“I’ll try,” Alex said. “You know as well as I do that my healing abilities don’t work as well on humans as it does on shifters. At least, I can help calm her.” Marc wordlessly gave his consent. He watched his clan member cross the room and inch around the doctor and nurses. Marc gave a short bark telling them to give Alex room to move.
It took several minutes, but then it seemed that Kelly quieted. Marc felt a deep sense of relief even though he didn’t know if she was going to be okay yet. It seemed as if it was hours before the doctor came over to him. He was flipping through a chart and frowning.
“I just finished examining your fianceé,” the doctor said.
Marc nodded for him to continue.
“The good news is it appears that both Kelly and the baby are in stable condition,” said the doctor.
Marc gave a huge sigh of relief.
“It’s a good thing that you got her here as quickly as you did. We’re still waiting on the bloodwork results. I’ll let you know as soon as I have them. Did she do something strenuous recently?”
“I don’t think so. Kelly has had plenty of rest. I don’t want her pushing herself too hard.”
“Had she been in distress? Is she on anti-depressant medication?”
“No,” said Marc, slightly feeling outraged. “She didn’t take any medication. She’s healthy. What’s wrong with her?”
The doctor gave him neutral-mask kind of look, like someone who didn’t feel like disclosing what he was thinking. “We’re going to run more tests on Ms. Hillock. We’d like to be thorough. We’ll let you know once we have a definitive result, Mr. DaVaca.”
Marc was going to use his power of persuasion on the doctor to spill the beans when Alex emerged next to him. His cousin shook his head. Marc cancelled his intension.
“What’s going on?” he asked Alex.
“Pennyroyal,” Alex said.
“What the hell is that?”
“It’s an herb with abortive property. I’m certain your mate had ingested a low dose of pennyroyal for the last four or five days.”
“Abortive?” Marc couldn’t wrap his mind around it. “Kelly wanted this baby. She’s as excited as I am. She’s been decorating the nursery for the last week.”
“Maybe she didn’t know,” Alex offered. “Pennyroyal has been known to cause miscarriages and it comes from the mint family. It quite tasty, actually. She could have ingested it in her drink or salad, mistook it as mint.”
Marc stood up straighter. “Are you saying that Kelly was poisoned?”
“I have a strong feeling about it. It can’t be just accidental.” Alex glanced the room where Kelly was treated. “They’re going to have to keep her overnight for observation. There’s not much else you can do here tonight. They’ve given her something so that she can rest.”
“What was the herb again?” asked Marc, growling.
“Pennyroyal.”
Marc followed Kelly as she was being trundled to a private room. He wanted to ask her questions but she was in and out from the sedative.
“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
“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?”
“I understand from Jessie that you received a gift from Margot. A new herbal tea to try.”
“Yes. It was a peppermint blend I had never heard of before. I love finding new kinds of tea. Apparently, Jessie told Margot that.”
“So it didn’t taste funny or unusual to you?”
Kelly felt incredibly foolish. “It did taste a little bit sweeter than I would have expected, but I just thought that was normal. My taste buds are changing because I am pregnant. I’ve read that can happen.”
Marc began to rub her arm. “This wasn’t your fault. Margot was trying to cause a rift between us. She is someone I should’ve taken care of a long time ago, and I blame myself for this. This was my fault, Kelly. I’m so sorry.”
Kelly felt a rush of anger in her chest. “Margot did this to me?”
“I’m going to take care of all of it as soon as I leave. I just wanted to make sure I was here when you woke up so that you would know that everything was going to be okay,” Marc said. He pointed out towards the door. “My cousin, Alex, is outside. You might remember he is the clan’s healer? I’ve asked him to keep checking up on you throughout the rest of your pregnancy. He may not be able to provide as much relief for you, but he can do something for the baby because it’s a werejaguar cub. Are you okay with that?”
Kelly nodded, although her brain was still trying to process that someone had tried to hurt her. “Of course.”
“Alex will stay with you until I get back. Don’t worry. You will never have to see Margot again.”
As he gave her a kiss on the forehead and left the room, Kelly thought that was an incredibly good idea. Because if she ever did see Margot DaVaca again, werejaguar or not, she might just strangle her with her own bare hands.
CHAPTER ELEVEN
Marc sat in his office staring at the Vegas skyline. It brought him no comfort. He knew what he was about to do should feel difficult, especially because Margot’s parents had begged for leniency, but he was not feeling very lenient. The news about Margot’s poisoning attempt had spread through the clan like wildfire. His ex-girlfriend had far overstepped her bounds, and she needed to be dealt with. He had put up with her nonsense for far too long and had inadvertently put his own mate at risk in the process. He wouldn’t make the same mistake again.
Margot was escorted into his office by Reid and Juan.
He indicated that they were to leave he and Margot alone. He stared at her for several long moments before speaking. To her credit, she didn’t flinch under his furious gaze. How he had ever held any affection for her at all was beyond him.
“I assume you know why you are here,” Marc said flatly.
“I did nothing wrong other than fall in love with a man who didn’t love me,” Margot said.
Marc slammed his palm down on his desk and saw with a kind of sick glee that the sound finally caused a crack in her cool façade when Margot jumped. “I thought it was clear when I introduced my mate that I was off the market. We were done months ago, Margot, and you knew it as well as I did.”
“We were together for two years. I thought that there might be a chance that fate would eventually sort things right between us.”
“Fate did. My mate is pregnant. You know the old traditions don’t lie. I knew the moment that we conceived our cub our first night together that Kelly was my mate. Yes, you and I were together for two years. If something was going to happen, it would have happened by now. It was clear that you and I were not meant to be together. Why can’t you accept that?”
Marc saw her flinch again, and he wished he had had the gumption to be this bold with her before. It was simply because she caused problems in other places of the clan that he had felt like he had to treat her delicately. Getting involved with Margot had been a mistake from day one; he saw that now. He was a fool.
“I don’t believe you,” Margot continued to argue. “I’m the one who’s supposed to be with you. I’ve loved you since we were kids. We grew up together. No woman could ever love you like I do. You need me.”
Marc leaned forward and said the words slowly to make sure that she understood. “Men don’t like pain-in-the-ass, clingy women like you. Get over it.”
This time, he saw the flash of anger in her eyes. She stood straighter. Margot wasn’t the type to wilt under any type of pressure. That was the danger of her that he could see now. There was nothing about her that said that she would bend to his will unless he was forced to use his powers of persuasion on her. Her emotional investment in their supposed relationship could hinder the effectiveness of any attempt to do so. That was why he needed to make sure that he was ready for what came next.
“You can’t blame a girl for being a bit jealous at being replaced so easily. I don’t believe you, whatever you say. We had two good years together, and we could have had more if you had not met this flighty, fat girl from the East Coast.”
Marc stood and moved around the desk. His rage seized his throat at her words and the fact that she would dare to say anything derogatory about his mate. His fingers itched to slap the smirk from her face, but he would not do that.
No, he would hit Margot where it truly hurt.
He had no need to touch her. He would never raise his hand to a woman. That wasn’t who he was, no matter how hard she tried to goad him into it.
He opened up his senses until he could feel hers pressing against him. He saw her move toward him inadvertently, and he knew that it wasn’t something she was under control of anymore. He was pulling on the full force of his persuasion gift and focusing it completely on her.
“Margot DaVaca, hear me. As the alpha of the DaVaca clan, I find you guilty for harming my mate. You also almost murdered my heir. Your offenses are unforgivable and you deserve a harsh punishment. From this moment on, clan DaVaca disowns you.”
Her eyes widened. “Marc, you can’t.”
“I can, and I will. You are hereby banished forever from the DaVaca clan. You can no longer reside here or within a five-hundred-mile radius of Las Vegas. From now on, you will no longer receive any allowance and all access to the clan’s funds will be severed. You will cease all contact with every member of the clan, and if I find out that you have gone against this order, you will be summarily tracked down and put to death.”
Margot paled.
This was the strongest offense that he could charge her with outside of actual murder. If he had lost his grip on logic, he would have struck her dead where she stood. Lucky for her, she was fortunate that that had not happened.
Her lips began to quiver as he saw her finally start to bend ever so slightly under his will. “You can’t. Where would I go? This is my home.”
“This was your home. You should have known better before you did what you did. Your things have already been packed and are being shipped to a storage unit in Los Angeles. I have a feeling you will fit in well there. Consider yourself lucky, Margot. For your parents’ sake, this is the only leniency I am willing to show you. When you walk out those doors, you will be escorted to the airport. You can fly anywhere that you want to go. But you can never come back.”
He saw her jerk as she tried to subvert his will. He continued to clamp down the pressure on her senses until her body completely folded into a submissive pose in front of him. That was when he called out to Reid and Juan outside the door. “Ms. DaVaca is ready to leave for the airport now.”
The men, who had known Margot as long as Marc had, looked unaffected at these words. They grabbed her arms, and he could tell that she wanted to struggle, but she couldn’t. He had found a weakness in that steel spine of hers and had broken it. She would never be quite the same again; he almost wished that she would try to go against his wishes. He felt nothing but hatred for her now.
She could manipulate her way into some other alpha’s bed, and no doubt she would. He was certain that at the end of the day, Margot DaVaca would be just fine. She was the type who always seemed to find a way to come out on top. But here, in the DaVaca clan’s walls, that would never happen. Not on his watch.
Once she was gone from his sight, he felt the bindings of tension around his chest finally beginning to loosen. He picked up the phone and dialed Alex’s number. “How are things going?”
“She’s sleeping. The doctor said that he will sign the release forms in the morning.”
“Good. It’s time for my mate to come home.”
CHAPTER TWELVE
Kelly was anxious to get out of bed, but Alex was still insisting that she stay on bed rest for another couple of weeks. She could hardly argue when Marc was backing him up. She was incredibly grateful that both she and the baby had survived the poisoning attempt. She still found it hard to believe that someone had hated her so much—without even knowing her—that she had been willing to cause her and her baby harm.
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