by Yara Gharios
Then I tell them everything, from how it started between me and Zoey, how it really started, to where we are now. To their credit, they try to contain their shock, though not all succeed at it.
“This… uh… that…” Cade stumbles over his own words, finally settling with, “This is huge.”
“That’s an understatement,” Nathan comments, somehow taking it with a light attitude. “It’s a good thing though, right?”
I’m not sure how he sees it as a good thing. Anyway, I’m more interested in what my parents and Cade, as acting alpha, have to say. Ultimately, it’s their call. They exchange looks while the rest of us remain quiet.
“It’s surely unexpected,” Mom finally says.
“It changes things,” Cade declares.
“If you told us a month ago, we would have insisted you cut off all communication with him, and we would have grounded you,” Dad adds.
Curious, I raise one of my eyebrows. “As in… you’re not going to do that now?”
“Oh, you’re still grounded,” he assures me. “But the rest… I think Nathan’s right. We could turn this to our advantage.”
“How so?” Mason asks.
“If he’s a student at Berklee, and he’s the son of a previous pack liaison, he might be able to make Dylan’s life there safer,” Dad explains.
“You sure you can trust him?” Connor asks skeptically.
Mom smiles at me. “We trust Danny’s judgment.”
“Either way, we’ll need to meet him first, and besides, he doesn’t have to be the only one keeping an eye on her,” Dad adds.
“What do you have in mind?” Cade wonders.
“I don’t know yet, but I’ll let you know when I think of something.”
It takes a moment for me to realize what just happened. I may be grounded, but all the repercussion I was afraid of facing should the truth about John come out suddenly seem meaningless. My parents are on board. If they can see John’s existence as a positive thing, maybe the others can too. It feels great not to have any weight on my shoulders anymore. I can’t figure out what comes next, unfortunately. If only I could make Dylan forgive me with a flick of my hand.
“So what happens now?” I wonder out loud.
“When we know what to do, we’ll come to you,” Cade decrees. “All of you. We’ll need all the help we can get. For now, you should go be with your girlfriend.”
You don’t have to tell me twice!
Just for kicks, I bow down to him, with a grateful smile on my face. I practically skip back to Zoey’s room.
Once there, I enter to find Sadie leaning down over her sister. There’s a hopeful look on her face as she calls her name.
“Can you hear me, Zo?” she’s frantically asking. “Squeeze my hand again if you do.”
She’s waking up! I rejoice.
I run to stand on her other side and take her other hand. “What happened? How long ago did she react?”
“Just now,” Sadie replies, on the edge of breaking down in happy tears. “I saw her hand twitch, so I took it, and she squeezed. Zo, are you awake?”
Excited myself, I join Sadie in attempting to wake her. We each call for her in one way or another, hoping she’ll respond to either. After about a couple of minutes, a change finally occurs. Her eyes flutter, though they remain closed, and she applies just a tad bit of pressure on our hands holding hers.
We lean in simultaneously, holding our breath to see if she’ll let out hers and open her eyes. Finally, after what seems like forever, she blinks and grimaces as she starts regaining consciousness.
“Sis, come on, you’re killing me,” Sadie begs.
We can both tell that she’s this close to being aware again, and we’re impatient for it to happen.
“Zoey, baby, can you hear me?” I whisper, absolutely ecstatic.
She groans slightly, and her eyes finally open into drowsy slits. She looks at the two of us, and smiles.
“Hey Sade, hey Danny,” she croaks.
“Oh thank God,” Sadie cries, as we both throw our arms around her.
CHAPTER 34
Dylan
When I wake up, I’m in another room than the last one I remember being in. I know because first of all, it smells different. It smells like a hospital, all sanitary and detergent-like. Plus, there’s a white light in here, which I’m pretty sure is not the afterlife, and I’m lying on a hospital bed in a row of about seven different beds. When I come to enough to remember what happened, I spring up into a sitting position. Both my parents are sitting on either side of my bed, and they push me gently down when I try to get up.
“No, no, stay down,” Dad says soothingly. “It’s better if you don’t move for a while. Having your first attack can really take its toll on you.”
“Logan,” I gasp.
“He’s alive, Dylan,” he assures me. “You protected him from getting killed by Colton.”
Now that I know he’s not dead, I relax a little, only to stiffen again. “Zoey?”
“She’s banged up, but awake and recovering,” Mom says to calm me down.
I fully relax now. “I don’t remember what happened. How did I stop Colton?”
That’s when my parents exchange glances, avoiding eye contact, and instead stare at the fascinating blank pattern of my bed sheets.
“Um, you uh,” Mom hesitates, “you went for his throat… with your teeth.”
Being no longer in a rage induced attack, I can think rationally about this. And I am horrified.
“I killed him?” I ask in a whisper. “I killed someone?”
“You almost did,” Dad tells me, and my shoulders sag.
It’s a relief to hear, as strange as it sounds. I was going through an emotional attack when I said I wanted to rip Colton to shreds, and I wasn’t thinking clearly. No matter how much of a monster Colton is, I don’t want to become a murderer because of him. I’m all for kicking my enemies’ asses and locking them up so they could spend the rest of their life miserable, but killing, no matter what the person has done to me, is not an option.
Then it fully registers what he said. “What do you mean almost? Did he get away?”
“No, we got him. We got all of them, actually,” he assures me. “A lot of Colton’s men turned against him during the fight, and now they’re claiming they were working for him either out of fear of the dangers of rogue life or fear of Colton himself. The rest were sent to the Redwood pack for rehabilitation, or imprisonment, if they’re not cooperative. Alpha Henderson is the best at that. Although, Cade assumed that Logan would want to keep Colton his captive, and requested we handle him.”
I narrow my eyes. “Then what’s with the almost?”
“Well you… hurt him pretty bad,” he hesitates. “You were… emotional, to say the least.”
There’s still something in his voice and behavior that’s odd, and it’s really unsettling me. “Spit it out, Dad. What else happened?”
He looks at Mom, who nods in encouragement. Then he sighs. “The knife that Colton used,” he says.
“What about it?”
“It was coated with some kind of poison. We don’t know with what, yet, or how much it affects us, but… it seems to slow down Logan’s recovery.”
No.
“What do you mean ‘slow down’?”
“I mean, he’s healing like a human,” he finally says. “He hasn’t woken up yet.”
No!
“But… he’ll be all right… right?”
Mom nods. “Yeah, he will. Dr. Ackhart assured us he won’t die from this. We just don’t know how long until he wakes up because we don’t know anything about the poison.”
It strikes me how casually she says ‘he won’t die from this.’
“I want to see him,” I decide.
“Dylan,” Dad starts to object.
I throw him a hard look. “If it were Mom, would you leave her?”
He stares at me for a moment, none of us saying a word. Then, I
see the defeat in his eyes, and he sighs and nods.
“Fine,” he agrees. “I’ll take you to him.”
“Steven!” Mom objects.
“Trust me, Brooke, she needs it.”
***
The room they’re keeping Logan in is smaller than the one I was in, and there’s only one bed. I guess being the alpha means you don’t have to share a room with other patients. Not that he would care about that right now. He’s wrapped in plaster with tubes sticking out of his arms. There’s a mask over his nose and mouth to help him breathe. If it wasn’t for all the medical equipment, he might have looked like he’s sleeping.
“We’ll give you some privacy,” Dad says before pulling Mom out of the room with him.
I sit on the left side of Logan’s bed, holding his hand. Even though they assured me he’s not going to die, it still scares me so much to see him this way. What if he never wakes up? What if he’s already brain-dead? What if whatever state of mind he’s in right now, he doesn’t remember who I am, and wakes up forgetting me? They said themselves that they don’t know what the poison is made of, or how much it affects us. It could be a slowly lethal kind of poison. Terrified, I clutch his hand close to my heart, and lean down to touch his face.
“Logan?” I call out to him, half hoping he’ll answer me and half not even sure if he hears me in the first place. “Baby, please wake up. Open your eyes for me.”
I wait. Nothing. I start crying, not even caring anymore.
“Logan, please, I need you to come back,” I plead with a sob. “I’m right here for you, and I’m waiting. Just please, open your eyes, baby.”
No response whatsoever. Helpless, I lay my head down against his chest and cry.
You can’t leave me, I think, not having the energy to talk anymore. I need you. Please, Logan.
Dylan.
I gasp and pull my head back suddenly. Did I just hear right?
Dylan, his voice whispers again, echoing somehow in my brain.
I’m almost crushing his hand in my grasp, now, because of the anticipation.
Logan? I call out again. I heard you! Can you hear me?
There’s a long moment of silence.
Logan?
Then I hear him again. I love you, he says.
I laugh through my tears, unimaginable relief surging through me. I love you too, I second. You’re going to be okay. You’re going to wake up soon.
He is going to be okay. We both are. We went through something terrible, and we both survived. He will wake up when he’s ready, I’m sure of it now. Until then, if anyone tries to tell me to leave his side, they’ll have to drag my dead body out of here to do it.
CHAPTER 35
Daniel
Dad finds me in the morning sleeping with my face on Zoey’s bed. Startled, I jump up and frantically look around, only to find him with his finger against his lips. He makes a shushing gesture and nods his head toward my sleeping girlfriend.
“What’s going on?” I whisper.
“I need you to come with me,” he cryptically replies, and leaves the room.
I hesitate for a second. Mrs. Creed is the one on Zoey watch with me right now, and she’s just as asleep as I was ten seconds ago, on the armchair in the corner. I don’t want to leave Zoey unattended. Although I don’t want to, my only choice is to shake her mother awake, so I do just.
“Sorry Mrs. Creed,” I whisper apologetically, regretting it because she just looks like she needs a few hours of sleep. “I have to leave for a while, and I didn’t want to leave Zoey without anyone to wake up to. I should have let you sleep, I’m really sorry.”
Mrs. Creed pats me on the arm. “Don’t be silly, honey,” she whispers back. “It’s great that you’re so concerned for her. Go, it’s okay. I’ll be here.”
“Thank you.”
My father doesn’t say a word on our way to wherever it is he’s taking me. I don’t want to speak and break the strange silence that suddenly settles. He’s so focused and determined, I’d hate to break his concentration at a moment like this.
We get to a mall and park there. He doesn’t make a move to leave the car or talk. Five minutes later, I finally crack.
“Now do you want to tell me what’s going on?” I ask. “I have to say, Dad, this is pretty shady.”
“We’re waiting for the others,” he replies.
I frown. “Others? Cade and my brothers you mean? Why didn’t they come with us in the first place?”
“I didn’t mean them. Cade is already here –that grey Honda over there– with Mason and Connor. Nathan had to go look for a job, and your mother is still unpacking.”
Confused even more, I pause for a second to try to understand what’s happening. “Who were you talking about then?”
“Our backup plan.”
I shake my head, slightly frustrated with the cryptic responses. “What does that mean? Dad, what’s happening? Who are we meeting?”
Abruptly, he sits upright, his eyes on the rearview mirror. “They’re here,” he announces as he jumps out of the car.
Taken off guard, I follow his lead. Cade and my brothers are already at our side when we’re out in the parking lot. A Jeep pulls up in front of us around the same time. From it, two men, one taller and fairer than the other, and a guy who seems to be more my age, step out.
Judging by their demeanor, my dad is taking the lead on this one instead of Cade. He takes a few steps to meet the newcomers halfway. One of the two men –the least fair one– shakes his hand before pulling him into a hug. They stay like this and pat each other for a good five seconds, which makes me think of old friends who haven’t seen in other in a long time and suddenly reunite.
“Gordon,” Dad says once they face each other again. “You didn’t have to come in person.”
“Oh, you know me, Steven,” the man named Gordon jokes. “Never could miss out on the action.”
The second man, who at a closer look seems to be the guy’s father, greets my father with even more fervor. Who are these people? Why is my dad so friendly with them?
“Looking good, cuz,” the man says. “How’s life treating you? How’s the wife and kids?”
Cuz? This man is my father’s cousin? I wonder curiously.
Dad chuckles. “Life’s great, so is the wife, but the kids aren’t kids anymore.” He turns around to gesture to my brothers and me. “Take a look at them yourself.”
“My God, time has sure passed,” he laments. “Glad to hear you’re all doing well. Feels like yesterday you were leaving us to get settled with the wife and two new kids.”
Gordon steps in. “Now that we’ve brought it up, mind explaining why you didn’t tell me you had a daughter? I’ve always had your back. You know we would have taken good care of her.”
Dad looks away shamefully. “You know how I am, Gord, I overthink things and get paranoid,” he admits. “I got scared and thought I only had myself to rely on to protect my family. I know now that I was wrong, and I’m here to rectify that.”
That’s when I finally understand. These men are from the Redwood pack, to which my parents belonged before Mom got pregnant with me and Dylan. Dad was even the beta, and I’m guessing his cousin inherited the position after him, since he doesn’t have any siblings. We’re here because we need their help protecting Dylan now. But then, why is the third guy here?
“Well, he’s right here, as you asked,” his cousin states as he gestures to his son. “Where’s your son?”
All of a sudden, all eyes are on me.
And now I’m back to being confused, I remark sarcastically.
“What is all this about, Dad?” I demand.
“Danny, I’d like you to meet Kevin, your cousin,” he introduces us. “He’ll be attending Berklee with Dylan and John.”
I’m still not clear what I should do. When Kevin presents me with his hand to shake, it’s the logical response that I do just that.
“Nice to meet you,” he says politely.
<
br /> “We need you to tell him everything you can about John,” Dad goes on, “and help us introduce them to each other.”
I frown at him. “Why?”
He exchanges smiles with the two men, the smiles of co-conspirators, like there’s a joke passing between them that the rest of us are missing. “Well, it’s about time we start giving Dylan more freedom, don’t you think? We’ll start off slow, of course. But eventually, when it’s safe enough, she’ll get to the point where she no longer needs us to protect her. Until then, since that freedom includes her going to college in Boston, I think it’s a good idea to get to know her roommates.”
CHAPTER 36
Dylan
“Is he awake now?”
Oh, for the love of–!
“Paul, I swear to God, if you ask that one more time, I’m going to put you in a coma!”
He looks away from my comatose boyfriend, appropriately ashamed. “Sorry.”
Logan is attached to all sorts of tubes and machines, which for a werewolf is very unfamiliar. The poison is nothing Dr. Ackhart has even seen or even heard of before. It’s a new chemical that doesn’t exist anywhere, even in human records. He can’t provide an antidote any more than he could tell us what it does. The only thing he promised is that it’s not lethal. Right now, I’m not concerned with finding out what my boyfriend was poisoned with, like Dr. Ackhart is. I just want him back.
Paul isn’t helping me remain patient. It’s bad enough that Logan hasn’t woken up after a week; I don’t need some curious kid reminding me of that. I’m not too fond of kids to begin with, but I don’t hate them either. And yet, I’m recently finding myself wishing that Paul would be as afraid of my threats as other kids usually are when I’m cranky.
Sadie thinks he’s developed an attachment to me after we spent so much time together, although I don’t believe being locked in a prison for two days counts as healthy bonding. But Sadie says that because I saved him, which technically I didn’t, he developed some sort of hero worship. Yeah, she would be a terrible psychologist. Granted, Paul’s been following me everywhere all week, but that’s only because we still haven’t found his family. From what we could tell, they moved three years after Paul’s kidnapping. I think they gave up finding him, and staying in a place that held so many memories of him was just too painful.