Epilogue
A week later, Ian was sitting on Colton’s lap, looking at the computer screen, planning their trip to Scotland.
They would leave as soon as Ian fulfilled his commitment to Oracle—three months as a doctor for Jackson and the pup.
Oracle insisted Ian stay on even though father and pup were doing fine after Colton used the power given to him by Archangel Raphael to save Jackson.
They hadn’t decided what to do with Ian’s fortune but that would come later.
In the meantime, Colton thought a trip to Ian’s birthplace would help put to rest some of the ghosts his mate had wrestled with during his childhood and as an adult.
His brother fought Colton about the trip but in the end he relented when Ian and Colton agreed to a security detail to help protect the King of Scottish Wolves.
“I want to go there,” Ian said, pointing to a spot on the screen.
“Any reason why?”
“I don’t know, it just calls to me.”
Colton wrote the name down on a pad, adding it to a list that had grown daily. “At this rate, we might have to stay longer,” he chuckled. Hearing his phone ring, he answered it while giving Ian a kiss.“Hello?”
“Colton, this is Mystia. Jimmy will be there in a second with a badly injured shifter. He’s using my portal.”
“What? Now? Who is this shifter? Steel isn’t going to be happy about having a stranger here with his new son. Have you cleared it with him?” Colton muted his phone and said to Ian, “We have incoming. Badly injured shifter. Don’t know more than that.”
“I’m on it,” Ian said, leaving his mate and rushing towards the area Colton had set up as an emergency room.
“Mystia, sorry, Ian is getting everything ready to treat the shifter. But you have to clear this with Jackson…you know that.”
“Oracle is on her way there now. Jimmy is entering the portal. Colton, you must save this man.”
Before Colton could respond, Jimmy was standing before him, carrying someone who was so badly beaten his face was unrecognizable. Taking the man from Jimmy, he rushed him into the emergency room where Ian was waiting.
“Lay him down here,” Ian ordered.
Colton gently set him down, alarmed when he heard no groan from the man.
Stripping off the remnants of the man’s clothes, Colton and Ian examined the victim.
Working tirelessly, they were finally able to stabilize their patient and moved him to the area set up for intensive care that Steel insisted on after Jackson’s close call.
The shifter was in a deep coma and non-responsive.
The victim of the most brutal beating Ian had ever seen, he was now on a ventilator and Ian was sure if it were removed, the shifter would die.
Colton was at the desk entering the information onto the man’s chart and checking to make sure all monitoring devices were working when Steel roared down the hallway.
“Where’s the shifter?”
“He’s unconscious and in the ICU. He isn’t a threat, Steel. The man has been beaten badly. Look for yourself,” Colton said, as he drew the curtain back, showing Steel what once had a face.
“Holy Fuck! Who did that?”
Mystia appeared and said, “You have seen him before Steel. He is the Silver Point Pack Enforcer who is on the recording I sent to your brother.”
“You brought a Silver Point member into my house with Jackson and the pup? What are you fucking thinking?” Steel bellowed.
Ian left the man’s side, marched over to Steel and told him to please lower his voice. Just then, Jackson joined his mate and rested a hand on Steel’s arm, calming him immediately. Turning to Colton, Jackson asked, “What’s causing Steel to yell loud enough to wake our son?”
“Let Mystia tell you. She knows more about him than I do.”
Mystia assured Jackson the shifter presented no danger to the Blackwood Pack. When she told him the Fates sent him, the decision was made. Steel posted two enforcers outside the shifter’s room in order to satisfy his protectiveness.
When everything settled down, after Jackson and Steel left to return to their son, Mystia and Jimmy left too.
Colton settled in for a long night of watching and monitoring his patient.
Ian and he were taking shifts, so his mate was now asleep.
Hearing a noise, Colton looked up and saw Cody staring at the man.
“Hey bro, come to keep me company?”
“No, not really. Just wanted to see the shifter who caused all the uproar. Good thing Jackson can calm Steel down,” Cody said, his eyes on the patient.
“Yeah I bet. Ian was furious at Steel for yelling.”
“He looks pretty bad.”
“He is. Ian has never seen anyone so badly beaten.”
Cody’s body stiffened and his hands were clenched as he looked at the shifter. “Think he’ll make it?”
“I don’t know. Ian’s looking at the results of the tests and doing some research. Cody, did you hear he’s an enforcer with the Silver Point Pack?”
“Yeah.”
“I’m happy I don’t have to make a decision about what happens to him…my job is making sure he recovers.”
“Talk to you tomorrow, Colton, I’m heading to bed,” Cody said, his eyes filling with tears as he forced his body to turn and walk away from the injured shifter—his Fated Mate.
Turn the Page for a Sneak Preview of Book Three Blackwood Pack: Peace Maker