Bridenapped The Alpha's Choice (11 page)

“Wheee, released from captivity!” Angela crowed, although she sounded somewhat subdued this morning.

Three days had gone by, and now it was time leave the Alpha Compound and tour the Banquet Hall where the wedding would be held.

“Captivity,” Mary scoffed. “In a mansion the size of Texas, with servants waiting on you hand and foot and a hot guy at your command.”

“Eh.” Angela shrugged, as she, Regina and Angela stood by the limo waiting for Jarrod, who was inside the house talking to a staff member.

“Where is Craig today?” Mary glanced around curiously.

“I don’t know.” Angela’s expression was woebegone. “I told him I needed some time alone.”

Mary felt a sharp pang of guilt. She and Jarrod had been getting along famously the past few days. Exploring the beautiful gardens. Cooking meals together. Testing each other on their knowledge of eighteenth-century poets. Having lots and lots of incredible sex. In her blissful haze, she’d lost track of what Regina and Angela were doing. Now it looked like Angela had torpedoed a relationship with the only decent guy she’d ever dated, and for all she knew Regina had emptied out the pack’s bank accounts and sent all the money to China.

“You don’t sound particularly happy about it,” she said to Angela. She glanced up at the house. Jarrod was walking towards them now, backlit by the sun. He flashed her an enormous grin, but she forced her attention away from him and back to Angela.

“It’s fine. He never was my type, was he? He’s too good for me.”

“Oh, for the love of God, Angela. Listen. Escaping your parents’ influence doesn’t mean doing the opposite of what they say. It means thinking for yourself and not caring one way or the other whether they’d approve of the man you date. If you like him, go apologize to him and just spend some time with him and see where it goes. Decide whether
you
want a relationship with him. Okay?”

“It’s probably too late. I screwed things up like I always do.” Angela glanced back at the house. “You know what? I’m not up for a tour today. I’m going to go take a walk or something.”

“Angela!” Mary called, but Angela had turned and was walking towards the house.

As she left, Regina let out a heavy sigh.

“She’ll be fine,” Mary said, hoping she was right.

“That’s not the problem.”

“What is it, then?” Mary asked.

Regina grimaced. “Okay, there’s something I haven’t been telling you. Because it seemed like you and Jarrod were starting to get along well, and if I tell you it’s going to screw it up. But you’ll probably want to know.”

“Just tell me.”

“I got bored, and I kept digging around in the pack’s bank accounts to see if there was anything else that I could find.”

“Regina.”

Jarrod was approaching them now, smiling.

Regina flashed him a quick look, then glanced back at Mary. “Would you want to know if Jarrod was keeping a really, really big secret from you?”

* * * * *

“He’s still not eating,” Bruce said, peering down at the tiny, pale baby with the scrunched-up face.

“Babies don’t eat a lot,” John said, but he felt worry clenching up inside him. Bruce had been so excited when the new one had arrived, carrying it around, singing it songs that he’d learned from their books.

Bruce and his books.

“But he’s hardly eating at all. The other ones ate more than this. I know they did. Didn’t I eat more than this one did?”

“No, not really,” John said, but he was lying. Bruce had been as hungry as a little pig. John had always had to beg Mr. Tompkins for more food, and then Mr. Tompkins would get really mad at him. It had been a big relief when John could eat solid food and hadn’t needed formula anymore.

Mr. Tompkins doesn’t really care about us…
The treacherous thought whispered through John’s mind.

Mr. Tompkins always said how him and his sons were risking their lives by hiding all these wolves on their land, but Mr. Tompkins acted like he could just barely stand them. And his sons acted funny around them too, like they felt…guilty about something. They did nice things for the boys, like sneaking them books, but they didn’t act as if they liked the boys too much. Why would they risk everything if they didn’t even like them?

What was really on the other side of the fence? Why didn’t Mr. Tompkins want them to see it? Why had Fergus died when he’d tried to find out?

“What’s wrong with him?” asked Duane, one of the older boys, walking over. He looked down at the baby.

Bruce put his little hand on the baby’s forehead. “He feels hot. He has a fever.”

“We have baby aspirin,” David said. “That orange stuff with the dropper. I’ll go get him some.”

“If it doesn’t work,” Bruce said suddenly, “we’ll go over the fence and look for a doctor? Maybe the doctor won’t know we’re wolves. We’ll just stay human while we’re there. We could pay the doctor with…books. I’ll give him all my books. To fix the baby.”
His most precious things,
David thought.
He’d give them up to make the baby get better.

David and Duane exchanged glances.

Duane had been the one to dig the dirt-hole for the last baby that hadn’t made it. His face had scrunched up the whole time and he’d blinked a million times and his eyes had been all shiny.

“We’ll go over the fence,” Duane said firmly.

David hesitated, then nodded. “If he doesn’t get better, we’ll go over the fence,” he agreed.

“Can you come with me just a minute?” Constance asked Mary, who was only too eager to get as far away from Jarrod as possible at that point.

“Excuse me,” she said to Jarrod, her tone short. She avoided his gaze.

“Sure. Everything okay?” he asked, looking puzzled.

She ignored him and followed Constance to the end of the banquet hall and out the door into the hallway that led to the kitchen.

A young man wearing coveralls had removed a sconce from the wall and was fiddling with it as they walked by. Constance glanced around, then pulled Mary by the arm over to where he was working.

“This is Briony’s husband, Frank,” Constance said, glancing around again to make sure nobody was listening. “He’s an electrician. I told the maintenance department the lamp was broken so they’d send him over here today.”

He was a thin man with a mop of curly hair, and his eyes were puffy and bloodshot. He looked pale and exhausted.

“I’m so sorry about what happened,” Mary said to him. “Has anyone been able to talk to her?”

He shook his head. “No, that’s the thing. They’re keeping her so doped up that she can’t even speak. I know they’re lying about what happened at the hospital. My wife did not try to hurt our son, and if she attacked that nurse, there was a reason.” His eyes burned with hurt and anger. “I just need to know – are you willing to help us?” He stared at her intently.

“Of course,” Mary said. “What did you have in mind?”

“You’ll know when it’s time,” he said, and he turned and hurried away.

She took a deep breath, and she and Constance headed back to the banquet hall, for a wedding that was never going to happen.

* * * * *

“Are you sure you’re feeling all right?” Jarrod asked Mary, concerned. She must have eaten something bad at breakfast. She was white as a ghost and acted like she didn’t want to be anywhere near him.

“I’m fine. I’m just going to go to my suite right now.”

Her room. Not their room. For days now, she’d been in their room, making it into her second home. He’d sent for her stuff from her apartment and had it brought it to the Alpha compound, and she’d moved it into his rooms. Now she didn’t want to be with him. That stung.

Was it because she was feeling sick?

She hurried away from him, rushing down the hallway towards her suite.

“Do you need a doctor?” he called out after her.

“I don’t need a damned thing from you!” she yelled, and slammed her door.

Now where the hell had that come from? She’d needed plenty of things from him just a few short hours ago – like hungry kisses and more orgasms.

He stalked down the hallway and grabbed the doorknob. She’d locked it. Now he was starting to get angry.

“What is going on with you?” he yelled. “If you’re mad at me, tell me why!”

“As if I’d get an honest answer!” she yelled back.

He had no answer for that. He hadn’t lied to her; somebody must have told her something that hurt her, and he’d bet anything that Earvin was behind it.

Fortunately, Angela liked him, and he knew that she wanted him and Mary to be together. He’d track her down and find out what the problem was.

Or…not.

He didn’t see her or Regina wandering around, and they weren’t in their rooms, so he called Craig, who met up with him in the library. His father had built that room, stocked it with thousands of leatherbound books tucked into flor to ceiling bookshelves.

“I need you to do me a favor,” he said to Craig. “I want you to ask Angela something. What?” he added, at the look on Craig’s face.

“She’s avoiding me,” Craig said unhappily. “All of a sudden. I don’t know why.”

“Seriously? Mary’s avoiding me too. What the hell? I’d ask if it was a full moon, but I already know the answer to that question. The full moon is when I’m supposed to be marrying my bride, assuming that she’ll still have me.”

Jarrod headed over to the well stocked bar, yanked open the fridge, and pulled out two beers. Yeah, it was early. Screw it, he was drinking.

“Of course she will,” Craig said loyally as Jarrod handed him a beer. Jarrod could only pray that Craig was right.

The phone in the library rang, and Jarrod picked it up. “Yeah?” he growled.

A minute later he hung up.

“My uncle is withdrawing from all council meetings and concentrating exclusively on training the pack for the games,” he said, looking puzzled

“Isn’t that good news?” Craig asked.

Jarrod shook his head and settled into a leather wingback chair. “Nah. He’s up to something.” He took a long pull on his beer and wondered why everything was suddenly going to hell.

“My aunt’s been acting strange too,” he mused. “Avoiding the hospital, called in sick, staying locked up in her house. I heard from the neighbors that Earvin went to her house and tried to talk to her, and she refused to let him in. He started kicking the door, realized people were watching him, and left in a huff. The Enforcers were called and sent to her house, they asked her if anything was wrong, and she said no and sent them away.”

Mary didn’t know what to do with herself. She couldn’t sit still, and she couldn’t concentrate on anything, so she was reduced to pacing the room and throwing pillows to the floor in fury. Then, because she couldn’t stand disorder, she’d pick the pillows up again and put them back where they belonged, frantically brushing imaginary dust off them.

Her frenzied pacing was interrupted by a low, urgent rapping on the window.

If Jarrod thought that was cute, he had another think coming.

What did he even want with her? What kind of twisted game was he playing with her? She didn’t know what was a lie and what was the truth.

Ready to give him a piece of her mind, she stomped over and yanked the window open.

But it wasn’t Jarrod. It was Constance and Briony’s husband…dragging Briony between them. Briony’s eyes were glazed over, and her head was nodding. Drool ran down her chin.

They climbed inside quickly. Briony stumbled and fell into Mary’s arms, and Mary held her up as Frank scrambled to scoop her up. He carried Briony over to Mary’s bed and laid her down gently, propping her up with pillows.

“You said you’d help us,” Frank said. “I need to hide her here, at least until the drugs wear off. Your chambers are the only ones on pack property that nobody is allowed to search.”

“How did you even get her out of the hospital?” Mary asked, astonished.

“I went to the maternity ward to visit a pregnant friend,” Constance said. “Frank’s an electrician. As soon as I went in, he shut the power off and sabotaged the backup generator as well. He also shorted out the electronic door lock system so all the doors opened. There are no windows in the hospital, so with the power out it was pitch dark. I made my way to Briony’s room and managed to smuggle her out in the confusion.”

“Wow. You’re like a ninja.”

“I’m motivated,” Constance said grimly. “If we can get answers for her, we may be able to get answers for me too.”

“I’ll watch her for you,” Mary said. “I’ll call you as soon as she’s coherent.”

Mary, Regina and Angela spent the next couple of days babysitting Briony. Whatever drugs she’d been given were powerful indeed. The first day they had to spoon feed her soup, and watch her to make sure that she didn’t choke.

Regina and Angela were invigorated by this new challenge. Regina asked for extra food at her meals, and then brought it to Mary’s room so they could feed Briony. When the Enforcers came knocking, wanting to search Mary’s room for Briony, as it was the last place they hadn’t searched, Angela flew out into the hallway in a highly convincing snit, yelling at them to leave poor Mary alone because her heart was broken. Which was actually true.

By the third day, she was starting to come around, although she was still dazed and weak.

“My baby,” she said to Mary, as Mary sat down next to her with a lunch tray. Her voice was thick and blurry. “My son. Where is he?”

“Your husband and your parents are taking care of him. Eat this sandwich,” Mary said, holding a plate up to her.

Briony slapped the plate away, and the sandwich fell to the floor.

“Not that baby!” she yelled out.

“Briony. Calm. Down. And keep your voice down,” Mary said in low, urgent tones. “I don’t know if there are any servants out in the hallway close enough to hear you, but the Enforcers are looking for you. You’re wanted on murder charges. You killed that nurse and tried to kill the baby!”

“No, I didn’t!” Briony stared at her in shock. “I didn’t try to hurt the baby. There were two nurses there. I killed the one who stole my child. The other nurse ran out of the room holding the baby.”

She buried her face in her hands and started to cry. “I’ll never see my son again. He’s gone! They stole him from me, and I don’t know where they took him!”

“We’ll find him. We’ll figure this out,” Mary promised. Her mind was whirling. If Briony was telling the truth, and in her right mind, then that left another mystery – where the hell had the replacement baby come from? And why would anybody swap out babies?

“I’ll never find him…my baby’s gone…” Briony wailed.

Mary smacked her on the arm, hard. “Are you going to sit there and cry or are you going to help me figure this out?” she demanded.

Briony sucked in a long, shuddery breath and then she nodded.

“Tell me exactly what happened,” Mary urged her.

“They tried to give me some medication which was supposed to keep me calm during my labor. I refused it and they got really agitated. I think it was meant to dope me up so I wouldn’t argue when they tried to take my son. Right after I gave birth, they tried to grab my son away, before I could even hold him. I’d told them that I changed my mind and I didn’t want him to go see the Mage, but they weren’t listening to me. I grabbed my son and held him and scented him. Then one of the nurses jabbed something in my arm and I got dizzy, and they snatched him away and ran off.” Hair rippled on her face, and her fangs jutted out. Her words turned to snarls.

“Briony, focus! I can’t understand you until you turn human again,” Mary pleased.

Briony shuddered all over and then, with visible effort, forced herself back into human form.

“When they brought him back, he looked and smelled different.” She met Mary’s gaze. “They do something at that hospital. They take the baby away and replace it with a different one. That’s why they drug the mothers and snatch the baby before we can scent them; so we won’t know that they’re giving us a different baby when we come back.”

Tears ran down her face again. “I know you think that I’m crazy, but I’m telling the truth.”

“I don’t think you’re crazy,” Mary said. “I just don’t know how to prove that you’re right.”

DNA tests had been done in the past, and they’d come back showing that the mothers had the right babies. Or had they? She wondered. Who did the DNA tests? Who had taken the blood or saliva samples that were used for the DNA tests? Those could have been taken from the original baby, and used for the tests.

If only she could ask Jarrod. If only Jarrod wasn’t a horrible, horrible liar and a heartbreaker and a horrible, horrible liar.

No, this wasn’t about her any more. Jarrod had lied to her yet again and broken her heart, but that was small potatoes compared to the horror of women’s babies being stolen from and replaced by…who? What?

“I’m going to call Constance and tell her that you’re able to speak now,” she said wearily. “Maybe she’ll know what to do.

* * * * *

Jarrod, standing outside the door of Regina’s suite, had reached the end of his rope. Mary was refusing to speak to him or even see him, and it was driving him insane. He missed Mary desperately. He missed her laugh, he missed her smile, he missed the way she looked at him and made him feel like the sexiest guy on Earth. He missed burying himself in her sweet, soft body.

He was getting surly and snappish and he couldn’t think straight.

And he would do whatever it took to find out what had caused this sudden change, even if it meant speaking to the most annoying woman on the planet. Personally, he’d rather be in a Death Match than be in the same room as Regina, but if this is what it took to fix the problem with Mary, then by God, he’d not only be in the same room as Regina, he’d talk to her.

“You think Regina is going to tell you anything?” Craig asked Jarrod. His expression was glum and his shoulders slumped. Angela wasn’t talking to him either.

“Trust me, I’ll make her talk. I’m highly motivated.” He pounded on her door and, when she didn’t open it, he stuck the key in the doorknob lock and opened the door. Apparently she’d forgotten that he owned this house and had keys to every room.

He and Craig walked in. Regina’s suite had what had once been called a drawing room, and she was sitting on the couch, frowning at her laptop.

She started when they walked in.

“You aren’t allowed to come in without being invited!” she said indignantly. “Seriously, it’s in all the etiquette books.”

Jarrod ignored her, walking toward her until scooted back on the couch with an alarmed look. Craig stood several feet away, arms folded across his chest, his expression grim.

“I need to know why Mary isn’t talking to me,” Jarrod said. “And I know you know. So tell me.”

Regina avoided his eyes.

His tone went deadly. “I’m not screwing around here, Regina.”

She glanced up at him fearfully, meeting his eyes and then looking away. “You can’t make me talk.”

“I can and I will.”

“You’d never hit a girl.” Then doubt flickered in her eyes. “Would you?”

“No, Regina,” he said with exaggerated patience in his voice. “I’d never lay paw or fang on a woman. I can do much better than that. I’m taking away your cell phone, your laptop, your nonfat yogurt, and all of your makeup unless you talk.”

“You…” she stared at him, speechless with horror.

“Full fat yogurt, Regina. No makeup. Oh, and your straightening iron and your hair gloss. Gone.”

“You’re an animal!” she cried, appalled. “A beast!”

He just looked at her. “Uh, yeah. Obviously.”

Her lower lip trembled. “Fine. You win. And I’m totally glad you didn’t pick me,” she said, her tone deeply wounded. “Because then I’d be married to a bully and a
liar
.”

“What the hell are you talking about?” Jarrod felt his temper boiling over. He wanted to kick something. “Mary said the same thing. I didn’t lie to her about anything.”

“I hacked into the pack’s bank accounts,” Regina said. “And I found out about you sending those payments to Mary’s mother.” She paused to let that sink in. “Her supposedly dead mother. Who’s apparently alive and living in Cleveland.”

“Still?” Jarrod cried out. “Are you saying she’s still getting payments?”

“As if you didn’t know.”

“How did you find all of that out?”

“Because I am a genius hacker,” she said proudly. “I also found out that Petra and Earvin are both embezzling money. Petra’s stealing it from the hospital and sending a hundred grand a year to some corporation in Wisconsin. Earvin’s sending money to Eastern Europe.”

Jarrod and Craig exchanged glances.

“The money to Eastern Europe…that could be for some kind of drugs, something he’s giving the athletes,” Jarrod said to Craig.

“We’ll notify the Enforcers. But right now, you need to tell Mary the truth,” Craig said to him.

“You know I can’t. And you know why.” Jarrod shook his head.

“Fine,” Craig said, sounding exasperated. “Let your relationship to the love of your life crash and burn because of a stupid oath.”

“A Blood Oath.” That came out as a growl.

Craig turned to Regina. “Do you have any idea why Angela stopped talking to me?”

Regina sighed sullenly.

“Full fat yogurt,” Jarrod repeated sternly.

“You are a sick man,” she said with disgust. “You won’t get away with treating me like this.”

“Yeah, yeah, your daddy is going to sue me.” Jarrod waved his hand dismissively.

“The heck with that. I’ll go to law school, get a law degree, and sue you myself.” Her eyes gleamed with new resolve, and Jarrod had to admit, Angela’s bad influence on Regina was also kind of a good influence.

But he still needed answers.

“That’ll take at least three years. Right now, you’re my prisoner, and I control the food and cosmetic supply. Talk!”

“Fine!” She stamped her foot. “Angela thought you were too good for her, but then Mary talked her out of it, but now Angela thinks she’s already ruined her chances with you she’s hiding and crying all the time. She thinks I don’t know about that, but I do, because she really needs under-eye concealer now and she never used to need it, and also crying makes her makeup run because she wouldn’t take my advice and use waterproof mascara.” That all came out in a rush, sounding like one long sentence. “You made her cry,” she concluded, scowling at Craig.

“I made her cry?” Craig said indignantly.

“Yes. You should go apologize and beg her forgiveness. Bring flowers. No, bring her tickets to a heavy metal concert and a roller coaster ride.”

“You know, you’re not as dumb as you look,” Craig said, and turned to leave.

“Thank you. I know,” Regina said proudly.

Jarrod sat down next to Regina, and her triumphant smile vanished. She moved nervously away from him.

“Now you’re going to show me what you found in those bank accounts.”