The woman, Jessie, was several years younger than Kelly and had been helping her move about the house as she started to unpack various things and put them away. Marc had told her that she could put anything anywhere that she wanted. Anything she didn’t like could be removed, and he would pack it away or sell it. Marc wanted her to feel completely at home, and she appreciated that more than she could even explain. The situation was still so surreal to her, but the nights spent in Marc’s arms were real enough to make her want to stay.
She knew that she had told Marc that the move was just a trial basis, but she sensed that he knew as well as she did that it was likely going to be permanent more quickly than she had originally intended. The whole idea of trying it out on a trial basis was just something to give her peace of mind that if something catastrophic did happen, she’d have an out. But everything that Marc had done for her so far had only demonstrated the depths of his feelings for her, while her own feelings for him were growing by the day.
She had stuck Jessie in her closet to hang up her meager collection of hanging clothes when Jessie suddenly emerged through the doorway.
“You should totally wear this dress tonight,” Jessie said as she held up a red little slinky number that Kelly had forgotten that she even owned.
“Oh no. I can’t wear that tonight.” Marc was throwing a huge party in Kelly’s honor, which also made her uncomfortable, but he had insisted, and she couldn’t say no. He said it was important for the entire clan to have an opportunity to meet their alpha’s new mate. She had agreed that she would play the part the way that it was meant to be. It also gave her an opportunity to start to get to know the people in the clan who were all part of Marc’s large extended family.
He mentioned there would also be several leaders of other shifter clans around Vegas attending, which made her nervous, too. Marc treated her like she was some special gem to be shown off. He made her feel like a princess.
“I bought that dress right after my divorce. I weighed a little bit less than,” she said to Jessie. That was the truth. What she didn’t confess to was the fact that she had never had the guts to actually put the dress on and wear it out anywhere. It was a dress that exuded a kind of confidence that she didn’t have after she got divorced. Besides, she felt her body starting to change. Her breasts swelled. She suspected that she’d gained ten pounds overnight.
“Just try it on. You might change your mind,” Jessie insisted.
She reluctantly took the dress hanger from Jessie’s hand and moved into the bathroom.
She slipped the dress on fully expecting that it wasn’t going to fit, especially given the small bump that had already started to form around her abdomen. She wondered if she was going to start feeling the baby kicking soon. The accelerated development was still something that she was trying to figure out.
Surprisingly, the dress fit her curves like a glove and accentuated her growing cleavage perfectly. She turned and looked in the mirror at different angles. Not all that long ago she would’ve taken the dress off, hung it back on the hanger, and stuck it in the back of her closet once again. But after having been around Marc for the last several days, she knew that he enjoyed and appreciated every single curve. He made her feel like the most beautiful woman in the world, and looking at herself in the mirror, she felt like she was starting to believe it.
She heard a low, appreciative whistle behind her, and she spun around. Marc leaned against the doorframe, and he whistled again as he slowly clapped his hands. “I don’t know where you’ve been hiding that dress, but I think I’m going to have to buy you a new one. The way you look right now makes me want to rip it off your body,” he said with a low growl.
She crossed her arms over her chest playing coy. She was pleased by his reaction. “If you tore it off me, then you would have destroyed the only dress that I own that’s appropriate for this shindig you are throwing tonight,” she said.
“I can have another dress here before the party,” he said with a raised eyebrow.
She laughed. “Down, boy. I need to start getting ready. Is Jessie still outside?”
He nodded. “Is that working out all right?” he asked as he approached her. He put his arms around her and gave her a kiss on the nose.
“I am still getting used to the idea, but she’s been a big help,” Kelly said.
He gave her a long slow kiss then that started a bubble of burning desire in her belly. Maybe a little roll in the hay wouldn’t be such a bad idea.
“Kelly? I’m ready to start helping you with your hair if you’d like?” Jessie’s voice drifted into the room from what she could tell was a respectable distance on the other side of the door.
She heard the low growl deep in Marc’s chest at the interruption. She peeked around his shoulder and saw Jessie looking hesitantly around the corner. Then Kelly looked at her watch and realized with a sigh that Jessie had been right to interrupt. She had an hour before the guests started arriving, and Jessie had told her that the chef wanted her opinion about the menu. It seemed as if the mistress of the household duties extended far beyond what she expected.
“I’ll see you downstairs shortly,” she said as she reached up on her tiptoes and brushed her cheek against Marc’s. She heard something that sounded almost like a purr. All of his animalistic qualities were incredibly sexy. She was starting to wonder how she had ever been satisfied by a human male before.
Less than forty-five minutes later, she descended the main staircase feeling like some kind of princess. She could see that the entire main floor was lit up with candles, and flower arrangements were artfully displayed everywhere. It looked like it was going to be one hell of a party, and she was still feeling nervous that it was all for her.
Jessie helped direct her to the kitchen, and she met with the chef briefly. It turned out he wanted to give her a small taste of the different items that were to be served on the menu just to get her approval. She sensed that this was important to him, and she oohed and ahhed over the food appropriately. This earned a wide smile of gratitude from the chef. She made her way back out into the main hall just in time to take Marc’s arm as the first guests arrived.
Her head was spinning several hours later after the exquisite meal and meeting all the people in the clan. They were all friendly, and she sensed their curiosity about her. She never felt that interesting before, but everyone was asking her opinions on everything, so she was starting to believe that maybe she did have something to offer. The only person that didn’t approach her was Margot.
Despite their rude interaction previously, Kelly found she was still curious about Margot. She saw Jessie across the room and made her way over to her. She gently took the woman’s arm, and Jessie immediately snapped to attention. “What you need, ma’am? What can I help with?”
“It’s okay, Jessie, and call me Kelly, remember? I don’t need anything; I just wanted to ask you a question. There’s something that’s been confusing to me, and I was hoping that you could clear it up.”
She knew that she had asked Reid the same question a couple of days before, and the man had been elusive. Men were generally elusive when it came to these types of things. She thought that she would have a better chance of finding out what was going on by asking Jessie. Plus, there was somewhat of an obligation for Jessie to tell her the truth given she was Kelly’s assistant.
“Of course. What you want to know?”
“Margot. What’s her story?”
Jessie’s eyes immediately started to dart around the room. “It’s really nothing that you probably want to know,” Jessie said.
“I’m pretty sure I do,” Kelly said. “If I were to guess, based on your reaction, I would say there used to be something between Margot and Marc?”
Jessie closed her eyes and sighed. She was clearly uncomfortable with the question and struggling with how to answer it appropriately. “Yes. I guess you could say that. Margot is different. She has lots of strong opinions, and she doesn’t hes
“What kinds of problems?”
“She questions things that she shouldn’t question. I think that she felt like she could do that because she and Marc were together for so long.”
Now this was interesting to Kelly, and it would also explain why Margot was being so aloof. “Together for how long?”
“Something like two years? They broke up fairly recently, I think? No, several months. She still came around often. I don’t think she took it well,” Jessie confessed.
This made sense now. This was the jilted woman who was having to deal with her lover’s new mate. “Any idea why they broke up?”
Jessie looked at her like she was crazy. “Well, even if there hadn’t been problems before, which I heard there had been, she wasn’t his mate. You are.”
“Oh.”
“Marc had wanted an heir for so long; it was expected as the Alpha. But Margot couldn’t give him one. I’m sure you know that our kind only mated with someone who could give them cubs? A childless couple means that they aren’t fated mates.”
“Marc told me about that.” Kelly listened to these words and tried to think about if they satisfied her or not. Then she thought about how genuine Marc’s words had been when he said that he loved her unconditionally and that he knew everything was right between them. He believed it with all his heart. She was the one who had been the one dancing around it and refusing to fully commit.
Kelly looked across the floor at Margot. The woman stood slightly apart from everyone else. She was beautiful in the tall skinny model kind of way, but Kelly could sense even from this distance the chilled, chipped façade that made her utterly unapproachable. This wasn’t a woman to be jealous of, this was a woman to pity.
“Well, if she’s part of the clan, then maybe someday we will be able to be friends.” Kelly took a sip of her ginger ale and looked at Jessie, who looked less certain about this idea.
“You’re a bigger woman than I am,” Jessie said.
As Kelly’s eyes met Marc’s across the floor, she felt herself flush with pleasure. “When you feel loved the way that I do, it’s an easy thing to do.”
CHAPTER NINE
Marc stretched as he thought about heading home. He looked at his watch. It was almost six o’clock, and he knew that dinner would be on the table at six-thirty. It was wonderful to him how quickly he and Kelly had settled into their domestic routine. So far her pregnancy was progressing well, but she was easily tired and extremely fatigued most days. He tried to get home as early as he could so that they could spend some quality time together before she went to bed.
He knew from watching others in the clan who had taken human mates that the strain on the body from a pregnancy with a werejaguar cub was something that could be onerous for the woman. He just hoped that his willingness to take care of her and ensure that her every need was satisfied was helping her a little bit.
As he drove home to the mansion, he found himself whistling a jazz tune. It was from a Miles Davis album that he and Kelly both enjoyed. They turned it on every evening during dinner. What he loved was that they spent time after dinner sitting in front of the fireplace in the den just talking. It seemed as if they could talk for hours. He had learned so much about her already, and he knew there was much more to learn. He was also helping her think about different ideas of what she could do now that she was getting settled in Vegas.
Marc wasn’t traditional the way his parents were. He understood that a woman like Kelly needed to have something to occupy her time aside from simply taking care of their new cub. He would help fund anything that she wanted to do. If she wanted to go back to school or if she wanted to start her own business, he would encourage it. He’d even help her move into a position with one of the family’s businesses if that was something she was interested in.
It seemed as if their conversations had awakened a completely new identity inside of her. Those were her words, not his. He didn’t think he was doing anything more than watering the seed of an exotic flower that had already existed inside of her. He was excited to think about what the future held and was looking forward to the arrival of their cub.
He knew that during the day, Jessie and Kelly were already consulting on details around the nursery. It was the room right next to theirs, and he knew Kelly was more comfortable with the idea of having the baby close. He had also been excited that the day after her introduction party, Kelly had told him that she was ready to make the decision to permanently move to Vegas.
He hadn’t wasted any time in having her sign the paperwork to put her place on the market. He had already had all of her things back in New York packed up from their initial conversation around the trial period. She had given him a lot of grief about that, but he sensed at the same time, that she had known it was inevitable the same way he had.
He encouraged her to have frequent conversations with her family and friends back home because he didn’t want her to feel lonely. It seemed as if she and Jessie were getting along well, and he was pleased that Juan had made such an excellent choice when he had recommended his younger sister for the job.
When Marc arrived home and walked through the door, his senses told him immediately that something was wrong. Usually, Kelly was there to greet him at the door, but he sensed that there was no one around on the main floor. He looked at his watch again and frowned. He couldn’t smell anything cooking. One of the things that Kelly had insisted on was that she cooked the evening meal. She said it was a waste of money to have a chef do it when it was something that she enjoyed doing for him and for them. He walked into the kitchen and found it dark. It was obvious that Kelly had not been down there in some time.
He started up the stairs toward the bedroom. “Kelly? Are you here?”
He’d seen the car that he bought for her in the garage when he pulled in, so he knew that she had to be there somewhere. That was when his ears caught the first faint groan that he was sure he would’ve missed if he had human hearing. He bolted up the stairs into their room. He lifted his nose to smell the scent in the room. She was in the closed bathroom. He heard the groan again and quickly went to the door, knocking on it with urgency.
“Kelly. It’s Marc. Can I come in?”
“Yes,” was the faint croak on the other side of the door.
Marc popped the door open and found Kelly sitting on the floor by the bathtub. Alarmed, he saw that she was pale and shivering.
He went to her immediately and helped her get to her feet. Based on the thin nightgown that she still wore, he assessed that she had not gotten dressed at all. “Where is everyone? Where’s Jessie? What’s been going on?”
She leaned heavily against him as he helped her sit on the edge of the tub. He quickly examined her face and body looking for any sign of injury.
“I wasn’t feeling very well when I woke up. I gave Jessie the day off. I’ve been resting, but my stomach is so upset. I’m cramping pretty badly, and I don’t know what’s wrong,” she said.
Marc felt her forehead with his lips. She was feverish even though she was shivering. He was even more alarmed now. “I’m going to take you to the doctor,” he said. He pulled his phone out of his pocket and dialed the number of his cousin, Alex. Alex was the healer in the clan. Although he was a couple years younger than Marc, he had quickly become someone that Marc depended on when he had assumed the role.
“What’s up?” Alex asked when he answered.
“Kelly’s sick. She’s complaining about cramping and that she has a stomach ache. Any thoughts?”
“You’d better take her to the hospital for an emergency,” Alex said. “I can meet you there.”
“All right,” Marc said.
That was when the smell hit his nostrils and sent a chill of fear through his chest. It was the thick, coppery smell of blood. He heard Kelly’s cry as he turned, and he caught her just as she stumbled. There was a bright red stain on the front of her white nightgown.
She looked up at him with fear filled eyes. “What’s happening? What’s going on?”
“I’m going to get you to the hospital now,” Marc said in the calmest voice he could muster.
“Do you think it’s the baby? Do you think there’s something wrong with the baby?” Kelly asked as she grasped her arms around her belly.
Marc wasted no time in sweeping her up into his arms and carrying her downstairs to his car. He wasn’t going to waste time calling an ambulance. He needed to get Kelly to the hospital as quickly as possible.
The drive to the hospital was a blur. As they drove, Kelly openly wept from the pain in her abdomen. The only thing he could do was rub her back and tell her everything was going to be okay as she bent over in obvious pain. He felt hopeless.
As soon as they entered the doors of the hospital’s emergency room, Marc turned on the full effect of his powers of persuasion. He had the best doctor in the hospital at Kelly’s bedside in less than five minutes. “I need to know what’s wrong. You need to help her. She’s pregnant and she is in pain.”
“I’m going to need you to step back, Mr. DaVaca. Let us do our jobs,” the doctor said.
Normally, if somebody talked to him like that, Marc would have ripped him a new asshole, but he knew in this instance, he needed to let the doctors do their jobs. He stood in the corner of the room feeling utterly helpless as the nurses began taking Kelly’s vitals. When Kelly started to scream, he felt like he was going to jump out of his skin.
A moment later, he found Alex at his side. He had no idea how long the man had been standing there. Alex put a hand on his arm, and Marc felt a calming sensation rush through him. This was part of Alex’s gift as a healer.
“Can you do something for her?” Marc asked.
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