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‘Areli is out of surgery,’ Lucien’s voice reached me and I was as relieved to know he was awake as I was at the news he provided. I ran back into the hospital. Lucien was sitting up in his bed, Cecilia was still unconscious.
“How are you?” I asked.
“I’ll live. Please go check on Areli. Everett let me know and then ran out before he could say more.”
I walked out and went looking for David. Where he was, Areli was sure to be. I found them in a room close by.
“How is she?” I asked. Areli had mom’s tanned skin tone on a normal day. Right now she looked so pale, so frail. Nothing like the spitfire woman I knew she was.
“She’s alive,” David answered, his voice cracking.
“But?” I said, not wanting to hear whatever bad news I knew he was about to tell me.
“She’s in a chemically induced coma. There was too much damage to her heart. One of the bullets clipped it. They’re giving her a chance to heal. If she doesn’t...”
“How long?” I asked, my knees threatening to buckle under me.
“They don’t know. They’re not sure if she’s healing so slowly only because of the silver or if her wolf died trying to keep her alive. She is healing too slowly.” David began crying again, and as much as I wanted to join him, I knew right now his pack needed him to be strong. So did my sister.
“She’s strong. She’s always been strong. She’ll make it. Stay by her side as much as you can. The mate bond should help her heal and have something to pull her back to us,” I assured him— and myself.
It was hours before I could leave and head home to prepare the pyres for our own people. Lucien agreed to text James if there was any change to Areli or Cecilia and any of our people still there. I still hadn’t seen my phone anywhere. I would just have to order a new one. I let Violet remain behind after Beta Miles introduced his mate to her. She deserved a chance to say goodbye.
I was glad to see Jo had doubled the guards and patrol at home. A direct attack was unlikely because of all the security measures that Evergreen set up over the years, but we couldn’t take a chance right now. We already lost too many today.
It was a little after three in the afternoon when the guard at the gate let me know Evie was home with a person unknown. A rogue.
“Evie’s home. We need her to look at this shit,” I said, nodding to the bag of phones I’d brought with me on the conference table. James and I stood up and headed to the front of the pack house. The moment I saw her exiting the vehicle, an intense feeling of relief flooded me. She was fine. She hadn’t been there. She had been far away from the chaos and death. When Evie ran to me, and all I could do was open my arms and hug her tightly when she flung herself into me. I could feel her fear and worry as she shook in my arms.
“I’m so glad you weren’t there,” I whispered. She pulled back, and Tenoch whimpered in my head.
“What happened?” she asked, looking from me to James.
“Come inside,” I said.
“Wait, Zi....”
I looked over at the pretty brunette getting out of the passenger side of the vehicle. I was hesitant to involve her, but she was about to be a pack member and employee, and she was Evie’s best friend and right hand woman now.
“Do you trust her?” I asked Evie, and when she nodded, I continued. “Then we can get the pack joining done now. We could use her help, too.”
Ziomara pulled up a toddler into her arms from the back seat. The little girl was adorable and delicate looking, like her mom, and she was currently sleeping. I asked someone to park the SUV on the side of the pack house so it wouldn’t be in the way, and we walked inside to my office.
“I would have preferred not to rush this, but due to recent events, I would like to invite you to join the pack now, so we can get down to business. I know you must be tired, and I promised I’ll let you settle and rest after we debrief, if that’s alright with both of you.”
‘Get to my office. Evie’s friend is here. I need her to help, so I would like to get them up to speed and settled as a pack member,’ I mind-linked Jo, who was currently running around, making sure the pyres were being built and figuring out who else we could send to Blue Moon to help with their security.
“Alpha Cory, before we proceed, I think there’s stuff you should know about me.”
“I really wish I had time to listen to your story, but there’s not a lot of time, Miss Johnson. Right now, the only thing I have the capacity to ask about you is, will this endanger our pack?”
Ziomara looked down and then over at Evie. I sighed and sat back.
“Okay, I’m listening,” I said. Ziomara opened her mouth to speak, but stopped when Jo opened the door to the office and entered and came to stand next to me.
“Please begin. This is my Beta Josue, and that is my Gamma, James. Forgive me for not giving proper introductions before. It’s been a long day,” I said. Technically, my day hadn’t ended since I woke up yesterday at seven.
“I don’t know how much Evie has told you about me, but I’m a hybrid,” she said, passing the toddler to Evie, who cradled the sleeping little girl against her.
