“Nanny, this is Gealach. Sorry you couldn’t be meeting under different circumstances.”
“My people, we have our traditions and superstitions but we’re a more pragmatic lot than people generally credit us.” Nanny looked at Gealach again. “That being said: your man? He’s hurting for you, Maggie Mae. I doubt he’ll ever forgive himself for being trapped within that glorious beast right now.”
“How did you know?” Maggie’s shock at the older woman’s intuition momentarily pushed aside the pain.
“A body would have to be a blind fool not to see the man behind those eyes, dear heart.” Mrs. O’Connell told her. “Or the emotion framed in them.”
They silently passed the final yards, Nanny speaking only quiet words of encouragement as Maggie’s strength waned. The fear was eclipsed by the pain and the exhaustion. They slowly ascended the deck steps and the three entered the bedroom in an odd succession that Maggie found humorous in a detached way. It’s like an insane conga line, she thought. Nanny helped her down onto the bed and assisted in removing her blood-soaked panties. Gealach perched near Maggie’s head, whimpering each time she cried out.
After only a few seconds perusal, Nanny’s eyes met Maggie’s over the crest of her stomach. “The baby hasn’t turned, Maggie. That’s why it hurts, that’s why there’s blood. He can’t get out. I can turn him,
a stóirín,
but this is going to hurt. A lot. Much more than it has already.” Maggie sobbed and Gealach howled. “I can’t do this with him in here. Aidan, or Gealach, I’m sorry, but you have to wait outside. I can’t have you underfoot, howling and growling.”
Gealach stared into Maggie’s eyes. She never imagined when she’d set out for the story all those months ago that she would stay in the small Minnesota town. She had no idea she’d meet an actual werewolf, let alone fall in love with him. He seemed to be begging her to let him stay, Aidan’s eyes staring at her, beseeching. Aidan had described the experience so many times to her. To see the world that way, to be instinctual, to be nothing but needs and emotions; the very idea had intrigued her. But now, trapped in that very state, full of nothing but instinct, feelings, emotions, her only need was to have this baby born as healthy and quickly as possible. Her eyes clouded over, and in a sad voice she asked him to understand and to wait outside.
• • •
The moment Gealach stepped out on to the deck, the night sky cracked with lightning as the intensity of the storm heightened. Aidan was frantic trapped inside Gealach’s mind. The wolf shared his anxiety. Giving into the animal’s passion, he bayed at where the moon hid cloaked behind black clouds; he didn’t need to see it to know the moon’s location, accusation tingeing his panic. His worst fear was coming true, that the curse he so deserved was now going to take Maggie from him. He didn’t know how either he or Gealach would survive without her. Illuminated by only the lightning piercing the sky, the wolf paced as the hard, cold rain pelted his back and flanks. Every time Maggie cried out the wolf howled. The sound was eerily human, like a man in agony, and it mingled with cracks of thunder.
Inside Mrs. O’Connell must have began turning the babe because Maggie screams became horrific. She loosed one final scream, so piercing and pain stricken, that it tore through both man and wolf. The silence that followed terrified Aidan. Afraid that Maggie had died trying to bring his child into this world, Aidan alternately prayed to and cursed God, his mother, Tala, her parents, the fates, even Maggie herself.
I’m in love with her. Oh God, I’ve loved her almost since I first met her.
The realization rocked Aidan to his very core. Every excuse, every rationalization he’d used to hold Maggie at arm’s length suddenly rang hollow. Aidan thought of how pale his life had been before Maggie came barreling into his world with her courage, wit and laughter. He couldn’t imagine living without her. He had told himself he was protecting her and due to his own cowardice he was going to lose her.
I never told her.
He wept in despair and the tears flowed down Gealach’s sodden muzzle.
Caught in the storm raging within, neither wolf nor man noticed the blue glow that had settled around them. Aidan felt the warmth first, the warmth he’d always associated with the change and that was when he noticed the storm was abating and that something odd was happening. The wolf was filled with a peaceful understanding and in his way, bid Aidan a melancholy farewell.
• • •
Maggie had fainted from the anguish. She came around after a few minutes to the sound of Nanny’s voice telling her it was time to push drifting to her through the darkness. She could feel the pain of labor still, but it seemed less than before, felt right when earlier it had felt so incredibly wrong. She felt her body urging her to push, no longer fighting against itself. Slowly her vision returned, a pinpoint of light first that grew from the middle out, letting the room around her in. The scene was fuzzy, as though someone had messed with the buttons on an old television screen, but as the seconds passed, her vision cleared. However, when Aidan’s face came into focus, openly crying, she wondered if she was, in fact, still unconscious.
She blinked trying to clear the cobwebs from her mind and ran her eyes over the length of him. He was dripping water everywhere, barefoot and naked but for a pair of jeans. And he was holding her hand to his heart. “Aidan?”
“I’m here, rock star. I’m right here.” Aidan smoothed the damp curls clinging to her cheeks and brow. Maggie ignored the urge to push and turned to stare out the window at the moon that shined bright and fiery in the dark Minnesota sky. She was vaguely certain it had been storming when she’d passed out. Her eyes whipped back to Aidan’s.
“But how?” she whispered, weeping. Aidan’s eyes welled and he touched his forehead to hers. Their tears mixed.
“I don’t know, Maggie. I don’t know.” He whispered. “I am in so in with love you.”
“Oh Aidan, I love you, too.” Maggie tilted her face up and Aidan brushed his lips across hers in a caress that to Maggie like the first time rather than the practiced gesture it had become.
“As romantic as all this is,” Nanny interrupted, “your little one isn’t going to wait much longer
, a stóirín
. Think you might like to try pushing?” Maggie chuckled, hiccupping on a sob. Nanny was right; one miracle at a time.
“Aidan, my love, would you hold me, please? I want your arms around me when our daughter comes into this world.”
“Our daughter?” Aidan climbed onto the bed behind Maggie. He settled behind her, supporting her back and shoulders with his bare chest. She felt stronger already. Maggie glanced at Mrs. O’Connell, who wept as she nodded her approval.
“I know. I was so sure I was having a boy.” Maggie panted. “But when I blacked out, I dreamed of our daughter and she was so beautiful. I could feel how much I loved her. I called to her, Aidan.” She twisted her head to look into his eyes, only inches from her own. “And she came running to me with your dark hair and my curls flowing behind her like wings.”
Aidan kissed her gently in response and Maggie turned back to the waiting Irishwoman ready to bring her daughter into the world.
As Maggie pushed, Aidan murmured soothing nonsense, and only a few minutes later Mrs. O’Connell presented them with a squalling, green-eyed baby girl wrapped in a soft blanket. Her fists flailed and her tiny pink mouth was fixed in any angry bow. She had black fuzzy curls. Maggie put the baby to her breast and the infant latched on without needing to be coaxed. The baby became instantly content, and Maggie instantly smitten.
“Have you a name for this little beauty?” Mrs. O’Connell asked.
Maggie looked from her daughter, eagerly nursing, and into Aidan’s glistening eyes, “Tala. Tala Gael.”
Both Aidan and Maggie were sore and sported colorful bruises from the safety restraints in the truck but the small family was otherwise healthy and happy in the first few days following Tala’s birth, and living in a cautious state of euphoria. Each day just before dusk, Aidan would go down to the woods bordering their meadow. Minutes after the sun had set he would return, just as human as when he had left. It took several days for the area to recover from storm damage but once the roads were passable, family and friends flooded the Cherry Farm in a steady stream of well-wishers.
It wasn’t until Aidan’s truck was pulled from the ditch that Sheriff Teague came for an official visit. He told them that the state police had found an abandoned black SUV matching the description they’d given and that had sustained damages congruent with the blows Aidan’s truck had been dealt. The SUV was a rental picked up from Duluth International Airport and paid for with a corporate credit card registered to The Hurley Group. They had no leads on the driver. The license he’d provided to the rental agency had been a fake.
The connection to Noah had made Maggie queasy. But both Aidan and the sheriff had passed her connection to The Hurley Group off as a coincidence. Noah certainly hadn’t been driving; him she would’ve recognized. Why would Noah want to harm her? Or Aidan for that matter? And The Hurley Group was a massive conglomerate. Anyone could’ve stolen or manufactured that credit card. Aidan told her after seeing Teague out that he’d owned stock in The Hurley Group, which he had then sold after she’d told him about Noah submarining her career. When she thought about it, logically, she felt ridiculous and paranoid. She’d wrapped her arms around his waist and decided she wasn’t going to go looking for something to worry about.
Eventually Jenna, the rest of the McAllisters, and Mrs. O’Connell, all returned home to their families and jobs; and before Maggie and Aidan knew it they were in a familiar parental pattern of sitting up all night with a screaming newborn.
“I’m thankful the curse lifted and, honestly, as curious as I am about why and how, I’m not questioning it. I love having you with me. I’m so glad I’m not doing this alone every night,” Maggie whispered and reached out her free hand, the other patting Tala’s diapered bottom. The baby had only finished eating minutes earlier and was blessedly asleep. Aidan linked his fingers with hers. Maggie bit her lip and confessed, “But I miss Gealach.”
“I do too,” Aidan admitted his voice pitched so low Maggie almost thought she’d imagined it. “But at the same time I’m terrified that this won’t last and one day, maybe tomorrow, maybe ten years from now, I’ll shift into Gealach again.”
“I worry about that, too, Aidan, but we can’t live our life, Tala’s life, in constant fear. We live each day to its fullest and enjoy every night we have together. And if at some point in the future you shift again, then we’ll live each of those days to their fullest, too.”
“And what if I don’t turn back the following dawn, Maggie? Or I get stuck as Gealach equal to the length of this reprieve?”
“Shh, don’t say that. Asshole,” Maggie whispered teasingly. “That just proves my point. We should live each day and night to its fullest.” To her astonishment, he dropped to one knee and pulled a small velvet box from his pocket.
“Please do me the honor of living each day and night to its fullest as my wife? I love you.” Aidan opened the box, removed the solitaire diamond ring nestled inside and slid it onto her finger. “And I don’t want to waste another minute.”
“Yes.” Maggie knelt and kissed him, the baby cradled between their hearts. “I love you.”
Just then Tala woke, screwed her little face into a tight ball of anger, and screamed her displeasure to the world. “And that’s what she thinks about that,” Maggie quipped as she stood to start pacing with the baby. Aidan reached out with both hands.
“Here let me take her, love. Why don’t you take a nap?”
“Are you sure?” She asked.
“I’m positive.” Aidan snuggled the tiny baby into the crook of his neck. Tala seemed to quiet for a second, as though recognizing the changing of the guard, but it was fleeting as she began to holler in earnest again. He stood in the doorway, patting the baby gently as she wailed, watching as Maggie slid into bed.
“Can’t sleep if you’re just going to stand there while she screams her head off,” Maggie commented and looked up at him, cocking her eyebrow in an imitation of him. “Just saying.”
• • •
Aidan slid out of the doorway and into the darkness of the house. He wandered through the different rooms, steering clear of the master bedroom, all the while telling his infant daughter stories in a soft, melodic voice. He shared memories from his childhood and told her what it was like to run through the woods in the night. She appeared mesmerized by the monologue, but every time he paused, either in speech or step, she would cry.
He strolled into the nursery, hoping the rocking chair would lull Tala into a decent patch of slumber, as he was growing overtired. As he rocked, he took stock of the room, enjoying the little touches Maggie had added. The mobile that played “Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star” while a variety of stars turned around a moon was his personal favorite. The practical touches delighted him as much as the fanciful. His eyes were tired and as he sat rocking, head back, he stared into space, seeing nothing at all. Then his eyes focused on a stuffed wolf sitting on a high shelf. He was certain Maggie had bought it for their daughter.
It resembled Gealach.
With the baby perched in the crook of his free arm, he retrieved it from the shelf. He’d been honest when he told Maggie he missed the wolf. Despite the fear the wolf would return, he felt the beast’s absence keenly. It surprised him. It was like losing an old and trusted friend. The thought made him a touch melancholy, but since Aidan much preferred his family to Gealach it was something he knew he would put behind him. “Just as I learned to live with the wolf, I will learn to live without him.” Aidan kissed the baby’s soft crown of black curls. “I’d much rather spend my nights with you.”
At that moment, Tala reached out her tiny fingers and fisted them in the stuffed wolf’s fur. Seconds later, she was asleep.
Maggie stood in the center of their bedroom and fought back uncharacteristic nerves. She’d never played the role of seductress before. The stage had been set. It was a cloudless night and Maggie had thrown the curtains wide, welcoming in as much moonlight as possible. They’d never made love after dark before. Wanting night-gleam to guide them, she’d lit as few candles as necessary. Maggie had purchased a negligee the same soft green as Aidan’s eyes, and she loved how it glowed in the pale blue light shining through the windows. The door opened, Aidan entered, and the desire in his eyes loosed a swarm of butterflies in the pit of her stomach.