Unstoppable Force (Force of Nature Series) (21 page)

They had told them that they needed to
stick to the council killing William and not Louise. They had given several
reasons, but the one that bothered him the most was because they didn’t want to
look as if they were incompetent. Which to Connor’s family’s way of thinking,
they were. And it seemed to matter little to them that his brother and
brother-in-law were head of the stupid thing.

He told the crowd that Louise would be
at the next moon phase and thanked them again for helping them get his own home
ready to be moved into. He sat down beside his mom before anyone could ask him
any more questions.

“You did very well.”

He looked at his mom and kissed her
cheek.

“You should go home now and be with Lou…Louise.
I think she will probably need someone to yell at soon.”

He kissed her again and left. He was
nearly all the way back to his brother’s house when he decided to swing by the
house they were building and see how much longer it was going to be. He was
both surprised and impressed that it was looking like a house now instead of a
shell of one.

“You were supposed to come home, not
hang out at a construction site.”

He smiled at her comment. Louise was
getting pretty good at this mate thing.

“Are you?”

He frowned, thinking he’d missed
something.
“Am I what, love?”
He walked back to his truck to go to her.

“Are you coming here? I know I’ve been a
pain in the ass, but I miss you. And I have to pee. I thought I could make it
until you came back, but I can’t really get up without hurting some.”
He could feel
her pain, but knew the moment she took it away from him.
“Do you suppose
that we’ll be able to not go to the trial?”

The trial for her was next week. The
entire council was going to be there, as well as some from other regions. Louise
had saved a great many people, but she had killed a rare creature. Dragons were
not as plentiful as they had once been.

“I’m pretty sure you have to be there.”
They both knew
this.
“And Phil told you not to worry, and you know how he worries about
everything.”

“Yes. I suppose.”
He heard her
sadness, but before he could ask, she spoke again.
“If I’m asleep again,
when you get here will you please just hold me? I know that you can do that,
but nothing more, and I miss you.”

He promised her he would and drove the
ten minutes to the house. When he got inside, she was indeed asleep and he
stripped out of his suit and crawled into bed beside her. She didn’t cuddle up
like she had before, but simply touched him. He knew in that moment that she
was going to be fine.

~~~

Louise hated being carried around, but
today wasn’t so bad. Connor held her like she was something precious and she
loved it. They were headed to the dining room and it was her first trip out of
the bedroom since she’d awakened there. He was nearly down the stairs when he
stopped suddenly.

“You’re whelping.” His voice sounded
like he was pissed and she tried to get away from him. “Don’t. Don’t move.”

“If that means what I think it does,
then yes. And if you call it that again, I’ll hit you with the spoon your mom
gave me. I forgot. I meant to tell you, but I forgot.” She actually had thought
she’d lost the baby until yesterday when she felt it move. “I was going to tell
you.”

“I should have known. I should have…you
can’t be that far along. Maybe a few days at most.” She struggled again, and he
sat on the step to hold her better. “What the hell are you doing? Do you want
me to drop you both?”

“I didn’t do it on purpose. The way we
have sex all the time, it’s small wonder that I’m not carrying fifty kids.” She
looked up at him with tears in her eyes. “I won’t abort this thing. I never
thought to have one of my own and now that I have it, I’m not getting—”

His kiss silenced her. She looked up at
him when he lifted his head and she stared at him. He looked strange. Before
she could ask him what was wrong he smiled at her.

“You can’t abort our child, Louise, or
I’ll beat you senseless.” He held her tightly to him. “I’m so happy, you’ve no
idea.”

“You’re not mad at me?” He shook his
head and she slapped him on the shoulder. “Then next time, don’t yell at me
when you ask something like that. Moron. I thought you were pissed off and now
you tell me that you’re happy.”

“Do you two plan to join us so we can
eat, or are you going to hang out on the stairs all night?”

She looked down at Austin who was
leaning against the doorjamb. “There is enough food in this room right now that
I’m reasonably sure we’ll be eating leftovers for a month.”

“We’re whelping.”

Lou slapped Connor again.

“We’re going to have a baby. And Louise
is excited to be having fifty of them.”

“I am not. The things that come out of
your mouth are…just take me to dinner. I’m not going to let your stupidity ruin
my good mood about being out of that room with you.” He stood up with her still
in his arms and held her tight. “If you think I’ll forget this then you’re
nutty as a fruitcake.”

“I don’t want you to forget that I love
you and am thrilled beyond words to know that we’re going to have a child.”

She glanced down the stairs to see that
Austin had left.

“He doesn’t care if we come in now. He’s
probably wanting to tell them all, but won’t. He’ll leave that to us.”

She nodded as the continued down the
stairs. She had a great many questions to ask, mostly about the baby being
alright, but she didn’t. She wanted to be with his family and didn’t want
anyone to thinking she was stupid for thinking some of the things she was. When
she was settled at the table Nancy kissed her cheek then leaned in and spoke to
her.

“You told him then?”

Louise didn’t even pretend to not know
what she was referring to and nodded.

“Good. You’re going to be fine once you
move in and, if you ever need anything, all of us will be more than happy to
help you. Especially with those questions that I’m sure are circling your head
like a drain. Everything will be fine. You’ll see.”

Louise nodded, afraid of the answers she
might get for her questions. Like what was the baby going to be? Would she have
to teach it to shift? Too many for her to try to sort through right now.

They enjoyed the first course of soup. It
was her favorite kind, potato cheese with ham and green onions. She was sitting
back in her chair when Phil asked Nancy how she was doing.

“I’m fine. Just fine, as you know.” She
lifted her brow at him when he laughed. “What is it you think you know, young
man?”

“I think you’ve been given something
that has extended your life.”

She stiffened beside her and Louise
wanted to hurt the man at the other end of the table.

“Not me. I told you before that I
wouldn’t do that to you, but someone has.”

“I don’t know what you mean. I’ve been
taking care of things here and not hanging out with other vampires. And so help
me if you did this after I told you not to, I will—”

“I didn’t. I swear to you.”

Louise was confused and Phil must have
known it.

“I have the power of life. And somehow
Nancy figured it out and told me that if I gave her what I gave the rest of the
family she would hurt me. I believed her. She told me that she missed her mate
and I respected her wishes. But now I can see that…” He grinned.

“See what, you overgrown bug? Tell me
what you think you know or, so help me, I will spoil that child of yours so
badly that she’ll only want her grandma at night and not either of you.” Nancy
was laughing, but Louise believed her. “Spill it before I do you.”

“Did Timothy give you anything while he
was with you?”

She nodded.

“I don’t mean the key and other things,
but anything…maybe liquid?”

“Yes. I told you he gave me some broth.
But it wasn’t tainted with anything. He took the first bite.”

Phil nodded and smiled.

“Tell me or so help me, I will stake
you.”

“Why is that the first thing everyone
wants to do when they get pissed at me?” He raised his hand. “It was dragon’s
blood. And Timothy had probably been taking it his entire life, all his
lifetimes, so it wouldn’t have done anything to him when he took the first
bite.”

Nancy looked around the room and then at
Louise. She looked terrified and pissed. Her hand reached out and touched Louise’s
cheek before settling on her lap again. Louise didn’t know what she was going
to say, but she was afraid too.

“Can you smell it on me?”

Louise looked around the room and her
gaze settled back on Nancy.

“Can you smell the blood on me? You’d be
the only one that would know for sure that…I don’t want to live forever.”

Louise leaned into her throat and took a
deep breath. She smelled of home and comfort. She smelled of the earth and the
sky, as well as an earthy smell she couldn’t place. Just as she was pulling
back to tell her she didn’t smell anything, she caught it. The scent of the man
she’d killed. “He’s there. I’m so sorry.”

Nancy nodded and put her arms around
her.

“I’m so sorry you smell like me.”

Nancy laughed. “I’m not. And I suppose
if I must live beyond my years, it is better than with mosquito breath.” She
looked at Phil, then at the rest of her family. “I suppose this mean’s I’ll be
babysitting for a lot longer than I thought.”

She was sad. Louise was pretty sure that
everyone at the table knew it too, but they laughed with her. Louise looked
over at Connor, who nodded once at her and leaned back in his chair. He was
leaving it up to her to tell her.

“I’m sort of glad you’ll be around. Connor
and I are going to have a baby or something too.”

Nancy looked at her then at Connor.

“I thought that was what you were
talking about when you were referring to moving into the house.”

“Another baby?” Nancy put her hand on
Louise’s flat belly and closed her eyes. “Another child to hold. I never
thought…” She brushed at the tears on her cheeks.

“Well maybe more than that. I think I’m
in labor.” Holly didn’t move when she said that and neither did anyone else. For
several seconds. Then all hell broke loose, starting with the unflappable Phil.

“Labor? Now? You’re in labor now?” Holly
nodded and Louise laughed at Phil when he seemed to pale. “We have to do
something. Christ, a baby. We’re going to have a baby now.”

“We will if you ever shut up and take me
home.” She stood and froze for several seconds then looked at her mom. “My
water just broke.”

Holly was picked up and rushed up the stairs.
No more than her back hit the bed when she howled out in pain. Louise wasn’t
sure Phil could get any paler, but he did. She was ready to offer him her wrist
when his mom came into the room and his father ushered him out. A few minutes
later he came back in the bedroom a whole lot calmer.

Baby boy Campbell was brought into the
world nine hours and ten minutes later. Holly was fine, as was the baby. Louise
was thrilled beyond words that it appeared to be a regular-looking baby and not
a wolf or bat. She flushed when Phil raised a brow at her and she wished once
again he didn’t have the ability to read her mind. She was nervous, damn it.

By the time everyone was settled she was
exhausted and tried to make her way to her room so that Connor would be able to
spend some time with his sister and new nephew. He scooped her up into his arms
without a word and took her to the bedroom. She was asleep before she was under
the covers.

Chapter 18

The house finished the next week. They
still couldn’t move into it yet as there was no furniture, but she was getting
excited. Nancy had brought her the laptop yesterday to have her look at
furniture. Tomorrow, she was going into town for three hours and she was going
to do a lot of testing of cushions. And she was planning to seduce Connor.

The trial was the day after tomorrow and
she was afraid. Phil had assured her in his weird way that she wouldn’t be
going to prison if she was convicted, but she would be put to death. Great.

“But not to worry. You have the best
attorney known to all mankind at your side. As well as an in on the council.” She
wasn’t amused and told him so. “They only want this to cover their own asses.
They want to make sure you understand the importance of you keeping quiet on
what actually happened there that day.”

She’d been thinking about what had
happened that day a great deal in the past few weeks. So much so that she
didn’t want to think about it again. She’d killed that man. Of course, he’d
been trying to kill her and had indeed killed a great many others, but she had
done the deed that had ended his life.