“Also, I have one other stipulation, and there is absolutely no grace for breaking this rule. While I’m with you, no matter how long it takes to get Jen sorted, you will absolutely not bring up the wolf-who-must-not-be-named.”
Jacque opened her mouth, but Peri slapped her hand over it. “No,” she said. “Not a single word.” She waited until Jacque nodded and then dropped her hand. Sally saluted her, and Peri rolled her eyes. “I’m going to regret this,” Peri muttered and then flashed them from the Serbia pack mansion library.
Jacque stared at the illuminated map hanging on the wall of the entryway to the hospital. She looked at the directory next to the map and then searched for the corresponding color. “Got her,” she said, pointing to a name with one hand and a location on the map with the other.
Sally leaned closer as she read out loud. “Kimily Blankenship, APN, Lactation Specialist. 4th Floor.” She turned her head slowly to look at Jacque. “You know Jen is going to have a field day with that name, right?”
“I know.” Jacque threw her hands up. “But there’s nothing I can do about the woman’s name.”
“Yeah, Jen’s going to be all over that. It’s almost cruel,” said Peri.
“Can you make up for it like by giving her awesome hair or skimming off some extra weight or something?” Jacque asked.
Peri’s eyes narrowed. “What the hell do you think I am, a Jenni Craig clinic wrapped up in this delectable fae form?”
Sally laughed and smacked her hand over her mouth when others started glancing at them. “Jenni Craig,” she whispered. “Classic.”
Jacque shrugged. “You’re Peri-freaking-zada of the bloody high fae. Or at least that’s what you remind us of on a minute-to-minute basis. And”—she held up a finger—“you’re also not humble about your power, like, at all. So forgive me if I don’t have a yippity-yappity clue about what you can and cannot do!”
Sally and Peri were staring at Jacque, both with furrowed brows.
“Yippity-yappity?” Peri said.
“Did you mean for it to rhyme? Cause it did. It definitely rhymed,” Sally said, still speaking very softly since her last outburst of laughter.
“Yes, I’m a regular Dr. Seuss up in here,” Jacque said dryly. “Look, let’s just get her and then we’ll deal with the repercussions of Jen and her lack of filter and this poor woman’s name.”
All three nodded at the same time and headed for the nearest elevator.
When they reached the fourth floor, a mechanical voice began to speak. “Please insert security card for access to the maternity floor. If you do not have a security card, access is denied.”
Jacque’s eyes widened as Peri and Sally looked at her. “What? How was I supposed to know we’d need a security access card?”
“There’s this thing,” Peri said as she punched the first-floor button, “called the in-ter-net.” She said the word just as Jacque had when she’d been mocking the high fae. “I’m sure on the hospital’s website it would mention having to have special access to this particular floor.”
“It’s to protect the babies,” Sally said just as the doors opened. They stepped back out into the hospital lobby.
“Explain,” Peri said, pulling both Jacque and Sally over to the side.
“A few years back I got on this kick of watching documentaries,” Sally said.
Jacque started nodding. “Oh, yeah, I remember. You watched some weird crap.”
Sally rolled her eyes at Jacque. “Some of it was very interesting. One of them happened to be on hospitals. It was like a behind-the-scenes look into how a hospital was run, from the lowest man on the totem pole all the way up to the hospital board and CEO.”
“I feel like there is a point coming up any second now,” Peri muttered.
“I’m not just talking out of my butt, Peri.” Sally huffed. “I’m getting to the point. The point is one of the things the documentary discussed was hospital safety. Because, you know, hospitals are open, like, all the time. You can get in the doors of hospitals twenty-four seven. Some of it has to do with fire codes and that sort of thing but also—”
“Sally, focus,” Jacque told her.
“Right, sorry. So in the safety part, it talked about the maternity floor and how different hospitals take different measures to ensure babies don’t get taken from a room or the nursery.”
“People do that?” Peri asked. “They just walk up in a hospital and snatch a newborn like it’s a bag of chips?”
“I feel like that shouldn’t really surprise you,” Jacque said.
“You’re probably right,” Peri agreed. “And yet, it still seems to me one of the more disgusting things I’ve learned the human race is capable of, stealing babies right out of the womb. That’s just wrong.”
“Glad we’ve established that,” Jacque said and then shook her head as if to steady herself. “So, options. What do we do to get access to the floor? Oh, I’ve got it! Follow my lead.”
She saw a couple come in with some pink balloons, one of which read, ‘Welcome baby Ruth,’ and a box of diapers. “Bingo,” she muttered and grabbed Sally’s hand, hurrying toward the elevator.
“Wait, hold up,” Jacque yelled. “Hold the elevator.” She saw a hand reach out and keep the door open, and all three of them hurried inside. Jacque plastered a huge smile on her lips and clapped her hands. “You guys are going to see baby Ruth, too!”
The woman nodded and smiled at her.
“Isn’t it so exciting?” Jacque asked, nodding and glancing at Sally.
“I’m so excited,” Sally added.
“We are very happy for Greg and Lisa,” the woman said. “They’ve had such a hard time.”
“Oh, oh I know.” Jacque pressed a hand to the woman’s arm. “They’ve wanted this so desperately.”
“What woman doesn’t, right?” the woman asked, giving Jacque a look that said, in that moment at least, they were fast friends.
“Seriously, and the name Lisa picked out. I love it!” Jacque grinned even bigger.
“Totally love it,” Sally added, nodding her head a little too enthusiastically. “Best name ever.”
The elevator stopped and the man standing in front of them inserted the security card when instructed to do so, and the doors opened. As they started to step out, Jacque grabbed onto the woman and wrapped her arms around her. “I’m just so glad they have so many wonderful people to celebrate this with them. It’s just all so breathtaking.”
The woman patted Jacque’s back as she smiled. “Yes, yes I agree.”
Jacque pulled away, making a show of wiping her eyes. Sally and Peri hastily started mimicking her actions. “You two go ahead. We’re going to pull ourselves together real quick, and then we’ll be right in,” she said, pointing to a bathroom.
The woman smiled, waved, and walked to the nurses’ station. Peri snagged Jacque’s hand and pulled her into the women’s restroom with Sally on their heels.
“What was that?” Peri growled.
“We made it on to the floor, didn’t we?” Jacque said with a smile, quite proud of her impromptu performance.
“Did you forget that I can flash us anywhere in the world? I just flashed you across an entire freaking ocean?” Peri asked, raising a single brow at her. “Don’t you think I might have been able to flash us onto the fourth floor?”
Jacque’s mouth pulled down as she scratched her head. “Uh, yep, I, did,” she stuttered out stupidly. “I panicked and just—”
“Did what you girls always do and dived headfirst into a pool that may or may not contain water?” Peri asked, interrupting her.
Jacque sighed. “Okay, so maybe we occasionally leap without looking.”
“Have you learned a valuable lesson today?” Peri asked.
Sally and Jacque looked at each other and then spoke at the same time. “Nope.”
“Excellent,” Peri muttered. “Let’s go find our girl, and please, just don’t talk anymore. Let me handle it. Also, I’m going
to glamour us, so don’t walk into anything, or you’re going to freak people out.”
“We got it.” Sally nodded and clapped her hands. “Eye on the prize, ladies.”
Jacque looked at her friend. “Feeling your inner Jen again, eye-on-the-prize chick?”
“You know it,” Sally said in a deep voice, sounding like she was trying to pump herself up as they followed Peri from the bathroom.
After what felt like forever, they finally found an office with a sign that read “Lactation Specialist.” Peri glanced back at them. “We’re all going in, but she will only be able to see me. And keep a hand on me.”
Peri pushed open the door without knocking. Jacque and Sally nodded and followed her in, both holding onto the back of her shirt. Inside the office, a small woman sat behind a desk, staring at her computer. “Hello,” she said, pulling her eyes away from the screen and looking at Peri. The woman’s name badge indicated that she was indeed Kimily, the one they were looking for.
“Hi,” Peri said in her musical voice. “Sorry to barge in, but we have a situation in Romania that requires your assistance, so we’re just going to pop on over there, let you do your thing, and then we’ll pop right back here. Sound good? Great.” Peri didn’t give Kimily time to say anything. The fae simply grabbed the woman’s wrist and flashed.
They reappeared in the hallway just outside of Jen’s suite.
“Everyone here?” Peri asked. “I feel like I should start making you all count off when we leave and arrive places so I know we have everyone.”
Jacque glanced around Peri’s body and then turned in a circle like an idiot. “Where the bloody hell is Sally?”
Peri stomped her foot. “Dammit, I knew I should have started the counting thing sooner. Maybe a buddy system will work.” She handed the woman’s wrist to Jacque and looked in Kimily’s face. “You’re safe. Everything is fine. You’re about to help a patient.”
Jacque knew she was doing something with her fae mojo to keep the woman from freaking out, and she wouldn’t mind getting a dose herself considering Sally was supposed to be standing beside her, and now her friend was nowhere to be seen.
“Be right back,” Peri said quickly to Jacque before she flashed again.
Kimily looked at Jacque, her eyes wide. “I feel like I should be freaking out right now, but I can’t. That’s weird, right?”
Jacque sighed. “It’s only going to get weirder, so don’t bother freaking out until the end.”
Sally stepped closer to the shelf and leaned down to peer at the models and diagrams it held. Most were pictures and charts containing drawings showing different stages of fetal development during pregnancy. One in particular, however, was a model of a chest, and that had caught her attention. One of the breasts was a cut-away model of the inner workings of the breast, and it showed tissue, veins, and mammary glands, but the other was just the outside of the breast. It looked so real that she found herself leaning closer, fascinated, wanting to just touch it and see if it felt as real as it looked. In the back of her mind, a voice told her it was a little strange she was curious about the fake boob. But she ignored that voice and took solace in knowing that Jen would have picked it up already and been comparing it to her own. So, really, by Jen standards, just wanting to poke it wasn’t that weird.
Just as her finger touched the fleshy surface, her other hand picked up the base of the model, and she froze. She looked at her hands and frowned. “Dammit, Sally,” she muttered to herself as she realized she’d not done what Peri had instructed. She hadn’t kept a hand on the high fae. She didn’t bother setting the model back down. She actually clutched it closer, as if to ground herself in reality, and squeezed her eyes shut briefly before standing up and turning back to where Jacque and Peri had been standing. Yep, they were gone. She let out the breath she’d been holding but quickly sucked in another when Peri suddenly reappeared.
The high fae glared at her and crossed her arms. “Sally, why are you holding a pair of boobs?”
Sally hurriedly set the model down. “It’s a funny a story,”
“Aren’t all stories funny that end with a person holding a random boob?” Peri asked as she grabbed Sally’s hand and flashed them from the office.
They reappeared, landing next to Jacque and the woman, Kimily, who looked like she didn’t know if she should laugh, scream, or cry.
“I found her,” Peri said as she straightened her clothes, though they were already immaculate, as always.
“Where was she?” Jacque asked.
Sally rolled her eyes. “I’m right there. You could ask me.”
Jacque simply glanced at her and back to Peri.
“Still in the office, holding a boob.”
Sally pinched the bridge of her nose. “Never going to live that one down.”
Chapter Four
“When all else fails, play strip poker. That should really be a more common adage.” ~Jen
Jen smiled at her mate who sat at the small table next to the kitchenette. “You want to play strip poker?”
He shook his head. “No, baby. I said, let’s play some cards. You heard, ‘I want to get you naked by playing a game of poker.’ And then you jumped on the strip poker train.”
“It’s a fun train.” She grinned “You should buy a ticket some time.” Her breasts were killing her, but Thia had finally gotten something in her stomach and was sleeping. Jen knew it was only going to be a brief reprieve, but she’d take it. After putting Thia to bed, Decebel had suggested a game of cards. Shoot her if she happened to like poker—the stripping variety—best of all.
She walked over to the small table and sat opposite of him. “What are we playing? Texas Hold’em? Five-card draw? High/Low? Seven-card stud?”
Decebel paused his shuffling and shifted his eyes up to her face. A small smirk graced his sensual lips. “Do you really know how to play all of those, or did you just search the internet and memorize different types of poker?”
Jen gasped in mock horror. Her hand pressed to her chest as one shoulder dipped down and back, and her body slumped in on itself just a bit. “How dare you question my knowledge of such sacred card games? In Texas, them right there’s fightin’ words.”
He laughed and held up a hand, cards still clasped in them. “Please stop. Don’t ever talk like that again, and I won’t question your poker knowledge. Deal?”
Jen shrugged. “I suppose I can agree to your terms as long as you stick to your end of the deal.” She pointed two fingers at her eyes and then turned those same two fingers to point at Decebel. “I’m watching, B. I’m. Watching. You.”
“Baby, not that I’m questioning your actions, but my end of the deal requires you to be able to hear me. So maybe you should be pointing at our ears instead?” She could tell he was trying hard not to crack a smile, but his amber eyes danced with mischief as he stared back at her.
“Just deal the cards, B. We’re playing Hold’em,” she added. “And don’t go easy on me just because my boobs hurt.”
“I wouldn’t dream of it. The distressed girls are hardly a reason to treat you with kid gloves,” he said as he winked at her. Well, really, he was winking at the girls because his eyes didn’t make it up to her face.
“Hey, fur ball.” She snapped her fingers at him. “My eyes are up here.”
“That’s good to know, baby. Makes it easier to find my way back to them when I get lost exploring other places on you.”
Decebel’s voice was a sensual purr that made a shiver run down Jen’s spine. “I will not be distracted by your attempt at seduction. You can take your prowling wolf and put him in a kennel.”
“Harsh.”
“You’ll live.”
An hour later, Jen was trying very hard not to use one of the cards to give her mate a paper cut. Small, maybe, but effective. Paper cuts brought grown men to their knees.
“Baby, don’t look like that,” Decebel practically cooed at her.
He needs paper cuts and a sock
stuffed in his mouth, she decided. He was gorgeous. She didn’t need him to add to the effect by speaking.
“You look like you’re plotting something unpleasant, and I’m the intended target.”
Jen smiled and batted her eyelashes several times. “I have no idea what you’re talking about.”
“You’re a sore loser, Jennifer. It’s written all over your beautiful, yet irritated, face,” Decebel said, his voice cool and calm.
“You want me to be happy I lost?” she asked. “You want me to be all, ‘Oh Dec, look at you, you awesome whittle wolf. You won the card games. Let’s dance in the street.’” She paused and grinned wickedly. “Plot twist. Whittle wolf gets hit by a school bus while dancing in the street.”
“Damn woman, you’re bloodthirsty.” He growled as he gathered the cards and put them back in the box.
Jen leaned back in the chair and rested her hands in her lap. “You might call it bloodthirsty, but I call it an innate determination to annihilate my opponent, in whatever form they may come.”
Before Dec could respond, there was a knock on their door.
“Come in,” Jen called.
The door opened and in walked Jacque, Sally, Peri, and some lady in a white lab coat who looked terrified and curious at the same time.
“Who’s that?” Jen asked, pointing at the scared confused lady, SCL for short, she added in her mind.
“She’s someone who can, hopefully, help,” Jacque said. “Can we sit over there and chat?” The redhead pointed to the sitting area where the sofa and chairs were located.
Sally, Peri, the SCL, and Jacque all took seats. Jen and Dec followed the group. Jen noticed her mate kept his body between Jen and the newcomer. If Jen shifted, he shifted with her. Overprotective fur ball, she grumbled mentally.
Decebel took one of the large lounge chairs and tugged her down onto his lap. He wrapped an arm around her waist and pulled her tightly against him. Through their bond, she could feel anxiety but also a hint of hope as well. She turned slightly to look at him and frowned.