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27

REMY

I t took us about two minutes to get out of the house. Dax was still pulling his shirt over his wet head while I threw the car into drive and started down the mountain for the med center in town.

“Here,” Katy said, passing a pair of shoes to Sam so he could slip them on over his feet.

She gave me an anxious smile as I rounded a corner a little too fast, the back tires spinning for a second before they caught on the ground with a lurch.

“Is he okay?” Dax demanded, his face popping through the collar of his shirt as he yanked it down.

“Mom said the doctor was checking him out,” Katy relayed, her eyes focused on the road ahead as I turned the vehicle towards town.

“But this is good news, right?” he pressed.

Katy and I exchanged another set of looks.

Hopefully it was good news, but who knew? It wouldn’t surprise me if the world threw another sucker punch at me.

“It’ll be fine,” Sam said quietly, ever the voice of reason. “He’s Dad.”

Katy’s hands fisted on her lap as I screeched around another corner.

The medical center loomed ahead of us and I stepped on the gas, wincing as I had to swerve around a car that started pulling out of a side street. I closed the distance to the front of the building, throwing the car in park in front of the main doors.

My siblings were already out and running for the front doors. I followed them in, tossing my keys to the front desk receptionist in case they needed to move my car.

The four of us ran down the hall, too familiar with the route to Dad’s hospital room even after only five days. They piled into the room, but I stopped in the doorway and waited.

Dad was sitting up, his blue eyes alert and a small smile on his pale face.

I braced a hand on the metal frame, catching my breath as relief surged through me.

“Easy,” Mom said through a tearful smile. She got up from the edge of Dad’s bed so Katy could take her place.

“Hey, sweet girl,” Dad said, leaning his head against Katy’s as she leaned in to hug him with a broken sob.

Sam and Dax crowded around his other side, awkwardly piling on top of him without pressing against his injuries.

Mom skirted around the hospital bed to my side.

I swallowed thickly, unable to tear my eyes from where my dad was hugging my siblings. “Is he—”

“He’s going to make a full recovery,” she told me, grabbing my arm and squeezing. Her dark eyes met mine, wet with tears and shining with hope.

I sagged against the doorframe as that news sank in, almost dragging me to my knees. “Thank, God.”

Mom turned so her back was to him, pitching her voice low so he wouldn’t hear. “I haven’t had a chance to tell him about everything that’s going on. The doctor finished with him a minute before you guys came in. He only knows about the explosion and that it’s been almost five days. But he doesn’t know about Luke, or Skye, or Norwood.”

I nodded mutely as everything in me went cold and hard. This wasn’t a conversation I wanted to have with him now or ever.

She squeezed my fingers again. “I can tell him if you want.”

“No,” I managed hoarsely. “It’s on me to tell him.”

“I hear you two whispering over there,” Dad called gruffly.

Dax and Sam hedged a few inches away from the bed, but Katy didn’t get up. Her eyes found me across the room, full of understanding and resignation.

Dad’s gaze met mine and held. “What am I missing?”

“Are you hungry, Daddy?” Katy asked, pulling his attention away for a fraction of a second.

He turned his head and must have caught onto the look in her eyes. “Yeah. Maybe a burger from the cafe?”

“With extra fries and a chocolate milkshake,” Katy finished, smiling. “You got it.”

She slipped off the bed and looked at the twins. “Let’s go.”

“We just got here,” Dax argued. He glared back at her when she arched an eyebrow.

“And now we’re getting Dad food,” she replied firmly. “Let’s go.”

Dax again started to say something, but Sam shut him up with a look before standing up and heading for Katy. After a beat, Dax got up, too.

I stepped back so they could all get out before coming into the room and closing the door. The snick of the latch catching echoed in the silence.

Mom went back and sat on the bed beside Dad, reaching for his hand and tangling their fingers together. She gave me a tight-lipped, supportive smile.

I grabbed the chair that had been shoved into a corner on the other side of his bed and pulled it closer to the edge.

“That bad, huh?” Dad mused, looking down with a sigh. “Okay. Tell me everything.”

“What do you remember?” I asked, leaning towards him and resting my forearms on the edge of his bed.

“Not much,” he admitted reluctantly. “Luke and I were talking to a couple of Alphas who had some women go missing last month. It’s all a blur after that.”

“There was a bomb,” I added with a wince, remembering all-too-well the concussive blast that knocked me off my feet. “Turns out it was Norwood that set it off. Damien and Trace were long gone by the time it went off.”

“Fuck,” he muttered, his jaw clenched. “How many dead?”

“Almost everyone,” I replied softly. “The bomb took out almost every Alpha in North America, and the heirs. Griffin, Dante and I were outside when it went off, so we were okay, but the others...”

His eyes closed in anguish as the news sank in. Pain pulled his features taut.

“Dad.”

He opened his eyes and looked at me, and I hated that I was about to add to his pain.

“Luke didn’t make it.”

He bowed his head and clenched his fist while Mom leaned against his shoulder, silently offering support that he needed. She curled around his arm, pressing against him as he realized one of his closest friends was dead.

“Dammit,” he hissed, rubbing his eyes with his free hand. His eyes were blue blazing when he lifted his head. “I should have fucking killed Damien years ago.”

I couldn’t argue with that; it sure would have saved us a lot of trouble.

“You made the right call then,” Mom told him, running a hand over his cheek and turning his head to face her. “We both know that there was no easy choice back then.”

He stared into her eyes for what seemed like minutes before he nodded, finding whatever absolution of the past he needed in her gaze.

“How bad is it?” Dad asked me.

“Bad,” I answered honestly. “Norwood has taken most of the packs on the east coast, and they’ve started moving to the middle of the country. They were already into North Carolina before we got you and Luke onto the plane. By the time we landed, they were in Florida and had taken over all the packs on the eastern seaboard.”

Dad’s eyes flared wide with a momentary glimpse of shock.

“We have a plan to stop him,” I went on. “We’re offering sanctuary to any pack that doesn’t want to join him. Several packs have already agreed. They’re joining Blackwater at the end of the week.”

“It won’t be enough,” Dad muttered. “Damien must have a few thousand shifters now. Our numbers can’t match that.”

“Actually we can,” I replied. “Thanks to Skye.”

Mom tilted her head curiously as Dad looked at me suspiciously. His eyes darted around the room like he expected Skye to pop out from behind a door.

I fucking wished.

“Where is she?” he asked slowly.

“Skye and Tate were taken when the bomb went off,” I said. That familiar crush of regret and anger rolled through me, but the sting was a little less now that Skye was coming home. “I wasn’t with her, and by the time I got to the cabin to get her, she was gone. They both were.”

His eyes went frighteningly lethal for a second. The blue in his eyes turned glacial. “What?”

“Turns out that guy, Daniel? He’s actually Skye’s brother or something. He took her home to her father when shit went down. He thought he was protecting her.”

I held up a hand before he could say anything. There was nothing he could say I hadn’t already thought. “She’s safe, Dad, and she’s leaving to come home in a few hours.”

“She is?” Mom started to smile.

“Yeah. The storm cleared out sooner than they thought so she’s getting on a plane in a few hours, but she isn’t coming alone.”

I launched into what had happened since he was knocked unconscious. I told him everything from what I knew about Skye’s dad to the plan to make a stand against Norwood. I filled him in on Elias, and how he had dicked us all over. Dad listened quietly, absorbing everything I said.

When I finished, he shook his head in amazement.

“I’m proud of you, Remy,” he said sincerely.

My breathing hitched as emotion swelled in my chest. It wasn’t the first or fiftieth time he had said those words to me, but somehow it meant more now. Maybe because I had been questioning myself so much lately.

“You’re doing exactly what I would have done,” he added, practically in my damn head as he spoke the words I needed to hear. “Hell, I think you’ve thought of some things I never considered. Using the new housing development is smart.”

“That was mostly Katy,” I replied.

“Yeah.” Dad sighed quietly before turning to Mom. “Can you give us a second, baby?”

“Of course.” Mom kissed him before sliding off the bed and leaving the room.

Once she was gone and the door closed, Dad gave me his full attention.

“You know, I always figured we had a few more decades before you took over,” he started with a wry smile. He gestured to his body laying on the bed. “But here we are.”

“Mom said you’re going to make a full recovery.” I frowned at him, my eyes already scanning his body to check for any injuries I might have missed.

“I will. Eventually.” He exhaled, his wide shoulders lifting and falling. “But I’m in no shape to Alpha right now, Remy. We both know that.”

I ground my molars together defiantly. This man was my hero; he was the guy who was infallible.

Seeing him in a hospital bed with pale skin and tucked under sterile white blankets made him look almost mortal. Almost human.

“It’s not just the busted arm and ribs, or the knock on the head. Doc says I have a compressed nerve in my spine,” he added lowly, like admitting that being hurt by a thousand pound steel beam was somehow avoidable. “They’re going to have to do surgery on it. At least one, maybe two. Yeah, I’ll be okay, but not today. Hell, probably not this month.”

Rubbing the back of my neck, I sighed.

“I’ll tell my council that you’re keeping control of the pack. Hopefully that will help smooth things over.”

I scoffed. “Too late. First thing Lodge did was challenge me.”

“Fucker,” Dad muttered, shaking his head. “How’d that go?”

“Kicked his ass,” I replied, smirking.

“That’s my boy,” he said with a wide grin. After a second, it slipped away and his expression became serious.

“Remy, you’re the best man I know. There’s no one else I trust to lead this pack.”

I mashed my lips together, blinking hard and fast to keep the sudden flood of emotions in check.

“Trust yourself,” he advised, reaching out and laying his hand over mine. “You can do this, son.”

“Thanks,” I whispered, rising up to lean over and hug him.

His arm wrapped around my back, gripping me tightly. His strength wasn’t completely back, but then Gabe Holt’s strength wasn’t just in his muscles. It was in his heart, his soul.

I just hoped I could be half the Alpha he was. Maybe then we would have a fighting chance.