Chapter 46
Chapter Forty-Six
“R uby! Ruby!” Lena’s voice broke through her shock. “Come on, we have to get you inside.”
Ruby was kneeling in the dirt at the edge of the woods. Rafe was gone. She looked up at Lena, her tears blurring her sister’s concerned face.
“Come on, Ruby. You’re bleeding.” Lena tugged on her hand, but Ruby couldn’t find any strength to stand.
Rafe had just run off into the woods to chase a vicious werewolf with at least two more on his tail.
Ruby had seen them race after him. He was as good as dead.
Her Mate was ripped from her, robbing her of a lifetime with him.
Another wail escaped her lips. Lena grabbed her under the arms and hoisted her up, shushing and whispering to her as they hobbled toward the house.
Ruby was vaguely aware that she was bleeding and that her shoulder burned with every step.
But the pain was nothing compared to the one tearing through her chest.
Lena dragged her back into the house, Ruby weeping and bleeding all over her. She helped her into a kitchen chair and gingerly cleaned her wound. Ruby winced at the sting of peroxide. The pain snapped her out of her spinning thoughts.
“He’s my Mate, Lena. I know you don’t believe it, but he’s it. He’s mine.” Her voice was clogged with tears. She sounded pitiful.
Lena peered down into her face after wrapping her arm in a bandage. “I think you’ll live,” she reported.
“Not without him.”
“Oh, Ruby.”
“I don’t know where he went or if he’ll come back,” she sniffed, wiping her nose on the back of her hand. “There was more than one, Lena.”
Lena passed Ruby the box of tissues, her pale eyes seeing everything: Ruby’s blotchy face, her runny nose, her bloody shoulder. And maybe seeing more than that.
“I believe you. Or I’m trying to anyway. After Theo’s show and tell, it’s hard to deny what they are.” Lena gave her a rueful smile and Ruby couldn’t help but return it. “But now you’re telling me you can’t live without him? This is all pretty nuts, you know.”
“I know.”
Lucifer wound between Ruby’s legs under the table, purring contentedly, having emerged from wherever he’d been hiding.
Ruby glared at him. “I blame you for this.” He stopped and blinked at her with golden eyes.
“Okay, fine, you’re right. It’s not your fault.
” She turned back to her sister, the cat draping himself over her feet, comforting her with his warm little body.
“I know it will take some time to accept all this.” Honestly, Ruby was impressed her sister hadn’t gone running from the house after Theo’s display.
Most people would have, but then again, the Bellerose sisters were not most people.
Maybe years of living with Ruby and Millie had desensitized Lena to the utterly bizarre and mildly creepy.
Ruby took a breath, “Lena, I have to tell you something. The?day of the accident, I didn’t want Mom and Dad to go. Remember?”
Her sister poured the tea and brought it to the table. She slid into the seat across from Ruby. They rarely spoke about that day. “I remember. You threw a fit about it.”
“I think I knew.”
Lena paused with her mug halfway to her lips. “What?”
Ruby took a breath and plowed forward, finally saying things she’d kept bottled up for years. “I think I knew what was going to happen. I tried to stop it.”
“What are you saying? We’re both… What did Rafe call it? Seers?”
Ruby shrugged. “I guess?”
“You saved me that day.”
“I should have done more.” She’d managed to convince her parents to let the girls stay home with their favorite babysitter, but she couldn’t convince them to cancel their plans.
“Ruby, you were eight.”
She nodded, her hair swishing over her shoulders.
She knew she shouldn’t feel guilty about it.
It wasn’t her fault that the roads were slick, icy weather coming before anyone expected it, but that didn’t stop her from waking up in a cold sweat sometimes, the fear and the panic so close to the surface she couldn’t breathe.
“It didn’t happen again after that. I thought it was a weird coincidence, a dream. And then after a while I let myself believe it had never happened at all.”
Lena grabbed her hand. Her fingers were cold and frail, and Ruby squeezed them tighter.
“But now, it’s happening to you.”
“I don’t know what it means, Ruby. The visions are slippery, like I can’t grab on to them, and when I try to, they just slide through my fingers.”
“Maybe this was it? Maybe this attack is what you saw? But?I’m fine.” Ruby swallowed the word “fine,” not wanting to think about what was happening to Rafe. Not wanting to wonder if he was fine too.
Lena shook her head. “They were looking for me.”
Ruby’s eyes went wide. “How do you know?”
“I saw it. Or pieces of it anyway. When you left my room. They wanted me, those wolves that came. I could feel it.” Her sister’s eyes were haunted, fear shimmering in their pale depths. “I don’t understand why they keep attacking you.”
“They think I’m you. Wyatt called me Lena.”
“Who the hell is Wyatt?”
Ruby blew out a long breath. There was so much she hadn’t told Lena. She started with the first time she met Wyatt, about how Rafe knew what he really was, about how he’d come back several times, about how he’d attacked her.
“And you kept all of this from me?” Lena asked when Ruby finished.
“I didn’t want to worry you.”
“Ruby! I’m not a child! You should have told me.” Her eyes flashed in anger.
“I know. I’m sorry.”
“You’ve been treating me like I’m broken.”
Her words stopped Ruby in her tracks. Is that really how she felt? After everything Ruby had done for her to keep her safe? “I never meant to. Lena, I wanted to?… to?… protect you from all of this. I didn’t think you’d believe me anyway. You didn’t at first, remember?”
“It’s not just all this?… werewolf stuff!” Lena sputtered. “It’s everything! Why don’t you go lie down, Lena. Why don’t you go rest, Lena. Why don’t you shut yourself up in your room forever, Lena!”
“I never said that!”
“You may as well have!”
They were both standing now, hands braced on the table in front of them. Lena’s chest rose and fell with every breath, hurt and anger radiating off of her. Had Ruby really been treating her like that? Like she was broken?
“I was trying to take care of you,” Ruby said. “I’m scared.”
Lena’s eyes fluttered closed at the confession. “Me too,” she said.
“I am doing the best I can.” Even if it wasn’t enough, Ruby had always tried to do her best for her sister.
“So am I,” Lena said with a sigh, lowering back into her chair. “Tell me the rest. Wyatt came back today?” And it wasn’t forgiveness or an apology, or a resolution even, but it was what they needed to focus on at the moment.
Ruby nodded, still feeling Wyatt’s grip on her arm, how he tried to get her to go with him. She sure as hell wasn’t going to go willingly. “He said he wanted my help. Or yours more likely. He thinks you have talents that could help his Alpha.”
“And he thought you would simply agree to go? Didn’t he know about Rafe?”
“He brought backup. I guess he was tired of waiting. Or his Alpha was.”
“Three against one,” Lena whispered.
“Yeah.” Ruby’s heart clenched.
“He’ll be okay.”
Ruby gave her a small smile. Despite their fight, it was nice, at least, to feel like they were in this together. She leaned back in her chair and pain shot through her shoulder. She winced, a soft hiss escaping her lips.
“You’re not going to turn into a werewolf, are you?” Lena asked, only half joking.
“Uh?… probably not?” Ruby held her shoulder and squeezed her eyes shut, trying desperately not to think about the werewolf currently out there fighting for her. He should have listened to her. He should have stayed. He should be the one tending to her injuries. She blew out a frustrated breath.
“He’ll come back, Ruby.”
Ruby nodded. She met her sister’s gaze, feeling like there was more to say. About their parents, about Lena’s visions, about being literally tracked and hunted by werewolves, about how Ruby had been treating her. But Ruby didn’t know what to say or do about any of that.
Lena untangled her fingers from Ruby’s and got up to pour more tea.
“What do we do now?” Ruby asked, her hands curling around her mug, her mind racing.
“We wait for Rafe to come home, I guess.”
“Okay, but I’m terrible at waiting.”
“Lucky for you, it’s all I’ve been doing lately. I’ll help you pass the time.”