Page 1 of Bound By the Moon

LIFE

Up to this point in my life I had been shot, burnedwith wolves bane, beaten, poisoned, drugged, and nearly raped. Noneof that compared to the contractions I was now facing. Now, thesecrazy fools wanted me to push again? Seriously, never in my lifehad I wanted to punch my own mother, but I was definitelyconsidering it at this point. If she told me one more damn time howall the women through history had gone through labor and I could doit too, I was going to… scream! And so I did.

“Come on, Jess, you can do it. I know you’re tired,but you need to push through it. She’s almost here now.”

“I’m.” How could one word you leave breathless?“Not. Tired,” I managed to pant out in between the pains. “Thisshit hurts!”

“It’s okay, baby, just squeeze my hand,” Mikaeloffered. I squeezed. He yelped. “Maybe not that hard,” hepouted.

I shot a scathing look at him, and he quickly shutup, and let me squeeze his hand as hard as I wanted. “Why would anywoman volunteer to do this more than once?”

My mom smiled, “you’ll see.”

“I see…” I breathed through the next contractionbefore continuing. “…already. No one in their right mind wouldsuffer this way once they knew what it actually felt like.”

“Okay, Jess, time to push again, now.” My mom calledout to me, and I grabbed Mikael’s hand hard enough that I heardsomething pop. “That’s it, her head’s coming, push a littleharder.”

I never thought anything could hurt worse than thecontractions, but the burn of pushing a baby out definitely toppedit. I forgot how to breathe. I forgot everything in that moment,except trying to push as hard as I could to get that baby out asquickly as possible.

“That’s it, just take a breath, and be calm.” My momwas coaching as the contraction subsided.

‘Be calm,’ I thought, ‘who is she kidding? There’s alittle person, currently lodged between my legs, and I feel like Icould give out at any minute, and she’s telling me to be calm?’

“Okay, baby, I need you to push again as hard as youcan with this next contraction. We need to get her shoulders out.Okay. Now. Push, Jess!” My mom’s coaching voice was annoying thecrap out of me. This moment seemed to go on forever, like I waslocked in some perpetual hell where I was doomed to live the worstpain of my life for eternity. And then, suddenly, the sweet rush offreedom from all of the pain came flooding in as the baby made herway out. My mom had tears in her eyes as she held my little girl inher arms. It took a second, or an eternity, but then I heard thatshrill cry coming from my daughter. She was just as unhappy withthis process as I had been moments ago. I knew then that we wouldget along just fine.

My mom passed the baby off to Mikael so she couldclamp off the umbilical cord, and help deliver the afterbirth.Mikael’s face was pure amazement as tears spilled freely down hischeeks. I’d never in my life seen anything more beautiful than thesite of my mate crying over the birth of our baby girl. Now, Iunderstood. I would go through it all again just to see that lookof complete adoration on his face. Mikael finally looked up to seeme smile at him.

He brought our baby to me, and put her in my arms.“Willow, meet your mommy,” he managed to choke out through all theemotion.

“Mikael?” My mom called out to him. “Why don’t youdo the honors and cut the cord?”

He was doing just that when my dad walked in theroom. “Eileen?” He questioned.

“Jameson, come meet your granddaughter.” My father’shand flew to his face, rubbing across the stubble on his chin. Isaw tears in his eyes then too. When he got close, he leaned in andkissed me on the forehead, and then repeated the gesture withWillow.

“She’s absolutely beautiful, Jess.” He reached outone of his thick, calloused fingers and touched it to Willow’stiny, puffy cheek. “I can’t believe my little girl is old enough tohave her own baby now.” Dad shook his head in disbelief as Ifinally had a moment to take in the sight of my own daughter. Therest of the world seemed to fade away as I did.

Her head was full of deep brown hair and she wasstill messy from birth, but beneath that, I saw the beauty. She wasmy little miracle with those rosy cheeks. If not for her I wouldn’tbe here, and neither would Mikael. This tiny, beautiful girl wasthe reason we were both still alive. I made a silent vow the daythat the witch, Sophia, told me that only my pregnancy had savedme. As I looked upon my daughter’s face for the first time Ireaffirmed that promise to her. “I will always do whatever isneeded in order to protect you,” I whispered into the softlycurling hair of her head before I kissed her.

A throat clearing in the doorway brought myattention away from my daughter. “Sorry to interrupt. Jameson, wehave a problem.”

“Then deal with it. In case you can’t see, mygranddaughter has just been born,” my father snapped.

“Patrols found another girl this morning.”

“Damn it.” My father grumbled under his breath.“Well, unless the killer was still with her, I don’t supposethere’s a time issue now.” He raised his eyebrows quizzically atthe man in the doorway.

“Actually, this one’s not dead, yet. We thought youmight want to question her yourself. You know, in case she doesn’tmake it.”

My father looked back at me then with an apology inhis eyes. “Go!” I nodded my head toward the door and managed a weaksmile for him too. “It might be just what we need to put an end tothis and make the pack that much safer.” I looked down at Willow asI said it, and he understood. He could miss these first few momentswith his grandchild if it meant we our women weren’t under imminentthreat anymore.

“I’ll be back as soon as I can,” he announced as herounded the doorway and disappeared into the hallway. Mikael lookedbetween the now empty doorway and our daughter, torn between twoimpossible responsibilities.

“I’ll go,” my mom offered. “Jess looks fine, andwe’re done here. She just needs rest now.” She turned to me then.“I’ll send Sierra in to help clean you and Willow up.”

“Eileen…” Mikael started, still not convinced it wasright for him to stay.

“I will send for you immediately if I need to,Mikael. I know in my heart that Jameson would not want you to missthis time with them for anything. Believe that.” my mom reassurehim.

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