Free Natural Magick by Kathi S. Barton Page B

important that you start when I tell you and stop when I tell you. I don’t want to take chances with you or the boy now. You can trust that I won’t harm either of you still. Our bargain is still in place. If you’d like to change your mind, I can maybe hold them off until someone else gets here, but I can’t be positive.”
    Pete watched as Sara patted Shade’s arm and then nodded when Shade raised her hand. It was funny really and she grinned at her.
    “ Sara wants to know if she can talk to you now. She said she doesn’t want to break the contact between the two of you, but she’d really like to talk to you.”
    “ Yes, you may answer now. Our contact is closed enough to be considered complete that I doubt it would matter anyway. To be honest, I didn’t believe you could do it. It must have been very difficult for you to remain quiet for that long.” Pete grinned wider when Sara glared at her.
    Sara, nodding, tears glistening in her eyes, said, “There are no words adequate enough to thank you for what you’ve done for me, for us. I thank you for my children and for your trust. If you ever need anything, ever, you’ll have it.”
    Pete started to say something, but could not. No one had ever said anything like that to her before. Not that she had ever given them the chance. She felt the room closing in on her and moved to the door. She needed to escape. Right now, she needed to get away.
    Forty-five minutes later, Aaron and Duncan entered the little room, taking up a large portion of it and the air. Duncan was pressed into helping get the extra people out of the room, leaving the members of the Kiss and Pete. Colin, Shade’s mate, would be by shortly with the extra car needed to get them home and was going to meet them there as soon as he could. Brent was with Penny and waiting for the news of the new baby.
    Everyone seemed ready for the little ones to be born. Now Pete needed to see if the little ones were ready too.
    “ All right, Mrs. MacManus, I need you to bear down hard and push from your bottom. Push like you need a good poop. I know that sounds gross, but that’s where you need to use all the muscles to work from. Sire, you will kneel here and I will hand you your babies as they come. Ready? Push. Push hard.”
    Seven hard pushes later, baby boy MacManus was born. He was a little guy and the horrific bruise around his tiny neck brought home how close he had come to death. He screamed his first cry when Pete held him upside down by his feet and slapped him a good one across the bottom. Once he took air into his healthy lungs, he quieted.
    “ I’ve asked him not to cry too much for the first few days to give his throat time to heal better. His sister has agreed, quite readily actually, to cry for him when he needs something. She has told me to tell you to check him first when she cries, it’s probably for him anyway. She is going to be a handful, I think.” Pete looked at the baby and saw that he was going to be fine.
    His father held him like a precious jewel. Eighteen minutes later, baby girl MacManus came into the world just like the diva she was probably going to turn out to be. She did not scream, but growled like a pro when Pete paid her bottom the same treatment she gave her brother’s.
    Duncan, good man that he was, had remembered to bring the bags for the birth that the Missus had had ready for some weeks now, so they were able to bundle the babies in diapers and clothes. They were tiny and other than the bruising, were beautiful.
    While the families were surrounding the children cooing and awing over them, Pete looked around the room. The hair on the back of her neck had begun to prickle since she finished with the birth. She looked for the source and spotted the man from the kitchen at the MacManus’ home standing in the corner away from her. He was staring at her. Well, glaring would be a better term for what he was doing.
    Pete turned away and stood, making ready to leave. She did