After rearranging the blankets for the tenth time in the last twenty minutes, I finally give up on trying to get comfortable. It was a useless hope anyways to try and get some sleep without Tate here, but I thought I would try despite the lack of comfortable heat he gives off. Throwing back the blankets, I push myself away from the usually comfortable mattress. The air is cold in the room, but that is to be expected when Winter is quickly approaching.
The baby kicks slightly, as if protesting me getting up in the middle of the night, but I rub my hand along my bump, quietly trying to soothe the baby. They seem appeased after a minute or two, finally stilling their motions so that I no longer feel as if I am being used as a soccer ball.
My socked feet press against the shag rug that sits on top of the wooden flooring. Wiggling my toes, I try to still the restless feeling coming over me, but it doesn't seem to help. With a heavy sigh, I push myself up from the mattress, a task that is becoming harder to do on my own. Usually, Tate or Liam will help me with the difficult task, and they are both finding it quite hilarious. Well, more so Liam. Tate usually gets a smile on his face and steals a kiss as payment for helping me up.
The moonlight peeks in from the window, lighting up the room enough so that I do not run into anything as I navigate to the door. The silence I had been laying in only minutes before is broken as soon as I open the door.
Voices are coming from downstairs, but they are too muffled for me to hear them. Too tired to pick up my feet, I take advantage of my socks, using them to partially slide and skate across the wooden floors overs to the stairs. The descent down both flights is quick but still manages to make me feel like I have just finished running a marathon. My hand sits under my stomach, trying to stop it from jostling too much as I move down the steps.
Finally, I make it onto the ground floor and into the large living room. A fire is lit in the woodstove, casting a warm glow around the room and giving it an inviting heat. Micah is sitting on one of the couches, a passed out Matty across his chest. Liam, though, is pacing the room, his hands wringing in front of him.
They both look at me when I step into the room, Liam wearing a look of worry while Micah just looks agitated.
"What's going on?" I question, joining Micah on the couch.
Liam doesn't stop his pacing, not even to talk, and it is slowly driving me crazy. "They aren't back. She said they would be back thirty minutes ago and they aren't."
"I thought they were going to be gone the entire night patrolling the fences?" I say, confused as to what Liam is saying. All of the betas and Alpha Seren decided to walk the fence line tonight, not wanting to risk someone attacking while we are especially vulnerable due to the full moon. Alpha Seren had said that everyone who wouldn't be affected by a heat or a rut had to go out, and even though I wanted to protest Tate being a part of the patrol, I knew I wouldn't win. They weren't due back till sunrise and that is still hours away.
"They have been periodically stopping by, usually whenever they pass the house, but it has been a while since anyone has come," Micah says. "Alexis was the last one to stop by and said that Tate was right behind her, but no one has shown up for a while."
"For over thirty minutes," Liam says, as if to reiterate the point.
A feeling of dread comes over me. From our experience, when something doesn't seem right, then something is probably drastically wrong.
"Should we go out and look?" I ask, already pulling myself up from the couch, or trying to anyway. Liam just walks over to me and gently pushes me back down onto the cushions, sitting down on my other side.
"No," he says, but the agitation on his face tells me that he isn't happy about it. "All of us are too vulnerable right now, and Ethan already went out to check. I wasn't too happy about that, especially since he is in rut, but you know how stubborn Ethan can be."
My head nods absently, the worry in my gut growing so strong that I feel as if I am about to be sick. We have only been here for a few weeks after spending a huge amount of time away from each other. The thought that something could be wrong with Tate or the others makes my worry grow stronger. Erik and Jesse are already missing; we don't need to add more people to the list.
Voices come from outside, getting steadily louder as they get closer to the house. Liam jumps up from the couch, jostling both Micah and me in the process.
Micah rubs a hand along Matty's back when the baby starts to snuffle in protest of being moved, but it doesn't take him long to fall back asleep.
"I told you not to worry," Micah says, his eyes fixed on Liam.
Liam just shakes his head, the look of relief he had been wearing slowly being replaced by one of worry. "No, there are too many of them and it isn't sunrise yet. Why is more than one of them coming back?"
He doesn't wait for an answer, instead closing the distance between himself and the door. With quick, shaking fingers, Liam unlatches all of the locks on the door before swinging it open. Not even ten seconds later, bodies are rushing past him and into the house.
"Bring them down to the basement," a voice I recognize to be Alpha Seren says. The hard tone of his voice causes my worry to grow even stronger, and despite Micah's protest, I push myself up from the couch and watch as the others make their way into the house.
"What's going on?" I ask, but everyone is too frenzied to answer. Alpha Seren and Ethan are both holding a large something in between them, but it is hard to make out. Walking a little closer, the sight that greets me makes my breath catch in my throat, and the only thing that is stopping me from spilling the contents of my stomach is the fact that the nurse part of me is switching on.
"Oh god," I say, following behind the others as they walk through the kitchen and down a flight of stairs that lead to the basement. "What happened to them?"
"E-Erik?" Liam says, his voice breaking. He walks beside us, his eyes fixed on his damaged mate.
Micah's voice trails down the stairs from where he stands at the top. "What the hell? Is that Jesse?" His footsteps are quick as he follows behind the others as they carry his mate, questions still falling out of his mouth.
"You got him, Ethan?" the oldest alpha questions in reference to Erik, and Ethan nods his head in confirmation. He then turns to me and Liam. "You two come with me."
We follow behind him without protest, stopping when he opens a door located in the back of the room. The door opens easily enough, and reaching up, Alpha Seren pulls the chain that connects to the light bulb, filling the small room with light.
"Wow," I breathe, taking in the sight of the multiple shelves holding large quantities of medical supplies. The sight that really surprises me though, is the folded up hospital beds leaning against the far wall. I haven't seen this quality or quantity of medical supplies since my residency. "This is impressive."
"Thanks," the alpha says, his voice distant as he starts pulling the beds away from the walls and gathering them in his arms. He nods over at the broken down frames piled neatly in the corner, and Liam and I quickly pick them up. "You get bored when you're by yourself, so collecting supplies from the nearby towns became my new hobby."
"Well, my inner nurse is having a moment right now," I say, and the alpha's head whips over to me.
"You're a nurse?" he questions while at the same time gesturing us out of the room.
"Was in the process of completing my residency when this whole thing started," I answer. He doesn't say anything more once we get back to the other side of the room.
Even though I am slightly rusty, I managed to get the rails all snapped into place, helping Liam with his before showing Alpha Seren how to properly place the mattresses. Erik and Jesse are placed onto the waterproof cloth covering the mattresses, and I am finally able to get a good look at them.
"Jesus," I say, taking in the sight before me. "What the hell happened to the two of you?"
Looking at Jesse, I see that his leg is broken in at least two places, and one of the breaks looks to be compound. Lacerations mark up the rest of him, making it impossible to count them with all the blood covering every inch of his skin. My eyes quickly flick over to Erik, taking in the sight of his leg that is not facing the right direction, the arm that looks like a wet noodle, and the muscle showing from the patches of skin that are missing in chunks all around his body.
"Nik found them when he was walking that section during the patrol," Alexis says from behind me. "We have no idea what happened and probably won't find out until one of them wakes up."
"Better get started then," I mumble, rolling up my sleeves as I walk over to the sink.
It doesn't take me too long to wash up my hands and air dry them, but by the time I make it back over to the beds, a multitude of supplies are stacked on top of a metal roll-away. Liam holds up a box to me, which I soon realize is a box of purple medical gloves. With ease, I snap them into place and try and give Liam a reassuring smile. The tears that are tracking down his face don't stop though, and his bottom lip starts to tremble despite his efforts to stop it.
Clearing my throat, I turn so that I can see everyone who is gathered closely around our injured pack members. "Everyone needs to back up, maybe sit on the couches or something. I can't work with all of you watching and crowding me.
Micah opens his mouth to protest, but Alpha Seren's brusque, "Alright," makes him snap his mouth shut. Slowly, the others trail out of the basement and up to the upper floors, leaving only Liam behind.
"You'll probably need help, right?" he says, voice scratchy from his earlier tears. Not wanting to upset him even more by sending him away, I give a slight nod of my head and Liam gives me a grateful smile.
Once he gets his own gloves on, we get to work. Together, we get all of Jesse and Erik's bones reset and their lacerations cleaned and bandaged. It isn't until I am pulling off my blood covered gloves and throwing them in the trash that I see the sunlight filtering in through the windows. We must have been down here for hours if the sun had time to rise during the time it took us to get them all fixed up.
Liam joins me by the trash can, throwing his own gloves in the bin. "Do you think they will be okay?" he questions, his eyes fixated on an unconscious Erik.
"Hopefully," I mumble, not wanting to lie to my friend.
In all honesty, it is difficult to tell how Erik and Jesse are going to be. They have lost a lot of blood and are completely dehydrated. I was able to get an IV attached to both of them so that they could get some fluid back into their systems, but there is nothing I can do about the blood loss except to wait. They have a long battle ahead of them, and it would be better if they remained unconscious for a few more days. That way they do not have to be awake during the most painful days of the healing process.
A sniffle comes from beside me, and turning, I see that Liam's tears have started up again. My arm wraps around him, pulling him against my side. A sob works its way out of him, and he lays his head on my shoulder as his body shakes from the force of his sorrow.
We stand there for over an hour, me holding my best friend as he cries. Wiping away the last of his tears, Liam pulls away from me enough so that he can look at my face.
"Come on, let's go back upstairs," I say gently. "I bet Matty and Ethan are missing you, and I bet Tate is starting to worry."
A look of realization and shock comes over Liam. "Taylor..." his voice is soft as if trying to offer me comfort.
My brows draw together in confusion at his tone, and something niggles at the back of my mind. "What is it?"
"I guess you didn't notice with everything that was going on," he says, his eyes flickering around the room, refusing to meet my own.
The feeling of dread comes back, settling in the pit of my stomach. "Didn't notice what?"
Liam's eyes finally meet mine, and the same sympathy that I had been giving him only minutes ago is reflected in his eyes as he looks at me. "Tate wasn't with the group when they came back," he whispers.
"What?" I all but croak, pulling away from him when he tries to wrap his arms around me. The sympathy in his eyes is growing stronger, and I don't want to see it anymore because as long as it is there, that means that what he is saying is true. But it can't be true; Tate has to be safe.
"No, you're wrong." Liam holds his hands out, trying to touch me, but I shake off every attempt. "No, he's upstairs waiting for me."
"Taylor..." he tries again, and this time, I am not quick enough to dodge his hands. He wraps his arms tightly around me, holding me close.
"No, I need him here," I say, voice cracking. "Where is he?"
"I-I don't know," Liam says. His words cause panic to set in, and I can feel the beginning of a panic attack trying to take over.
"He...He..." I gasp, my words failing me. Liam pulls me over to one of the couches, sitting me down on the cushions while still keeping his arms around me.
A throat clears from the doorway that leads to the stairs. Through watery eyes, I am barely able to make out Nik, who is rocking from foot to foot and chewing on his bottom lip.
"I, uh, I think I know what happened," he says, not moving away from the doorway.
"You do?" Liam and I say at the same time. When the beta doesn't say anything else, Liam gestures him over, motioning for him to sit on the couch.
After a minute or so, Nik finally makes his way over to us, sitting gingerly on the edge of the cushion farthest away. He clears his throat again while staring at his fidgeting hands.
"How we found the two of them- tied up in trees- is something my pack used to do to any one who lost the fight for the position of alpha." His eyes quickly move over to us before snapping back down to his hands. "It was a kind of warning, showing what happens to those who didn't do what our alpha wanted."
"You mean the alpha that was Zalo's mother?" I question, the pieces slowly falling into place.
"Yeah," Nik answers, giving a quick nod of his head. "And stringing someone up in a tree to die was always Zalo's favorite threat to give someone whenever they dared to disobey him."
"If Zalo did that, then that means he was so close. Why not just try to attack us instead of doing that," I gesture behind me in the general direction of Jesse and Erik, "to them?"
"It's more of a threat instead of an attack. He's trying to scare us," Nik answers.
"Do you... do you think he has something to do with Tate being gone?" I ask, and I feel as if my heart is going to stop beating from how hard it clenches.
"Oh god," Liam whispers from beside me when Nik starts to slowly nod his head.
He looks away from his hands and meets my eyes, a terrified look in them. "Yeah, he probably does."