Seren stood by Donovan as they watched the white car pull up the long driveway to stop in front of the porch. She plucked nervously at the hem of her shirt while he simply groaned and rubbed his hair back and forth.
"If she gave him a hell of a time, she is going to bore me to death talking my ear off for hours!" His shoulders slumped like he was going to throw a grade A pouty fit. "And she is going to expect me to go do something about it, too. The last time Liam and I got into a fight, we totalled three cars and destroyed half of the garage...sorry, I forgot you don't really like hearing his name," he grumbled.
A ghost of a smile passed over her face and then vanished again as she saw the car door open and Cara, as real as she had ever been, stepped out, pulling Gillie out behind her. The little girl tugged her pink roll-along suitcase behind her as she walked briskly toward the house with the air of a Princess, her mother retrieving her own bags from the car's trunk before following.
"Come on, if I am not down there when she comes in, she will only nag me more," he sighed.
"Are you sure you aren't overreacting?" Seren nearly tripped trying to keep up with him, pulling back suddenly when he walked into the living room where Cara was so that she could hide and see what Cara might say.
"Sissy," Donovan began, holding open his arms.
"That stupid son of a b-!" The last word was muffled in his chest as he hugged her a little tightly, perhaps trying to keep her quiet. She continued to rant into his pectorals until he released her. "- and safe? I don't even know what is going through that thick skull of his. That packs needs her now more than ever and hell knows where she is by now! What if the Gray Paws tracked her down!?"
Donovan bent down and picked Gillie up, hugging her and swinging her back and forth like a teddy bear while her mom continued to rant. He set her down and they did a secret handshake, with a portion being some of the motions from the "I'm a Little Tea Cup" song, which looked hilarious when performed by a big man. He sighed wearily once he had finished. "Cara. We can talk about this later-"
"Really? Because I think you need to go over there and kick his ass!"
"Mommy, it's booty, not A - S - S. And don't yell at Uncle Don," Gillie said, silencing her angry mother. "He's just a boy. He doesn't know things."
"What she said!" Donovan piped up. "No, wait. Just, both of you hold on just a second. I need to show you something."
"It's a pony, Mommy!"
"No, it's not. Sorry," he grumbled. He turned to where Seren was hiding and waved for her to come out.
Taking a deep breath, butterflies in her stomach, she stepped forward, watching as Cara's eyes widened in disbelief and then, to Seren's amazement, pure joy.
"Seren!" She and Gillie cried in unison, sprinting over to hug her.
Never in her life had she been so surprised. Here, she thought that Cara would have the same opinion as her older brother about her, that she was too weak, when in reality Cara was angry that he had forced her to leave and was happy that she was safe on top of it all.
"I am so sorry, Seren, for what that shit-for-brains put you through. Gillie, erase that from your brain," she said, covering the child's ears. "The morning you were gone, he just locked himself in his office and wouldn't speak with anyone except to tell us that he had sent you away. I barged in and yelled at him for about an hour and he didn't seem to care about a word I said! Then he put Derrick in charge and said he would be unavailable until further notice and sent us here to get me off his back. Can you believe that? I don't know if he is preparing for a war or if he is losing his mind because he stupidly pushed the one person in the world who-" She closed her eyes and exhaled. "I'm sorry. I'm just really angry at him and think he is being the dumbest ever."
Seren nodded uncomfortably, overwhelmed by the torrent of emotions she was receiving from both Cara and her inner self.
She suddenly smiled, seeing that she was making Seren edgy. "Well, how has this one been treating you? Do I need to tear him a new one as well?"
"Tear a new what, Mommy?" Gillie asked.
"A...new coloring page out of the book...I love coloring!" Donovan smiled.
"I will tear you a new one!" Gillie said, squatting and digging through her bag.
"Yes, he has been good to me," Seren answered. "It's a little crazier here than...well, there."
"Hey, we don't have sticks up our a-aaaapples here," Donovan defended, saving himself from Gillie's sharp mind.
"Well, I am glad to hear it. I'll call Derrick and let him know you are safe-"
"No," Seren said wide-eyed. "You can't do that. He told me that if he knew where I was, he would have to send someone ot come kill me because I am a rogue."
"WHAT THE CRAP!?" Cara was close to losing it. "I can't. I'm going to shift." She stomped out of the room. Gillie calmly handed her uncle a coloring page.
"Mommy is really mad at Uncle Liam, huh?"
"Yes, Milady," he nodded solemnly.
"He did a mean thing to Seren. I am mad at him, too," she stated with the assurity of a real princess. "You are supposed to only be nice to ladies."
Seren's heart softened a bit and warmed with joy that it hadn't all been her. It seemed only her mate believed that she was worth nothing.
"That is right," Donovan agreed.
"When you get your mate, you will make her always be happy and never tell her to go away," Gillie instructed.
"Well, if I don't find her soon, I may just have to take Seren," he chuckled.
Seren looked at him as though he were insane. No. She was considering rejecting Liam so there was no way she was even in the mood for thinking about having another mate. She was determined that her mate would be of her choosing and who she would fall in love with.
"I'm only joking," he grinned.
She huffed at him.
"It happened again, didn't it?" Daniel bent down to look at Seren's face as she tried to turn away.
She gave him a grunt in return, one of exhaustion and reluctance to answer him. How she slept was not his business anyway- not that she had been doing much of it. In fact, she had spent half the night sitting up with a book that Cara had picked out for her, reading so that she would not fall back asleep into the realm where her mate continued to plague her.
It had been over a week since Cara and Gillie had arrived and each night had been proving more and more difficult to sleep through. Seren had yet to be able to keep her damned mate out of her thoughts and so he had, stubbornly, taken up visiting the dream world, though it wasn't as pleasant as it sounded.
The nightmares were hellishly real and they were chronologically progressive on top of that. The first dream she had had about Liam being in chains and battling the virus had continued into a series with her as the only member of the audience. He remained chained to that wall, becoming more and more crazed, snarling at Gloria whenever she came to tend to him, crumbling deeper within his own mind.
"WHERE IS SHE!?" he had screamed more than once, panting. "I can't smell her here anymore."
"That's because she is gone," Gloria responded calmly, checking the fluid bags that dangled out of reach, a thin line feeding sedatives, relaxers and nutrients into the crook of his arm, but the chains were short enough that he couldn't touch it in a fit of anger.
"Someone knows where she went. Someone knows where she is. I demand that you tell me, now!" His entire frame shook with the force behind his words, his teeth sharp and his eyes like blue flames in the shadow of his face.
His hair had grown shaggy and the sweat had not ceased to flow from his burning skin, though he had lost a bit of weight, unable to eat much with the pain that came and went as it pleased.
"Your commands won't work on me anymore, Liam. She is safe, wherever she is. You must keep your concentration on remaining in this form."
"It doesn't matter if I am going to die anyway, Healer," he growled. His temper, short as it was before, was constantly in use at the present. "I should have Marked her. I can smell every damn she wolf in heat in this f****** building right now, even the ones that aren't, but I only want her. If she were here-"
"If she were here, you would not be able to control your beast and you would shift or do something stupid like Marking her. Then she would have the virus, too. You sent her away. She is gone. Now focus," she said, curtly.
"DO NOT PUSH ME, WOMAN! If I tell you to find her, you will!"
"Calm yourself, Liam. You are not the alpha at the moment, nor will you be unless we find a way to cure you. Your brother sent some of his blood to try on you, in the hopes that it would be a close match," she continued, readying a syringe.
He let loose a hideous roar and tugged at the chains. Gloria then injected him with the trial antidote and a few seconds later he had stopped completely, staring at the opposite wall, stunned. Gloria waited, watching.
Liam slumped to his knees and let out a strained breath before it came in again raggedly. He dug his nails into the floor, breaking the tiles to her surprise, straining against himself to keep the wolf inside. A cry of agony broke the silence in the room as his veins bulged against his skin and he started to tear at them with his claws, drawing rivulets of blood that ran down on the floor. His shoulder blades shifted upward, trying to take the wolf's form, his spine cracking.
Gloria raised to draw up the heavy concoction of painkillers and sedatives that would put him out as the fur began to sprout on his flesh, his face enlongating. Turning into the wolf was a way of coping with great pain and now he was doing it without thinking. Shakily, she drove the needle into his line and held her breath, waiting for the moans that told her he was going down.
When he finally did, she carefully approached him and began to dab at the blood and sweat with a damp cloth. She sighed. She felt badly for him, but it wasn't his fault. He had been dealt a tough hand and his death would only weaken the pack in a time when they needed to stay strong. No one knew that he was in the infirmary, only that he had gone to seek council on the matter of the Red Toothed Pack.
And now...She pulled a blanket over his trembling body.
That had been one of the earlier dreams.
The more recent ones had shown Liam...as something that no one would ever want to see, especially those that had been close to him. His features were constantly morphing, half animal, as he tried to cope with the pain, a pain so intense that Seren was sure that she was feeling it when she saw him experiencing it. He was on the edge. Any day, he would lose it. Or at least the dream Liam would. Her guts were screaming at her that the dreams were real- how couldn't they be, when Seren was feeling what he felt and woke up trembling and achy and sweaty as he was? But rationally, she knew that he was fine, that he had moved on and was doing well, sitting at his big chair at the head of the table.
Daniel was still staring at her. "You look awful," he commented rudely.
She scowled at him, brushing past. "Thanks, you ass. I'm fine."
"No, you aren't," he said, grabbing her arm. "You look worse than yesterday and yesterday you looked worse than the day before. You aren't sleeping well. You need to go talk to Garret, the healer. I've been helping him out since we got here and he really knows his stuff."
He was telling the truth. The worse dream Liam got, the worse she seemed to feel, but it was probably from lack of sleep. She had seen herself in the mirror just a few moments before and knew that her eyes had lost their sparkle, her hair seemed dull and her skin looked off-color. Perhaps she was just getting the flu or it was the effect of losing her mate.
"Who needs to see a healer?" Cairo's eyes narrowed as he came around the corner, seeing that Seren was the only one who Daniel was talking to and assumed that it was her. "What's wrong with you?"
She sighed wearily.His eyes glazed over a bit as he communicated through the mind link and Seren nearly hit him to get him to stop, but she would be too slow and was too tired.
"Come," he said. "I've told Garret that we are on our way." Cairo reached for her, but she pulled away.
"This is stupid," she protested, grumpily. "It is neither of your businesses to force me to see a doctor. I'm just a little under the weather, is all. I'm not sleeping well. That's it."
"Donovan and Cara would want you to see the healer," Cairo insisted. "If you are contagious, you pose a threat to the children and the elderly."
"I'll stay in my room, then!" Seren bit out. She was feeling more angry by the second and her head had begun to pound, backing her up.
"I've seen this before, I think. She needs to be with her mate," Cairo said, looking at Daniel.
Now they were talking about her like she wasn't standing right in front of them? Really?
"I don't need to be with him!" She growled loudly. "I don't want anything to do with him! I'm not going to the stupid healer and that is that!" Seren was not one to be snappy, but she was having a crazy migraine and just wanted to lie down. She turned to march away, but the floor suddenly slanted and the walls leaned crazily. Blinking hard, she realized Daniel was holding her up, her legs refusing to work and the cold tingly feeling wrapped around her brain, forcing her vision away.
When she woke up, she was lying on one of the plush beds in the medical room, and she quickly made sure that she was still wearing the same clothes. She sighed in relief, drawing the attention of those sitting around that she hadn't noticed. Cara, Donovan, Daniel and man she didn't recognize sitting at a desk, but assumed was Garret, all turned to look at her.
Seren sat up quickly and swallowed, her dry throat protesting.
"You're awake. My name is Garret," the man said, standing, affirming her suspicions. "You...fainted...and Daniel brought you here. He says that you are not doing as well as when you arrived. What is wrong? Maybe we can help you out?"
She glared at Daniel who quickly became very interested in counting the bricks in the wall by the door. "I am not sleeping well. Must be moving to a new pack and all," she grumbled for the hundredth time.
"What are the nightmares about?" Garret sat down on the end of the bed.
Seren didn't like this. He was trapping her in and she felt claustrophobic, not to mention they were all staring at her. "I...I didn't say anything about nightmares," she said, shakily. She looked at Daniel again. "Why don't you just ask him? He seems to know everything."
"This is serious, Seren," Donovan spoke up. "I have noticed a change as well. I believe you are getting sick because of the break in your mate bond or that something might be wrong with Liam. Mates can mirror each other's health and even have dreams about that them that are more like shared thoughts through the connection. He is not answering my calls either."
"We are worried for you both," Cara said.
So this is a f****** intervention? Fantastic. Nobody is ever going to just leave me the hell alone.
"What are the nightmares about?" Garret asked again.
Seren blushed fiercely, the heat crawling over her face and down her neck. "About him...I guess," she admitted. Surely, now she seemed weak, confessing that she had been dreaming of the asshole that had dumped her and told her to get lost. How pathetic.
"What about him?" Cara asked, though her eyes said not to tell if she didn't want to...if it was a different kind of dream.
"That he is...that he has the virus. I dream that he is getting worse every day, but there is nothing anyone can do. But it makes sense!" She had to defend herself. "I mean, my best friend had the virus and I saw him shift into one of those...things and then L...Liam killed him. It makes sense that I would dream the same thing is happening to him."
Cara looked worriedly at her brother and he nodded, pulling out his phone.
"Wait, you aren't going to call him are you? H-he can't know where I am, he said so himself!" Panic had wriggled its way into her voice.
"Don't worry, Seren," Donovan told her. "Nobody's taking you to slaughter." He listened to the phone for a moment and then straightened. "Derrick. I need to speak with- No. I know that he isn't taking calls, but I am his brother, damn it. What do you mean you are under orders?...I know what it means, smart ass!" He hung up.
"What are you doing? We need to know if he is actually sick!" Cara protested.
"Perhaps you should contact their healer, Gloria, isn't it?" Garret asked.
Seren went rigid and Donovan narrowed his eyes at the movement, as though he could see right through her attempt to mask her expression into one of nonchalance. He probably did. Gloria had been the only other one in her dreams and if anyone knew what was going on with Liam, it would be her.
"Gloria. Yes, I have her," he said, his gaze not leaving his brother's mate. There was a long and daunting silence and then all of their hearts dropped when his face fell. His hand fell away from his face as he clenched his jaw and stared at the floor. His eyebrows bowed together so that his eyes were obscured from view.
"What?" Cara's voice was barely a whisper, yet they all heard.
"She was right," he said.
The feeling of becoming faint, yet heavy at the same time, blew through Seren like a ship through a dam, releasing a wall of water that rushed through her body and paralyzed her. She stared at Donovan in shock and horror, not only comprehending what he had said, but realizing that she was crushed by it. Her world seemed like it was collapsing in from every angle, squishing her into a tiny ball that could be thrown in a trash can.
"W-what? N-no...no...He's not..." Words were formed on her lips, but no voice came out and the numbness that had control of her body would not go away. It was even worse than when he had banished her and told her he didn't want her anymore.
This was different.
"He's going to die. Gloria says that he will likely shift by tomorrow night. He has been holding on for so long already," he whispered.
"We...have to..." Seren struggled to get out of the bed, but her arms felt like they were attached to cinder blocks. "We have...to figure someting out..."
Cara grasped her shoulders when she made it to her feet, keeping her from swaying. There were tears in her eyes and they fell onto her soft brown hair. She looked so heartbroken that it nearly made Seren lose her composure as well. "We don't have his blood. We can't make any antidote for him," she said through a wavering voice. "Donovan, I need to see him. I have to appologize for yelling at him."
There was a horrible buzzing in Seren's head and she struggled to hear their conversation over it. This wasn't happening. It had to be some sort of dream. She couldn't have had such an awful time with the one destined for her, only to have him die. It would have hurt to reject him or be far from him, but he would be out there somewhere, alive. Now, it was so finite.
But it was what she had wanted all along. Right? To find her own true love, to make her own path? She had only ever wanted him to just go away and now, her wish had been granted. It was all her fault.
She leaned back and plopped down on the bed, her whole body still buzzing with shock, protesting to the idea that her other half was really going to be gone. Even though her time with him hadn't been wonderful, she had felt something for him, that connection had bonded them together. The way he had looked at her some times had made her think that he had cared. No, she knew he had. He had saved her life.
Seren lurched to her feet, staggering before Donovan grabbed her wrist to balance her. Her heart was racing a million beats per minute and the room spun with her fervor. "I know what to do! I know how to save him!"
They looked at her sympathetically, thinking she had finally lost it, but Cara's eyes held hope.
"Seren," Donovan sighed.
"No! I have his blood right here! It's in me. He gave me his blood when I was attacked! Take it," she held out both of her arms. "You have to try!"
All eyes turned to Garret who was blinking rapidly. "It might work," he said, jumping into action. He turned to a medical cabinet and pulled out several blood tubes and a catheter. "I'll need quite a bit," he added.
Donovan gently guided her back to the bed and she sat again, looking away as the needle bit her skin. Her blood pressure was more than sufficient to quickly fill the tubes, but she was already weak. She felt her face, hands and feet getting cold and tingly first, then Daniel was in front of her and she tipped forward into darkness.