Entangled

Chapter 27

There are a lot of times when Seth doesn't always understand the words coming out of Becky's mouth. Even when she's speaking English, he can find her accent hard to understand. When she switches to Irish, he's completely lost. Her latest phone calls back home have mostly been in Irish. A lot of her swears are. Sometimes she switches languages while they're having sex and he's gotten to the point where he just chooses to take it as a compliment, since it means she can't think clearly anymore.

These screams, though, pierce his brain and even without words, there's only one thing they can mean: pain. Then he hears the electronic dog whistle that Eleyna gave her and he's not sure which hurts more: the assault on his ears, so much more sensitive in wolf form, or the way the noise stutters, meaning that Becky lost her grip on the device.

Sasha? It's hard to communicate in wolf form, but they all have certain sounds associated with their names. He barely gets Sasha's out when he sees a blur running past him, and it takes him a moment to clear his head and follow suit. Another scream tears through the night and his only solace is that it sounds like Becky is only in pain, not danger.

Only has never sounded so wrong to him before.

He and Sasha made sure not to venture too far from Becky's campsite, but it still feels like it takes an hour to get back to her. When they arrive, it looks like a small tornado has hit. Their carefully stacked clothing is strewn everywhere, and Seth almost trips over one of Becky's water bottles that has rolled away from the blanket. He and Sasha both take a mouthful of the blanket and tug it off Becky, who's curled in on herself and is pushing at the ground with both hands. The scent of blood and some other bodily fluid Seth can't quite place distracts him for a moment, leaving Sasha to nudge Becky with her head. "It's the baby," she rasps, clutching at Sasha's fur. "I can't—"

It's the baby. It's all Seth needs to hear to power through his shift to human form. It hurts like hell and he'll pay for it tomorrow—tonight, in an hour, who knows?—but that agony is nothing compared to how pale and drawn Becky's face is. It isn't until he's fully human again that he realizes she's naked from the waist down, and her thighs are smeared with blood. Kneeling beside her, Seth helps ease her up into a sitting position, holding her steady as another wave of pain crashes through her. "We're here." It's a ridiculous thing to say, but he wants to make sure she knows she's not alone anymore. She never should have been, he berates himself. Maybe a month ago, it was safe enough, but now that's she's past her due date, one of them should have stayed with her.

"Don't." Sasha's voice is rough and Seth hadn't even realized she made it back to human form until he hears it. Her hand on his shoulder helps bring him back to the moment. "Don't second-guess. We need to focus." She tosses his shorts to him and then quickly pulls on her sweat pants and t-shirt. "I'll get everything gathered up," she says, handing him his phone. "Get Becky to the SUV and call Eleyna."

Seth nearly trips over his feet as he yanks his shorts up and tucks his phone in his pocket; neither he nor Sasha are worrying about minor things like underwear, which Sasha jams into a bag at random. "Becks, can you walk?" he asks gently. Just from looking at her, he doubts it, but he knows how proud she is, how determined.

Becky shakes her head vigorously. "No. I fell once and—" This time her scream is wordless, soundless, and she grips Seth's shoulders so hard he can hear his bones protesting.

"Okay. Okay. We've got you. I'm going to pick you up, okay?" Seth talks her through each move he makes so he doesn't startle her, and Sasha pauses in her cleaning to wrap the blanket around Becky. Once he's sure his hold on Becky is secure, Seth holds his hand out for the car keys, and slides the ring around one of his fingers to make sure he doesn't drop it. The run between the clearing and the SUV seems unbearably long, but he doesn't want to trip and drop Becky, so he has to watch his feet. As soon as he has the doors open, he eases Becky into the backseat, trying to get as much of the blanket behind her as he can. Then he grabs his phone and calls Eleyna, glad he had the sense to file her number under A—for AAAAAAH!—so he didn't have to scroll as far. "Something's happening," he blurts out as soon as he hears the line pick up on the other end. "There's blood and—"