Page 38 of Redemption in the Dark (The Righteous 5)
Her eyes flicked back to Wolf just in time to see him slide his arm all the way up to the shoulder inside the cow.
“Oh, dear god,” she blurted out and wanted to close her eyes and look away, but it was like a car wreck. She just couldn’t. “What are you doing other than violating her with your entire body?”
Wolf rolled his eyes at her. “The calf’s shoulder is stuck and won’t come out unless I free it from the pelvis.”
“But shouldn’t you call a vet or something? I mean, oh my god.” Her own body was cringing just by watching and imagining him doing that to her.
“Why?”
“I don’t know, maybe because they’re the professional in sticking half their body up another animal.” Wolf’s father was looking back and forth between them, a smirk on his kind features.
“First, both would be dead by the time a vet got here. Second, this is not my first calf that I’ve had to help, Maeve. The vet is the one that taught me what to do so I’d know how to handle this exact scenario.”
Bracing his feet in the grass, Wolf shoved himself harder into her, and she had to look away as her body revolted at the idea of having a child like this. She concentrated on the cow but figured there was not much she could say to improve this experience.
“Ah ha, there we go. Okay mama, I’m going to have to push him back first, so don’t fight me,” he spoke to the cow as his other hand rubbed her consolingly. “Here we go.”
Curiosity getting the better of her, she turned her head to watch as Wolf pushed hard into the cow. Maeve immediately got a little lower and whispered for the cow to try and relax and that he was almost there, even though she had no idea if that was true.
“Here he comes.” Wolf changed positions and pulled back, and like the cow was tossing out a massive football, the calf came free and was pulled out so quickly she couldn’t believe her eyes. “Maeve, come here and see this. My father will trade you places.”
She crawled around to see something that looked as disturbing as seeing an alien for the first time, and yet she couldn’t deny it was a beautiful sight to behold. The calf was in a veiny and slimy sac that had to be the placenta. The baby’s head was still covered, and Wolf gripped the sides in front of the little nose and tore it open to slide it up and over its head.
Panic set in as she looked at the still baby with its tongue sticking out of its mouth. “What’s wrong? Why isn’t it moving?”
Wolf didn’t answer her. He began rubbing the calf’s side and stuck his fingers up its nose, pulling out a clear gel-like substance. Reaching out, he grabbed a thick blade of grass, and she was about to question what he was doing as he stuck it up the baby’s nose until it snorted and opened its eyes.
“Yeah, that’s it. Come on, little one. Join the world,” Wolf said in a soft tone as the small wet head lifted. Her heart lurched as she covered her mouth. The emotion lodged as a lump in her throat. She could feel the tears running down her cheeks as she watched Wolf work with the little calf to make sure it was okay. Something like this shouldn’t make her like him more after what she had just witnessed, but it did. She looked at him in awe. A warm, tingling wonder filled her as this tall sexy drink of a man just helped birth an animal like it was as easy as making the coffee he’d done earlier.
“You should call this one Adanedi,” Wolf’s father said as the cow slowly got to its feet.
Maeve stood and backed away so the mother could look after her new baby.
“What does that mean,” she asked, her eyes still full of happy tears.
“Gift,” Wolf answered.
He peeled off the gloves and smiled wide. He rifled through the bag, pulled out a silver instrument, and quickly tagged the ear before joining where she and his father stood.
“I love that name, but isn’t he a little young for piercings,” she teased, making Wolf smile. His whole face lit up, and his eyes made her want to throw every caution she had about love to the wind and just feel. It was an emotion she couldn’t define, but she wanted him to look at her like that all the time.
The three of them stood for a long time and silently watched the pair, and before she could blink, the calf was standing. Then it was drinking its mother’s milk, and finally, mother and baby were walking toward the large herd.
This place was special.
It and this man were like some form of magic. That was how it felt, how she saw them, and Maeve had this urge to cling to Wolf’s arm and never let go for fear of tumbling back into the chaos that had been her life.
“Buuug, come out, come out, wherever you are,” Daddy said.
He said we were playing a game, but it didn’t feel like a game. The fear of him finding their hiding spot was real. Stuffed bunny was shaking as much as she was at the idea of being found. She was in a spot in the very back corner of the large closet and was hiding behind a box. She could hear his feet moving around the bedroom. The vibration under her bum felt like a giant was coming for her.
Mommy had gone away for the weekend with some friends, and she begged to go too. She wanted to be with the pretty women and get her nails and hair done. She didn’t want to stay here with Daddy. She cried silently as she waved at the door with Daddy’s hand on her shoulder as he yelled that he’d make sure they had lots of fun and not to worry about Mommy.
Mommy blew her a kiss from the car before she slipped into the back seat of her friend’s car.
As the car drove away, Daddy bent low and whispered, “why don’t you go put that pretty pink dress on, you know, the one with the little ladybugs all over it. That’s Daddy’s favorite, and Daddy has some friends coming to visit. You want to look your best for Daddy, don’t you?”
She nodded automatically to the question. He always wanted her to say yes. She said no once and could still feel the sting on her skin from when his hand had made her cry out. She ran up the stairs and down the hall to her room. She wished she had a lock on the door, but she wasn’t allowed one. Daddy had been very angry when she asked Mommy to have one put on her door.
