Page 15 of Branches of the Willow (The Ancients #3)

14

A Thorn

I woke up to my cell phone ringing, and Mikael wasn’t in bed with me any longer. “Hello?” I managed to eke out groggily.

“Jessica St. Marks!” My mom shouted into the phone. “Is it true?”

“Mom, I was sleeping! Is what true?”

“Word spread like wildfire all through the pack this morning that you’re pregnant, and here I am, your mother, and the last to know!”

“Oh GAWD!” I growled out. “Mom, I’m sorry. I told Mikael last night, and he was so excited he just started telling everyone in the house. I was so tired…”

“Oh my God! It is true! Jessica… I can’t believe you’re going to be a mom already!” My mom was suddenly sniffling and crying into the phone.

“Mom, please, calm down. I’ll be over later.”

“No, you won’t.” Mikael chimed in as he carried a tray of food over to me on the bed. Then he took the phone from me. “Eat!” He commanded, then he changed his tone to speak to my mother. “Eileen, I’m sorry, I wasn’t thinking last night. I should have known the guards would go back cackling like hens with gossip. Please, come by to see Jess! I’ve put her on bed rest for the day! She nearly passed out yesterday from exhaustion. If she can’t do it from bed, it’s going to wait, at least until she can catch her breath.” I heard my mother babbling on and on to him for a minute, and then Mikael cut her off. “Hang on, my phone is ringing.” Mikael looked down at it, “It’s Jameson.”

“Hello, Jameson.” Mikael looked serious then. “You should send Eileen out here to make sure Jess has company and is resting! As soon as she’s here, I’ll be on my way.” Mikael stopped talking and just listened for a minute, a huge smile spreading across his face. “Yes sir! I will. They are my world!”

He hung up and came to sit with me, “What was that about?”

“Your dad just held me accountable for making sure you, and his grandchild, stay safe.” He smiled down at me again and then leaned in for a kiss.

“Why do you have to go?”

He looked like he was debating on whether to tell me or not. “They found Annabelle. She’s being brought in for questioning. “I want in on it. I need to know where my brother is, Jess, before he does anything else to harm our family.”

“What about Leanna?”

“She wasn’t with Annabelle.”

“Damn it. It’s harder to find them when they split up. I should go in too.” I tossed the covers back and tried to get up only to have Mikael’s strong arms wrap around me, and lay me back down, beside him.

“No, you need to rest some, Jess. We can wait on that. Your mom will be here soon. Ash and Asi are sticking close by you today, too. Please, I need to know you’re taken care of so that I can go do my job. Let us take care of this while you get rest.”

“Fine, but call me and let me know you’re okay, or I will just lie here and worry instead of resting anyway.” I realized my hands were shaking as I placed them against his chest. “What if they’re trying to get to you now, since they can’t touch me? Malachi mentioned having a plan ‘B’ in motion before.”

“I promise to be careful, and call. Plus, I will come back as soon as possible, love.”

I devoured the food Mikael brought me while waiting for my mom to show up. It didn’t take her long, which meant my mom had driven here like a bat out of hell. I heard her voice downstairs, just moments before I saw her. “Where’s my baby?”

Then, she was there, walking into my bedroom, and beaming with pride. “Hey, Mom.”

“How did I not sense this sooner?” She came over and put her hands on my still-shrunken stomach and her whole body hummed with a warm energy that I remember feeling from her as a child. It was odd, to me, that even though my stomach showed no sign of my pregnancy yet, everyone was suddenly enthralled by it, and wanting to touch me. It was part awe-inspiring, and partly creepy.

“I really wish everyone would stop doing that. There’s nothing to see there, yet, and it’s kind of creepy,” I mentioned as Mikael stepped in from the bathroom to see what I was complaining about. He laughed, and I thought he looked a little like Santa with his face covered in a white shaving foam. Disappointment sunk in deep because I hated when he shaved fully. Sure, his skin was smoother when he kissed me, and I didn’t get beard burn; but I loved the way he looked with the stubble sprouting up across his jaw and chin. When he was finished, he came to kneel beside where I was still lounging in bed and kissed my lips.

“Please, be a good girl, and stay home today.” His warm hand rested heavily on my belly as he spoke.

“You better be glad I love you, otherwise, you’d be in the doghouse for telling me to be a ‘good girl’.” I huffed at him, but he swallowed up my indignation with a fiery kiss. My mom cleared her throat to remind him that she was still in the room, but he didn’t ease up, and I didn’t let him go right away either.

When he finally did pull away it was to say goodbye. “I’ll be back around lunch time to check in on you. If you need anything, you call right away.”

“You better get going. Hopefully, you can get some information from her this time.” Mikael was already to the bedroom door and about to round the corner into the hallway when I called him back. “Mikael!”

“Yeah?”

“Don’t go to see her alone. Please, make sure there’s always someone else there.” I swallowed hard, thinking of what happened to me last time I underestimated Leanna and Annabelle. “Please,” I begged him.

The pained expression he wore was enough to tell me he’d listen, if for no other reason than to make me happy. “I promise, and I will call every hour with updates.”

The tension rolled out of my shoulders then. That would be good. I’d be able to measure the time he was away from me while waiting for each call. It seemed more manageable than half the day being gone before I heard from him again. A few minutes after he left, Serena came strolling into my bedroom.

“Good morning ladies.” Her sweet voice traveled like a warm blanket around the room. Somehow, it instantly made me feel safe and comfortable. I wondered briefly if my mother felt the same in Serena’s presence or if it was just me.

“Serena,” my mom offered her hand in greeting. I watched as Serena took it and shook. A smile played across her lips, and my mom looked like she was about to swoon. Nope, it wasn’t just me then.

“Sorry, I’m filled to the brim with power right now. It’s why I stayed away for a bit of time. A witch drunk on another’s powers can be a heady thing. I wondered why I didn’t feel anything right away after I took Sophia’s life, but apparently there is a bit of delayed reaction with the magic seeping into my bones.”

“What the hell is going on in here?” Ashley came barging into the room, holding her head. “I feel like I was out drinking last night, only I wasn’t, so this hangover sucks.”

Serena appeared apologetic, and then she started mumbling words I couldn’t quite make out, waving her hands about, and with a quick poof of air, the room exploded with a bunch of tiny little lights. My ceiling was almost swallowed up by the little pops of light and power that were exploding everywhere.

“Holy shit! It looks like someone threw up a mini-fireworks display in here.” Ashley came closer to the bed, head tilted back, in awe of the situation.

“Sorry, I had to burn off some of the energy, it was affecting all of you. Had I known it was still this potent I wouldn’t have come.” Serena removed the laundry basket that had been sitting in the chair across the room, and she then pulled the old wing chair a bit closer to the bed. Before she spoke, her eyes caught on the detailed woodwork that had been done. She traced down one column with her fingers and smiled. “So beautiful,” she hummed.

“Mikael did that work,” I told her, pride lacing each word as I did so.

She nodded. “I would expect no less of him. It seems he learned a great deal from his uncle before he passed.” She sat thoughtful for a moment while Ashley and my mom stayed quiet and waited for Serena to offer up another display of power or perhaps some wisdom. “So, I hear you’ve told everyone the good news now?”

“You knew too?” My mom asked Serena.

“Of course. I helped her put two and two together.” My mom looked hurt momentarily, but the emotion faded, and was replaced by what looked more like gratitude.

“I haven’t had the chance to thank you for saving my daughter.” My mom glanced over to me with tears in her eyes. “And my grandchild.”

“There is no need to do so, but you are welcome.”

“This is really weird.” Ashley was still staring at the mini explosions of light up near my ceiling.

“Tell me about it.” I answered her. “I hope it clears up before Mikael comes back, or he’ll expect fireworks all the time,” I joked.

Ashley burst out laughing, but it seemed to have gone directly over my mother’s and Serena’s heads, until that point. “Oh, Jess, really? Must you be so crude in front of company?”

“Mom, I’m pregnant. Something you were excited about minutes ago. How exactly did you think that happened?”

My mother rolled her eyes at me as Ashley climbed across my feet to lounge on the bed on my other side. “That doesn’t mean you have to tell everyone about what goes on in private.”

Serena laughed at my mother’s admonishment. “I miss the days of mother-daughter banter. Not with my own mother, of course. That woman was more like my sister, Sophia. I had some time to spend with my own daughter though before everyone realized what she was.” Her words were laced with sadness, but she smiled over at the three of us. “I’m glad you’re here, Ashley.”

“Me?” Ashley had the presence of mind to look nervous. “Why me?”

“I wanted to apologize for your circumstances.”

“Um, okay. What circumstances would those be?”

“I, well…” Serena paused and collected her thoughts. “I messed with Mikael’s mind a little the night that he turned you. I’m afraid he would not have behaved that way, or attacked you unprovoked, without my influence. I planted some ideas in his head about his brother, because he wouldn’t get close enough to Jess to react to her. I needed him to see them together. He was out of sorts and not himself that night with me mucking around in his brain. Plus…” she looked ashamed before admitting the rest. “I told him to bite you.”

“You did what?” I asked.

“You needed Ashley with you, and not in a fragile human state, Jessica.”

“You mind-raped Mikael to bite Ashley?”

“I only planted a suggestion. He clawed her instead.” She snickered. “Even at my suggestion, he wouldn’t think of putting his mouth on her once he saw you.”

“Well… I guess, screw you then.” Ashley stated matter-of-factly. “And thank you too,” she added. “I’m happy where I am, and you’re right, Jess needed me to be a wolf. So, it’s whatever.”

“Ashley…” I was ready to cry. Her choices had been taken from her since becoming my friend. Hell, her brother had been taken too. “That is too much.”

As if she had read my mind, Serena spoke up. “I didn’t take her choice, Jessica. Ashley’s mind had already been made up. She wanted to be turned so she could be a true part of your life, and that of her brother’s. If there were any doubt on her part, I would not have done it. Asriel was close by and I knew he would help her. If those things hadn’t been in place, her chances had not been good enough.”

“Still,” I attempted to argue.

“No, Jess. Come on, we’ve been over this where Mikael’s concerned. I forgave him. I forgive your witchy fairy godmother too. She had your best interest at heart. I don’t have to like the deed to respect that it was necessary. Plus, at least now we don’t have to wonder about Mikael’s hidden temper anymore. It never did seem right that he’s been such a sweetheart after the way he behaved that night.”

“I don’t know how you do it, Ashley.” I was still in a mild state of disbelief. The slight popping sound of the magical fireworks above my head leant to the effect, casting a surreal tone over the whole conversation. “Is there anything else you need to tell me?” I asked Serena before I lost the nerve.

“I’m not sure I get your meaning.”

My mom piped in then. “She’s asking if you have any other secrets that you’re hiding up your sleeve that effect our family.” My mom paused for a moment, getting her thoughts together. “I like you, Serena. I respect that you are also a distant relation, but enough is enough. These girls have been through too much already in their short lives, and they don’t need magic mucking things up any further.”

“You are absolutely right, Eileen. I was just trying to come clean and apologize.” Serena appeared to be somewhat ashamed of her actions. “There is nothing else of note that involves the girls.”

“I wonder what’s going on with Annabelle.” I thought out loud, suddenly needing to change the subject.

“If they’re dumb enough to leave your mate, or his brother, with her then she’s probably dead. Lord knows, I’d kill the bitch myself if they had let me tag along.” Ashley was twirling a curly red lock around her finger as she spoke. Her mind was elsewhere, no doubt, on the way she had become a werewolf.

“Well, let’s hope they get something useful out of her before that happens!” I managed to get out before my mom chastised me for being somewhat heartless. “The bitch poisoned me and had me thrown in a cage. Excuse me for not really giving a shit what happens to her.”

“Then try caring about how either of the boys will fair after taking matters into their own hands. Neither one of them has the type of personality to carry out brutal acts against women. Imagine, allowing her to get the best of them by goading them on where you’re concerned.”

“Oh, fine, Mom! Always the voice of reason.” I snipped. “Maybe, I should get dressed and go down there to take care of things myself, so I don’t have to worry about anyone else’s guilt, but my own.”

“Except that you now have a baby growing inside you to worry over.” Serena interjected. A knowing smile swept across her face as I blanched a bit. “She is fine, by the way. The drugs had no effect on her. Your wolf saw to that when she protected her from everything that was happening to you. I’m sorry I couldn’t get back here sooner to ease those worries for you. If I knew you were holding back with the news because of that, I would have made it clear before I left. Your wolf was protecting her the whole time, sweet girl.”

That did it. Tears broke free of the damn I’d built to keep them at bay. Everything that happened to me came flooding out, and I was thankful to have my family there to comfort me as it happened. I was even more thankful that Mikael hadn’t been there when all those emotions came pouring out, because he hurt when I hurt. I didn’t want him to have to live that kind of pain with me.