Page 94 of Hunted

“What did she just say?” I ask carefully as we all helplessly watch Darla scream and cry as she clings to Weston for dear life.

Suddenly, her entire body goes limp.

“Fuck!” I move closer as West releases his tight grip on her, and her head flops to the side, revealing her passed out. I put my fingers on her pulse, making sure she’s alright, then I nod. “She’s okay.”

“I’d hardly call thisokay,” King grumbles, motioning to her.

“Is she hurt?” I ask as West lays her on her back. There wasn’t a lot of blood, but she smeared it everywhere when she started freaking out.

Her words bounce around my head, and I move to check between her legs, stopping myself at the last second. “Maybe one of you should…?”

“I’ll do it,” King says as he moves closer to her legs. She’s wearing a long t-shirt, and he lifts it up, gently pulling her legs apart. I look away and watch her face instead. She looks pale and her face is covered in fresh tears. I grab the edge of the blanket and start drying her face as King inspects her.

“I think…” he says, dropping the shirt and closing her legs. “I think it’s just her period.”

“We need to call a doctor. She said…” I can’t say the word. It feels too big to say aloud.

“We should,” King agrees. “I honestly don’t think that is what this is, but the way she reacted, we should definitely get her checked out.”

“I’ll make the call.”

I climb out of bed and pull on a shirt. Grabbing my phone, I go into the hall and call Arnold. He assures me he can get our on-call doctor there quickly and hangs up.

As I head back into the room, I hear Bower ask, “Do you remember her having her period on the island?”

They both seem to consider the question before King finally shakes his head. “No, and we were there almost two months. She should have had it at least once.”

“She never even wore underwear, so she couldn’t have hid it from us.”

“There’s no chance of her having an implant or anything. Even if she did have something implanted when she was thirteen, it would have worn off a long time ago,” King tells us.

We all just stare at her for a moment, trying to figure it all out. It seems like she hasn’t had her period in a while.

“Reece? Do you know if she had it before she ended up on the island?” King asks me.

I nod, remembering when she got her first one vividly. “Yeah, she told me about it… probably a year or so before she left.”

I frown, turning my head to look at our girl. Did something about being on the island stop her from having her period?

My mind replays her words before she passed out. She said she couldn’t survive another miscarriage. How could she possibly— "Oh, fuck.”

“What?” Bower asks, as they all turn to look at me. My face pales and my hands start to shake.

I quickly sit on the bed before I pass out.

“She said she couldn’t survive this…again.” I glance around before I clarify. “Meaning it’s happened before.”

“But she—” Bower’s words cut off as his face pales, his head whipping around to look down at Darla.

“Those fucking assholes,” West growls, his hands fisting in the sheets. “I wish they were still alive so I could kill them all over again.”

“She was pregnant?” King asks, his voice weak with fear. I reach over and squeeze his shoulder in support.

“And she’s been dealing with it alone ever since. They assaulted her, killed her father, then she was left alone on that island to deal with the aftermath by herself. Who knows how long she was even pregnant.”

Long enough that she knew what it was. I drop my head and squeeze my eyes tightly shut, remembering thirteen-year-old Darla. Trying to picture her alone on that island, dealing with a miscarriage. It’d be hard enough if she had been at home, but to be alone on a deserted island. It must have been devastating.

“I bet it happened during a storm,” West says, making me lift my head to look at him. It explains her strong reaction to them.