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“Any idea who she is?” he asked quietly, looking between Iris and the mystery child.
I shook my head. “No. Iris hadn’t mentioned any children…and there were none on the missing people list. As far as I know, none of the missing people had children of that age, either.” A child whose parent had suddenly disappeared would probably stir a lot more interest from local police, let alone a missing child altogether.
Luna glided in a moment later with two glasses of water. She handed one to me before sitting next to her mate, handing the glass to the little girl. “What’s your name, sweetie?” she asked the child. The girl remained silent, clutching the glass as she drank clumsily.
I thought maybe I could get Iris to drink, too, but I realized quickly I had no idea how to do that without accidentally choking her — or drowning her. I set the water on the bedside table and looked over her skin, realizing she was covered in bruises and cuts in various stages of healing.
What the hell happened to her?
“Someone bit her,” I hissed, only realizing I’d said my thought out loud when Remus and Luna both bristled. “I don’t think she’s bonded, though.”
“Small mercies,” Remus muttered. I could sense his barely maintained anger from here. I knew he was trying to keep it together for the sake of the child sitting here, and I could barely keep it together myself.
Luna made a small noise. “I…I’m sorry, but does this girl feel like an alpha to anyone else?” she asked, still picking leaves and twigs from the child’s hair. “She reminds me of Rory, but that doesn’t make sense.”
My father rumbled from the hallway.
“It’s possible,” he said, tipping his head to one side. “There have been female alphas before, but they’re uncommon. They tend to be within certain packs…” He trailed off with a shrug.
Luna sighed and shook her head. “I’m going to call Fiona,” she said, getting to her feet. “Someone needs to get this poor girl some clothing. I can share with Iris, but…I don’t think any of the twins’ clothing will fit her.” The twins weren’t even two yet, after all.
She excused herself and stepped out of the bedroom.
The next fifteenminutes took an absolute decade to pass. Luna ushered Dr. Hayes in the moment he’d crossed the threshold into the house. The man went to the child first, and she burst into tears at once, practically climbing up Remus’ torso in an attempt to get away from him.
Dr. Hayes murmured quietly to her while Remus hummed, trying to reassure the girl that no one else was going to hurt her. It took several minutes for the doctor to even look her over for the most cursory of exams.
“She’s exhausted, dehydrated, and I’m sure she’s hungry, but that seems to be the worst of it. She isn’t injured,” he informed us, stepping away to give the whimpering child her space. His face was grave as he turned his attention to Iris instead. “That collar is made of silver, though. We need to get it off her.Immediately.”
Silver collar?
I couldn’t feel any relief despite finally having some answers. I moved to allow Dr. Hayes to attend to Iris as Remus transferred the child to Luna’s arms. Exhausted, the girl went willingly this time, no longer putting up a fuss even though Iris was now out of sight.
The second exam was simpler, but I knew the news wouldn’t be as good even before the doctor spoke. As he leaned forward with his stethoscope to listen to her heart, I cleared my throat. “She has a pacemaker,” I said, feeling stupid a second later; the pacemaker was probably obvious to him. “She takes blood thinners, usually, but…” I shrugged helplessly. “It’s been over a week.”
I had no idea how long a blood thinner stayed in a body. Was a missed week a big deal?
Dr. Hayes sighed as he leaned back. “I don’t think her pacemaker is working at all,” he informed us, his eyes still on Iris’s face. “If it is, it is so sporadic, it isn’t helping her at all.”
I could feel my whole body go cold. “What does that mean?”
“At best? I need to replace the battery,” he said, getting to his feet.
“And at worst?”
“I need to replace the entire device. I won’t know what’s wrong with it without tools more advanced than this, though,” he said, giving me an apologetic look. His eyes found Remus, and he inclined his head towards his alpha. “I can do it here if you prefer, but I need things from my clinic.”
“Whatever you need,” Remus said automatically. “Have it brought here as quickly as possible. Cost is no issue.”
Dr. Hayes nodded and excused himself, already on the phone to someone back in his office. My half-brother turned towards me, tipping his head. “I assume you are alright with not moving her again?”
“Yes,” I agreed, nodding vigorously. “If Dr. Hayes can do it safely here, then that’s what we’re going to do.”
Hospitals were no place for a shifter. Even if Dr. Hayes was a shifter like the rest of us, no one else in a hospital would be. We couldn’t take that risk, especially after everything…no, there was no way.
The next fewhours passed in a blur. Once Dr. Hayes’s assistant arrived, the rest of us vacated the guest room. As much as I understood the need for keeping the environment as sterile as possible, it still drove me up a wall to leave Iris. Each minute felt like a year.
When Dr. Hayes finally left the room, he looked exhausted, even as he reported that it was only the battery that had been fried, not the entire pacemaker. That meant the surgery was less invasive, and there was a much lower chance of Iris encountering any complications.
