The Wolves Are Everywhere

by Janie Marie

  The goddess smiled at her before lowering her gaze to the violent red flame she held in her palm. It was trying to hurt the gold flame, but it had lost its fight against her. “Fear not, for our father is always with us,” said the gold flame. “He never forgot you. But you must wait.”

  The man with blue eyes shoved a red jar under her hands, forcing her to drop the flame inside.

  Then into the dark.

  To wait.

  Warm hands held Kylie’s face, and the most delicious lips touched hers again. “I love you, Hood.”

  Kylie smiled, but now all she could see was the gold flame as it came closer.

  She welcomed it.

  Then light.

  Just light.

  Twenty-Two

  MORE THAN FOREVER

  Six years later.

  Logan clutched her hand, his heart thudding painfully fast. “Push, baby.”

  “I can’t,” she cried as the nurses encouraged her to keep pushing.

  He smiled, smoothing her dark hair away from her sweaty forehead. “You can, baby doll. Nathan’s already here.” He watched her dart her gaze to the nurses as they cleaned his son. “One more. You can do it.”

  Hazel eyes locked onto his. There had been a time when thought he’d never see them again.

  And six years ago had been the biggest scare.

  “She’s out of surgery,” is what the doctor had said when he approached their group that terrible night.

  Logan had jumped to his feet first, and pushed everyone aside. “Which girl?”

  The doctor rubbed his head. “Apologies, they informed me you had three members of your party admitted tonight. I speak of Janie Mortaime. She was very lucky. Though there was no exit wound, and the bullet lodged between the L-two and L-three vertebrae, the exploratory examination found no solid organ injury. The bullet fragment was successfully retrieved.” The next words became jumbled in his mind as the hammering of his heart made his pulse hum in his ears.

  “She’s okay?”

  “She’s in a critical condition. The injuries to her face and from the gunshot are severe, but overall we achieved the best possible outcome.”

  Logan felt hands on him as there were hugs and sighs of relief. There was none of that for him. “Kylie,” he said too softly; her name felt too precious to speak. “The other girl. Do you know anything about her condition?”

  A grave look flitted across the doctor’s face. “I know she suffered severe internal damage, and they’re working to repair bleeding from multiple organ injuries. From what I understood, the bullet ricocheted off her spine and did major damage. This is all I know. I’ll assist them and send someone to inform you with more details.”

  He felt numb, but he nodded as someone maneuvered him to sit in a chair. “She has to make it.”

  “Brother, he didn’t say she wouldn’t.” Lykos patted his cheek hard. “Janie made it, though.”

  “My Hood.” He stared at the dried blood on his hands and pants. He didn’t know what he’d do if Kylie didn’t make it. “I need—”

  “Give him some space.” His dad pushed Lykos aside and grabbed his face. “Hey, they’ll find out more about Kylie. He was the doctor for Janie.”

  “Janie?” The light hurt Logan’s stinging eyes when he lifted his head. “Baby doll’s okay?”

  “You know she’ll be okay,” Lance said. “She’ll be yelling at Ryder in no time.”

  “If he comes back,” Lykos had muttered.

  As a hand squeezed Logan’s, and her familiar cry filled the air, he blinked away the memory. That was the past, and he very much needed to stay in the present.

  Janie’s tears welled in her eyes, and her lips parted as she started to push again.

  He grabbed her trembling leg, holding it for her as he peered down between her legs. “I see the head, Janie. Keep going.”

  She took a deep breath, then pushed. He couldn’t look away as she suddenly let out a final cry, only to have the room fill with the most beautiful sound.

  The doctor held the baby face down, suctioning its mouth before she looked at them both. “It’s a girl.”

  “My baby girl,” Logan breathed, but before he could take in her face, the news he’d received that dreadful morning after Janie’s and Kylie’s abduction slammed into his mind.

  “She’ll never be able to carry children,” the doctor had told him and Kylie’s family. “The angle sent the bullet downward, and it penetrated her right ovary and uterus where it became lodged. Thankfully, the spinal column remained solid, so we expect her to walk again. But with the damage done to her lower intestines and reproductive organs, she’s in critical condition. We did save one ovary, which means she at least won’t need hormone therapy, but we had to perform a hysterectomy and also remove a small portion of her small intestine. Her uterus, fallopian tubes, right ovary, and cervix were all damaged beyond repair. I’m sorry.”

  Logan could only stare at the doctor as Lorelei and Maura sobbed beside him.

  His father comforted them while he his whole world slipped away. “Will she live?”

  The doctor sighed. “She has a long road ahead of her, but she’s fighting.”

  A hand touched his shoulder. Than. “She’ll survive, Logan. I promise.”

  He looked up, knowing Than would not make a promise unless it was true. “Ryder?”

  Than shook his head. “He’s left her.”

  The sinking feeling in his gut knocked the breath out of him, but he breathed in and let the memory go as soon as a beautiful cry sounded, returning him to the here and now.

  He laughed, happy as he listened to the healthy holler of his daughter. Tears burned his eyes, but he couldn’t stop smiling. Even more so when they placed his baby girl on Janie’s chest.

  “It’s Natalie,” he whispered, reaching out with a shaky hand to his baby’s head. “She’s got curly hair.”

  Janie laughed, nodding. “We did it.”

  Logan leaned down, kissing her. “You did it, baby doll.”

  “Mr. Grimm, would you like to cut the umbilical cord?” A nurse held up a pair of scissors.

  He stared at the nurse, his eyes widening because he recognized her immediately. She was the same nurse who’d attended Kylie after her surgery.

  “Mr. Grimm, we must ask you to leave,” she’d told him that day. The pity in her eyes left him stunned, but he hadn’t been able to process anything that had happened in those minutes after Kylie had been told about her diagnosis and recovery plan.

  All he could do then was stare at Kylie’s bruised face while she refused to look at him. “Hood.” His voice trembled as he reached for her hand, and she’d cried, barely able to move her fingers. “Baby, don’t do this.”

  “Go, Logan.” Tears slid down her cheeks. “She needs you.”

  “I need you, Hood.”

  Her lips trembled. “She’s your forever. We were a mistake. I don’t even know why I’m still alive.”

  “Because you’re meant to be here. With me, Hood.” He carefully held her hand, but he was gently pulled back.

  “Son.” His father sighed. “Go so she can rest.”

  “I’m not going anywhere.” He tried to move closer, but his father yanked him harder.

  Logan had been so happy she was able to wake and talk. When she realized he was there, she’d become completely coherent.

  She listened as they explained her injuries and recovery plan, and when they told her about the hysterectomy, she shut off. She asked about Janie and found out Ryder never returned with the others—that he and Trevor were gone. The Wolves, all but his father and brother—gone.

  Her eyes stayed on him when she asked who was with Janie since he was there with her. Logan couldn’t find his voice, and it was Lance who told her only the Godson brothers and the Knights were there. Luc was alive but in a coma.

  Her eyes welled with tears. “Go to Janie.”

  He shook his head. “Baby, I’ll see her later. She has her family.�
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  “She needs Ryder, Luc, or you, Logan.” One tear fell, then another. “Go. I have nothing to offer you, anyway. I’m not even whole anymore. She can give you—”

  “No, you’re hurting, and they said it would be hard to accept what they had to do. I’m not leaving.”

  “I dreamed of you with two babies, Logan.” Her green eyes dimmed, just like her star. “I saw your babies with Janie. You wanted that. You were happy.”

  His heart thudded powerfully, afraid. “That was my past life, baby. You’re my future.”

  “No.” She closed her pretty eyes and turned away. “I’m not. Your future is being a daddy. Your future is having your second chance with her.”

  Like the world six years ago fell out from under him, he stared at the same nurse again as she held up the baby in her arms.

  “Yes, your daddy is here,” she cooed to his daughter. “Right here, Mr. Grimm. Just like you did for your baby boy.” He took the scissors, cringing as he cut, then they carried his baby girl to the station where her brother waited.

  Both babies wailed, and Logan could only smile and kiss Janie’s face everywhere he could reach.

  “I love you, baby doll. Forever.” He held her cheek, staring into her teary eyes.

  “I love you,” she whispered, smiling the smile that always appeared in his dreams. “Forever, Jason.”

  Her words hit him in the heart, and he suddenly saw another dreadful day from the past.

  “You’re her forever.” Ryder had said, though he didn’t move his gaze from the sorry excuse of a human being who struggled to breathe on the concrete floor.

  A stream of cigarette smoke passed Ryder’s lips, and Logan said, “Janie would have your ass if she saw you like this.”

  Ryder shrugged a shoulder as he sucked in another drag. His gaze never left Trevor’s unconscious figure. It had taken Logan days to track him with Lykos. Hours to get past the security measures of the secluded stronghold in the Montana wilderness. Ryder hadn’t wanted to be found, but Logan couldn’t fail.

  “She needs you.” Logan dropped his gaze to the emerald ring in his hand. Damon had given it to him, hopeful it would sway the deadly Godson before him to come back home.

  “She has you,” Ryder replied instantly. “Kylie’s thinking clearly if she told you this already. This was your second chance with my baby. Just take it. I have a duty, and I’ll only hurt her by returning. Just like Kylie knows you’ll never be happy without Janie, without the family you lost together, I know I have nothing to offer her. There’s no going back. I shouldn’t have interfered.”

  “That’s bullshit.” Logan had never been so angry with Ryder. “You told me I wasn’t getting her back—that she’s yours. You’re really going to let this monster keep you from her?”

  “Yes,” Ryder replied without emotion. “I’m not awake, but I know it was him. I feel it. Trevor’s and Kylie’s souls are her big bad wolves. Those fuckers who raped her were flukes—more darkness. But they’re the ones who haunted her until her last day. And Blondie achieved redemption; she’s not the same as she was before. She changed from wolf to the strong Hood.”

  It was hard to concentrate on anything. Ryder confirming who Kylie’s soul was nearly brought him to his knees, but he stayed standing, because he would let none of them down again. “You’re coming home.”

  “Her home hasn’t come. I have no idea where it is.” Ryder blinked, shaking his head. “I’m not the one.”

  Logan laughed, pacing the room. “You’re losing your damn mind. You know you need her as much as she needs you. If you stay here, you’ll shut off completely and her dreams with you die.”

  “Of course they do. Everything dies with me.”

  Logan pulled his hair, his mind reeling to figure out what to say. “Why? Just tell me why you’re giving her up. You know I’m not the one for her either. So tell me why you suddenly want me to take your place.”

  “They were twins,” Ryder said, dropping his head down as the air rushed out of Logan’s mouth. “Nathan and Natalie. You were a family. It was for you. This was for you, and I’m in the way. This is my duty to her, and I failed. Again. So, go. Kylie and I were shown so we could let go. I’m letting her go.”

  Agony tore up Logan’s heart as he placed the emerald ring on the floor. Ryder glanced over and stiffened once he saw it.

  “You’ve never looked weaker than you do right now,” Logan told him. “Who knows, between you and Kylie both acting like you’re the only two who can make sacrifices—maybe I will make Janie mine again.”

  Ryder’s hand balled into a fist, and the fire in his eyes roared to life. “Go back to your forever and leave me the fuck alone. I have shit to handle. And this time, he’ll suffer slowly.”

  Logan trembled as he made his way to the door. “They sedate Janie just so she can sleep. Tercero kisses her lips and says the words you always did, just so she won’t scream until she goes hoarse.” He yanked the door open. “Good night, my moon.” He took a step through the doorway. “But you already knew she’d need to hear those words to get any peace, didn’t you? You promised her longer than always. I didn’t know the truth could tell such a lie.”

  Ryder stared him down, not looking at all like an eighteen-year-old. He was an incomplete being, a man without a heart and soul to warm the emptiness that made him what he was. “This was a dream. Temporary. I have to be the truth, not live in some fucked up fairy tale with her where I still fail.”

  Logan released a bitter laugh. “We all failed! So what?” He pointed at Trevor. “We gave her the strength and skill to fight him. She was stupid, like always, because she wants to save us all. But we didn’t fail. When it came down to it, Janie and Kylie fought, and they held them off for you to get there. To end this once and for all. And you have.

  “Kevin’s never going to hurt another woman. You ripped his damn hands off, Ryder. He’s going to rot in prison. But this—” He studied Trevor’s broken form. Ryder had beaten the shit out of him. Several bones looked broken, and not an inch of his flesh was free of bruises or cuts. “Janie wouldn’t want this. She wants you to see you didn’t really have to keep the monster from her. She wouldn’t be Janie—Jane—if she never felt the sharp teeth of the big bad wolf. You know she always had to fall. But in this fairy tale, she dreamed of a bad boy who could destroy the world just for her. But he’d stop it all just to have the chance to hold her in his arms and call her his Sweet Jane. All she wants is a life with you.”

  Ryder flinched like Logan had hit him, but he still stayed quiet.

  “But go ahead,” Logan said. “Sit here, torturing Trevor because you can’t let go of the past. Sit here, knowing that while I love her, I’ll still never give her my whole heart because I already gave it to a blonde who, just like you, can’t forgive herself for her mistakes. And I have to say, for always preaching you know what’s best, you sure are destroying everything.”

  “Of course I am, dumbass,” Ryder growled. “Or did you forget who I am?”

  “I know who you are.” Logan leveled him with a fierceness he’d never really dared to direct at Ryder. “I know you’re the only one who makes my baby doll whole. Stop thinking she has to shine for everyone and realize she’s just trying to glow for you.”

  Ryder’s frame shook. “Get out.”

  “Fine.” Logan took one more step before pausing. “Janie will have to see that forever with me means less. I love her, but I realized there’s more than forever with Kylie. I didn’t even know that was possible.” He’d left after that. He’d gone back to tell Janie he’d failed her.

  “No, let me in,” came a voice from outside of Janie’s Labor and Delivery room. It pulled him back to the present again. It was her.

  Janie smiled, pushing Logan’s shoulder. “Go, Grimm.”

  He grinned, kissing her forehead as he turned around.

  “Get out of her fucking way,” Ryder said, shoving and orderly aside. He glanced at Logan before looking at the two babi
es being checked over, then at Janie. He smiled. “Fucker, if you kissed my fiancée, I’m kicking your ass.”

  Logan walked forward, caressing the head of the little fourteen-month-old boy in Ryder’s arms before ruffling the black hair of the little four-year-old boy at his side. “I got lost in the moment. I’m a daddy.”

  “I’ll allow it because I know the feeling.” Ryder reached down for his eldest son’s hand. “Let’s go see Mama, Luc.”

  Logan waited for them to pass him as he kept his gaze on the most beautiful pair of green eyes. Kylie had a hand over her mouth, frozen in place as she stared at the two babies. Their babies.

  All those years ago, when Logan had returned to the hospital after unsuccessfully retrieving Ryder, he’d panicked upon finding Janie’s and Kylie’s rooms empty. So he went to the one place he hoped someone would be.

  The ICU ward was quiet, but he headed to the room with several occupants visible through the glass wall. Luc’s room. As soon as he spotted Janie in a wheelchair, he rushed over only to come to a halt.

  She was holding Luc’s hand, crying her eyes out.

  Logan double-checked to make sure there were still vitals on Luc. There were.

  He breathed out, still not able to move, though. Luc was in a coma. They’d all thought he was dead until Ryder told them to get him to the hospital with the girls.

  Logan looked away from Luc, away from Janie, and to the person who sat at her side. Kylie shouldn’t be up, yet she was. In a wheelchair, of course, but holding Janie’s hand.

  He glanced at the other side of the bed where Archer, Savaş, and Tercero stood like sentries while Gabriel stood at the foot of Luc’s bed, praying for his brother’s soul.

  Logan turned toward Than who waited near the door. He felt it; Luc was slipping away, and they were there because they felt it too. They were saying goodbye.

  Logan swallowed. He didn’t like Luc, but he knew without Luc, the girls would never have been found. Luc kept the truth secret, but only because it was necessary to keep them safe. Luc always did what was needed, no matter the cost.