As Hope and Promise Fade

Chapter 21

Chapter 21

By the time Marc got to the house her body was cramping with pain that felt more like contractions. She was curled on her side crying into a pillow while Julie offered all the support she could by rubbing her back.

“What do we do?” Julie asked softly not to alert her father’s perfect hearing.

“I have to get her out of here. It won’t help anyone right now for Mary and Mitch to find out.” Their questions and anger wouldn’t do anything to ease the heaviness of the situation Ariana was suffering through. “I need you to distract them while I get her out of here to someone who can help.”

Julie nodded before running out of the room.

“Ariana.” He touched his hand to her forearm and felt the fever of heat claiming her. “I need you to come with me.” he moved his arms under her body and lifted her into his arms. He tried to ignore the tightening of his own heart to see her sick and in pain.

“Where’s Jax?” she moaned as her eyes fell closed.

“He’ll be here soon.” Marc hated to lie but if the lie meant keeping her calm enough to keep this baby than it was worth it. The truth of the matter was he had no idea where Jax had run off to that afternoon. “It’s going to be ok.” He carefully made his way through the hallway and down the staircase. It was a clear shot to the front door where his car was waiting.

Julie did her part and made sure no one stopped them or asked questions.

Marc’s heart was lodged in his throat as he tried to get her comfortable in the car but no matter how light his touch was she groaned in pain. He rushed to the driver’s seat and pulled onto the main rode. The streets were virtually empty except for a car trialing behind them. He took the risk and pulled his cellphone free to make a call. He tried Jax several times and received nothing but his voicemail. “Call me when you get this, it’s life and death importance.” He said with a tight edge before tossing the phone over to the passenger seat. Ariana was laid out in the back. “We’re almost there.”

Her breathing was ragged as she asked, “How bad do you think this is?”

“I don’t know sweetheart.” He kept his eyes on the rode and tried to let himself be affected anymore by glancing at her through the mirror. It wasn’t working, his wolf knew his mate was in the backseat suffering. There was no ignoring that.

“Has this….” she let out a long whimper as another strike of pain grasped her. “—happened to someone before?” 

“Any were pregnancy is rough, yeah, but the fact of the matter is you shouldn’t even be able to conceive so I don’t know any of the answers. I’m so sorry.” His heart felt like any minute it was going to crack under pressure.

“Me too.”

They were just about eight more miles from their destination. There was a doctor out by the lake that knew of the pack and helped when a problem they couldn’t heal on their own arose. Lots of time it was with the pregnant females experiencing intense pain. Marc hoped that was the case for Ariana and they could manage it.

A red light had him slowing down to a crawl only for that light to turn back to green. Relief to keep going wasn’t the only thing that slammed into Marc. The car that had been trailing behind him was now close enough to hit him forcefully from behind.

The car swerved to the right and Marc was able to keep it under control before slamming into the guard railing.  The car behind him, a Ford pick up, didn’t allow him the chance to right the car anymore than that. The pickup driver slammed into him again this time against the passenger side.

Marc felt a surge of anger, Ariana could’ve been sitting right there and this damn asshole in the pick up didn’t care.

The pick up pinned him to the guardrail with no way out. When the other driver pulled back Marc’s car was too damaged to try and drive again. No escape they had made sure.  Four men wearing all black and green jumped out of the pick up and Marc knew this was no accident.

“Shit.” Marc pried off his seatbelt and tried to get into position for a fight as the hunters neared closer. The pack had been worried about Hal’s next attack, they all knew it had been coming and Hal had told Ariana they’d see each other again when he had time to think and plan his next move. His move was planned and now he wasted no time to execute whatever it was.

Ariana’s breathing had labored as she opened her eyes. “What’s going on?”

Marc didn’t want to worry her, not when she was in pain and at the risk of losing her baby, but right now there was no lying what could even work to ease her fears. “Hal is making another move against us.

“Me and you again?”

That was pretty odd, Marc thought. “I think it’s you he wants and I’m just the driver in the way.” Besides death Marc couldn’t see any value he’d hold with Hal Ellis.

The team of hunters bombarded the car. Two reached the backseat to grab Ariana, and the two others went through the damaged passenger seat to grab Marc. They were prepared with a silver chain link net they threw forward before he could strike. The silver burned his face and the exposed parts of his arms, soon he even felt it coming through his shirt.

He couldn’t contain his screams of pain as he burned from the outside in. His vision blurred as he was led to some van he could only make out the shape but nothing of the color or any other information that would help it be traced.

He wanted to shift and rip these four hunters into many little pieces for their boss to find. He wanted to run through the forest and heal. He couldn’t get his head on straight enough to focus on anything else. The pain made his control a fleeting wind no skilled hands could grasp.