Embracing the Wolf

by Catherine Bybee

  He hesitated.

  “Please,” she begged.

  “Ah…it seems I’ve found something you like.”He pulled one of her legs up and rested it on his shoulders. She lifted the other to match.

  His laugh vanished when he buried his head between her legs.

  He knew right were to go, and thankfully knew what to do once there. He sucked her into his mouth, assaulting her sex with wicked delight. Her head fell back on a cry of pure pleasure. With every stroke of his tongue, her pleasure mounted until the weight of her release was too much to bear. His fingers slipped inside her clenching body throwing her over the edge.

  She called out his name as her body shuddered with her release.

  Panting, she noticed her hands on his head. How had they got there? She moved them away quickly, as if he burned.

  “Tisk, tisk. I told you to keep your hands away.”But he was smiling.

  “Something came over me.”

  He shook his head. “I think you need a time out for your disobedience.”

  Richard lowered her body back to the water.

  “A time out?” Why did his punishment sound more like a promise?

  “Umm…” Richard watched her expression shift. She was beautiful. And he wasn’t done with her yet.

  His body had grown hard during her orgasm. As if it fueled his desire. Her scent saturated his senses, making him desire her in the most primitive of ways.

  Lacing his fingers in her damp hair, he crushed his lips to hers. He knew she could taste herself on his lips and that made him even harder.

  Would he ever get enough of this woman? Her hands stroked his back and clawed at his flesh.

  “Do you trust me?” he asked her between kisses.

  A flicker of concern crested her face. “Completely.”

  “Good.”

  In a quick motion, he turned her around and bent her over the edge of the Jacuzzi. His hands stroked her back until her butt arched in the air toward him. Now this was an even bigger turn on then before.

  He clenched her hips, found her wet heat, and plunged. With each stroke, he wondered if the animal was already in him. He knew it was, but this dominating position had him harder than he could ever remember. Her mewling moans proved she enjoyed it as much as he did.

  With quickening breaths, they both reached their peaks together, and then he fell onto her back, completely spent.

  It wasn’t until hours later that he realized they hadn’t used a condom.

  Chapter Twelve

  The phone rang and a foot caught him squarely in the chin before his eyes drew open. Richard wasn’t sure what was more alarming. Without opening his eyes, he reached for the annoying interruption of his sleep.

  “This had better be good,” he told the caller.

  “Labor! Oh my God, she’s in labor!” Max’s voice held horror and dread. Richard bit his tongue to keep from laughing.

  Surprised, but not as much as his brother, Richard shook the sleep from his head and sat up. The foot kicking him in the face belonged to Joey, and Kate was slowly waking from the noise of the conversation. When had Joey joined them?

  “Are you there?” Max yelled into the phone.

  “Yeah, I’m here.”

  “Did you hear me? Janet’s in labor…She’s having the baby!”

  “Yeah…well, we knew that would happen.”Unconcerned, he flipped on the light and moved to the edge of the bed.

  “Now! She’s having the baby now!”

  “Calm down. Geez, Max, considering what you go through every month you’d think you would have it together with something as natural as childbirth.”

  “The baby. My baby! She’s moaning…” Max trailed off but Richard still heard him talking to his wife. ‘Breathe, the doctor said to breathe.’ “Get here…no, get to the hospital. Now.”

  The phone disconnected with a thudding click.

  Richard laughed at his always-together big brother and placed the phone back on the charger.

  “Was that Max?” Kate asked from the other side of the bed.

  “Yeah, Janet’s in labor.”

  “Well, we should get up.”

  “Yeah, I guess we should get over there. It sounded like Max was losing it.”

  “How’s Janet?”

  “I don’t know.”

  “You don’t know?” she said in alarm.

  “What? He was losing it,” he explained.

  Kate flipped the covers off and marched to the bathroom.

  Joey hardly stirred.

  Richard followed her. She ran a brush through her hair in her semi naked state of dress. In only a T-shirt and panties, she pulled herself together.

  “Why are you standing there? Your sister-in-law is having a baby. We need to go.”

  “Where?”

  “The hospital,” she said exasperated.

  “Why? The doctors can handle it.” He didn’t see the need. Besides, the sight of her ass hanging out under her skimpy excuse for a shirt was turning him on.

  She pivoted and dropped the brush to the sink with a loud clank. “Your brother called you. You need to go...We need to go!”

  His head snapped up from the view and met her eyes.

  Then it hit him. Janet was having a baby. Panic washed over him.

  Max sounded so worried, so stressed.

  “We should go,” he said in alarm.

  He rushed to his dresser, pulled a pair of shorts from the drawer, and tugged them on.

  Kate waltzed in the room, cleared her throat, and pointed at him.

  He had tugged his shorts on over his lounging trunks he put on to traipse around the house. Removing them, he turned to the closet.

  Within second he was dressed, although haphazardly, and ready to go.

  Kate hid a smirk and helped get Joey out of bed.

  “Hey, Sport.”

  Joey grumbled.

  Richard shook his head and said. “Forget it.” He lifted the boy in his arms and made for the door.

  ****

  The Lobby was empty when they arrived at County General. Joey, who rested over Richard’s shoulder and still asleep, didn’t even bat an eye when they paused at the information desk staffed by a security guard.

  “We’re having a baby,” Richard told the man in a rush.

  The two hundred plus pound African American man glanced over his newspaper and scanned Kate’s thin body with a slow eye. He ruffled the paper and brought it back up with a laugh.

  Confused, Richard glared, and Kate hid a grin.

  “No, we aren’t having a baby. My brother is.”

  The man’s shoulders folded in with his chuckle. “Your brother?”

  “Well, his wife. Yeah, that’s it...his wife. Janet Ritter.”

  In painfully slow motion, the man put down his paper and turned his attention to the old green screen monitor sitting in front of him.

  Richard tapped his foot in frustration.

  “Relax,” Kate encouraged. “The first baby always takes time. Joey took 18 hours.”

  A slight tug hit his heart thinking of her going through that alone. No husband, no father. At least Janet had Max at her side.

  “Labor and Delivery room eight,” the guard announced. “Up to the fifth floor, there is a door on your right. They’ll buzz you in.”

  “Great.” Richard turned toward the elevators.

  “Wait up.”

  The guard unfolded from his chair and moved around the desk while removing a wand style metal detector.

  “Oh geez, I don’t have time for this,” Richard complained.

  “Standard operating procedure, sir. I gotta do it.”

  “Fine.” Richard lifted his left elbow. “I’m carrying, my ID’s in my back pocket.”

  Suddenly on alert, the guard placed his right hand over his holstered gun. “You a cop?”

  “Private security.”

  “I’ll get your wallet,” Kate offered.

  “No, ma’am, I’ll get it,” the guard s
aid in a stern voice.

  Kate pulled her hand back as if stung.

  “He doesn’t want you to pull my gun on him,” Richard explained.

  After checking his ID and clearing them both, they finally made it to the elevators that took forever to reach the ground floor.

  After seemingly hours, they stood in the Labor and Delivery waiting room doing what everyone else was there doing...waiting.

  They propped Joey on a pillow provided by one of the nurses so he could continue to sleep. Richard paced the room.

  He could hear Janet’s cries from beyond the closed doors. His nose, quickly assaulted with the smell of pain and fear, might never recover. He wished his brother had given him better warning about how sensitive his olfactory nerves were going to work after the change. He glanced at Kate sitting next to Joey with a magazine in her lap. Even armed with more information, he still would have made the same decision. With the baby coming, Max’s priority would be at home. Capturing the wolf who hunted Kate depended on him. Then again, maybe his father could help.

  “I’m going to call my parents, let them know what’s happening,” he explained to Kate who smiled.

  “You know where I’ll be.”

  He leaned down, brushed his lips to hers, and left the room.

  The conversation with his father was brief. The vacation in the Bahamas would meet a quick end and his parents would be at the hospital long before Janet’s discharge. Their excitement of their first grandchild buzzed over the long distance connection.

  Watching Richard pace was almost comical. Kate didn’t know if he could be more nervous if he were having his own child. She tried to calm him several times during the early morning hours, but now it was going on noon and he seemed downright haggard. The five cups of coffee weren’t helping.

  Somewhere during the waiting process, she realized their previous evening’s activities could possibly put him in the position of being a father. Caught up in passion, neither one of them used the precautions they normally did. Although she had gone on the pill with Janet’s suggestion, she was supposed to use two types of precautions for the first month.

  Perhaps a side trip to the ER to obtain a morning after pill should be in order. She didn’t want to tax Richard with her worries, worse she didn’t want him to think her irresponsible. She considered her options while appearing to read old copies of parenting magazines.

  Joey munched on a bag of chips while coloring pictures of Scooby Doo. Once the baby was born, she could sneak downstairs and check in to the ER. How long could it take? She only needed one little pill.

  Richard gave up the pace and sat down beside her. “I don’t think it will be long now,” he said.

  “Why do you say that? Max hasn’t given us an update for over an hour.”

  Richard’s face grew pale and he gripped her hand. “Don’t you hear...never mind. I just don’t think it will be long.”

  She patted his cool hand. No, he didn’t need the added stress of worrying about her possibility of being pregnant. If he was right, and the baby came soon, she could slip downstairs and see a doctor quickly. He would be none the wiser.

  Not that the thought of having Richard’s baby wasn’t pleasing, it simply wasn’t the time.

  Thirty minutes later, Max staggered through the door with wide eyes and a silly grin.

  Richard stood and met him at the door. “Well?”

  “It’s a girl.”

  Kate clapped her hands together and jumped up to hug the new daddy. Richard roared and pounded his brother’s back. Even Joey got up from his intense coloring session and joined in.

  “How’s Janet?” she asked.

  “Amazing, she doesn’t even seem tired anymore.”

  Kate remembered the first moments of Joey’s life. How exhausting it was during the labor and how thrilling it felt to hold the fruits of that labor in her arms.

  “Can we go in?”

  “Yeah, the doctor just left.”

  They filed into the large Labor and Delivery Suite. Kate could see Janet’s worn eyes behind her smile. She wouldn’t last long before falling asleep.

  In her arms was a seven-pound bundle all wrapped up like a little burrito in hospital issue blue and pink striped blankets. A splatter of blonde hair and piercing blue eyes peeked through the little package.

  Janet’s proud smile met hers. “See what we made?”

  “She’s beautiful,” Kate reached out and stroked her tiny head. “Ten fingers, ten toes?”

  “Pink little button for a nose. Yep, I already checked.”

  “Uncle Richard?” Janet called him closer to the bed. “Come meet Brandy Marie Ritter. Brandy this is Uncle Richard and Auntie Kate.”

  Kate moved away when Richard came beside the bed. Janet’s linking of her as family engulfed he heart with joy, even if it wasn’t true.

  Janet held little Brandy out for Richard to hold.

  “I don’t know if I can.”

  “Of course you can.”

  “She won’t bite,” Kate told him.

  Richard’s big hands lifted the bundle with complete caution. Once Brandy sat in the crook of his arm, he stared down in awe. There was something about the expression on his face that Kate didn’t think she would ever forget, the power of life being held in your arms where it wasn’t there before. The amazing ability of life to duplicate itself. The complete need of protection from the big bad world. These and many more thoughts came to mind when holding a baby less than an hour old in your arms.

  Richard made a little cooing noise and wrinkled his nose at his niece. Kate didn’t know what was cuter, the baby or the man.

  “Amazing, isn’t she?” Max asked at Richard’s side.

  “You’re a lucky man.”

  Max placed a hand on his wife’s shoulder. “Yes, yes I am.”

  Kate took the opportunity to excuse herself a little while later when the Ritter’s talked and the nurse took Brandy away for her first bath. Joey wanted to watch through the thick glass while the nurses did their morning rounds, and Richard agreed to keep an eye on Joey.

  It was one o’clock and the ER was packed. A quick trip didn’t seem possible by the amount of people in the lobby.

  The receptionist wasn’t impressed with her ‘emergency.’

  “I know it isn’t life or death, but if I could just slip in and have the doctor give me the pill, I’ll be out of your hair.”

  The clerk thrust a clipboard from under a small opening of the bulletproof glass.

  “Sign in.”

  Kate noticed over a dozen names above hers. This was going to take forever. “Can I come back and see if my name has been called? A friend of mine is upstairs.”

  “Whatever you want, lady, if the nurse calls your name and you’re not here you’ll just wait longer.”

  Kate scanned the room and took a seat. After ten minutes she was up and pacing. Richard would start to wonder where she was. She couldn’t wait here without him knowing what she was doing.

  She turned back toward the lobby without looking and walked into the chest of the man in question.

  “What are you doing in here?” Richard asked in alarm.

  Kate opened her mouth but didn’t know what to say.

  “Are you sick?”

  “No, I...”

  “Then what?”

  “Ahh,” Kate lowered her eyes and moved away from the crowd in the room. “Last night...we were a little careless.”

  “Careless?”

  “You know...” She pleaded with her eyes and lowered her voice to a whisper. “We didn’t use any protection.”

  When her words registered, his concern shifted. His eyes darted around the room where several people watched their exchange.

  His grip tightened on her elbow, and he pulled her toward the doors leading outside. Alone, he dropped his hand from her arm and took a step back.

  Anger swirled in the depths of his eyes. Why was he so pissed?

  “You came here for one of
those next day pills, didn’t you?”

  Why did it sound so wrong coming from him? “I thought, in light of the circumstances...”

  “Didn’t you think I might want to know?”

  “Richard, it’s no big deal.”

  He shook his head and ran his fingers through his ruffled hair. “After what we just saw upstairs you think it’s no big deal?”

  “It is just a simple precaution,” Kate insisted.

  “No it’s not. The pill you want stops any pregnancy from continuing if a child is already conceived.”

  “I know what it does, Richard.”

  He turned on her, his face red with tightly controlled emotion. “That’s what you want?”

  “We’ve only known each other a short time. I don’t want to compromise our relationship. Try to understand. I’ve had one pregnancy without the support of a father. I don’t want to ever go through that again.”

  His eyes met hers with cold steel. His jaw went rigid. “Do you think so little of me that I would allow that to happen to you again?”

  Her heart took a giant dive. Why was this so important to him? Why did she have the sudden feeling he was going to turn away and never come back? “No, I just thought...”

  “I don’t think you thought at all, Kate. I’m not Joey’s father. I would never have left you if he were my son, ever.”

  And her sneaking to the ER to keep him out of this decision had scorned his ego. His honor.

  “I’m sorry. Maybe I should have told you.”

  “Maybe?”

  Oh, boy. Bad choice of words. “Okay, I should have told you.”

  He walked her back into the ER lobby. “It isn’t safe for you to wait here alone. We can come back down after we go get Joey.”

  “The lobby’s full of people, I’m sure no one will bother me.”

  He leaned over and spoke into her ear. Each word felt like a slap. “Anyone could walk in here with a gun. I just did.”

  Their silent ride in the elevator drove a wedge between them. In the course of one conversation, their relationship had changed.

  What had she done?

  Joey sat in a chair in Janet’s postpartum room. The baby was in daddy’s arms and the room was bustling with people.

  Janet’s colleagues from the ER had gotten word that she had delivered and it was quite literally ‘standing room only.’