Spotilicious (Jaguartow)

“I’ll stay with her. I’ll call you if anything changes,” said Alex. “Go find out who’s been giving her pennyroyal.”

Alex didn’t have to twist his arm. He got Jessie’s phone number and address from Juan. He drove there like a maniac. He pulled up outside her apartment building and stormed inside. The only person that had been close enough to Kelly to know what was possibly going on was Jessie. He intended to get to the bottom of the mystery quickly. When he pounded on her door, and Jessie opened it a moment later, he could tell that she was scared shitless. That was good.

“Alpha. What’s going on?”

Marc stormed into the room and without any further preamble spun on her. He drew up to his full height and amassed every sense that he could. He would make her tell the truth.

“Have you been deliberately giving my mate pennyroyal herbs?”

He could tell that the girl was on the edge of possibly passing out from fear. He knew he should feel bad about that, but he didn’t. He needed to find out who was the traitor in his clan.

“I don’t know what you’re talking about. I’ve never heard of pennyroyal herbs.”

“Someone has been giving it to her so she’ll have a miscarriage. I want to know what you know.”

“Why would someone do something awful like that? I didn’t do it, Alpha. We are all as excited about the baby as you are.” She still appeared confused. Then a look of realization appeared on her face. “There was a package that arrived as a gift a couple of days ago. It was a new herbal tea. Ms. Hillock told me that she liked herbal tea, and when Ms. DaVaca asked if I had any ideas about a gift for her, I told her she liked tea.”

“Ms. DaVaca? Which Ms. DaVaca?” Marc didn’t know how he couldn’t have seen this happening. Of course, now it made perfect sense. He just needed the confirmation of the name.

“Margot DaVaca,” Jessie said with a grimace. “Kelly said it was such a nice gesture; that maybe Margot wanted to trying to be friendly after all. I thought so too.”

“Thank you, Jessie. You’ve been a big help.” Then Marc left the apartment without a backward glance. It was time that he and Margot had that chat after all.

CHAPTER TEN

When Kelly began to slowly wake up and return to consciousness, she felt the fuzzy edges of her senses. Then she remembered what had happened, and she bolted straight up in the bed. An arm wrapped around her.

“It’s okay, sweetie, it’s okay. Lay back. You need your rest,” Marc’s soothing voice said in her ear.

“Is the baby okay?” she asked. There was no way she was going to be able to relax until she knew the answer to that question.

“The baby is fine,” Marc said.

She melted against him in relief and felt tears spring to her eyes. She barely remembered the entire day. There was part of her that had wanted to call Marc and tell him that something bad was happening, but she didn’t want him to think that she was overreacting. She had no frame of reference for being pregnant, and she had read on the Internet that cramps weren’t all that uncommon.

So she had stayed in bed all day with a hot water bottle over her stomach. But it had done little good. By the time Marc had arrived home, she had known that she was in bad shape. She just didn’t know how bad.

What had scared her to death was the blood. She hadn’t expected the blood. She knew that was the worst sign that something was wrong. She was so grateful that everything was okay. Marc held her as she cried. He murmured against the top of her head over and over again telling her everything was going to be fine. That she was okay, and the baby was okay. Finally, it was as if the well of tears had gone empty. Although she still stifled a few gasping sobs in her chest, she finally let Marc lean her back against the pillows of what she realized was a hospital bed.

She vaguely remembered that Marc had brought her to the hospital, but she had been in so much pain at the time that she had barely noticed. Reality was finally setting in. Marc held onto her hand even as he moved his chair closer so he could sit right next to her bed.

His hand played with the hair curled on her shoulder, and then he gently stroked her face. It was the only visible sign he showed that he had been as scared as she had been. If she had ever doubted his love for her, she could feel it in the way that his hand clasped hers now. She could see it in the depths of his eyes. She knew without a doubt that he had always been right. This bond was meant to be between them, and she wanted everything that he wanted.

“What happened?” Now that she was hearing her voice for the first time, she realized it was hoarse and cracked as if she had been screaming at the top of her lungs for days. She motioned for the glass of water that she saw sitting on the tray table at the foot of the bed. Marc quickly grabbed it and brought the straw to her lips. She greedily sucked on it and gave a nod when she was done.

“What happened?” she asked, her voice stronger this time. “I don’t remember anything from after we got here.”

“The doctors took care of you. They made sure that you and the baby were okay. They had to flush your system of something that was in it, though. It was what was causing you both the distress.”

She wrinkled her nose. “Flush my system of what? I thought there might be something about my body that was incompatible with the baby.”

“You thought this was your fault?” Marc asked. He looked astounded by this information.

She looked away from him then and shrugged. This was the core reason why she hadn’t called him. She didn’t want to appear like some kind of ninny, and she also didn’t want to admit that her body could have failed her on this point. Even though she knew now that she could get pregnant, the remnants of the things that Adam had told her over the years, that she was worthless and barren and that she would never produce a child, still rang in her ears. She had allowed a crack in the confidence that Marc had been building inside of her, and it had opened like a dam as the pain grew stronger.

“You did not do this,” Marc said. He turned her face back toward him. “You need to know that without a doubt. Someone else did this to you.”

It was Kelly’s turn to be shocked. “What do you mean?”