leigh," she said, stepping into the apartment. “I know you likely didn’t want any visitors, but I’m here anyway. Nothing like caffeine and sweets to wake up to.”

Leigh was embarrassed, her cheeks flushing scarlet. She didn’t own a lot of furniture or items, but whatever was there was in disarray from the past few dark days of mourning. The rainy weather that had been plaguing Blue Creek didn’t help.

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