Claimed by Her Panthers (17 page)

Jenika
helped her to
the sink where she rinsed out her mouth and then ushered her to bed. Angelica
barely registered her head hitting the pillow before she passed out.

Hours
later she woke up, the sun shining through the curtains and blinding her.

“Oh God.
That’s bright,”
she groaned as she levered herself to sit up.

The
bed next to her was empty, but she assumed
Jenika
had
gone to grab breakfast. Though why she wouldn’t have just called room service
was beyond her. The moment she was sitting straight, her stomach lurched, and
she found herself running to the bathroom again. Minutes later, or it could
have been half an hour, Angelica stumbled out of the bathroom and over to the
bed. She had just lain down when
Jenika
came through
the door, shopping bag in hand.

“Hey,
how are you feeling?”

“Like
crap.”

Jenika
gave her a
concerned look. “Were you sick again?”

Angelica
nodded with a grimace.
“As soon as I got up.”

“Okay.”
Jenika
seemed to be working
herself
up to something, then finally spoke. “I got you something, and I need you to
listen.”

Angelica
frowned. “Okay, what?”

Jenika
reached into
the bag and pulled out a box.
No, not a box.
A pregnancy kit.

“
Jeni
—”

“Just
hear me out,”
Jenika
insisted. “You told me you
hadn’t used protection, regardless of any pill you might be on. And you’re
throwing up, tired, and
kinda
emotional. I mean, as
much as I love that you got cranky and agreed to come with me, you’re usually a
lot harder to convince than you were this time.
More
irrational.”

“Wait.
So because I agreed to come on vacation with you so easily, I must be
pregnant?”

“Just
… just take one, okay. If it’s negative, I’ll keep my trap shut, and we can
have a great time away. But if I’m right … then I think you should at least
call them.”

Angelica
hated to admit it, but
Jenika
had a damn point.
 
She was sick, and tired. And she had come
here with very little prompting. But there was still no way. Stephan and Owen
would have been able to scent something like that, her being pregnant. And they
wouldn’t have kept that from her, right?

She
stood up and snatched the box and headed for the bathroom, closing the door and
ripping it open. There were two of them,
Jenika
no
doubt knowing that even if the first was positive, then Angelica would want to
take a second one to confirm.

Following
the instructions, she waited impatiently for the minutes to tick by. When time
was up, she slowly walked over to the counter where the stick sat. Peering
down, she felt the blood drain from her face.

Two lines.

Oh crap.

Her
breathing came quicker, her heart beating rapidly.
Oh God
. She wasn’t ready for this.

“Angelica?”
Jenika
thumped on the door. “Are you okay? Time should be
up.”

Trying
to gain control, she slowly moved to the door and unlocked it.
Jenika
had the door pushed open before she could, and it
only took her best friend five seconds to grab her and pull her into a warm
embrace.

“
Shhh
, it’s
gonna
be fine. It’s
all going to be fine,”
Jenika
murmured, and it was
only then that she realized she had started crying.

“I
just … I’m just—”

“You’re
freaking out. I know.”

Angelica
wasn’t sure how much time passed, but eventually she calmed. Swiping away the
tears, she allowed
Jenika
to lead her over to the
bed. Slumping down, a million things ran through her mind. Had Stephan and Owen
known? What would they say if they didn’t? What would she say to them if they
did? Were they ready? Was she ready?

“I
know that look, and you just need to stop,”
Jenika
said, breaking through her panic. “You are over-thinking.
Stop.”

“But
I—”

“No.
Stop.”
Jenika
held up a hand
to silence her, much like Angelica did to her students. “Let’s just focus on
this. Yes, you are pregnant, to two men you love. You have already told me you
plan on spending forever with them, and well, forever just got a bit crowded
for a while.”

“This
isn’t a time to joke,” Angelica grumbled.

“No,
it’s a time to celebrate. You are young, happy,
healthy
… apart from the whole puking thing … and you are going to have a baby.”
 
Jenika’s
smile was
bright.

“You’re
right,” she sighed.

“And
hopefully you’re having a beautiful little bundle of you and not those two big
oafs you call mates,”
Jenika
said sweetly, patting
her hand. “Now let’s go grab something to eat, do a little shopping, and then
go out tonight to celebrate, huh?”

****

That
night they decided to hit the town. The night life was pumping, and while Angelica
couldn’t have a drink, she could dance. Dressed in a knee length little black
dress, she added some emerald accessories she had picked up that day at a small
market stall. With heels to match her new purchases, she was dressed to kill.

Jenika
joined her
outside the room, wearing a red number and black strap heels, and they left the
room. As they walked out of their hotel and down the street, the night air was
cool and crisp, which was a nice break from the humidity that had been weighing
them down all day.

About
a block away from the club they were headed to, Angelica’s phone rang. Glancing
down she saw it was the boys.

“Answer
it,”
Jenika
prompted.

Taking
her friend’s advice, she swiped the green circle across the phone. “Stephan?
Owen?”

“It’s
me, Stephan.” Her mate’s voice was low and husky. She could hear the concern
and felt guilty.

“Hey.”

“Hey.”

Silence
met her, and she didn’t know what to say. If neither of them had reacted the
way they had, then she wouldn’t have felt the need to prove a point. At the
same time, her overly emotional state led her to make a snap judgment that she
normally wouldn’t have made. And then there was the whole reason she was overly
emotional, which finally gave her something to say.

“Did
you know?”

“Know
what?”

“Think
about it, Stephan. Did you and Owen know? When did you plan on telling me? Was it
when I had spent a whole week throwing up every morning?”

A
small gasp flittered through the phone. “You know?”

Anger
swelled in her. “Yes, I know, and by the sounds of it I was right and so did
the both of you. What the hell, Stephan?”

“We’re
so sorry, cupcake. Things were just starting to settle down, and we wanted to
wait. We just wanted you to have some sort of calm before another storm.”

He
sounded so sad, so defeated, that some of her anger broke away. “You still
should have said something.”

“We
know,” they said in unison.

“Do
you have me on speaker?”

There
was a grunt. “Well, I figured if you were going to blast my ear off, it was
only fair that Owen copped it, too.”

“Idiots,”
she chuckled affectionately.

A
sudden noise off to the side startled her. She looked at
Jenika
to see she had heard something, too.

“What
was that?” she asked her friend.

“What
was what?” Stephan piped up.

“Not
you, I was asking
Jenika
. We’re on our way to a club
and thought we heard something.”

“What?
Club?” he shouted.

She
frowned. “Yes, club. Don’t start. Things were going so well.”

“No,
cupcake, listen, please. Go back to your hotel room. It isn’t safe.”

“Oh, for God’s sake.
It’s fine.”

A
deep almost cackle-like sound reached them, and she froze,
Jenika
bumping into her from behind.

“You
should listen to your mate, little girl,” whispered the silky voice. “You never
know what truly goes bump in the night.”

Angelica
tried to back out of the small passage way she had entered, but
Jenika
stopped her.
One glance behind her
and she saw that they had been boxed in.

Oh crap. How
stupid am I?

“Stephan.
Owen.” Her voice trembled.

“Angelica!”
he shouted. “What’s going on?”

“There
are people. They look strange. There is something wrong with them,” she
whispered. “I don’t think they’re human.”

“What
do you mean?” he snarled through the phone. “Can you get away?”

“No,
we’re blocked in.”

Their
figures moved closer. One was a woman, strikingly beautiful, dangerously so.
The others with her were different, though. A few had skin that looked to be a
green tinge, though the darkness of the passage made it hard to see. Others
seemed larger and almost deformed. Whoever they were, Angelica knew they
weren’t human, Shifter, or Vampire.
Maybe the woman, but not
those with her.

A
hand clamped over her mouth instantly, blocking her scream as they were
ambushed. She could hear her mates growling through the phone. Something sharp
pricked her arm, and her vision began to dim.
Shit!

Before
she blacked out, Angelica saw the woman pick up her phone Angelica had dropped
and speak into it. “Tell
Draken
I said hello.”

****

“What
the hell do you mean they are missing?” Joel shouted, pacing back and forth as
they waited for the plane to be ready.

“We’re
not sure.” Owen held his hand up before Joel began shouting again. “The girls
took off to the Gold Coast. We were on the phone to Angelica when they ran into
trouble. She tried describing what they looked like, but then there was
screaming.”

He
could barely get the words out. Fear, guilt, and pain all ate away at him until
he struggled to breathe. The emotions reached the point of overwhelming when a
solid force slammed into the side of his head.

“Ah,
fuck.” Owen glanced up to see Joel looming above him.

The
fucker had hit him?

“I
told you to keep her safe. You promised no harm would come to her.” The man
balled his fists as though he meant to start laying into him. “So
don’t waste time
with a damn panic attack, and fix this.”

“Have
you met your sister? She doesn’t exactly make it easy,” Owen grumbled, picking
himself up from the floor.
“And her best friend?
That
woman is a menace.”

Draken
suddenly
appeared next to them as if the mention of
Jenika’s
name magically conjured him. One
look
at all their
faces, and he sighed. “What has
Jenika
done now?”

“See?”
Owen pointed to
Draken
. “Even he knows how much
trouble
Jenika
is.”

“Your
mate has convinced ours to take a little holiday,” Stephan snapped.

He
and Stephan had called the Vampire and told him to get his arse to the air
hanger if he wanted to save his mate. They hadn’t given him the details, and he
hadn’t waited for them.

Draken
frowned. “So?
This is what you called me here for? Perhaps you are all a tad overprotective.
Poor girl must get smothered.”

Owen
rolled his eyes. “
Jenika
took her to the Gold Coast.”

“What?”
Draken
shouted. “I thought you had vetoed that idea.
Why would she agree to go?”

Owen
looked chagrined. “She doesn’t know?”

Draken’s
eyes widened.
“You haven’t told her?”

“We
don’t need you pointing out our mistakes,” Stephan bit out.

“Clearly,
because it seems it would take more than a lifetime to list them all.”
Draken
rolled his eyes.

“And
yet you came to us asking for help to woo your mate. Hell, maybe we should have
helped more. You could have gotten her away from our mate.”

“Guys,
we need to focus on getting both of them back safe, okay? So enough,” Joel
ordered, in full detective mode. “Now, what kind of backup are we looking at
when we land? And is someone already scouting the area near the hotel?”