Chapter Twelve
Petra Gratz, the nurse manager who met them out on the front steps, was Jarrod’s aunt. Unfortunately, that fact didn’t soften her up any when they approached her for a tour. Mary couldn’t help but notice the angry looks she shot at Ignatius, or the helpless shrug he gave her before quickly glancing away. Mary was really starting to get a bad feeling about this.
Regina pulled the earbuds out of her ears, looking around and making a face. “Where are we now?” she asked, looking annoyed. “Aren’t we ever going to go shopping?”
“We’re going to tour a maternity ward,” Mary told her.
“Jarrod, I simply will not allow it,” Petra said. “It’s insulting. I’m tired of all of this scrutiny. We’re being treated like criminals here.”
Now, that piqued Mary’s interest. What else had happened? What scrutiny? She’d definitely have to ask Jarrod about that later.
“And, of course, you know men aren’t allowed in here anyway,” Petra added.
“I’ll go in alone, then,” Mary said despite a ripple of trepidation.
Petra still hesitated, standing in front of them, blocking the doors to the hospital.
“Do I really need to explain how this works to you, Aunt Petra?” Jarrod said impatiently. “Now that I have bridenapped my future wife, I am considered Full Alpha. Yes, technically I’m Alpha Regent until the wedding, but by law I now operate as Full Alpha. So I make the rules. I’m not asking you if Mary can tour the facility. I’m telling you that she’s touring. Now.”
“This is against our custom,” Petra protested. “We…we aren’t prepared.”
“Exactly what preparing do you need to do?” Jarrod demanded heatedly. “I’m here trying to convince my bride-to-be that she has nothing to worry about giving birth to cubs here, and you’re making it seem like you’re trying to hide some sinister chamber of horrors. Let her in so that I can reassure her – and, for that matter, me.”
Petra put her hands on her hips. “I won’t do it. This is my ward. I have to do what’s best for my patients.”
“You’ll let her in, or I’ll have you removed from your position immediately,” Jarrod said coldly.
Petra narrowed her eyes and drew in an angry breath through her nostrils, but she clearly wasn’t prepared to defy the pack’s Alpha Regent, even if he was her nephew. She slowly withdrew a keycard from her pocket and swiped it through a lock, and the front door swung open.
“I’m going too,” Regina said loudly, surprising Mary.
“No,” Petra said, shaking her head.
“Yes,” Mary said, just to spite her, and she and Regina rushed through the door.
They walked through a sterile-looking entry room where a nurse in scrubs sat behind a desk. She looked up at them, startled. Mary and Regina opened the only other door which led down a long, white-tiled hallway, with Petra on their heels, muttering under her breath.
Everything looked normal. They passed a small, sunlit lounge where several heavily pregnant women sat around a small, round table, glancing up at them curiously.
They went down a hall that had a dozen rooms on either side, a total of four of them occupied rooms by mothers who held their babies cradled in their arms. Everyone looked content and happy.
“See? Nothing wrong here,” Petra said, but her anxiety practically radiated through the air.
Mary saw a pregnant woman emerge from a room down the hall, holding her swollen belly. She started to walk towards the woman, and Petra moved to block her.
“I can’t let you near her,” she said huffily. “It’s not sanitary.”
“It’s not sanitary for me to talk to her?” Mary said, her face heating with anger.
Suddenly there was a loud commotion at the other end of the hall. Regina was standing there yelling at a nurse. “What do you mean, I can’t go in there? Do you know who I am? Nobody says no to me!”
Regina grabbed the keycard from the clip where it dangled on the woman’s collar, swiped it through a lock, and the door at the end of the hallway swung open. She raced through it, and Petra turned and ran after her, yelling.
That was the last time Regina was going anywhere with her, Mary thought – but she took advantage of Petra’s absence to hurry over to the pregnant woman.
“Hello, I’m Mary,” she introduced herself. “Recently bridenapped by the Alpha Regent.”
“Oh, this is an honor!” The woman’s eyes lit up. “This will be good luck for my baby! My name is Briony. Would you…would you like to help me pick a name for the baby?”
