25. Savvy

25

Savvy

A s Savvy drove to Beth’s, the tears poured out of her eyes. She thought about what had just unfolded.

Savvy’s heart shattered into a million pieces when she heard Rory tell Eva that he had always loved her. She had been so certain that Rory was about to tell her that he wanted to have a relationship with her, but it seemed that she had misread the entire situation.

Sure, he liked her. He liked her enough to have sex with. He trusted her enough to take care of his children.

“I knew better than to fall in love with him,” she muttered.

“The heart wants what the heart wants,” Cassia quoted. “You have some great memories with him, and I’m sure that he’ll let the kids come see you often.”

“Their mother might not,” Savvy said. “Especially if she sees me as competition for either their love or Rory’s.”

“I have a feeling that things will work out. Wait and see,” she said.

“Amy, can you come upstairs with me? The kids are going to need you,” Savvy said.

“What’s wrong?” Amy said.

“Eva came back and said that she wants to be a family again. She wants to go through the mating ceremony with Rory. He told her that he had never stopped being in love with her. I’m not going to stand in the way of them being a family again. But unfortunately, even though you, Rosa, and Cassia warned me not to, I fell in love with him. I couldn’t stand being here, seeing him with another woman.”

“I understand, but I think that you should wait for Rory to talk to you about the situation,” Amy said.

“I can’t,” Savvy said.

Amy’s eyes opened wide as she realized that Savvy and Rory had slept together.

“I see. I understand,” she said. “Sometimes love sucks.”

Amy went into the playroom with the kids, who were just starting to wake up from their nap.

They smiled when they saw Savvy, Cassia, and Amy. Savvy’s heart lurched. They were the most loving, incredible kids in the entire world.

“What are we going to do this afternoon?” Drake asked.

“Actually, I need to talk to you guys,” Savvy said.

“What’s wrong?” Cat asked.

“I have to leave for a while. I have to go stay with my friend, Beth,” Savvy said.

“When are you going to be back?” Drake asked.

“Honey, I don’t think I will be back, at least as your nanny. I will try to come back as your friend. You are always welcome to come see me at Beth’s and Taryn’s house. I know that we’ll see each other a lot. You should know that I love you two as much as if you were my own kids. You are the light that always lives inside of me, no matter what.”

“We love you, too,” they said.

They hugged each other tightly, and Cassia gave them dragonfly kisses. Amy and Savvy hugged. Savvy and Cassia went downstairs, hugged Rosa and Colby, told them that she loved them, and drove off.

Beth was surprised to see Savvy and Cassia pull into the driveway. She waddled out to greet them and then her smile turned into a worried face. She knew immediately that something was wrong.

Savvy cried as she poured out her heart to Beth and explained everything.

“I can’t stay. I’m sure that Eva would make me leave anyway. I would if I were in her shoes,” Savvy said.

Beth rubbed her arm and said, “I know. I’m so sorry. You know that you are welcome to stay here as long as you need to.”

“Conner might not agree,” Savvy said. “He might be enjoying his life with just his mate, daughter, and soon-to-be born son.”

“What might Conner not agree to?” he asked as he walked into the living room.

Savvy quickly explained again.

“Of course, Conner would agree to it,” he said, continuing to refer to himself in the third person. “Conner thinks of you as a sister and would insist that you are an important part of the family.”

His goofiness brought a brief grin to Savvy’s face. Then it faded again. “I guess I’m just unlucky in love and destined to be alone.”

“You’ll always have me,” Cassia said, nudging her face.

That evening, Beth doubled over in pain and her water broke.

“I’ll go get the clan doctor,” Conner said, heading for the door.

“I don’t think we have time for that,” Beth said. “I feel like he’s on his way.”

“Oh, my lord. What do we do?” Conner groaned.

Savvy and Taryn looked at each other and grinned. Taryn said, “You get to come upstairs and hold her hand. You get to encourage her, and if she says mean things to you, you smile and nod. If she breaks your hand, grin and bear it. We’ll heal it later.”

They helped Beth upstairs to the bedroom. They quickly undressed Beth and grabbed hot water, towels, scissors, a bowl, and a clamp.

Beth howled. The baby was on his way. Conner held her hand as she pushed with the contractions. Savvy caught the baby, cut the umbilical cord, clamped it, cleaned out his mouth, and rubbed his chest until he took a breath. She handed the baby to Taryn and said, “Wash him gently, wrap him in one of those blankets over there, and hand him to your mom.

Taryn carefully held her baby brother, and cooed, “Hello, Zane. Welcome to the family.”

“Zane?” Beth and Conner asked at the same time.

“You didn’t have a name for him, so I chose one. It’s Zane.”

“Zane it is,” Conner said, and Beth nodded.

“Honey, I need you to push some more,” Savvy said.

“Twins?” Conner asked with a hint of panic in his voice.

“No, afterbirth,” Savvy said.

After Beth was cleaned up, Taryn healed her. Then, Savvy recited a spell to stop the pain.

“I feel like I’m cheating,” Beth said. “Most women have to go through a couple weeks of pain.”

“Most women don’t have me and Taryn,” Savvy said. “But if you want, I can reverse the spell.”

“No. I’m good with cheating,” Beth said.

Taryn looked at Savvy and said, “Are you ready to go through the same thing in about six months?”

“What do you mean?” Savvy asked.

“You’re pregnant,” Taryn said. “At least a couple weeks.”

Savvy sat down hard on the edge of the bed. She knew better than to question Taryn’s knowledge. If the young witch said she was pregnant, then she was.

“I’m going to leave you guys alone for a while,” Savvy said, reeling from the shock.

She went to her room, trying to figure out what she was going to do next. Of course, she would still have to get a job and a place to live. But then what?”

Savvy checked on Beth throughout the night. She slept peacefully, waking up only to feed the baby. Taryn was snuggled up to her mother on one side and Conner was cuddled on her other side. Savvy smiled at the sweet picture.

The next morning, Zac and Olivia stopped by to meet their new nephew. Zac registered the birth as a new member of their pack. Olivia took care of all the paperwork needed to register the birth for the state, so Zane could have a birth certificate and a social security card.

That afternoon, Taryn was out with Pegasus, and Conner was taking care of the animals. Savvy sat with Beth, who was feeding Zane.

“He is a hungry little fellow. He eats even more than Taryn did when she was a baby.”

“He’s a lot bigger than she was, too.”

Beth nodded. “A pound and a half bigger. If this keeps up, how big is the next one going to be?”

“You’ll be in the Guinness Book of World Records for the heaviest baby born. Right now, the record sits at twenty-two pounds.”

“Oof. Maybe I need to stop now.” Then Beth gave Savvy a long searching look. “You have to tell Rory.”

“I know I should. Rory is an incredible father and I know that he would be to this baby. But he and Eva just got back together and are getting their lives back together. I don’t want to mess that up for him or the kids. They deserve to be happy.”

“Angel’s Creek is very small. You are a part of our family, and we are a part of the same pack he belongs to. He will find out, and he will be extremely pissed off if he finds out that you were pregnant and didn’t tell him. It’s not fair to him for you to not tell him, and it’s not fair to Cat and Drake.”

“I know.” Savvy sighed. “I’ll tell him. I just need to wrap my mind around the situation first. I need to gather my thoughts and feelings and figure out which way is up. Is there any chance that Taryn is wrong?”

“I’m never wrong about things like this,” Taryn said, coming into the room. “It’s going to be a female wolf shifter who is also a very powerful witch – just like me.”

“Spoiler alert,” Savvy teased.