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Slowly, he turned and faced Alison. She’d curled up against the headboard and now clutched the blankets to her chest in a troubling display of vulnerability.
“What is it, Alison?” he asked, gentling his voice.
“Zee, she... She hasn’t... ”
Just the name made the anger soar but he clamped it down.
Not enough though. Alison was as much Therian as he and she sensed the raging beast. Dipping her head, she shuddered.
“Alison—”
His phone rang, the sharp, discordant tone programmed to alert him to a pack emergency. Alison’s did the same, not even a split second later.
“We’ll finish this discussion later.” Answering the phone, his jaw aching from the tension, he snapped, “What?”
“Day is dying.” On the other end of the line, Boone, his best friend and the highest-ranked pack member next to him, spoke swiftly, each word terse.
In a heartbeat, his world ended. There was nothing but pain, torment and emptiness.
No, she can’t be gone!The beasts inside him snarled and howled. She can’t be, or we’d know. We’d feel it...
Reality crashed a second later and he could breathe. Boone wouldn’t have told him like this, not when it was about her. No, this was about her father.
“What happened? Is he with a healer?”
“Yes, but it won’t matter. There was a crash—a fire started. A school bus with nine kids still on board caught fire. It went up like a match according to witnesses. Four of the kids are ours, the rest human. He rescued them all, but the gas tank exploded as he was trying to get the driver out. The driver is going to make it, but her spine was shattered on impact—Day shielded her body from the explosion with his own. He was unconscious by the time they landed. The healers and spine specialists can fix her, but... ”
“What’s the problem with Day?” Niko asked pragmatically. There was no emotion invested on his part, save for the obligation and sense of duty to those under his care. “He’s a strong wolf and there are Fae healers at all major facilities here.”
“He doesn’t want to live. I’ve notified the sons.” There was an unasked question on the heel of that word, one Boone wouldn’t ask.
Niko heard it nonetheless. A morass of emotions rose and he tried to filter through them to focus on the urgent matters at hand. It took more control than he liked.
Damnher.
She always did this to him. Damn her.
And her father was dying. Alone. As much as he disliked Samuel Day, that wasn’t acceptable.
That cut through the turmoil and he focused on Boone, the sound of his breathing.
“Call Zennia.” He had no doubt his second would have her contact info. If Boone didn’t, then another in the inner circle would. She was part of the pack, whether any of them liked it or not. “If she needs transportation, send a jet.”
“It might come better coming from one of her brothers. I can reach out to Phoenix.”
“Do it. Where’s Day?”
Boone named the facility, one of the best in the nation, employing both natural-born healers and trained physicians, as well as the older practices that had once been lost to time.
Without considering why, he said, “Call Brigid, then.”
One of the few Fae who actually loved being part of the modern world, Brigid was one of the rare fairy healers, a being capable of dragging the dying back from the very brink.
“She’s already there, and she tried. It won’t work, Niko. He doesn’t want to live.”
A vicious pulse of rage jolted through him, directed at the man who’d manipulated and toyed with the lives of so many others. “Can she hold him?”
“She’s doing so. But she’s already told me she can’t do it for long without him draining her and she’s... ”
