When I woke up, I saw Stephan. He looked stressed out. His usual tidy hair was a mess. His skin was a pale color I’d never seen before. His eyes looked sunken in. The clothes he was wearing were baggy because they weren’t his. I recognized the shirt as Grayson’s.
I hissed at the stinging pain when I tried to sit up.
“You should keep still.” Stephan muttered, not looking up at me.
I rolled my eyes, “Yes. Thank you for that ground breaking news.” Sarcasm dripped off my words.
He smiled, “Pain makes you a pleasure.”
“Yea, well, I’m too tough for pain killers.” I lied sarcastically.
He looked up at me, “You’re too something for pain killers.”
He knew. “What do you know?” I narrowed my eyes at him.
He smirked. “I know everything sweet cheeks.”
“Did you tattle?” I’d kill him if he tattled and he knew it.
He smiled. “No. Your secret is safe with me.”
I nodded, “Good.” I looked around. We were definitely in my room. Which meant Stephan was in the pack house.
“Why are you here anyway?”
“I’m seeing how my friend is recovering from such an ordeal.” He feigned hurt.
“I know why you are here. I want to know why they are letting you stay here.”
“Ah. That.” He stood up and walked to the foot of my bed. “The acting alpha has granted me access to the property until further notice.”
“You sound like you’re reading that out of a book.”
He shrugged. “I’m just repeating what I was told.”
A wave of agony washed through me. Acting alpha meant that the previous alpha was dead. Which meant Connor was dead. Suddenly my knee didn’t feel so bad.
“Why were you the first one there?”
Stephan sighed. “I was on my way to tell you about the rogues. A phone call wasn’t going to cut it. When you weren’t home, I had no choice but to make your pack think I was trespassing. They started chasing me so I led them to you with your scent trail.”
“You know the rogues were planning something?”
He nodded, “I came to warn you, but I was too late.”
I couldn’t stop the tears that seeped out.
Stephan’s face dropped. “I know that death is hard for you to cope with. Losing your brother is a pain that most people haven’t had to deal with. There are a lot of people here that you can talk to. You should know that.”
I nodded and just looked down.
I needed to change the topic of our conversation. “When’s the last time you fed? You look like a mess.”
I heard him chuckle. “It’s been almost two weeks.”
I sighed and looked at him. It’d be easier to focus on a conversation with Stephan than my feelings about what happened.
“Why haven’t you fed?”
Stephan stood. “I’ve been trying to locate the one who’s hired those rogues. I didn’t find out about their plans until it was too late.”
“What was their plan? To just kidnap me?” I shook my head. “At least if they did that then my brother would still be alive.”
Stephan nodded and walked to the end of my bed. “Your brother died so that they couldn’t get to you. I think that deserves a bit of respect for his actions. He was incredibly brave.”
I shook my head. I could feel the tears welling up, my nose starting to run, my throat burning. “If he just let me go, this wouldn’t be happening. He’d be okay.”
“It goes against every fiber of an alpha to abandon their pack, their family. Your brother chose to fight for you because he didn’t want to see you dead.” Stephan sighed and walked over to my side of the bed. “Your brother did what he did because he loved you.”
I sighed. “I know. I just wish he hadn’t.” I choked out in a sob.
Stephan sighed and took a step back. He’d never been good with too much emotion. “I’ll get Amanda for you.”
I just nodded and fell onto my side. It felt like my heart was broken.
When Amanda came in, I was finishing up my crying bout. She sat down next to me and leaned back on my pillows. “You should know that the baby’s okay.”
I sighed and rested my head on her shoulder. “I hope I have a boy.”
She sighed, “So you can memorialize Connor?”
I nodded. “He’s the reason my baby will be born.”
She nodded and rested her head on mine. “How’s the knee?”
“Throbbing.”
“Brian says it’s not broken. It’s just sprained. It’ll be better in a month or so.”
“That’s a long time for this pain.”
She nodded, “Well you can’t have any pain killers. Werewolf babies are hard to keep.”
“What does ‘hard to keep’ mean?”
Amanda sighed and rubbed her belly. “Getting to term with a baby from a werewolf is difficult. If it’s not human, the cells don’t develop normally. Werewolf cells develop too fast for proper nutrition for a human mother to supply.” She shrugged. “Brian just won’t risk giving you anything that might interfere with the baby’s development.”
“That’s why he’s so strict.”
She nodded. “Yep.”
I put my hand on her belly. She moved it to the side and I felt a kick. “The little brat moves only when I’m resting. If I’m walking around, she goes right to sleep.”
“She?”
Amanda nodded with a brilliant smile. “Yep. We’re having a girl.”
Amanda and I focused on the babies growing within us. We didn’t have to worry about being over heard because my door was fixed.
It was a while before we were interrupted.
We both looked over when the door opened. We had dropped small talk for a movie. It was Beauty and the Beast. It felt nice to revisit my childhood when everything was perfect.
Brian threw his son onto my bed. Matt’s giggle was absolutely the cutest thing I could imagine.
“How are you feeling?”
“Like sh--crap.” I quickly edited myself because of the small ears in the room. I didn’t want to be the one to blame if Matt walked around the house shouting curses at everyone.
Brian wheeled over a machine.
“What’s that?”
“An ultrasound machine.”
“Won’t that be a little suspicious?”
He shook his head, “I’m diagnosing your injuries with the ultrasound machine.” Brian was smiling, but the smile didn’t reach his eyes. Brian was hurting just like I was. Connor might not have been his brother, but he was just as close. “I thought you needed some good news to get you through the bad.”
I nodded and positioned myself flat on my back for Brian. He had his hand on the bottom of my shirt when he abruptly moved to my knee.
I was confused for a moment, until I had more visitors.
Grayson led in two men and a woman I had never met before. Brian sighed and pushed the cart away from me. He stood against the wall, out of the way of whatever was about to happen.
So much for the good news to get me through the bad…
There were features I recognized in these men. Amanda grabbed her son and brought him close to her.
Maybe these were people I didn’t want to mess with.
Grayson stood closest to me, staying between me and these strangers. “This is Casey, Connor’s little sister.” Grayson sighed and pointed to the woman. She was absolutely gorgeous. Her eyes were silver. She had curly blonde hair and a waist so small I felt like I could fit my hands around it. “She is Aubrina. Finn’s powerful psychic.” I didn’t want to mess with her. “She’s a lot like you.”
He pointed to one of the men; this one was buffer than the other. “This is Mikko Madill, Finn’s oldest son and Philip’s older brother.” Ah. That’s what I recognize in him. He was absolutely gorgeous, like his brother.
He didn’t point at the last man. “The last is Finn Madill himself.” I could definitely see where his sons got their looks. I knew they had to have different mothers though, their looks weren’t that close.
“Finn’s here to talk to you about what happened.”
The man Grayson introduced as Finn nodded, “As soon as everyone leaves us, we can get started.”
Grayson’s eyes quickly met Finn’s. It was a mild challenge, but still a challenge. “We didn’t agree to that.”
Finn’s eyes went from me to Grayson. “You want to stop that.”
“I’m not leaving her alone with you. You could snap her neck for her being what she is.” Grayson lowered his eyes, but his voice was a threatening growl.
“I don’t break my deals. So long as the deal I made with the previous alpha is still being honored, I shall honor my side.”
“What deal?” I cut in. I knew it wasn’t my place, but I couldn’t stop myself. Finn looked over me while I glared at Grayson, who just sighed. “What deal?”
Finn smiled at me like I was a child. That pissed me off. “Leave me with her. I’ll be nice.” Finn looked back to Grayson, who just nodded. Everyone started to exit. “Stay Aubrina.” Finn ordered as the rest of them walked out.
Brian waited for Amanda at the door. He wasn’t going to leave without his wife. She squeezed my hand once before getting off the bed with Matt.
When the door shut, I was in the room with the Alpha of all the alphas and his powerful psychic.
All I could think is: Don’t make a bad impression.