Page 51 of Escaping Wildfire
Rory and I had gone out to the garden as she was teaching me about how to take care of the plants. We were heading back inside through the back when we saw what looked like a man lying on the floor. Rory ran over to him as soon as she recognized her brother. “Larkin!” She knelt beside him and flipped him over. “Oh, my Goddess, what happened to him?” She said with a sob. “He needs to see a doctor, we need…we…we need to find someone to carry him.” She stumbled through her words, and I ran inside to see if anyone could help. “Help! Is anyone here?” The first floor was quiet, so I ran up to the second floor where I knew the warriors stayed. I yelled out again, “Help! We need help!” I knocked on a few doors, and finally, one warrior stepped out. “We need help, Larkin has been injured, and we need help carrying him to the clinic.” The man didn’t need to be told twice before he followed me downstairs. Rory was crying and cradling her brother’s bleeding head when we arrived. “He’s not waking up. Who could have done this?” I gently guided her away from Larkin as the warrior picked him up and put him in the back seat of an SUV. He drove the three of us to the pack clinic where the doctor took one look at Larkin and called the nurses into action. I turned back to the warrior, “Thank you for bringing us. I’m sorry but I don’t know your name.”
“I’m James.”
“Thank you, James. I don’t know how we can repay your kindness, but please know that we are very grateful for your help.” With that, he left me and Rory to wait for Larkin. The clinic staff rushed around, but no one stopped to give us an update.
“Nora.” Rory suddenly whispered as if remembering something long forgotten. “We should tell Nora.” My eyes widened, realizing what she had said.
“It’s okay, my brother told me you know about them. I’ve known since the beginning. Larkin trusts me, so he told me when they first found each other. She should be told what happened to him though.”
“You’re right, are you able to mind link with her?”
“Oh…I’ve only ever linked with Larkin…but I should be able to with anyone who’s pack, right?”
I nodded, silently urging her to link Nora. Rory closed her eyes for a few minutes. “I did it, she’s on her way.” Rory’s eyes glimmered with her still unshed tears for her brother but also with slight excitement for managing to link Nora.
Rory was older than me, but in so many ways I was the older one. She had lived such a sheltered life and hadn’t experienced many of the normal childhood and teenage things I had experienced. In other ways, she was light years older than me, having had to grow up secluded and with the father she was given.
I prayed Moon Goddess sent her a good mate who would take her away from all of this, but then again, even if she did find him, would any of it matter if we couldn’t defeat her father?
“How is he?” We heard Nora as she ran up to us, with a worried look. “I knew something felt off, Lily kept whining, and…and…” She struggled to get her words out, but before she could continue, the doctor came over to us.
“Ladies, we have managed to bandage up the Alpha Heir. He has a few broken ribs and a fractured arm. It appears he was given a mild mixture of silver and wolfsbane that is keeping his healing from kicking in, but we have given him pain meds to help him sleep and his body is already working to flush out his system. We’ll continue to monitor him, and if he doesn’t wake up by evening, we’ll see what else we can do to speed up getting his system cleared from the poison.
“He’ll be fine then?” Rory asked for us.
“Yes, he was brought in quickly after the attack, so we were able to prevent major blood loss from occurring. Has the Alpha been notified of the attack yet?”
“No, but I’ll let my father know. No need to worry about it. When can we see him?” Rory’s tone had taken on an air of authority that I had never heard from her before. She seemed to want to appear more confident than she usually was.
“We are moving him to a room now, so you can sit with him in there while he sleeps. I’ll have a nurse take you to his room.”
“Thank you, Doctor.”
The three of us were ushered into the room where Larkin lay. Nora immediately rushed over to him in tears. “It’s good you’re here. Having a mate close by helps with the healing process for an injured wolf.” Rory attempted to comfort her.
We sat quietly for a long while as Nora cried and held Larkin’s hand. “Do you know how this happened?”
“No, he was already unconscious when we found him,” I told her.
“I should have gone to look for him as soon as I sensed something was wrong.” Nora shook her head in frustration.
We heard a knock on the door, and Nora quickly pulled her hand back before a nurse entered the room. “I’m just here to check vitals.”
She did her job and left right after, but the three of us remained quiet. The sound of the machines was the only noise in the room.
“How about I go get us a snack?” I was feeling restless and needed a break from the waiting for a few minutes, so I went down to the cafeteria and got us some snacks.
When I returned, Nora and Rory were beside Larkin, helping him sit up. “He’s awake!” Rory and Nora smiled my way, and Larkin even attempted to smile through his pain.
“I brought snacks if you’re hungry.” I knew I sounded awkward, but I wasn’t sure what to say at the moment. I felt like the odd one out here.
“I’m not hungry, but I’m glad it’s just the three of you here,” Larkin answered. For some reason, his face looked more swollen now that he was awake than it had when he was unconscious.
I nodded before setting the snacks on the table and sitting down. “Do you know who attacked you?”
“Beta Griffin.”
No one said anything or even gasped, it wasn’t shocking that it was the Beta. It almost made sense, like it couldn’t be anyone else but him.