Page 76 of Stripped

She turned to me, her eyes glinting, her smile huge. “You know, that's not a bad idea. We should have had someone filming the vampires attacking us, we should have recorded Leopold telling you what's really going on.” She started pacing again. “It's too late to do that now, of course, but going forward —Ah, ow.” She stopped pacing and bent at the waist.

I leapt to my feet and hurried over to her. I grabbed her shoulder and supported her weight as best I could. “Are you okay?”

She straightened and gave me a weak smile. “Just a contraction. I get them sometimes. It doesn't mean I'm going into labor right now. They call this false labor and—”

She stopped speaking as water gushed from between her legs and puddled onto the floor. “Please tell me you just peed yourself,” I said.

“I wish.” She gasped and bent again with another contraction. “No.” She caught her breath and straightened. “I can't be going into labor, now. Axel's not here.”

“It's okay. Labor can take a long time with a first baby.”

She nodded. “You're right. It's okay. I'll just sit and keep my legs pressed tight together until Axel gets here.”

I thought that was probably the worst idea I'd ever heard, but I wasn't going to argue with a woman in labor. I led her to the most comfortable looking seat in the place, which was a large dog bed in one of the cells. I helped her to sit and she was immediately wracked with another contraction that had her hissing and cursing. “I need Doc,” she said. “Can you call her? Unless you know how to deliver a baby?” She looked so hopeful, I hated to disappoint her.

“I don't know anything about babies or delivering them.”

She gave me Doc's number and I tried to call her. Another contraction rolled through her while I was sent to voice mail.

“She's not answering, is she?” Julie said. “What am I going to do? I had this whole birth plan, but I can't remember any of it. I wrote it all down, but what good does it do me—ow, fuck.”

I waited for the contraction to finish, rubbing her back. “Aren't you supposed to breathe a certain way?”

“Oh. Right.” She huffed out three quick breaths and one long one, then repeated. When the next contraction hit, she seemed only slightly less pained.

“You should try Doc again,” she said. I figured Doc was either vamp food or helping other wolves, but I didn't want to deliver this baby, so I tried her again. No answer.

I got Julie through the next contraction and then I searched online for information about what to do in these circumstances. Very little of it was comforting. I really hoped Axel or Doc showed up soon.

As though in answer to my wish, someone banged on the door. I hurried over to it. “Who is it?” I yelled through the door.

“It's Aron,” he said. “Let me in.”

“Don't let him in,” Julie said between huffs. “He might have been compelled.”

Crap. She was right. This was an impossible mess. “I can't let you in. Go get Axel. We need him. Julie's injured.”

Aron banged harder on the door. “Let me in. There are three vamps after me.”

Julie was doubled over with another contraction. When it passed, she looked at me. “If he's been compelled, we can't fight him. He'll kill me and the baby.”

“You should run,” I shouted through the door. “We can't let you in.”

Aron continued banging on the door, which would suggest he wasn't in immediate danger. I sat next to Julie and rubbed her back. “We should call the council,” I said. “This can't be what they wanted.”

“Do it. We don't have any better options. Call Darius. Somehow, he hasn't been fired from the council, yet.”

She gave me his number, I was impressed with her ability to memorize numbers, and a deep male voice answered on the third ring. “You don't know me,” I said. My throat felt better, but my voice was still raspy. “But I'm with Julie Jacobs of the Mule Creek pack. She's in labor and the pack is being attacked by the Aspens Whiten coven.”

“Attacked?” Darius asked, sounding far less surprised than he should have. “Why in the world—?”

“I think you know why. It has to do with the water here and the wolves who drink it. Ringing any bells?” I looked to Julie to see if I was doing the right thing, but her eyes were closed and she was curled in on herself as she experienced another contraction.

Darius cleared his throat. “I don't know about anything to do with the water there.”

“Good. For a minute we thought you were part of the conspiracy to turn this pack over to the vampire coven so that they would be powerful enough to keep the rogue vampires in line. If you aren't, you won't have any problem sending us some help out here.”

“I'm afraid I can't do that. It's not our protocol to get involved in community spats.”

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