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Sarah flinched as Edward moved forward toward his mate, putting his face in hers. His cheeks were red, and sweat dripped down his temples. “Is that so? What the hell do you think you’re going to do about it?”
“This.” Janice swung her arms out from behind her back, and Sarah saw she hadn’t been holding them clasped after all. She held a silver alloy collar, which she now snapped around her mate’s neck.
“What the?” He tugged at the metal, his round face now turning purple. “This isn’t funny, Janice!”
“I never meant for it to be.”
“As your Alpha, I command you to remove this at once!”
“I proclaim myself to be thenewAlpha of the Greystone clan. Anyone who doesn’t agree with this should step forward now.” She waited, but no one moved. “Glenwoods, I can’t apologize enough for my mate’s repugnant behavior. Rest assured, this is where it ends.”
Rex stepped forward and reached out for her hand. “Apology accepted, Janice. Thank you.”
The battle was over as quickly as it’d begun. Sarah let go of her wolf. Her legs and feet were heavy. What she had just seen was reason to hope for the future, but she still felt the burden of all that had happened in her head and in her heart.
“Ava! Ava, come back to us.”
Sarah’s attention snapped to Max’s voice. She saw him a short distance away, crouching in the grass next to Hunter. Somehow, she managed to get her feet to move. “What’s wrong?”
“She decided to take on her wolf form and fight instead of just using her magic,” Hunter explained.
Max ripped off the bottom of his shirt and pressed it to Ava’s side, where blood was soaking into the ground. “She’s bleeding too much. Ava, honey, you’ve got to get back into your wolf. You won’t heal up unless you do.”
Ava’s eyes fluttered, and she tried to shake her head. “I can’t. It’s gone.”
“Dawn! Where’s Dawn?” Max demanded.
Joan had just come running up from the other direction. “Inside. She went to check on the safe room.”
“Let’s go, baby.” Max scooped Ava up into his arms and ran.
Sarah went after him. Her lungs burned and her muscles ached. She had no more energy to run or even to speak, but she went anyway. She’d been ready to sacrifice her life to ensure that her children would have a better one, but now…
Hunter flung open the door, and Max hurtled into the house. “Dawn!”
She raced into the living room just as Max laid Ava down on the floor. She wasted no time in asking what was wrong, instead falling to her knees next to her niece. She checked her pulse and looked at her injury. “She’s lost a lot of blood. She doesn’t have much time left.”
A sob escaped Sarah’s throat as she stood by, helpless.
Dawn moved her hands over Ava’s injury and closed her eyes. She murmured something to herself, but Sarah couldn’t understand the words. A green glow radiated down her arms and around her fingers, the light pulsing and vibrating as Dawn continued.
Sarah bent forward and put her hands on her knees as bile rose from her stomach. She couldn’t lose Ava. Not now. Not after all they’d been through. Not when it was finally safe to live again.
Dawn shook her head and repositioned her hands. “It’s not working. There’s too much damage.”
“Let me help.” Joan kneeled next to her. Her dress was torn, her curly gray hair wild. Ava’s blood smeared her hands as she placed them over Dawn’s.
Sarah clasped her hands together under her chin. She didn’t know what to do, but she wanted to do something. She couldn’t just stand there and let her daughter die.
But now Joan was frowning. “It’s not enough. We can’t do this on our own. Where’s Lori?”
“I’m right here.” She’d just come in through the backdoor, and she gasped when she saw the figure on the floor. “Oh my god! What can I do?”
“Selene is our only hope right now,” Joan advised.
Sarah’s hand pressed over her mouth as her sight blurred with tears. What they needed was a doctor, a hospital, a team of medical professionals who understood how shifters worked, not some fictional woman in the sky. Ava wasn’t going to make it. There was no time.
Max stood and stepped back to make room for Lori. He pulled Sarah in under his arm and pressed his hand to his temple as he watched.
