Page 44 of Shifter and the Succubus (The Pack #1)
“Go faster!” Misha bellowed.
Jean Luc drove like a bat out of hell on a normal day. Having Misha demand he drive faster was a death wish.
Jean Luc appeared eerily calm as he made his way to the Shamat hospital.
Jason was the opposite of calm, and so was Kyle, who reached for Jason’s hand where they sat in the back seat of the van. He didn’t know about her, but he prayed to the safety gods that they made it in one piece to the hospital. Talia’s mouth quirked up in amusement from her seat in the third row.
Kyle glared at her. “I would like to survive to see my new niece or nephew.”
Talia grinned. “Jean Luc is a wonderful driver.”
“Says the vamp who drives as fast as he does,” Kyle said.
They pulled up to the Shamat compound, and the gate was already open.
More than likely in preparation for them.
Boris should give the guard at the gate a raise.
A minute later, Jean Luc pulled up in front of the hospital and Misha had his door open before the vampire had come to a complete stop.
Jason and Kyle piled out as well before Jean Luc left to park.
Jason and Kyle ran in behind Misha. The receptionist called out the room number, and Misha kept on running. Jason and Kyle stopped at the desk. “Everyone else is in the waiting room down the hall.”
Boris and Misha’s two brothers, Sergei and Aleksei, were in the waiting room. Jason was surprised that Boris’s mate, Gwen, and the brother’s mates, Lela and Naya, were missing.
Irina walked in behind them. “Misha just arrived, so I excused myself and left him with his wife.”
“How’s she doing?” Jason asked.
“Good. She’s a trooper. And she’s been through this before with the twins.”
“Where are the twins?” Kyle asked as Jean Luc and Talia joined them.
“Gwen, Naya, and Lela are with the twins and the other kids.”
Jean Luc nodded. “It is good to have more than one person watching the twins. They may try to sneak into the hospital if left unsupervised.”
“I bribed them with brownies,” Irina proclaimed with a twinkle in her eye.
Kyle pointed to Sergi and Aleksei. “How did you two get out of babysitting duty?”
Aleksei smirked. “Babushka thought Misha might need some brotherly support.”
Irina beamed. “So they really didn’t get out of babysitting duty after all.”
They all chuckled and settled in the room.
It was packed, but they made the best of it.
Dalton showed up an hour later, and they shuffled around a bit so that he could sit down next to Kyle.
After another hour, Irina called her chauffeur/bodyguard, Grigori, to go to her house and pick up the food she had prepared earlier that day.
They migrated to the hospital’s conference room with a long table and had fried chicken, potato salad, and some Russian cookies that Jason forgot the name of.
“You have enough food here for an army,” Kyle said.
Irina nodded. “I had a feeling that Callie’s time was close, so I wanted to have food ready for the next couple of days.”
“There’s more food?” Dalton asked.
Irina snickered. “How long have you known me, dear?”
Dalton chuckled. “I forgot who I was talking to.”
They finished eating and Irina had them collect the leftovers and take it to the staff’s break room so that everyone working could enjoy the food.
Back to the waiting room they went. Jason wondered how Sabrina was doing. She was such a rock-star doctor. She would be able to handle the birth and Misha.
Irina had gone down the hall to see how things were going and returned with a grin. “Soon.”
An hour and a half later Misha burst into the waiting room with tears running down his face. “It’s a girl! Eight pounds, three ounces. She’s perfect and so is her mom.”
Everyone surged to their feet and started hugging Misha and then each other. Jason’s throat thickened at the love in the room.
“They’re getting Callie and the baby settled.”
“Do you want the twins to come now?” Boris asked.
“As if you could stop them,” Irina responded.
They laughed as Boris called Gwen to spread the news.
Jason peeked down the hall and saw Sabrina. He headed toward her, and she beamed at him, the smile almost stopping him in his tracks.
“Just heard the news.”
“The baby is good. Just ran the initial tests, and she scored very well. The nurses are getting them both settled before the deluge of visitors begins.”
“Forewarning, the twins should be here soon.”
Sabrina nodded. “Good.”
“How are you feeling?” he asked.
“Happy. Babies are a gift.”
“They are. Are you hungry? Irina made food.”
“Of course she did. I’ll grab something in a few minutes.”
Jason wrapped his arm around her as they headed down the hall toward the waiting room. “Just so you know, there is a bet going on right now about the labor.”
“What about?”
“How many times did Callie threaten Misha?”
Sabrina chuckled before thinking for a moment. “Three.”
“Damn. Irina won. We had all thought it would be much, much higher.”
A commotion down the hall had them turning, and the group in the waiting room came out to see what was going on. The twins ran full tilt down the hall, and Misha dropped to his knees, grabbing them both into a hug. Gwen walked up behind them, followed by Naya carrying Kara and Lela carrying Sasha.
“We told you, Papa!” Matty hollered.
“We knew it was a girl!” Luke added.
“You were right.”
“What about her name?” Matty asked.
“We’ll share that with everyone once they’ve met her, okay? Let’s go meet your sister.”
They both nodded, and Misha walked them down the hall and into the room. When it came time for Jason to visit, his chest warmed to see Callie and the baby in the bed with Misha and the twins hovering over them. He squeezed Sabrina’s hand as she stood next to him.
“She’s gorgeous,” Jason said.
Misha beamed. “Takes after her mother.”
Jason looked around the room at all the people crammed into the space, all of them beaming.
“Is that it, Papa?” Luke said.
Matty bounced next to his brother. “Can we tell them now?”
Misha rested his hand on Callie’s shoulder. “Callie and I chose her middle name, and the twins got to choose the first name.”
“Her middle name is Anna,” Callie said.
A gasp rippled through the room. Anna had been Misha, Aleksei, and Sergei’s mother and Boris’s first mate. Boris had tears in his eyes as he looked at his granddaughter.
“Okay, boys, tell them her first name.”
The twins looked at each other before shouting, “Kylee!” They scrambled over to Kyle.
“You are named after Papa,” Matty said.
“So the baby should be named after you!” Luke finished.
It was a good thing Dalton had his arm around her since Kyle seemed pretty shaky. “Are you sure?” she said, looking at Callie and Misha, but the twins answered. “Yes! We love you.”
Misha smiled. “We thought to change it just a little bit so that it was for you, but unique for her.”
Tears ran down Kyle’s face, which got the rest of the room going. Even Jean Luc looked a little misty-eyed.
“Okay, everyone, it’s time to give Mom, baby, and Dad a rest.” Sabrina shooed the group out, making them promise not to come back tomorrow morning at the crack of dawn.
Jason led Sabrina back to her office so that she could pack up and head home for the night. Sabrina hesitated for a moment, and Jason took her hand. “Nope. The night nurse already told you to go home, and the on-call doctor will be here if needed. You need to get some rest too.”
They made it to her house, and he got her a glass of wine and had her sit in her reading chair by the fireplace. “Take it easy for a few minutes while I draw you a nice bath.”
She tilted her head like she couldn’t figure him out. “How did you know I like baths? I haven’t taken once since you moved in here.”
He smiled. “I was looking for some extra towels and opened the cabinet on the far wall.”
“Oh.”
“Yes, oh. I have never seen so many different bubble baths and bath salts. I don’t even know what bath salts are.”
Sabrina chuckled. “You caught me. Besides coffee and chocolate-covered pretzels, baths are my other vice.”
“Is there a particular one you want me to use?”
“Surprise me,” she said before leaning back in her chair and taking a sip of wine.
“Got it. I’ll be back to collect you in a few minutes.”
He headed into her bathroom and turned on the water to heat it while he perused her cupboard.
Decisions, decisions. Sniffing a few of them, he settled on one that smelled like lavender.
He closed the stopper and poured some of the bubble bath in before grabbing a large towel and setting it next to the tub.
Then he went into her bedroom and grabbed her bathrobe and hung it on the back of the bathroom door.
He also moved the bouquet of flowers from the bedroom into the bath and set it on the counter.
The florist had smiled when he first asked for a bouquet, telling her he wanted flowers that were lavender or some shade of purple.
She had rattled off a list of flowers—lilac, iris, pansies, sweet peas—and Jason had simply nodded at them all.
And with every new bouquet he bought, she continued to come up with different arrangements that made Sabrina’s eyes light up, so that was all that mattered.
Back in the living room, he found her finishing her wine. He held out his hand, and she took it as he ushered her to the bathroom. Once inside he turned off the faucet and then stepped to the door. “Anything else you need?”
Her eyes widened for a moment before shaking her head.
He smiled at her. “Take your time. You deserve it.”
He left her and went back to the living room to find a show to watch.
“Jason!”
His heart pounded as he hurried to the bathroom door. “Are you okay?”
“Yes. Come in please.”
He opened the door and almost swallowed his tongue. She sat in the tub, bubbles wrapped around her. Her arms were up, holding her hair out of the water.
“I forgot about putting my hair up. Can you grab me the tie in the drawer next to the sink.”