The Lion’s Forbidden Mate

The cramp subsided and Lucy looked at him with a baffled expression. “How do you know about that stuff?”

“I’ve been reading up in my spare time,” he assured her with a soothing smile.

She didn’t think she could be any more in love with him than she was in that moment. The fact that he had been paying attention to everything all along the way was more than she could bear. He was the best man in the world and she was going to be so thrilled to have him for the rest of her life.

By the time they were out in the truck, James had called Lucy’s doctor who lived just a few houses away from the clinic that they were heading to and she would meet them there when they finally ended up getting to Klinesdale. James was driving and Lucy could hardly believe she had actually been planning to do all of this herself. It was strange that she actually had someone here to help her and what was even stranger was the fact that it was the man she was in love with and the father of her child. This really couldn’t have worked out any better.

The town of Klinesdale was silent, the flurries slowly coming down as they rolled through the streets. Every house had its lights out and there wasn’t a car in sight. The town shut up for the night and there was a haunting feeling as they made their way toward the one building in the entire town that had its lights still on, the clinic. Rolling up in front of it, she waited for James to help her out of the car and Doctor Ruth opened the door and lead them in.

What followed was a blur that she really didn’t understand. She thought she was ready for everything that was happening from the books she had read and from all of the consultations she’d had with the doctor, but that really only made her realize that she had no clue about what was about to happen to her body. She was about to go through the greatest trauma women could and she was hoping she would have a baby on the other side. She didn’t know what she was thinking. Who had thought that this was ever going to be a good idea? Who had ever thought she was ready to be a mother?

“Focus on your breathing,” James said as they put her on the table and a nurse that Lucy had never met helped prep the anesthetic.

All she could do was try and survive the contractions as they came. They were more powerful and more painful than anything she had ever experienced before. She wanted to scream and shout, and when she thought she was being calm, she was surprised to find that she was being anything but calm. In fact, she was screaming the whole way through.

When Doctor Ruth had given her the consultation about what it was like to have an anesthetic versus not having one, Lucy hadn’t really cared. She wanted to do whatever was least painful for her while protecting the baby. Now, as the pain started to fly away from her, vanishing nearly completely, she was grateful she had chosen that option. She definitely didn’t want anything else. All she could think about was how happy she was that her man was here. She looked at him and smiled faintly.

“I’ll stay right here,” he told her with a grin. “I’ll make sure that you can hold my hand the whole way through.”

“Helen,” Lucy told him with a grin on her lips. “I want to call her Helen.”

“I love it,” James said with a smile on his face.

What followed was the most horrifying experience Lucy had ever experienced, but when she was through it, what felt like an eternity later, she could hear the cries of her daughter. She could also hear the sobs of pure joy from the man that she loved, the man she was going to spend the rest of her life with and she couldn’t help but feel the joy radiating through her.

She had finally gotten her happily ever after.

The end.