by Erin R Flynn
I nodded, sad when she stood and kissed my head again. “Thanks for coming.”
“Thank you for surviving,” she rasped. “I will be back. Many of us have been rotating to cover you and make sure no one took what was yours while you were gone. We will keep it up until you recover.”
I heard her loud and clear. I had a lot of people to thank, but also they weren’t being cold, but they couldn’t just drop everything and rush to me when they wanted to. “Go kick some ass.” I let her see how I really felt. “I thought I was saved and woke restrained again, someone speaking German and lying to me that I was saved but they were live harvesting me. They took my hair, my blood, and were trying to take my fucking eggs.”
She nodded, tears burning in her eyes. “And bone marrow. Apollo found bone marrow and spinal fluid samples they took from you. Yes, we will get several pounds of flesh for this one.”
“Good.” Hell, I was bummed I wasn’t the one who got to burn it all to the ground.
She ended up waiting when the doctor came in, the panther looking a bit nervous to be around so many big dogs but relaxed when I smiled at him. “Thanks for being the genius that saved my life.”
“Thank you very much for fighting so hard because it was made clear and repeatedly I’d be dead if you died while in my care.”
“You guys,” I groaned, several looking extremely guilty. “Come on. I’m the worse patient ever, but at least I don’t threaten the doctors.” I waved off their apologies. “What’s what? I’m alive but how bad, and what am I supposed to be doing?”
He nodded, understanding I needed something to grasp onto at the moment and how to get better was where I was starting. “You’re worse than human weak, and everything in you is broken. Not all your bones literally, but you need some splints. Your system’s so down you need to baby every inch of yourself and in every way.” He held up his hand to wave off my questions. “You can wipe your ass. That’s all I’m allowing you to do.”
“Come again?” I asked after a moment of shock.
“You do not bathe yourself. You do not walk anywhere. You do not do a fucking thing but go to the bathroom. You are in too fragile of shape, and honestly your bones are so brittle that a rib could crack if you bump something and puncture your lung. You do nothing.”
“Okay,” I agreed, getting he was laying it all out so I wasn’t a pain. “What’s the plan?”
“They’re taking you home, and I’m temporarily staying in your building so I’m right there,” he answered.
I blinked at him a moment before swallowing loudly. “You want me out of the hospital because you’re worried someone might come here to get me and hurt the other patients.”
“Yes,” he admitted. “We agreed the moment you were awake and with it enough that you don’t need to be looked in on every half an hour, we get you out of here for everyone’s safety. You are too big of a target, and now that people know you’ve been found and it leaked you are in bad shape, we suspect trouble.” He shrugged as I tried to swallow that. “You’re Alpha of six packs and—”
“Six?” I muttered, quickly counting in my head. Chicago, Milwaukee, Grand Rapids, New York City, and Newark.
“We haven’t caught her up yet,” Brian told him before looking at me. “Your pack was invaded. Everyone is fine. Not even a scratch, I promise. Axel was acting as Alpha the first full moon you were gone and was smart, having the ancients come for the pack stuff.”
“Who?” I whispered, rubbing my chest as my heart raced.
“Sioux Falls, South Dakota,” Axel told me. “Cooper handled the clean up there and—”
“Wait, stop, please,” I rasped, waving it off. Too much, too fast, and too crazy. He nodded, giving me a wink like he’d handled it which actually made me ease up a bit. “So I’m going home. I’m on bedrest. What else?”
“I will talk with Dain and Simone who are handling your food, and I’m sorry but for the first few days it will be incredibly bland,” the doctor answered. “I’ll come check on you, but the plan for the next few days is to keep you calm, sleep as much as possible, and small, hourly meals along with a lot of sports drinks and teas to help.”
I bobbed my head. “Okay, then we have a plan.”
I only had one request, and I almost burst out into tears when at first Brian objected. He flinched at my strong reaction but then nodded and agreed.
I asked Alena to feed him energy. I couldn’t take seeing him so beat up, knowing it was because of me. I couldn’t. Not when it was something she could very easily help with. There was only so much I could handle, and that was not something I could deal with.
3
“You look five years younger than when I first saw you and we got into the ambulance,” I whispered to Brian an hour later when he handed me a bowl of scrambled eggs and rice. “Thank you.”
“Whatever you need, babe,” he promised, moving his arm around me as he sat on the couch with me.
“Can you never call me ‘sweetie?’” I cleared my throat as I leaned into him. “It’s what he called me when he used your voice. I’m sorry I made it so he acted like you, but I didn’t know how close he watched me and my brain was all—you’re the only one I’ve really talked kids with and—”
“You’re too much a babe to ever be a sweetie,” he murmured, kissing my forehead when he felt me getting upset. “I’m so fucking glad you’re back. Don’t ever leave me again.”
I sighed, knowing I hadn’t run and what he meant, what they all meant when they kept saying that. “I agreed to the protection detail. He just caught me before we figured it all out. I’ll be good, I promise.” I waited until he nodded. “Catch me up on the ending of New York.”
“We caught the three that slipped the net, and the hits were canceled,” he answered after a moment. “God, it feels like so fucking long ago.” He flinched at whatever my reaction was. “Sorry. I know it was just like yesterday for you.”
“Yeah, just go slow,” I muttered. “The DA?”
“In jail. Took a plea deal. There was so much dirt that Madam Fox admitted to that there have been several elected officials who quit or ended up taking plea deals. The non-human New York office was retrained and your first class of trainees graduated. That just happened. Jerome Curtis certified them all, and they’re split between offices shadowing before the next step is decided.”
“Wow, awesome. Okay, so tell me about that first week.”
He sighed, probably not wanting to tell me any bad, but I needed to get caught up, and it was well known that the brain could only take so much. Some schools of thought believed a week a day was a good way to catch someone up after deployment or undercover assignments. It was hard not to just skip to the end, but people got overwhelmed then. I had almost four months to catch up on.
“Once it really sunk in that someone took you and it wasn’t just a mistake or even a prank or side meeting, but we saw the video of you vanishing, Eva immediately got on a plane and they told everyone she was doing it. Virgil was fine when you were coming right back, but when you were MIA he wasn’t enough of a threat. Jason and I worked every government contact and possibility we could.
“Axel tried to track you while Eugene went right back to the council and spoke with every person who works for them and made sure it wasn’t them. Apollo and even Dubois did the same with their council. Jonik, Laila, and Dain tore through all the fairies. Milo and his guys used all their contacts. No one found a fucking trace of you. Melicent tore through New York and Newark.”
I nodded, listening as I ate. The moment I finished the bowl I set it down and snuggled up to him. “Thanks. I’m sorry you guys went through that, but for the girl who had no family or no one, to hear you all did that really, really helps.”
“You’re surprisingly snuggly,” he muttered gently.
I flinched, understanding what he worried about. “I don’t remember it, Bri. I would prefer that be how it is. I know what he did, but honestly, for all we know he used a damn tur
key baster or medical whatever. I would like to think of it that way or not think of it at all since I don’t remember. This will be hard enough.”
“Okay, I’ll let everyone know. We weren’t sure if you really didn’t remember or just told us that to spare us.”
“I swear I don’t remember. I remember being scared that Orson was unconscious and then not a fucking thing until I woke and tricked him. I don’t want to remember. I want to get caught up and move on. All I wanted after New York was to move on and move forward, keep doing stuff better, and that’s all I still want.”
“I love you,” he whispered, hugging me gently. “We really did search everywhere for you.”
“I know you never would have stopped,” I mumbled as I nodded off. Brian would never have let me go, not like that, not when someone took me. I knew that as surely as I knew my own name.
“Time to eat,” a deep voice said gently.
I smiled at Reagan as I opened my eyes. “I missed you guys.”
I didn’t mean to set him off, but tears filled his eyes. “We missed you too. So much.”
“I’m okay. I will be,” I promised, letting him help me sit up. I gave him a worried look as he handed me a bowl of butter noodles. “Will you be?”
He winced. “Tommy told you I was drinking and lost it, huh?”
“Not like that, but he told me what I should worry about given he lives with you three and he doesn’t keep things from me.”
He sighed, rubbing his hand over his head before moving his arm around me. “If I was human, I would have blown out my liver a few times; yeah, it got bad. Every time I closed my eyes, I had nightmares of where you were and what was being done to you. None of my Marine contacts were coming back with anything. None of the wolf contacts. Every time we came up empty again, I fell deeper into the hole of depression.”
“Well, I’m back now and you can’t be depressed if you have to take care of me,” I murmured, leaning in and pursing my lips for a kiss.
“How are you handling this so well?” he wondered before kissing me. He came back for another one. “I love you so fucking much, Sera.”
“I love you too,” I admitted, my face flushing. “I’m sure I’ll fall apart another forty times. Right now I just hurt and I’m trying to catch up.”
“You’re in pain now?” he worried.
I didn’t want to lie when they were taking care of me, nodding. “Everything aches. My body feels too heavy, and I hurt like after a car wreck where my joints hurt from being jarred like that.”
“The doc said to expect that,” Hagan said as he joined us, sitting at my feet and rubbing my leg gently. “You’re supposed to be wearing ankle and wrist braces from the breaks.”
I swallowed loudly, nodding. “Right, busting out of restraints. Why am I not wearing them?”
“Brian was going to give you a bath, but you fell asleep, so we’re going to, and you can’t wear them in there.”
“A bath sounds great,” I admitted, finishing my food so I could get to that. Hagan carefully lifted me up and gave me a soft kiss. I made kissy noises at him until he gave me a few more and I saw some of the darkness leave his eyes. “Brian filled me in on the first week. Can you guys tell me the second week?”
“That’s how you get acclimated?” Reagan asked. “When you’re ready one week at a time?”
“Yeah. Some weeks will take a day or so, but so far most was work stuff and you guys tearing through everywhere to try and find me. What was the next week?”
“Mostly that,” Reagan admitted as we reached the bathroom and he started the tub for us.
“Can we use your rose soaps or do we need healing salts?” I asked, frowning when Hagan almost broke down crying.
“I thought you’d never get to use them again,” he explained, burying his head against my chest. “We failed you. We completely fell apart and almost lost the pack and—”
“Hey, slow down,” I whispered, kissing his hair as I rubbed his neck. “I would have fallen apart too, okay? I’m not upset, and as long as everyone’s safe, you did not fail at all.”
He nodded, sitting me on the edge of the tub and helping me get undressed. He hissed, and I looked down to see I was one big bruise. All over my skin. I was one huge bruise. “The doc said… I don’t understand the medical side, but basically anything that touched you or bumped you when you were so weak and depleted was like smacking you with a bat.”
“Okay then,” I muttered, looking away. It was really disconcerting, and I couldn’t even think of looking at myself bald yet. I wasn’t sure why I was focused on the hair part, but I had thought I was getting rescued and safe, but the rug was pulled out from under me again. “So what happened the second week? Ben’s birthday, right?”
“He refused to have a party until you came home,” Hagan admitted as he got undressed and brought over the soap roses. “Tommy did the same. So did Brian and Leo.”
“Wow, Tommy’s sixteen,” I whispered, sitting with that a minute. “We’ll have a big party on the rooftop pool. How’s that?”
“Sera, none of us were lounging by the pool,” Reagan grumbled as he got underdressed.
I shrugged, touched they loved me so much but upset they had been hurting for months, if that made any sense. “Life went on while I was gone. I would have been the same, but it hurts to know you all hurt for months.”
“We have lots of months ahead of us, and that’s all that matters,” Hagan said firmly as Reagan picked me up and sat in the tub with me.
“Good, okay,” I agreed. I listened as they told me the boys had gone to Greece for spring break. “Why did you really send them?”
“The council was pushing to name someone as Alpha to keep order,” Reagan admitted after a moment. “It outed the couple who were supporting you to take over more packs not for stability and to help wolves but they hoped to assign Alphas and take your position from theirs on the council so they had the best of both worlds. Haton and several other council members fought to make sure that never happens.”
“Axel, Eugene, and their teams threatened to quit if they did. Even the elephant you met,” Hagan added. “What was his name?”
“Ari,” I said at the same time as Reagan. “That was nice of them.”
“It also had a lot to do with Eva threatening to fucking gut the council,” Reagan chuckled as Hagan got in the tub with us.
“I’ve hit my limit,” I admitted when he seemed like he was going to tell me more. “Am I supposed to feel this tired?”
“Yes, and the doc said that’s a good sign,” Hagan promised. “It’s your body slowly coming out of shock and getting back online in a way. He’s going to come hook you to an IV too.” He waited until I nodded. “Can I tell you something good?”
“Okay,” I agreed after a moment.
“All the Chicago Alphas banded together and made it clear that you were temporarily gone and would be coming back and if anyone thought to try for the wolves, they would have issues with them too. Simone made sure people knew she got the club and more so perks were taken off the table, if you will.”
“Good. Vlad?” I sighed when Reagan winced under me. “Okay, that waits. That’s nice the Alphas helped. I’m glad. I’m sorry so much was dumped on you.”
“We signed up for it, and honestly someone was always stepping in front of us to be temp Alpha and helped.”
I nodded as I fell asleep again.
When I woke I was lying against Reagan who had his arm around me protectively. He must have felt me wake because he was staring down at me. I angled my head for a kiss, and he let out a shaky breath before giving me one.
“I’m glad someone retrieved my ring,” I said when I realized I felt it on my finger.
He nodded. “Apollo took everything from the first place they went to, and your bag was among the stuff. It was in there. They just came in and took you to that place.”
I sighed, realizing he was pissed that they hadn’t grabbed my stuff too. “They were dis
secting me alive, Reagan. They didn’t care if they got my stuff.”
“Right, sorry, fuck,” he hissed, hugging me to him. “Sorry. Shit. You are never leaving Chicago again. People do too much shit to you when you do.”
That was fair, but I’d been through a lot in Chicago too, so that wasn’t really fair. Then again, the idea of walking towards another plane made me feel a bit panicked, so I didn’t think I’d be heading out of town anytime soon. I kissed him again, ducking my head when he pulled away. “Sorry.”
“Why are you sorry?” he asked. “I just don’t want to hurt you.”
“Oh, sorry.” I wasn’t sure what else to say, but Hagan came in and said it was time for more food, glancing between us. Reagan carried me out to the living room, and I thanked them for giving me the bath, feeling a bit better now that I was really clean.
Dain was there now and came over when Reagan set me down and handed me a bowl of chicken noodle soup. He leaned in and kissed me. “All of us still want to kiss you, my love. You are not hideous or disfigured where Reagan didn’t want to kiss you. Please believe me.”
“Sera, that’s not why,” Reagan whispered, sounding destroyed that was what I thought. “You’re one huge bruise and fragile. I didn’t want to hurt you.”
“Okay, sorry.” I wiped my eyes and focused on my soup.
“Stop apologizing,” Dain murmured as he moved closer. “Is this okay?”
I nodded. We hadn’t been in the best spot before New York, but we’d been working on it, and I had wanted to keep working on it when I got home, so that was what I was focusing on. I ate my soup, and then after I set the bowl down I leaned in for a kiss. His eyes flashed shock, but he gently cupped my cheek and kissed me.
“Why?” he breathed against my lips.