Chapter 16
Fane lunged forward as he watched his mate collapse. He caught her just before her head would have slammed into the floor.
“Jacquelyn!” Her name was a plea on his lips as he watched her face turn a ghostly shade of white. “Luna, talk to me. What’s wrong?”
She didn’t answer him. Instead she tried to curl in on herself as she clutched at her abdomen. With every groan that rolled out of her, Fane felt a piece of him wither away.
“Da!” Fane called out through the pack bonds. “Something is wrong with Jacque. I think it’s something with the baby.”
“I’ll send Rachel. Is there any blood?” his father responded immediately.
Fane’s heart plummeted; he hadn’t thought about blood. He glanced down attempting to see if anything was on her jeans.
“Not that I can tell.”
Fane carefully picked his mate up in his arms and carried her over to their bed. Perspiration was gathering on her forehead as she continued to writhe in pain. She still hadn’t said a coherent word but when he turned to go to the bathroom to get a towel, she grabbed his shirt. Her eyes were wide with panic. His own panic began to well up inside of him, but he fought to suppress it. He knew that he needed his wits about him right now.
“Don’t leave me,” she ground out between clenched teeth.
“I’m not leaving you, love. I’m not going anywhere. I just wanted to get you a towel.”
She shook her head at him and clutched his shirt tighter. Fane sat down next to her, realizing that he couldn’t walk away from her for any amount of time when she looked at him like that. With her large green eyes she was begging him to fix it―to take the pain away. He wanted nothing more than to do just that.
The door opened and Rachel and Gavril’s scents poured in mixing with the smell of pain and fear. Fane looked up as Rachel approached on the opposite side of the bed. Her face was one of concentration and calm. She looked at him and met his stare.
“Prince, may I touch your mate?” she asked formally, reminding him that she was very, very old.
Fane nodded once but didn’t back away when Rachel moved forward and placed a hand on Jacquelyn’s stomach. The healer closed her eyes and Fane tried not to growl at her to hurry up. He felt a hand on his shoulder and nearly turned to snarl at whoever dared get near his mate in such a vulnerable state.
“Easy,” Vasile’s voice and power cascaded over him, allowing him to keep his anxious wolf from lashing out, but only just.
Rachel pushed her power into Jacque as she searched out the problem that was causing the female so much pain. The first thing that she felt was Jacque’s panic and fear. She was terrified for the life of her child.
“Easy, Jacque,” she whispered softly to her as she attempted to assuage some of her terror. “I’m going to see what the problem is, and then we are going to do everything we can to make sure that you and the baby are okay.”
“Please, please, don’t let my baby die.”
The desperate appeal made Rachel even more determined to protect the pair. After all her years serving the packs, how many young Canis Lupus had Rachel seen born? How many small gifts had they been given? It was only a handful. She returned her energy and attention to Jacque’s womb as she inspected the uterus, placenta, and then the child within. The infant’s heart rate was rising. Jacque’s own panic seemed to cause it to rise even further.
“Peace, little one,” Rachel crooned to the child as she let her power surround the womb. It was only a few minutes later that Rachel realized the source of the pain and why the heart rate was increasing. Jacque was having contractions, and not just minor ones. These were labor contractions that, if allowed to continued, would lead to an early delivery.
“It is not time yet. You have to stay safe and warm for a little longer.” Rachel attempted to stop the contraction but all she was able to do was to lessen the intensity of it. She was surprised that she couldn’t do more, but then she remembered that Jacque was half human, and it might take human medicine to help where her healing powers would not.
She kept her hand on Jacque and continued to focus on holding back the contractions as she pulled her consciousness back out. She looked at Fane and met glowing wolf eyes.
“She’s in premature labor. I am able to lessen the strength of the contractions but I cannot stop them.”
“What can stop them?” Vasile asked from behind his son.
Rachel glanced up at the Alpha and then back to Fane. “I think she will need human treatment of some kind.”
Jacque could hear the voices around her but it was difficult to make out what they were saying. Her attention was too focused on the pain and her distress for her baby. Her hands clenched down on her stomach as another bout of pain rolled through her, though it wasn’t as bad as the last one. She’d heard Rachel’s voice and caught the word labor. Jacque didn’t want to panic because she figured that losing control wouldn’t help the situation, but at six months pregnant, she was pretty sure going into labor was not a good thing.
The sound of Jen’s voice snapped her out of her internal musings. She kept her eyes closed because the one time she’d tried opening them the room had been spinning.
“Decebel, you have to wait in the hall. Crap, man, look at Fane’s face. Do you really think he wants another dominant male near his pregnant mate?” Jen sounded truly exasperated, which Jacque knew was a common occurrence between the blonde and her mate.
“Now,” Jen said, sounding closer than before, “would someone please like to tell me what is going on?”
Jacque listened this time as Rachel explained to Jen that she was in premature labor and would need human medicine to stop it. Once again she fought the panic that threatened to rise up and strangle her. She must have made a noise because she felt Fane’s breath on her face as he whispered to her.
“I hate that you are hurting, Luna. I want to take your pain.” He sounded frustrated and helpless all at the same time. “We’re going to fix this; trust me to take care of you.”
“Save our baby, Fane,” she sent the thought to him, still struggling to keep her thoughts clear.
“I will save you both. That’s my privilege and duty.”
She believed him. Fane would walk through the fires of hell, had walked through the fires of hell for her, and he would do it as many times as he needed to in order to protect her and keep her safe. He would do the same for their child. Of that she had no doubt.