Chapter Eight
Sawyer
Sawyer's mouth tasted like yesterday's coffee with spoiled cream. He blinked his eyes and then stopped since the motion only brought a shooting pain to his head. He felt fuzzy like he'd spent the night before pounding shots and was now in line for the worst hangover. Except, he had spent the night before in Roscoe's arms, and while there had been pounding, there hadn't been alcohol. Not while he was pregnant.
Sawyer panicked. He tried moving his arms, and when he found he couldn't, he looked down, relieved to see his pregnant belly while also feeling guilty that his child hadn't been his first concern. He felt a little kick as if his child was trying to tell him he was okay and that it was alright if Sawyer was feeling a little discombobulated. He was tied up in the middle of the forest after all. There wasn't a house or hut around, but there was an ominous, freshly dug hole a few feet to his front.
A moan sounded to his right, and Sawyer screamed. Which only made him close his eyes tightly against the pain in his head. He couldn't turn well enough to see the person's face, but there was a body tied up with Sawyer and judging from the soft moan, the body was alive.
"Hello? Can you hear me? Are you okay?" Sawyer asked, his words felt like razors in his throat.
The body didn't respond unless a moan counted as a response. Sawyer wondered who the hell it could be. To know that, he would have to know who took him. His mind went to Garth, obviously. But that voice hadn't been Garth's and Sawyer had to doubt that he would hurt his own sister.
He attempted to move his arms again, but they were restrained behind his back so tightly, he couldn't even feel them. As if that wasn't bad enough, Sawyer felt a new sensation, one that wasn't quite pain but that didn't soothe him in the slightest. A light contraction in his lower abdomen, exactly how Dr. Feller had explained the beginning of labor would feel.
Panic set on Sawyer like snow on a field in winter. He yelled for help until he felt like he would pass out from either lack of oxygen or pain. He kept going though, screaming at the top of his lungs. At least if he was passed out, his labor might stop. Maybe. Sawyer hadn't been paying extremely close attention, and he was pretty sure Dr. Feller hadn't covered, in case labor began during a kidnapping, in his spiel.
"Dude! Shut it!" a familiar, yet totally unexpected voice whispered from the brush.
"Heath? What the hell?"
Maggie's voice joined Heath's. "We found him, I repeat, we found him. Fifteen miles southeast of the highway. Oh god, can you even hear me? Over." There was only silence for a moment before Maggie spoke again in the same hushed whisper. "You have to be quiet. We think we passed it a while back and—" She stopped speaking the moment she spotted Sawyer.
If Sawyer had been the one speaking, he would have lost his words as well upon first sight of the two of them. Both Maggie and Heath were completely covered from head to toe in something that looked like mud. Maggie had sticks, and moss stuck in her hair while Heath was shirtless with leaves plastered to his skin.
"What the hell happened to you two?" Sawyer asked.
Maggie's eyes looked like they were going to pop out of her head. "What happened to us? What happened to you?" she asked while seemingly unable to stop looking at his pregnant belly.
"Gaia didn't tell you?" Sawyer had thought Gaia would have told Maggie all of the ins and outs of being a shifter.
"Gaia did that to you?" Maggie practically shrieked. Beside her, Heath made a loud shushing sound.
"But she's right, bro. You don't look like yourself," Heath conceded.
If Sawyer weren't restrained, left to rot on the forest floor in front of a scary body-sized hole dug by God only knew who, he might have laughed. "I'm pregnant. With Roscoe's child and—" He bit his bottom lip as another contraction came upon him. "I think I am going into labor."
"What?" Maggie said.
At the same time, Heath cursed. "Where does it come from?" he asked, cocking his mud-covered head to the side and looking up and down Sawyer's body. His gaze remained fixed on Sawyer's lower half.
"It doesn't come from there!" Sawyer snapped. "Please help me up and untie my arms. And tell me who the hell is on the other side of this tree."
Maggie rushed forward as Heath walked around to the body. "I don't recognize him. He's pretty banged up though."
When Maggie pulled Sawyer to his feet, it was like a double attack on his senses. His head didn't appreciate the change in the elevation and pounded its discontent while his baby announced with more and more enthusiasm that he was on his way.
"How can I help you?" Maggie asked frantically.
"Untie my arms."
"Heath, I need your knife."
Heath came back around, pulling a knife from his pocket he flipped the blade open and began sawing on Sawyer's bindings. "I can't believe we found you. Maggie had the idea to look around her mushroom hunting trails because they were so secluded, and I had the idea to mask our scents from the bear shifters." He sounded so proud. "Which was a good thing since we saw one of you walking away from this spot. We barely managed to hide in the brush." He paused and then opened his mouth wide, before shutting it and then opening it again. "I gotta know, where does it come from?"
Sawyer groaned against the pain. "The baby is born through a cesarean section which needs to happen soon." As he spoke, he doubled over, glad he could grab his knees with his freed hands. But he still wasn't able to feel his hands. They had a horrible purplish tint, and Sawyer wondered how close he had been to losing them.
"We gotta go," Maggie whispered. "Sawyer, can you walk?"
Sawyer tried and immediately saw the forest floor up close. Heath had managed to catch him at the last minute awkwardly, keeping him from slamming into the ground. "I don't think so. Maybe if I had a stick?"
Heath and Maggie left him, presumably to locate a walking stick. Seconds later, Sawyer heard Maggie's scream. There was a rustle in the brush and then, another scream that sounded like it was coming from Heath.
Sawyer turned toward the last noise. His arms stung like a thousand pins and needles were poking his skin. At least the blood was flowing back. Not that he would need that blood when Garth finally killed him and stuffed him into the hole he was now closer to.
Except, it wasn't Garth who walked through the brush it was a very naked, scowling Greg.
Relief flooded through Sawyer, and he tried to get to his feet. "You found us!" Sawyer exclaimed before he fell back down as pain exploded on the side of his face. It took an extra moment for Sawyer to realize Greg had struck him.
"You are supposed to still be out. I must not have used the right dosage."
"What are you talking about, Greg? You've never had a problem with me. It was Garth. Garth was the one…"
"He is the one everyone thinks did it. He will be the one every blames when you never return. But I'll return, with an injury that proves my story." He began speaking in a high pitched, frantic voice like he was performing the part of Scared Survivor Number One. "I was at home when I heard Garth mumble about making Roscoe pay. He attacked me and yet, I made chase, because I knew Sawyer needed to be rescued. When I finally caught up, Garth was burying Sawyer's poor dead body. Still, I fought him and was injured again, but not before I killed Garth for killing your mate." Greg closed his eyes, and when he reopened them, he was scowling again. "Roscoe will mourn, my den brothers and sisters will congratulate me and then, when the time comes, I'll console my pack master. I'll be there for him on a level that no one else can be. He'll realize how we were meant to be together. How I am supposed to be the one carrying his child, not some barely legal man-whore."
"You were going to bury me in that hole?" Sawyer asked dumbly, his teeth chattering.
"I am going to fuck you first. You know, to get some pointers about how my alpha will like it when I am in his bed."
Sawyer shuddered and then threw up. It soaked into the forest, going deep into the earth like Sawyer was about to. "He's too smart for that, Greg," Sawyer said, more to himself than his psycho kidnapper.
"Really? Right now, he is on Garth's trail because I put him there. It didn't take much, a little riling up on Garth's side, a few well-placed whispers into Roscoe's ear and the two were always ready to go at each other's throats. This was how Roscoe always thought it would end."
"No," Sawyer said, the word turning into a wail as another labor contraction wracked through his body. "He won't believe you."
Greg sneered and then took a step toward him. He stopped as the brush shook.
Maggie walked out, bent over from pain but holding a walkie-talkie out with her other hand. "Sawyer's right. He won't believe you now," Maggie said, her finger clearly on the button that would let whoever was on the other end of the walkie hear everything Greg had just said.
"You bitch!" Greg leaped toward her, yanking the walkie away and snapping it in two before he reached his hand around Maggie's throat and began lifting her. When her feet left the ground, she flailed and kicked, but she was no match for Greg.
"Stop! Maggie! No!" Sawyer screamed.
A dark snarl split the forest in two, seconds before a blur slammed into Greg. Sawyer worried that with the hold he had on Maggie, more damage had been done, but when her body dropped, she was moving, groaning as she got to her side.
The blur was a bear, smaller than Roscoe was in bear form, but fast. Greg shifted, and in animal form, he was clearly larger than the other bear. He used his weight to change the momentum of the fight. His jaws clamped around the other bear's throat.
There was a roar that made Sawyer's heart sing while also causing hundreds of goosebumps to erupt all over his body. He turned in time to see his mate, his alpha, in huge bear form, running toward Greg with his teeth bared.
Greg's eyes widened, and even in bear form, Sawyer saw the fear in his eyes. And then, there was no expression. It was as if Roscoe's massive paw had torn a hole right through him, allowing his blood, bitterness, and hate to pour out of him.
Sawyer choked on a sob.
A moment later, strong arms grabbed his shoulders, but his teeth were chattering too much.
"I have you," Roscoe murmured. He was naked but warm. Sawyer clung to his chest and knew that his mate's warmth and stability were the only things keeping Sawyer from losing it completely.
"Maggie?" he squeaked. "Heath? That bear?" His eyes widened. "The body? It's Garth. He wasn't behind this," Sawyer said, his fingernails scratching Roscoe's skin as he attempted to get out the most important information first.
"I know, I heard," Roscoe said darkly. "I was an idiot. If my brothers were here, they would have seen right through his games. Angus especially always hated Greg."
"I'm okay," a gruff voice said. A mud-covered hand shot out of the brush. Maggie rushed toward her brother, supported by Gaia--the other bear that had saved Maggie. Heath held his head and wheezed as he attempted to catch his breath. Sawyer guessed Greg had simply run both Maggie and Heath over.
"Garth," Sawyer hissed. "He was still alive, but…"
Roscoe carried Sawyer to the other side of the tree. Garth lay on the ground, tied up as Sawyer had been, but he had also been severely beaten. One eye was swollen shut and his bottom lip was turning a horrible color. Worse, there was a red spot that had blossomed at his side. It looked like he had bled a considerable amount before the injury had sealed.
Sawyer wrenched the upper half of his body away and threw up again.
"You don't have to look at him," Roscoe reassured him. "We'll take him to the infirmary and get him patched up."
"No," Sawyer hissed. "I mean, that is great, but it is the baby. I'm in labor."
Everyone began to move very quickly, or maybe Sawyer's world had slowed down. Gaia and Roscoe began talking logistics while Maggie and Heath tended to Garth who was coming to. Only Sawyer was silent. If no one counted the occasional groan as his contractions began happening more frequently and with more power behind them.
"Grab the ropes he was tied in and the ones around Garth, I want him tight, but not so tight, the circulation is cut off."
"Roscoe, if we tie Sawyer to your back when you are a bear, he'll need to be untied before you can shift, or the pressure of the rope could injure him and possibly kill the baby," Gaia warned as she picked Sawyer up and hauled him gently over Roscoe's back.
Roscoe grunted is acknowledgment. Sawyer looked up from the back of his mate. There didn't seem to be much of a break between contractions, though he knew that couldn't be right. He wasn't sure what to call the other thing he was feeling except that it seemed to be transporting him out of his body. He felt light and not just because he was about to ride on the back of a giant bear.
"Roscoe, hurry. Follow the river, and it should take you to the vets." She paused and then, "He looks pale."
Roscoe didn't wait for goodbyes before taking off at a dead run. Sawyer held on, but he didn't need to. Gaia had tied him off in such a way that he barely wiggled on Roscoe's back. Sawyer buried his face into his mate's fur, thinking how lucky he was. If he was going to experience an out of body experience level of pain, he'd rather do it with his mate by his side. Or, under him, as the case was now. Sawyer laughed at his joke and found that he couldn't laugh without screaming.
Something was wrong. The baby needed out and yet, there was no outlet. "Would probably split you open before it came to term."
Garth had been right the entire time.
A sharp grow-like bark sounded from Roscoe and Sawyer wondered if he'd spoken out loud. Then, another wave of crushing pain came over him. It felt like he couldn't breathe, but there was nothing Sawyer could do but ride the back of his might bear and hope they reached help in time.