Chapter 18.

MY WORLD HAD SHRUNKdown to the sterile four white walls of my hospital room. The doctor informed me that I had no choice but to remain where I was until birth. My initial labor pains had stopped thanks to Tommy’s quick thinking, but they hadn’t ruled out putting me back into that stupid upside-down position if the contractions started again.

I felt broken and depressed, which I knew was terrible for the baby—all that cortisol—but I didn’t know how to pull myself out of the deep sense of melancholy that plagued me like a shadow on my soul.

My baby deserves a better mother than me. I’ve made such a total mess of everything.

There was only one thing I felt I could be grateful for at this point, and that was that I was safe-ish. Tommy was always around, or Wade or Tanner. David too, of course. In fact, I was pretty sure that David was around all the time, though he steered clear of my room unless invited. But everyone else commented on seeing him. He seemed determined to make up for the fright he’d given me and the hurtful things he’d said by being on constant vigil.

Outside of the boys, I had a constant string of guests reminding me that someone was always just a call away. It was always nice seeing Nancy and Lexie. The ‘human’ women in the family. Some days I felt like I was surrounded by wolfy men, and the girls made me feel a little more grounded amid this storm of human and paranormal insanity in which I’d landed myself.

On the fifth day of my hospital stay, I was beginning to relax a little more. Our baby girl had officially reached thirty-one weeks and continued to grow stronger by the hour. A knock sounded on my door I called out to answer it, assuming it was Mary, the woman who brought me my dinner tray. It was five-thirty so everyone else had gone home for dinner.

“Come in!”

But the set of hard steel gray eyes that stared back at me the moment he stepped through the door sent a chill of immediate panic down my spine.

“Jamie,” I whispered, frozen, the horror and fear of his presence kickstarting my heart into overdrive.

“Tsk, tsk, tsk,” he admonished, shutting the door quietly behind him. “What are you doing here, wife? And with my baby too?”

I extended my arm in a flash and reached for my phone which lay within easy reach on the bedside table. I needed to send an SOS to the wolf family. They’d come. I knew it. They’d promised, every single one of them, to protect me.

But Jamie bolted forward, faster than me in my heavily pregnant state, and snatched the cell phone right out of my hand. “Oh no you don’t.” He slapped me on the hand like I was a mischievous child up to no good. It was almost darkly playful, but it stung from the impact and my skin went immediately red.

“What do you want?” I asked him, too afraid to ask him if he’d received the divorce papers. He obviously had. Or he wouldn’t be here.

He flicked back the bed covers without hesitation, as if that were still his right. “To take you home of course,” he said. “Get up.”

“I can’t,” I exclaimed, desperate and filled with anxiety over what this could mean for my baby, more than me. “I need to stay here. It’s the doctor’s orders!”

He grabbed my upper arm and gripped tightly. “Don’t be ridiculous, dear. Now, get up. You’re coming home with me.”

“Ow, you’re hurting me!” I cried, yanked physically out of bed by his iron grip and away from safety. My heart hammered in my chest and a brutal wave of wooziness slammed over me, triggered by the too fast movement. “Jamie... please.”

“No!” he snapped, glaring down at me. “You don’t get to beg me to be nice here, Stace. You did the wrong thing, not me. You took my baby away, and you’ll come home with me now.”

Panic hit me hard and fast the further from safety I was pulled. I had to find a way to make him reject me, to leave me. I had to wound his pride and there was only one way to do that.

Surely, the truth will save me.

“It’s not your baby!” I cried. “You have to realize that, Jamie. We hadn’t slept together in months before I left.”

He slapped me hard across the face with his spare hand, luckily his non-dominant or I would have been seeing stars.

I fell backward in pain, shocked by the unexpected blow. But he maintained an unforgiving hold on my arm, so I didn’t fall far. “You’re mine,” he hissed. “Which makes that baby fucking mine. Got it?”

I whimpered in pain but couldn’t find the will to respond, my head was reeling from the first physical attack he’d ever launched on me. He’d always been controlling, manipulative, and domineering, but he’d stopped short of physical violence. Apparently, it wasn’t beyond him, anymore.

“Get dressed. Now,” he snapped, his temper getting the better of him the longer I caused a delay on his plans.

“Okay,” I whispered, blinking rapidly against the pain in my face making my eye feel like it was going to explode in my skull. “My clothes are in the drawers.”

Jamie finally let go of my arm.

I gasped from the pain that flooded into my flesh the moment he released his death grip.

He pulled open the drawer roughly, grabbed all my clothes and dumped them on top of the bed. “Hurry up.”

I nodded and swallowed back the tears in my throat that threatened to reveal just how close I was to breaking down. Jamie hated tears and he’d double down on me if he saw them. Luckily for me, I already had some underwear on but was forced to sit down and wriggle on some leggings, before attempting to struggle my way into a maternity top.

Jamie was watching me like a hawk with a keen eye trained on his prey.

I turned my back on him to pull on my oversized top, not wanting to allow him the privilege of seeing what was no longer his.

“I’ve seen it all before Stace. I’ve kept you naked a lot in the past, or have you already forgotten?”

I tried to hide my shudder as the memories returned, and the body shaming I’d endured as a result of being with a man who was never happy with anything short of perfection. But I kept it all inside, and as I dressed, I answered him simply. “Okay.”

Without warning or expectation, a strange sort of calm settled upon me, though I wasn’t sure why or even how. But all I knew with complete clarity was that I had to survive whatever was coming next. Not for my own sake, but for my daughter’s. I’d gotten away from him once before, and I could do it again. I’d find a way to do it while she was still little, so that she’d have no memory of him. I would protect her from those scars no matter what it took; no matter what I had to personally sacrifice.

I didn’t grab anything else from the room, though it broke my heart to do so. I left behind the pink blankets Nancy had bought for me, as well as the baby clothes in the top-drawer Tommy had dropped off just yesterday. I’d planned to give birth here and to hold my daughter for the very first time in my arms. I couldn’t bear to disturb that vision in my mind, so I left it untouched, like a beautiful, untarnished memory of what could have been.

“Let’s go,” he said, almost urgently. “You’re taking too long.”

Is he worrying that one of my new wolf family will show up for me?

“Okay,” I said again, staying as calm as I could force myself to be.

Jamie opened the door and pulled me out into the brightly lit hall, one hand on my arm, the other firmly at the small of my back.

I shuffled along, my body literally screaming at me to lie down again, to take the load off my feet. My back ached with every step and my belly felt too heavy now. But I kept moving without complaint, knowing that this entire situation was a marathon and I needed to pace myself if I was going to survive it.

“Hurry up,” he said, pressing his hand more aggressively against my lower back and pushing me along.

I stumbled and almost fell, catching myself just in time. “I’m moving as fast as I can,” I hissed at him, grabbing my huge belly to accentuate my issue. I’d likely pay for showing him outright aggression and attitude like that, but it couldn’t be avoided.

Jamie looked me over with more scrutiny and seemed to wrap his head around the problem. Since he couldn’t carry me out of the hospital without raising suspicion from the medical staff, he just set his jaw and continued to guide me onward.

Though he couldn’t know it, I took my time as much as I dared. I could have managed to hurry more, but I wouldn’t give him the satisfaction of running to his car, as though he was some kind of hero rescuing me. He was kidnapping me against my will. He was the damn villain, so I would make this as hard as I could for him without arousing his ire any further.

Ursula, a nurse who was good friends with Tommy, walked toward me, her brow furrowed. She knew what was going on with me as far as mine and the baby’s health went.

She’ll realize something is up. She’ll raise the alarm with the boys.

I shook my head at her, only ever so slightly, but she got the move.

“You shouldn’t be out of bed, Stacey,” she said, shaking her head at me.

Jamie grabbed my hand, hard, willing me not to break character. “We’re just going for a short walk,” he explained with a forced smile that made me sick to my stomach. “We won’t be long.”

I gave Ursula a pointed look and a grimace. “Won’t be long,” I repeated with a strained smile and continued to shuffle along the hallway.

“Hurry up!” Jamie hissed at me again, his anger rising to the surface once more.

Surely, he won’t slap or hurt me in public?

Like the sound of angelic trumpets signifying the arrival of Heaven’s cavalry to the rescue, an unholy growl filled the air around us.

I closed my eyes on a sob, the sweet taste of relief overwhelming my senses.

I’m saved. Thank God.

“What the hell is that?” Jamie spat.

I stopped in my tracks and turned around, looking back the way Ursula had gone.

David was standing in the center of hallway, his hands tightened into fists, the wrath of Hell itself blazing in his beautiful eyes.

Jamie grabbed me, no doubt intending to use me a human meat shield, but I wasn’t about to let him use me to get away from David. He deserved everything that was coming to him.

I stumbled on purpose and went down to the ground, careful of my belly, but using the fact that there was no way Jamie could drag me or carry me out of here successfully if I made it difficult for him.

David charged like a bull at a red flag, barreling straight into Jamie, and knocking him to the ground. Kneeling astride his chest, he punched him in the face over and over in a dizzying frenzy of righteous anger. “She’s ours,” David growled through clenched teeth. “That baby is ours. She is ours. You need to fucking leave her alone!”

I stared at my hero with my mouth agape. Jamie’s face was bloodied and broken, and it was clear David had no intention of stopping. And yet, I couldn’t find the words to make him stop. I almost didn’t want to stop him.

Luckily for Jamie, Tommy and his cousins came running down the hall, and soon pulled David off.

“He’s had enough!” warned Tanner.

“Come on, David,” Wade urged.

The cousins dragged him away, denying him the pleasure of direct contact any longer.

Meanwhile Tommy assessed Jamie’s health. He might hate my ex just as much as I did, but he was a doctor first and foremost and he would not dishonor the Hypocritic Oath.

Swallowing hard, I had to look away from my abuser’s broken face. There was just so much blood. He was practically unrecognizable.

“Get off me!” David growled, shoving off his cousins to rush over to me. He dropped to his knees at my feet, his heart in his throat and his gaze plaintive and hopeful. “Sweetheart, are you okay? Will you ever forgive me?”

Without a single heartbeat’s hesitation, I threw myself into David’s waiting arms and cried, longer and harder than I ever had in my whole life. The nightmare was finally over.