Chapter 16
Alby
The Hemlock Wolf Pack, Star’s Territory
I fell asleep as soon as my head hit the pillow that night.
Bennie had insisted on carrying me up the spiral staircase and I didn’t turn the offer down.
My shoulders ached from my first flight, and I was stuffed from all the takeout I’d managed to get down after one of the nurses offered me a prescription strength gummy for my baby belly flipflops.
Raziel did come home with us. Not to reclaim his house, but to stay in case we needed help.
I couldn’t imagine what we’d need help with, and it took me way too long to realize that Raziel just wanted to be close to his friend after everything that happened.
It took me even longer to realize all the alphas were concerned that someone might try to retaliate on one of us.
Even on me for helping Brad survive. I didn’t realize that until I was falling asleep but fuck them.
I’d eat them if they came and woke me up.
I had expected that Raziel would sleep in his own room or curl up on the other side of Bennie, but the alphas put me between them for safety.
I felt small and warm and safe there between the two brutes.
Maybe one day we’d all lay like this again, but Raziel’s true-mate would be behind me, his back pressed into mine as we lay between our alphas for safety or comfort or just for a lazy afternoon.
Wherever Raziel’s other half was, I hoped he was more than okay. I hoped that he was happy.
Sometime in the middle of the night, Raziel woke us all up.
He startled awake, sat straight up, clutching his chest like someone stabbed him or maybe he was having a heart attack.
He didn’t tell me what he dreamt about, but he and Bennie shared a look that made me wonder if my alpha knew.
I didn’t ask questions, instead I patted his back while he sat there staring blankly into space and Bennie went downstairs to bring up snacks.
I thought about Brad and his babies as I patted Raziel’s sweat-drenched back.
He’d come through his operation healthy and strong.
It took a lot to keep his bear under, but he’d already woken up before we left.
They even double-checked to make sure he was still just a bear shifter and hadn’t picked up a tiger from Bennie’s antibodies.
There was only one documented case of such a thing happening before, but the doctors were extra careful since that case became more widely known.
He’d been up and nursing his babies while the hospital staff fussed over him.
He cried when they placed not one little bear cub, but two in his arms.
Grandpa Clyde offered to take him to Hemlock Mountain Sanctuary, but Brad declined the offer because despite everything this was his home.
He was born and raised here. Plus, everything his parents owned automatically went to him and his babies.
I didn’t ask because it wasn’t my place, but I hoped he would find a therapist when he was discharged.
I hoped he found everything he wanted from life in fact because with parents like that who needed enemies?
Eventually, Raziel dozed back off, and Bennie and I laid back down too.
I turned onto my side facing him and scratching gently at the scruff that had come onto his face from a few days of not shaving.
Unlike the hair on his head, the scruff on his face was slightly tinted with the colors of his tiger.
“Thanks for letting him stay tonight,” Bennie said over our mating link.
“He’s family. We wouldn’t be together if not for him and…. Well, he beat me to the dirty work.”
“He’s good like that,” Bennie nodded.
“Thank you for helping Brad. I know it couldn’t have been easy,” I said, still playing with his scruff. “I know… He held me at gunpoint, but I feel like I should say tried to hold me at gunpoint because he didn’t have the energy to properly do it.”
“You wanted him to be okay. That’s admirable.
So, I helped him for you. Look, he’s never going to be my favorite person, but I want him to be okay, because you want him to be okay.
I get that he was desperate, but he pointed a gun at my pregnant mate.
We’ll watch out for him, because it’s the right thing to do, but don’t expect me to like him,” Bennie said over our mating link.
“I’ll take what I can get at this point,” I chuckled. “I’m pregnant, Bennie, and I couldn’t imagine being in that spot. He thought his mate had left him, and his parents had lost their minds holding one of his babies hostage while sending him on a suicide mission. I’d do that for our babies.”
Bennie opened his mouth about to say something about how he’d be harder to kill but stopped himself.
He knew that growing up more or less inside the Temple of Frost was a privilege.
Not all alphas were trained fighters and trusting someone meant they could easily get the jump on you.
The whole fucking thing was complicated, but we’d all come out on the other side alive.
Well, all the good guys anyway. And the babies.
All the babies were still alive to have their chances at happy lives. That was the most important part.
“I might not like him, but I’ll let you take the lead on this one, okay? And I’m sorry that I didn’t get what Frost was trying to tell me about Chad,” Bennie sighed over our mating link. “If I…”
“Nope. You told me and you remembered him. You thought about him a lot actually and I did too but with parents like that.. Fucking hell,” I sighed back at him.
“How is anyone supposed to turn out okay? You did what you could and because you told me I knew who he was. I wasn’t clueless when Brad said his name. ”
“I know but it just feels like I should’ve done more. Should’ve been able to stop it before it got this far,” he ran his fingers through my hair.
“I think we just have to be grateful that it turned out okay in the end,” I smiled at him. “We’re here. Our babies our here. Brad and his babies are okay. Raziel…”
“Raziel is working out something unrelated to this,” Bennie said. “This may have brought something up but he did what had to be done. I don’t think he’s having trouble living with that.”
“I hope not. I might’ve in the long run, but they endangered five fucking babies!”
Bennie stroked my hair until I fell back to sleep. That night I dreamt of flying on the back of a giant black bird. A tiny little piece of me was certain that it was the Crow King himself.
“You did it, little flying wolf,” the bird whispered inside my head.
“You broke the cycle for you and Brad. You should be proud. So many good things have come since Silas has taken over the pack. More good things will come but some will come at a price. Some simply will come at the price of great change. Enjoy your new life. Surround yourself with people you love. Your tiger cubs will fly these same skies one day. You are more than Hemlock or Raven Hollow. You all are connected to so much more than you can imagine. Rest little wolf bird, rest and be still.”