Chapter 41 Kendrick
Edgar holds my mate's wrist, looking at his watch while counting her heartbeats. Her color has returned, but there are other concerns.
"She will recover, physically. Mentally… we don't know what she went through."
"She should be awake by now, Edgar."
The doctor nods. "I know. I think she's close. Her mind is allowing itself to heal. She will wake when she's ready."
Centuries he and I have lived. Doc lost his first mate—not fated, though he loved her just as much—when he was barely fifty. Since then, he's had two more, and the last died from a wolf-born illness in his second century.
I've had wives. My last wife, whom I loved dearly, died in a car wreck along with my one-year-old daughter twenty-four years ago. And while you learn to carry the heartache, the loss, you never truly recover from it. Grief lives inside you, shaping and reforming.
I wasn't looking for Lily. I wasn't expecting her.
A fated mate—God, how I'd long since given up finding one.
But she's here now, and I'll raze the fucking earth if she's taken from me before I even get to look into her eyes.
She's so small. And young. I laugh, and the sound is foreign. It catches Edgar by surprise. "How old did her mother say she is? Thirty?"
Doc smiles wryly. "Thirty-five."
I huff, squeezing her hand, feeling the warmth of her blood course through her veins. I drop my head onto her blanket-covered thigh as she lies unresponsive in the hospital bed.
"Have you ever known of a delta—"
I shake my head. "No. I have some people I can ask, but it could take a while to get the message to them. But I will ask. Only Lily will have answers of what the witches have done to her." And why she seems to be transforming into an omega.
Her scent, since I've only just met her, is that of an omega. But everyone assured me she was a delta before she was taken. And so, when I breathe in and parcel her out, I can find pieces of both.
I don't know what it means, and between Edgar—Doc—and me, we've lived far too long to not have answers like these.
"Come. Let the girl rest. She isn't going anywhere. And her mother would like to be alone with her, I imagine," he motions toward the woman hovering in the hallway, waiting for me to leave. I suspect I make her uncomfortable.
Sometimes alpha power is like that. The less you can feel it, the stronger it is. And I hold mine in, like the light is shut inside me. Unfortunately for her, it was turned on when we arrived.
Doc adds, in effort to get me moving, "You decimated their numbers. The witches aren't coming back here, not now anyway. We have other problems."
The other missing omega. What a fucking mess this has become.
I knew it was leading there, but still…
I nod and agree to drive up to Grayson's cabin. I haven't been there since his father was Lune.
"If she wakes, or anything happens—"
"You'll be my first call," he says gravely.
I lean down and kiss my mate's forehead. She's just sleeping. Only sleeping. She will wake soon. She must.
Reluctantly, I leave the hospital. It doesn't take long to find my way. When we arrived early this morning with Lily, we went straight to the hospital. I haven't left her side since.
Grayson and Orion are likely planning a two-man army with little to no information, but we need to coordinate. The witches, we now know, are unequivocally responsible for the missing shifters, including Silas.
He was definitely tortured in that basement. What years of torture do to a person…
Additionally, the witches are responsible for my mate's coma. They will pay.
So, duty takes precedence over me sitting by Lily's side, willing her to wake.
I remember the drive easily enough. The energy along the way is subdued. The wolves of Silent Peak are mourning. When I reach the cabin, I'm surprised by how much bigger it is since I was last here. A third floor was added on. It's wider, too.
I wonder if Lily likes it here in Silent Peak.
I live in the Northwest. Grayson and I cannot occupy territory too close together, so I hope she's interested in moving.
Lily.
It's a beautiful name. And she's a beautiful woman.
I can't wait to see her eyes.
I step inside, surprised to find the house quiet. I expected two raging alphas. This is worse.
I hear them plotting in the back. But on my way there—
My feet freeze. A chill runs down my spine.
"Ken?" Grayson calls out.
I ignore him and head upstairs. Slowly.
One step at a time. I feel almost sick. Like I'm hallucinating.
"Kendrick?" he calls out again.
I follow the trail.
Jasmine. Dogwood flowers. Honey.
My hand, clammy, wraps around the doorknob. I let myself in.
Then it washes over me. I walk into a wall of it, her scent is everywhere. I ignore the bits that tell me what she's been up to, but the rest—she's here. She's been here, in this room, recently.
I walk over to the laundry basket. I pick up a dirty shirt.
"Kendrick," the voice behind me growls. "You shouldn't be in here."
I turn and find the two wolves glaring at me for being in their mate's space. I nearly stumble to the bed and sit down. And I bury my face in the shirt. And I inhale.
"Desi," I rasp.
"Kendrick, you are not her mate. You have one of your own." Grayson yanks the shirt out of my hands. I let him take it. He holds it up to his nose, his eyes watering. His voice shakes. "You're not my pack brother. I would know. Leave my mate's room. Now."
I breathe it in again. So sweet, like her mother. And honey—that was all her. My wife, Amy, smelled of wildflowers, but more earthy. My daughter had a sweeter essence.
I shake my head. "Your omega—Mona, you call her?"
Orion nods, coming closer, watching me cautiously.
"Desi, we called her. Desdemona was her given name. Mona—" I bury my head in my hands. "I didn't think—Desi, we always called her Desi. My daughter."
The silence is imploring and aching, sitting heavily between the three of us. "We will get her back. I don't know how or what happened—we will get her back."
The vow was always there, I'd sworn to help them. I was always going to help.
But this changes everything.
My fucking daughter.