A Friend To The Elements

Chapter 21

Chapter 21

*Samantha's POV*
Once I hit 33 weeks Henry stayed home for almost the entire week. At first it was strange, but he was being the man I loved again.
Up until then he had still expected me to supply him with meals and keep the house tidy for when he came home. I was thankful for my midwife who helped me with the tasks even though she disapproved of me going up and down the stairs at all.
The 33 week mark was different though. He brought me breakfast and lunch in bed. The only time he left he returned quickly after with take out from my favorite Chinese resturaunt. I sat up on the bed propping the small box of sesame chicken on my huge stomach. It had been a year since I had eaten anything besides what I made at home. I would have almost been satisfied with just the smell, but the taste. Oh the taste.
Little man's foot pushed against the container causing it to almost tip over. Henry reached and grabbed the container before it fell on the bed. My eyes shut and breath caught in my throat as I waited for him to tell me how stupid it had been to put the container there in the first place. I flinched slightly when a gentle hand pressed against my belly where the food was. I could feel the warm fabric press further against my skin and the tiny foot kick again.
"He's a feisty one in there isn't he?" Henry's face was relaxed with a loving smile. I put my hand on top of his pressing it slightly firmer into the kick.
"Can you feel his toes? The doctor thinks he is measuring a week ahead which is why I am so huge."
Henry scrunched his eyebrows waiting for another kick, but it was as if the baby already knew not to fight him. I reached my other hand to the underside of my belly and patted it to try and get him to be active again. It worked and the little foot pressed up against Henry's hand. He jerked his hand away and looked at me with wide eyes.
"He's so strong! Doesn't that hurt?" I shrugged and rubbed my stomach.
"It can be a little uncomfortable. Seeing his feet and elbows are a little disturbing sometimes, but I wouldn't say they hurt." At this point Henry stood up and looked down over my belly.
"See...them..?"
I pulled up my shirt and bunched it just underneath my breasts. He was leaning slightly to the right causing one side of my stomach to look deformed. His head was sitting almost where it should be, but my stomach hadn't dropped yet. I repeated the same shaking motion with slightly more force.
The lump moved through my skin. A tiny hand pressed on the bottom right of my stomach while a foot appeared on the upper left. Henry covered a small gasp with his hand as I repositioned to get back to comfortable. "He's running out of room. Won't be long now."
He sat back down and scooted the little chair closer to the bedside. His arms wrapped around my belly and he laid his head down with his ear pressed against my skin. His hair had gotten a little long so I was able to twist a small piece around my finger. My head leaned back on the pillows and my eyes closed.
How would I explain this active baby being born stillborn?

*Adam's POV*
'Adam?...Ad...Ad...am?'
I froze in my tracks. What was that? I sniffed the air hoping to catch a scent from any of my pack members. Nobody was close by. I was alone in wolf form in the middle of the woods.
'...am?...ca..hear...e?'
It couldn't be her. We can't speak through our minds yet. But that was her voice. Her voice in my head. It had been so long that I almost didn't recognize it.
'I'm here! I'm going to find you. If you can hear me I will find you.'
I felt something tug me in the opposite direction I had been running. My paws started working on their own free will. They knew where I was going even if I didn't. Every few feet I stopped stretching my paws up creating large scratches to guide me here again. I reached out over and over again trying to hear her again, but nothing came. Then the tugging stopped. I was empty again and alone. I let out a howl and continued to run straight for another mile until I came across a clearing.
It seemed like as good of a place as any to create a checkpoint. I circled the small pond rubbing my body on every tree. I scratched the bark into a few and even peed on some of the surrounding rocks for good measure. Part of me worried that if Henry came across it he would move location if I was too close, but if she had escaped I needed her to know this was mine now. I jogged around in circles for a few more hours trying to find a direction that might bring me closer to her, but there was nothing. The sun was starting to set and as much as I didn't care about the danger, I had to think rationally for the rest of my pack. We would come back with a small search party.
It took me almost two hours to get back home. The sun had finished setting and the full moon was out by the time I walked through the back door.
The smell of pot-roast hit me as soon as I walked in and mom turned to smile at me. She wrinkled her nose then plugged it with her fingers.
"Okay no food until you shower." She pointed in the direction of the bathroom with her free hand and turned her attention back to the vegetables simmering on the stove.
"Come on Mom..." The amount of food I had eaten today was miniscule and the roast smelled so good.
Her voice came out distorted from her nose still being plugged. "If I have to smell you for one more second I am going to vomit. Don't even bother washing the clothes. Just burn them or something."
I shook my head with a small smile and headed to the bathroom.
Mom had started to turn back more into herself. She was able to hold down a part time job working as a secretary in the high school. Why anyone would voluntarily work in a high school was beyond me, but it gave her something to look forward to during the day. She also had pack members constantly stopping by to pester her or offer their help so I think it made her feel useful.
Despite her telling me to burn the clothes, I stripped them off and put them in the bottom of the tub while the water warmed up. I poured some body wash on them. Wasn't laundry detergent, but it would do for a pre-wash. The dirt ran off the clothes turning the water brown. I wouldn't admit it to her, but maybe she had been fair about the shower. As the water warmed I got in the shower squishing more dirt out of the clothes before tossing them into the sink.
The shower was hot almost to the point of painful, but it felt great. I didn't have a lot of progress in my search. In fact I hadn't had any since she was taking. Josh's meeting with Henry was the closest we came to getting a location, but he had yet to make contact with Josh for us to go any further.
I scrubbed at my hair and body until the caked mud was gone and then just stood under the shower until the water turned cold. She was so close. I could feel it.
I turned off the faucet and wrapped a clean towel around my waist then used another to dry my hair. Maybe it was time for a haircut. I'm sure Noah wouldn't mind getting out of the house for a couple of hours.
I quickly switched rooms to avoid Mom catching me in the hallway with only a towel. On my way I threw the wet clothes into the washing machine, so I didn't forget. There were clean clothes laying on the bed with new tags on them. I guess Mom assumed I wouldn't have anything worth keeping and just bought new ones.
She wasn't altogether wrong. I definitely didn't have anything clean. I pulled on the black sweats and plain red t-shirt popping off the tags in the process. She even had a new pack of socks that I gladly ripped in to.
The pile of clothes in the corner had grown a little daunting. Now that I was clean, I could smell the clothes like I never had before, and it was rank. Grabbing a couple of outfits so as not to overload the washer I walked to the hallway and plopped them in. I flipped the washer from normal load to heavy with an extra soak and closed the lid.
I made my way into the kitchen grabbing a plate. Mom walked over and inhaled deeply to make sure all the smell was gone. "Finally. I can breathe a little in this house."
"It wasn't that bad." I rolled my eyes and scooped a portion of the meat onto my plate.
"As long as you locked yourself in your room and kept the door closed. Even then the smell is starting to destroy the rest of the house."
I pulled my chair out and sat down with my plate. She followed with her own.
"Where's Dad at? He's normally home by now."
She plopped a bit of meat into her mouth and swallowed before answering. "He had some business to take care of at the office."
Over the last month they had decided to convert the small house Henry had been living into an office space. Dad didn't like bringing the business side of being Alpha home with him. It was also a lot easier to spread out his papers on a desk rather than a dining room table. The plan for Josh to use it had unfortunately not planned out. He preferred the guest room so we were nearby if there was news.
"Has Josh came by?"
She raised an eyebrow and smiled. I hadn't seen her smile this much in a while. It was another weight lifted off of me.
"Best I can tell he is with your dad at the office."
"Interesting." I tore the roast into smaller pieces and ate a few bites before she started speaking again.
"You were out late too. Find anything?"
I shrugged not sure how much to share quite yet. I didn't want to get her hopes up or maybe I didn't want to get my own hopes up. I hadn't eaten and was running for hours. Maybe I imagined it all. "Maybe. Could be. I don't really know yet."
"What are you going to do when you find her?" It didn't escape my attention that she said when not if. I appreciated it more than she knew.
"I don't understand your question. I am going to find her, and she'll be here."
She reached across the table and placed her hand on my hand that held the fork forcing me to look up at her. "You don't know what she's going through right now. It's possible she'll want to go be with her family. It's possible she'll never want to be touched by a man again. It's possible-" I raised my hand to cut her off.
"I can't think about those things. They don't matter. The only thing that matters is her being safe. From there she can make any decision she wants to. I just need to know shes taken care of."
Mom drew her hand back and finished her plate without speaking further. In truth her question settled in my stomach like a rock. What would we do? I hardly knew her. I only knew I needed her and if the bond had grown too weak when she did return, she may not feel it at all. Who knew what that sick bastard was doing with her and the person she would walk out of it as? I just had to do everything I could to make sure she walked out of it.
When we finished eating, I headed upstairs and called Noah while changing the sheets on my bed.
"What's up man?" I could hear Riley laughing in the background then a door clicks behind him.
"Want to go get some haircuts tomorrow? It'll be on me."
"Sorry...I got one yesterday. We can meet up for breakfast though and catch up."
"Sounds good."
I threw a new comforter on the bed and laid down to stare at the ceiling. "Bring Josh along. He's a pretty cool dude. I have a feeling...well Riley has a feeling that he'll be around for a little bit."
"Of course she does. Yeah, I'll see if he wants to come. See you tomorrow at the diner?"
"See you then." I heard Riley's laugh return in the background noise before the line went dead. I wished I could hear Lily laugh again.

I sat the phone on the table and closed my eyes. The light was still on, but I was too tired to care.