Chapter 43
BAILEY
By nine o’clock, I can’t take any more pacing without answers, so I go to the clinic. I’ve already changed my clothes, done my face and hair, and answered a text from Mom, who wrote:
I don’t smell Jase yet. But fingers crossed everything is going well. Love you.
I wrote back.
Love you too. TTYL.
I guess word isn’t traveling yet about Sherry as I haven’t gotten any queries from the usual suspects.
When I step into the clinic, Jase is in the waiting room with his parents and I also see Amie in the procedure room. She’s in Minnie Mouse scrubs and pink Crocs, waving while taking Sherry’s blood pressure. Sherry is on a hospital bed, covered and unconscious, hooked up to an IV.
“Morning,” I greet to the three sets of Creed eyes that are on me.
“Mornin’,” Robert greets.
“Hi Bailey,” Valerie says.
She’s been crying. I feel terrible for her.
“How is she?” I ask.
“Stable,” Jase replies. “She’s sedated for now and is being given an experimental medication that’ll force healing shifts every few hours. They’re goin’ slow because of the pregnancy, but they’ve done one round of forced shifting and it’s already improved her condition some.”
“And the baby?”
“All good. The coven put a protective spell over the pregnancy yesterday. If they hadn’t, there’s a good chance my sister would be dead.”
“What happened?”
He blows out a ragged exhale. “She jumped from up top at the falls, jumped the rocks instead of into the lake. Joel tried to talk her down but couldn’t.”
“You’re kidding.”
He shakes his head. “Wish I was. Might not be the best idea to let her wake up and try it all over again. She’ll be sedated until she gives birth.”
“But is that fair?”
He frowns.
I add, “Maybe this will be a turning point, realizing she’s got a second chance. You know?”
Jase’s expression hardens a little. So does his father’s. Valerie has tears in her eyes.
“I’m not trying to be combative. I’m just trying to think of it from her perspective.”
“She wanted to kill herself and take that baby along, so not looking like she’s capable of making decisions right now,” Jase mutters.
“She needs to give birth and then someone else will raise that pup while we assess her state of mind. Rye checked it out and the mate bond can’t be severed while she’s pregnant, so the safest bet for Sherry and her son is probably to keep her sedated.
Decisions will be made about the rest later, after we see how she does with the treatment the healers have set up for today. ”
I raise my hands. “It’s not my business. I’m sorry to interfere.”
“You’re a member of our family now, Bailey,” Valerie speaks up. “So, I’d say it’s our business.”
Jase’s jaw muscles flex as he looks away. And my chest goes cold at his body language.
I shouldn’t have barged in here. And I should try to find a filter for my mouth instead of creating extra tension.
“Is Joel okay?” I ask.
Jase’s expression loosens marginally. “Shook him up, but yeah, he’s okay.”
My eyes bounce between the three of them. “Is there anything I can do? I can run to Roxy’s and get breakfast and coffees for everyone.”
Jase quickly says, “I’ll do that.”
“I don’t mind.”
“I need air anyway,” he mutters.
Jase seems mad at me. I should go.
“I’ll go home then,” I say. “If you need anything, Val, Robert… please let me know.”
“Keep us company for a while?” Val asks.
I nod. “Absolutely.”
“Can you get everyone’s breakfast order and text it?” Jase asks, leaning in as if he’s about to kiss me but changes his mind, I guess, as he turns and leaves.
“Excuse me,” I say to Jase’s parents and slip into the bathroom, needing a minute alone.
When I emerge, they’re looking at me, and so is Amie, who leans against the doorframe of the procedure room, looking about ready to burst with questions.
The door opens and Taylor and Gwen both rush in.
Taylor rushes to Robert and Gwen to Val.
Neither sister went straight to Sherry’s bedside, and I’m sure by the way Amie’s looking at me with her eyebrows up that she’s taking note of that, too. Or maybe she’s just trying to get a read on me.
While Val updates her girls on their sister’s situation, Amie jerks her chin up in question and I take it like her asking how I’m doing.
I tip my head from side to side to show the uncertainty.
She tips her jaw to the side, showing me her mate mark, I think.
She subtly mimes as if to scratch it with her eyebrows up.
I shrug.
“Hey, Bailey. How you doin’?” Taylor asks.
“I’m okay, thanks, Taylor. Sorry about Sherry.”
“Not your doing,” she says, turning to Amie. “Go ahead. I’ll watch Sherry while you two chat.”
“Sorry?” Amie checks.
Taylor says, “I trained to be a healer, interned here with Cat for a year before I mated and had kids. I can hold the fort so you two can have a gossip. Go ahead.”
“Thanks,” Amie says with a smile.
“We gonna be welcoming you to the family officially any time soon, Bailey?” Taylor tacks on.
“Um…” is all I can manage.
“Why didn’t it happen last night?” Gwen asks.
“Sounds like my son has developed a will of steel,” Robert quips with twinkling eyes. “But I expect it’ll get sorted within the next day or two.”
“Good. We need some good news around here,” Gwen says. “Hopefully I get it before I leave to go back to school.”
“We sure do,” Valerie says softly, giving me a kind smile. “I’ll send Jase that text with the breakfast orders while you chat with Amie. What do you want for breakfast, Bailey?”
“Oh… nothing thanks.”
“Amie?” she checks.
“Strawberry shortcake crepes and a big honkin’ piece of chicken fried steak with white gravy. Thanks, Valerie. Oh! And home fries.”
Valerie smiles wide while thumbing it into her phone.
Amie explains, “The crepes are for me. The rest is for Puppers.” She rubs her belly.
“Best throw a fried ham steak in there, too, Val,” Robert quips. “Alpha fetuses love ham steak. Valerie ate one almost every day when she was carrying Jason.”
“Not every day,” Val rolls her eyes.
“Mm. Yum,” Amie replies. “But I’ll pass this time.”
I feel all kinds of awkward when Amie grabs my hand and pulls me away, taking us into the stairwell that leads up to Cat and Stan’s apartment.
“You didn’t cave. I’m shocked,” Amie says. “That moon stuff last night was pretty powerful.”
I stumble toward her and she understands my unspoken request by catching me and hugging me tight.
“I tried,” I whisper into her hair. “Turned up at Tyson’s cabin last night and jumped his bones. But he turned me down.”
Amie gasps in shock. “That’s so… so…”
“Mortifying?”
“Gallant! Romantic! He didn’t do it because it wasn’t really your decision.”
“I thought it might be Fate trying to nudge things along,” I tell her. “But he told me I was moon drunk and said he didn’t want me to hold it against him afterwards.”
She grabs my shoulders and jiggles me kind of hard. “Oh girlfriend! You should reward him immediately by letting him give you the business!”
Her face changes and she gives me a look of sympathy. “But… that must have been awful to be needing him like that and getting nothing.”
“Between you and me?” I ask.
She leans in, ready.
I add, “And Ivy, because I’m sure you’ll feel like you have to tell her.”
“Oh totally. She’ll redrum me in my sleep if I try to keep a juicy Jailey secret from her and I suspect you’re about to give me one.”
“Jailey?”
“Yup. Your ship name.” She grins. “What’s the juicy secret?”
It’s more likely the other way around. Amie is more likely to commit violence for not getting the scoop on something than Ivy. Though Ivy was pretty aggressive with me the other day.
“You can tell Ivy if you swear her to secrecy.”
“Of course. You can trust us both.”
“I jumped him and kinda…dry-humped him,” I whisper.
Her mouth drops and her eyes bulge. “Whoa. And how did he take that?”
“He took it,” I respond. “He took it without losing control and claiming me. Does that mean he doesn’t want me as bad as he did?”
“Did he push you off?”
“No…”
“Did he help things along?”
“He didn’t have to. I was like a crazed sex maniac, and just humped him until I came, which probably didn’t take long.”
She laughs, then sobers. “Sorry to laugh, but sweet summer child…” She pats my cheek. “You broke through and got to him. He understands what you need. I’m sure it was very hard… pun intended… for him to hold back.”
My eyes roll.
“Then what happened?”
“I did it again after kinda sorta pleading a little, but he wouldn’t actually let me plead with him. He was being oh so reasonable and logical… telling me I was just moon drunk.” I roll my eyes.
“And then?”
“And then after the second dry-humping sesh, I fell asleep on him until I ran off this morning. He followed me home and I backed into his truck by accident. We were just sitting down to talk about it when Joel called about Sherry.”
She looks confused but clears her expression. “So, he stuck with you all night…”
“I slept on him. On top of him.”
She smiles. “He managed to stay, not run off and tear up the forest while leaving you hanging… letting you get what you needed… as best as he could while not giving in to you being moon drunk? Wow. Bonus points for him, I say.”
“What I needed last night was for him to claim me and do it while I was in that uninhibited ho state, so I wouldn’t be so terrified of it!”
She shakes her head. “Did you hear me at all? He gets it. He gets it, Bailey. Jase knows where he fucked up and he’s trying to do the right thing. Congratulations. You got through to him. You turned things around with him.”
“I wasn’t trying to do that though. I was legit broken.
I was a wreck. I still kind of am. Because I feel like I fucked it all up.
He really hurt me and I really was a wreck and the last few days he’s been incredible.
He could’ve just carted me off and nobody would’ve stopped him, just like Sherry and Wyatt Meadows.
Just like…” I shake my head, unwilling to finish that sentence to remind her of an unpleasant similar situation. “But how broken would I have been?”
“Maybe not–”
“I think I would’ve been, Amie. Bad!”
“And that’s probably why he didn’t take what was offered last night.
You’ve shown him your pain. He understood.
He took your reaction to him seriously. It took him a minute to comprehend it, yeah…
he was being quite an entitled alpha male about it all at first, but he got there, didn’t he?
He’s evolved, Bailey, and though I’m still kinda new here, I already know not all alphas are.
Not naming names… cough… my brother-in-law…
cough. But also… that’s why he didn’t take you last night.
That’s why he’s been planning romantic dates.
If you give him the slightest inclination of a green light tonight without a moon event thingie…
I bet he will rock your world. Oh girl… he’s proving he’s exactly who you thought he was before things went shitty.
You guys got through the blip and he’s a better man for it.
Plus, that tattoo on his neck of your name?
I’m jealous. I might nag Mason about it incessantly until he tattoos my name on his body. ”
“Ugh.” I clasp my hair in my fists. “I don’t know. Especially with what happened today. Maybe I shouldn’t push anything. Maybe I should go home and give him the space he needs with his family.”
“Maybe you should do just what you always do. Be here. Be near him offering support. Things will settle here. Sherry’s gonna survive.
Erica did a protection spell over her baby and that’s probably why she survived at all.
She’s got to be pretty messed up to have jumped, so I do think it’s right to keep her sedated.
The rest of us can make sure that baby is born healthy and then Erica can work some magic so Sherry can have her life back.
Maybe even being a little less of a cunty bitch. ”
“I don’t know if she really wanted to die or if she just wanted to lose the baby, but it’s ugly imagining her being in an induced coma until she gives birth. It’s also ugly imagining her wanting to end her own life. I can’t fathom it.”
“Thankfully Cat had access to that medication.”
“I’d say. Things tend to work out that way around these parts, though.”
“From what I’ve seen so far? I agree. Jared might not have wanted to get in touch with his wolf via that drug, but the fact that it was brought here for him is helping Sherry.
Things might not make sense at first sometimes around here, but look at the whack of things that have happened lately.
They eventually tend to make sense. Besides…
might be nice for you to ease into life as Jase’s mate without your least favorite in-law for a while. ”
I blow out a sigh before changing the subject. “How are you doing?”
“Morning sickness notwithstanding? Pretty fucking awesome.”
“Mated life is good?” I ask unnecessarily because her happiness is written all over her.
“Life has never been better,” she tells me.
“Mason is everything. Every. Thing. I couldn’t be happier.
Except maybe seeing some of my good friends happy – namely you.
I look forward to hearing that from you, girlie.
And… if Doggo tattoos my name on his body somewhere… that’d make life even more golden.”
Jase is doing whatever he can do to show me it’ll be worthwhile, so why does it all still feel so strangely out of reach?
Amie breaks my stoic silence.
“I’d better get back in there. Here’s hoping you get to the good parts really soon. Like… tonight.”