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‘How are you?’ he asked via mind-link.
‘I’m okay,’ I lied.
‘You’re not. None of us fucking are,’ he replied, his voice thick with emotion. making me squeeze him tighter.
“How’s Areli?” I asked when I pulled back and Dad’s face showed the pain we were all feeling.
“Still in a coma, but the doctor has confirmed her wolf is still alive. The damage was just intensive. He’s hopeful she’ll be back in a week or so.”
“And Violet?” I said a little more quietly, looking over to the stairs where I knew Mom must have taken her.
“She keeps saying she’s alright, but that’s all she says,” Lucien answered. “She’s not. We all know she isn’t, but she won’t let us in. It’s like she’s shielded her feelings the same way she shields herself when under attack. Nothing will penetrate it until she lets us.”
“I can’t even imagine. When I thought I’d lose your mother…” Dad’s voice cracked. “To actually see your mate taken from you. Violet’s always been so sweet and shy. I don’t know who she’ll be when she comes out on the other side of this.” He sighed.
“We’ll all be here for her. We’ll help her when she lets us and even when she doesn’t,” I said. Everyone nodded their heads, and a mournful silence filled the room.
“What’s the update on the count?” Dad asked.
“Twenty-five total. Six on our end. I’ve already gone to speak with every family affected. Evergreen has taken some warriors and is fitting every security measure we have on Blue Moon.”
“Rhett should have listened to me when I offered it to him. He insisted his pack wasn’t in danger because he wasn’t directly involved in the fight with Tezcatlipoca. He was so stubborn. He’s devastated. Blue Moon is without an alpha right now. David won’t leave Areli’s side until she wakes,” Dad said.
“I hope you didn’t say that to him,” Mom called down from the stairs.
“Goddess no, Tuli. He would never forgive himself.” Mom nodded and came over to hug me.
“Mi bebe precioso (My beautiful baby). I’m sorry we weren’t here to help you through this,” she whispered in my ear. I didn’t know if it was her words or her embrace, but I suddenly felt like I was five years old again and all I wanted was for her to hold me. I felt my eyes water, and as much as I wanted to show that I could handle all of this with courage and strength, I couldn’t. This was my mother, and all I wanted right now was her hug.
I hadn’t allowed myself to think about the deaths as anything but a tragedy that happened to my pack when, in reality, I knew these people. I grew up with many of them. Dad always took us to meet the pack. Not just me but all of my siblings. We knew their histories, their happy moments and their bad. The pack was as much family as my blood was. A couple of tears escaped me before I could stop them, and Mom pulled back and held my face in her hands.
“You don’t have to be strong here. Not here,” she said, wiping my tears. I kissed her forehead and held her in a hug again.
“Helios is on his way home as well. Gonzalo told us your theory, and I think we have to accept that you may be right. Someone has betrayed us,” Mom said when I pulled away. There was hurt and anger on her face.
“I’ve been running the perimeter. There’s an odd scent just outside of Guardian Moon’s perimeter. Just outside the scent markers. The smell is familiar, but not. Like they should belong to Uncle’s pack, but they don’t.”
“We’ll let Nat know when she’s back. I think they arrive in a few days. We’ll need to meet to figure this out and figure out what we need to do. If they’re ramping up now. We need to be prepared,” Mom said, looking like the Luna she would always be.
“Rhett wants to be involved. This is personal for him now,” Dad added, and I nodded.
“Evie’s working on the phones. Hopefully, she will be able to get some sort of information out of them,” I said.
“Oh, is she working for the pack now?” Mom brightened up.
“Yes. She replaced Evergreen as head of the department,” I said proudly.
“That’s amazing. I didn’t think she would ever come back to the pack for good,” she said.
“She’d been helping Evergreen out on some projects as a contractor already. I hoped you would be able to bring her back into the pack. She’s definitely got her father’s genius.” Dad approved, making Tenoch puff out again in my mind.
“I would like to have a family dinner tonight. Just us,” Mom said. “I need to spend time with my kids. That was just too close for comfort.”
“Mom, just ask Cory straight up to come over. We’re all staying here right now,” Lucien teased.
“Why are you guys staying here? I thought you were fine,” I asked.
“Because I’m going to be a grandma, and my grandchild needs bed rest. So while Lucien goes back to work, I’ll be keeping an eye on Cecilia,” Mom said.
