Page 41

Stacy

Jase’s truck pulls up and it’s just him in it.

It’s been forever, it seems, waiting here for news.

“C’mon, everybody.” He gestures to be followed. “You’re with me, Stacy,” he adds, getting out of his truck, moving around and opening the door for me. His expression is grim.

It’s been a long while of waiting here, feeling fidgety, worrying about what might be happening on the other side of the fences.

I’ve been feeling pulsing tension from Grey in my chest at an extreme level, so I know whatever is on the other side isn’t good.

“Cat?” Jase calls. “Drive the van to the front gate but stay inside until one of ours comes out for you, please, yeah?”

“Got it, Jason,” she replies, already on the move.

“Gus? Lock up Jared’s camper and tow it with us. Follow with everyone else, will ya? Nothing left behind here.”

“Yup,” Gus says.

I shakily clip my seatbelt.

Jase looks angry. Very.

***

“Watch where you’re walking. Right behind me, yeah? We had to snip some trip wires, and I don’t want to take any chances in case any were missed. There’s noisemakers out here, too and I don’t know if we got ‘em all.”

“Okay,” I say, anxiety pulsing inside me as we go through opened back gates. It definitely smells worse here than it did when I was last here.

“Everyone’s in the big building with all the tables,” Jase tells me.

“Mess hall?” I ask.

“Yup,” he replies, expression harder than I’ve ever seen it. “Rounded ‘em all up so we’ve got everyone in a central zone.”

I follow Jase past the training area, some of the storage buildings, and the canteen where the men drink and get rowdy, and I’m passing more piles of twisted metal, junk, and debris than even before, past Wyatt’s house and that dreaded cabin behind it. It’s painted what used to be a sunny-looking yellow, or so I thought when I was too young to know what went on in there, too young to be sent into the now grayish with peeling yellow paint building that feels like it sits under a permanent cloud.

My senses sharpen as I pick up the scents in our largest building. The mess hall acts as a central meeting place, is where everyone started taking meals together, and this long building separates the village’s back end from the figure-eight road where all the pack members’ homes are.

Ahead of the figure-eight road is a line of mature trees and in front of that, the wood gate that blocks the residences from the business zone. It used to be that the junk was contained ahead of that fence, but in the last few years, it’s built up everywhere. It always smells like an old mechanic’s garage here but now it also smells of sulfur, ammonia, vomit, rotting meat.

My emotions are all over the place. Things are very wrong here. Even more wrong than usual.

Instead of going into the mess hall where I scent a lot of people, Jase mutters that he’s walking me to Grey by the trailers and cabins.

When I spot Grey outside my modular, where I lived since Father died and Wyatt moved me out of his house, my belly lurches.

Grey’s eyes are on me, but his cheeks are streaked with red. He’s pacing, fuming. Blood has been coming out of his eyes, though it looks like it’s now dry. He stops when he sees me and huffs out a hard exhale, eyes flashing from silver to shiny silver and three red sparks flare out from above his head and burn to ash.

Concerned, I hurry to get to him faster, and he’s doing the same, storming in my direction, then suddenly wrapping his arms around me too tight, pressing his mouth to my forehead. The blood on his t-shirt is still wet, but I know by the scent it’s his own blood and he’s not bleeding anywhere so it’s clearly from eye blood vessels popping out of anger. He’s sweaty. He’s shaking with that anger. My chin is tilted up and now our eyes are connected and the fire in his is raging.

“What’s wrong?” I ask.

He blows out a hard exhale. “This. This fuckin’ place is wrong.”

My shoulders slump. “I know.”

He blows out another breath looking like he’s trying to calm himself.

“A lot of sick folks, wife. A lot. Gonna need all hands on deck to help Cat with working on helping them.”

I feel the color drain from my face. I only smell one scent inside my house. Brody, I think.

Grey searches my face, and I feel pain coming from him. He’s not just angry. He’s hurting right now. He’s angry and hurting though only the anger is visible. Because I’m the one who gets a peek into what’s inside. Because I’m his. I’m going to be okay; I’ll get through this because he’s here with me.

“Okay…”

“Let’s go,” he grunts and flexes his jaw muscles.

“Wait. I… Where are they?” I don’t think I caught their scents at the mess hall. Though, the overpowering stench of the whole village could be messing with my senses.

“People you share the place with aren’t in there,” he says. “Just Brody.”

“They’re in the mess hall?”

He shakes his head. “Those scents aren’t here.”

“Aren’t here?” I hurry inside the trailer, looking around the front room, to the kitchen, and noting the layer of dust, already knowing they haven’t been here in a while.

Why?

“Where’s Aunt Shea, Addy, Misty, and Halla?” I ask. “They’re not in the mess hall?

Nobody’s been here today at least. Maybe much longer than that.

Grey is behind me. “I don’t know where they are, but the scents from this house aren’t in this compound right now.”

I move through the kitchen and down the back hall past the bathroom toward the bedrooms and see Brody standing in the bunk room I share with Adelaide, Halla, and Misty .

He turns to look at me and his expression is deadly serious.

“This bed? Whose is it?” he demands.

I’m taken back at the aggression rolling off him.

“Adelaide, my cousin. We call her Addy.”

He looks past me at Grey who is directly behind me.

My eyes bounce to Grey, and he’s got a deadly serious look on his face as he regards Brody.

“Adelaide,” Brody says softly, and his dark eyes flare with an amber light. He touches her pillow, then lifts it and puts it to his nose.

Grey’s hands land on my shoulders. “Where would they be, you think?”

“I… here?”

“They’re not here,” Brody says. “None of the scents from this room besides yours are nearby. You know where she might be? Because she’s not within five square miles for sure unless she’s…” His expression darkens.

I frown. “Are they alive? Please tell me they’re alive.”

“We don’t know, Blossom. The guy called Larry said they’ve been burning the dead. You don’t know where they might be if they’re not here?”

“I don’t know,” I whisper.

“I gotta find her,” Brody says to Grey. “Gotta get away from this other stink – it’s clouding things – need to look for her scent outside the gates.”

“One sec, Brody. Larry!” Grey shouts.

Larry shuffles in, Jared at his back. When Larry sees me, he gives me a dirty look, a look loaded with blame.

“Where are they?” I ask.

Larry’s eyes narrow, his mouth contorting like he’s about to spew ugly words at me, but he jumps as Grey gutturally demands, “Answer her.”

“Shea died a few days ago,” he says quickly, losing all attitude.

I jerk in shock as my heart sinks.

Aunt Shea hasn’t been well. She’s often bedridden with her aches and pains, suffering with her allergies. But dead?

“Adelaide, Misty and a bunch of other girls were sent off by Wyatt a few days before he left to come rescue you.” The look of distaste on his face as he says rescue makes my blood run cold.

“Sent off to where?” Brody demands.

Larry shrugs and without making eye contact with Brody, says, “Don’t know exactly.”

“What happened to Aunt Shea?” I ask, throat clogged, tears imminent.

Larry shrugs. “She…” He looks at Grey and startles with fear, then back at me. “I just followed orders.”

“What does that mean?” I ask, aghast.

“Sorry for your loss, Stacy, but I need to find Adelaide,” Brody says gruffly. He’s pacing in the small space of my bedroom and looks like he’s about to come out of his skin. “Gotta, Grey…”

“Go. Careful, brother,” Grey says. “Call. Let us know when you find her.”

“Yeah.”

I move aside so Brody can leave while I stare at Grey helplessly, tears pooling in my eyes.

His eyes are ice cold, pointing at Larry.

I whisper his name and warmth seeps into his features as he cups my jaw tenderly. “Brody’s gonna go find her, babe. And see who’s with her. You got any ideas where your brother would’ve sent them?”

“He…” I frown, thinking of the intensity coming off him as he asked, as he touched and smelled Addy’s pillow.

“She’s his. He knows by her scent. He’ll find her.”

“She’s… his?”

“Yeah, babe. Clear now that’s why fate sent him here today. He’ll find her.”

I’m surprised, but can’t lament on these thoughts, can’t think about how incredible the news is for Addy, because Aunt Shea is gone. She raised Addy, who’s technically not her daughter or my cousin but Addie was the daughter of Aunt Shea’s sister-in-law who died during childbirth. She’s been like a daughter to her, like family to me. My eyes coast the space, taking in the emptiness of what was my home for so long. Everything looks the same, but dusty. Aunt Shea had terrible allergies, so we always kept on top of the dust.

I move down the narrow hall into Aunt Shea’s room and it’s too quiet. Eerily quiet. Her air cleaner isn’t running. Her scent is so faint.

Aunt Shea is gone? Addy’s not here. Misty isn’t in the compound?

“Who’s taking care of Halla?” I ask Larry who’s still standing in the living room by the door.

He stinks of urine and he’s looking pale. Clearly, he’s afraid of the Arcana Falls people. And good. Because Larry is a cruel, lazy, jerk.

“Wyatt took her with him when he left to rescue you.”

This doesn’t make sense.

My stomach lurches yet again.

Grey tags my hand. “Let’s go?”

“Go?” I ask, reeling, dizzy.

“Go help Cat help the sick. Got at least twenty-five seriously sick folks here that’ve been poisoned. We’ve rounded up the whole pack to the big building out there. Some women are here lookin’ after the sick. Some of the kids are even helpin’ the sick. I told them all we’re here to help. Luke told them, too. He’s over there right now waiting to help Cat unload supplies. It’d help if they all saw you, see you’re well.” Grey touches my face and waits, before he softly says, “Blossom?”

“He… he told me he’d start culling the useless if I didn’t do what he wanted me to do. He told me he’d send the prettiest girls to a guy who’d sell their … their bodies and split the profit with Wy. He… he threatened about Halla, said we’d never see her again.”

Grey growls out his anger and I shudder. “He… he’s doing what he swore he’d do, isn’t he?”

“Sorry about your aunt, sweetheart.”

“Aunt Shea is Wyatt’s aunt, too. Father’s youngest sister, his last living sister. Or she was. He didn’t care? That shows how little pack and family mean to him. Halla’s just four years old. What did he do with her? Where is she? I promised Aphra, I…” I sob and bury my face in my hands.

He wraps me up in a hug. “Sorry about all of it, baby. Gonna make this better. Somehow. Brody’ll find Addy and hopefully that leads to the other girls. If not, I’ll ask Linc and Jared to get on the trail. We’ll look for Halla. Fuckin’ swear it to you, Stace, I’m gonna help however I can help. Let’s go get started with helping the sick. That’s the best thing we can do right now.”

I blink a couple times and do my best to shake it off, woodenly moving toward the worst of the scents, inside our mess hall. The closer we get, the stronger the smell of sickness is. And that’s all I can think to do right now, help those who need it. And wait. Wait for word on Addy, Halla, and the others. Wait to see what Wyatt does next. Wait and hope they stop him and that this truly is the beginning of things getting better for the people here.

I step into the building, the space our pack gathers the most, and see two dozen people camped out on their mattresses on the floor, other female pack members all sitting with their backs against the wall, looking frightened and confused by the presence of the Arcana Falls people, and my knees almost buckle. I don’t allow it to happen. I need to be strong right now.

My eyes pan to one corner where all the kids of the pack gather, sitting in a huddle with their frightened eyes pointed at me. The opposite corner of the room has all the men sitting on the floor other than younger teen boys who sit in their own huddle near the kids.

I catch the eyes of Eloise, Aunt Shea’s best friend. She’s squatting beside someone on a mattress, holding a cloth to their forehead. That’s Roger she’s helping. Her chin trembles as she rises, rushing toward me, wrapping her arms around me. “Thank the stars, child, thank the stars.”

“T-talk to me,” I whisper.

She looks exhausted. Exhausted and dirty. This space reeks of vomit, of waste, of body odor.

Cat Savage rushes in with a medicine bag in one hand, a duffle bag in the other, two men following her carrying boxes.

“These men came and ordered everyone all in here. But me, Martha, Margaret, and Lucille were already runnin’ around and tryin’ to take care of the sick folks. We were worried about having everyone together in case it’s contagious, so many are down with it and nobody’s recovering so far. But these men said having all of us in one place is better, makes the most sense. The one with the beard said it’s not contagious. He said it’s poison and some of us were fed it and some of us weren’t.”

My heart aches right now.

“Those folks are all so sick, Stacy,” she goes on, “We’re dropping like flies, and Wyatt locked us in and told us we’d die if we tried to leave. Why did he poison us?”

“Oh Eloise. The Arcana Falls people are here to help. That’s Cat, their healer. She’s got medicine and hopefully it’ll help.”

“Thank the stars,” Eloise says, looking at those coming in. “Gonna get a little tricky in here once it’s dark. Power got cut off and we’re low on candles. Ellie saw the power cut off notice in your brother’s office. She was helping out, doing your job before he closed the office down to get ready to roll out with the betas to go where you were. We’re… it’s not good, Stacy. Not good at all. He’s been gone with all the rest of the younger fighting age betas saying he was goin’ off to claim our new land and save you from that warped pack, but it’s been days since he left, and people are dyin’ faster than ever. We got no power to boil the water and we’re runnin’ low on propane, not to mention low on food. We’re boiling drinking water on an open fire, and we all know how bad of an idea an open fire is around these parts.”

“They’re not a warped pack,” I tell her. and I raise my voice hoping everyone can hear. “The Arcana Falls pack are not warped at all, people. If you saw the way their pack is set up, how the leadership team treat their people, how healthy everyone is and how they flourish? You would all want that. Wyatt’s attacked them unprovoked repeatedly in the name of this pack, and yet they came to help. I want all of you to know you’re safe under their care.”

“If they’re good and not warped, where’s my son?” Matilda asks, tears in her eyes. She’s on a mattress, looking pale.

I hear some coughing, some shuffling, but nobody says anything.

“Most of the guys Wyatt brought in have died. The Arcana Falls people have only defended themselves and their loved ones. One of ours is still alive and in Arcana Falls but I… I don’t know who.”

Matilda weeps. “Thorn is gone. I feel it in here.” She thumps her chest.

“They attacked Arcana Falls repeatedly despite the fact that Grey, my mate, tried to reach out to Wyatt repeatedly for a truce. Wyatt set one of his traps in a pregnant woman’s house. He kidnapped some witches including attempting to take a witch who’s mated to one of their alphas repeatedly. He showed up with machine guns, even putting one in Lucas’s hands when the pack there was willing to talk things out.” Luke is a good shot, which must be why he brought him because there are still able-bodied men here.

I continue. “I poisoned several of them at Wyatt’s orders and I shot one of their alphas, the alpha Wyatt says assassinated my father, but they know these are Wyatt’s orders that I’ve followed, and they have treated me with nothing but kindness, trying to understand what went wrong instead of just jumping to conclusions.”

“And one claimed you,” Matilda says with distaste. “Took you from us.”

I stare for a second and say, “We’re fated. And Aphra said I’m the key to things improving here so maybe this is what she meant. That my fated mate would help. Grey and his people are here to help, Matilda.”

She looks away sourly.

Nobody else says anything. Many sets of eyes are on me, though.

“What can I do?” I ask, turning to Eloise but she’s got her eyes on the door because supplies are coming in.

Arcana Falls men are carrying in cases of water and boxes of the miscellaneous supplies Cat sent.

Eloise gives me a look that’s a mixture of hopeful and doubting. “Luke said as much when he came in and said your mate and some of his people are here to help. Where’s your brother? What happened when they came to rescue you?”

“Wyatt’s not been in touch?” Grey asks.

Eloise shakes her head with disgust. “He hasn’t. Since he locked us in and told us if anyone else runs off, we’re dead we’ve just been trying to get by until he came back, but…” Her face nearly crumples, and I see what she’s been dealing with.

She pulls herself together. Eloise has four kids, three of which I see in the corner with the other kids and young teens of the pack, huddled and looking afraid. But absent is Jennifer, Eloise’s oldest daughter. And though there are teen boys here, there aren’t any girls over the age of fifteen or sixteen. I’m about to ask about that when I hear the thump of boxes being dropped.

“Who wants a granola bar and some juice?” Linc calls out, opening a cardboard box while looking in the direction of the kids.

“Everyone?” I call out, “This is Lincoln. And Greyson here is my mate.” I grab his hand and squeeze. “Fated mates are real. He and his pack members from Arcana Falls are here to help. Okay? You can trust them. I promise you, you can. Do you all trust me? If you trust me, please believe me here. They’re here to help.”

Luke is suddenly beside me. “Stacy tells the truth. You all know her; know she’s never deceived us.”

“Thanks, Lukey,” I say under my breath.

Little Lara, Martha’s five-year-old pops up to standing.

“Me!” she squeals excitedly. “I want a granola bar and juice. Do you have apple juice?”

“We’ve got apple and orange,” Linc tells her. “Juice isn’t cold but we’re getting some ice brought in. You want it even if it’s warm?”

“Yes, please!” Lara replies excitedly and other kids start to shuffle and move closer as Lara watches Linc separate some juice boxes from the case.

“Larry said Wyatt took Halla?” I ask Eloise.

Eloise gives me a dire look before nodding.

“And where are Addy, Misty, Caroline, Ellie, and Jennifer? And a few of the other girls are missing?”

She shakes her head. “The prettiest young women without kids were sent off just before he left. Don’t know where, but I have a suspicion.”

“What’s that?” Grey asks.

Eloise winces and Luke offers, “Whore house” before she has a chance to say.

Eloise looks at me and I gulp, seeing this is her thought, too. Misty just turned sixteen. Jennifer is seventeen, I think. Oh no. I’m going to throw up.

Eloise’s expression is hard and so is the mood among the other women. They all know this to be true.

Luke keeps talking, “I just talked to Georgie. He overheard Wyatt talking about it to Floyd. Wyatt said he’d get two thousand dollars and some guns up front if he sent a dozen over. He was using it to finance the mission we went on.”

“He got the guns but only a few of them had actual ammo in them,” Luke adds.

“Anyone here know where he took the girls?” Grey asks.

“Floyd’s over there,” Luke points to the group of men in the corner being watched over by two betas and Jared.

My eyes pan across the space even as I push away the pain of knowing where Addy, Misty, Caroline, Jenny and the others are. Floyd was in my father’s inner circle. I know Wyatt sometimes talks strategy with him. And with Wyatt not being here, Floyd would technically be in charge.

“Any sign of Malachi?” I try. “He was at Arcana Falls but he disappeared after Jimmy got killed.”

“Mal came back after that,” Eloise says. “Said he saw an Arcana Falls alpha rip Jim apart.”

Luke is looking at the ground. And I want to hug him. He must be feeling so conflicted right now between loyalty to his brother and survival.

“That happened because Jimmy kidnapped that super alpha’s mate and she was bleeding, sending him into a frenzy.”

Nobody says anything.

“So, Mal came back?” I ask. “Where is he now?”

“Mal came with us,” Luke says softly. “Got sucked up into the sky with Wyatt and the other guys.”

No. What? My blood runs cold.

Was Malachi one of the dead pulled from the lake? Is he the shifter in the holding cell? I never found out who they pulled from the lake. All I knew this morning was that the one survivor wanted to speak to me. But then we left to come here.

I’m overwhelmed with information, with the sights and scents of what’s going on around me. But I can’t just fall apart. I also can’t process everything in this minute. I need to help with these sick people.

“How many girls did Wyatt send off?” Grey asks.

Eloise looks like she’s mentally counting. “Eight. Not including Halla.”

Cat pipes up. “Sorry to interrupt but can someone please direct me to the person that is the most ill? I’ll assess and do my best to work in order from those most ill to the least as quickly as I can.”

“Here,” Martha gestures to Roger, who has his eyes open, but he looks so frail.

My heart squeezes. He was my teacher, taught most of us of my generation to read, write, and do math. He’s been going blind for years and he’s slowed down with age, so he hasn’t taught for the last four or five years. He’s on his mattress on the floor.

Cat moves in with a stethoscope and sets her medicine bag on the floor beside him.

Linc approaches. “Stacy?” He’s got a paper bag in his hand. He holds it open. “This is the same stuff as what was put in those pies, right?”

I look in the bag.

“Yes,” I croak out.

It’s not finely ground like the amount Wyatt gave me in a mason jar, but I know by the scent: this is that same stuff.

Linc angrily says, “Saw this same shit a few years ago with a pack out west. He’s had that fucker feeding this to people in your pack he wanted picked off. Putting it in their meals. Kills the weakest in about a week, those a little stronger in about two weeks. Suspected it was this shit.”

Bile rises, the acidic taste bathing my back teeth. I’m sickened. Completely sickened. Larry shuffles uncomfortably, looking at the floor.

Patsy, the lady that used to cook for the pack, back when she was in better health, extends her hand toward me from her mattress. “Stacy?” she rasps.

She always had pretty curls and bright blue eyes. Her blonde and gray hair is limp and tangled. Her complexion is almost grey. The whites of her eyes are nearly yellow now.

I shake off my emotions, move to her, and squat. “Hi Patsy. We’ve got medicine here. Food and clean water.”

“It’s all gonna be okay, now. I can sense it,” she says.

She looks frail. Pale. I grip her hand, but it’s hot and clammy.

“It will be okay,” I tell her through tears. “The Arcana Falls pack is a wonderful group of people.” My voice gets louder.

She smiles. “You found your fated mate, girl.”

“I did.”

“The delicious one with the silver eyes,” she says smiling. “He’s delicious.”

I smile despite the tears in my eyes. “You said delicious twice.”

“Am I wrong?” she asks sheepishly.

“Not at all. He’s wonderful.”

“You’re a sweet girl. So kind. You deserve to be happy,” she says, patting my hand with her free one.

“We all do. We all deserve so much more than what’s here, Patsy. Clean water, the ability to find love and have families, to look after ourselves and our loved ones, and we deserve leadership that we respect. We deserve to shift as often as we need. We deserve to live our lives!”

“We do. Our young need to also learn the way a pack is supposed to run. Your mate’s people rounded everyone up all into one place here and some were scared. But I knew they were going to help as soon as I smelled you on the one with the silver eyes. The only ones who need to be scared are those who’ve done wrong, done harm.”

“Exactly,” I say.

“Tell everyone how good it is there, Stacy,” Luke suggests. “It’s good, you guys. Better than good. Pretty houses. Lots of people. Happy people. Enough to eat. Clean water.”

I look around the room, seeing some of our women helping the sick, our kids with juice boxes and granola bars, the men in the back corner, some looking on with interest while others look like they want to hide. Everyone pays attention to me and Patsy.

Grey is standing by the doorway now, talking to Floyd, lifting his phone out of his pocket and making a call.

He gives me a look and slips out as I faintly hear him greet, “Hey Brody?”

I clear my throat and keep talking. “People there can work if they want, either in the village or outside of it. Those who don’t have much… they get help. No tribute needs to be paid to the leadership team but of course everyone is expected to help out if there’s a need. They look after one another, you know? Like it should be. They have a restaurant and a store right in the village. They have a big mess hall like we have here, but it’s for parties. They have a library and a book club and a schoolhouse twice the size of ours. Movie nights for the kids. And when a couple mates, they send food and other gifts. Nobody steals things from one another out of hunger or greed. They celebrate the union of fated mates. They’re happy about it. They work together to do what needs to be done, whether it’s throwing a birthday party or dealing with a threat and they look after their elderly. Their elderly all seem so much healthier than ours. And the water you guys… it’s clean. So clean and delicious. And shifters get to shift whenever they want. Men and women. Do you know why? Because that’s who we are.” I slap my chest over my heart with my palm. “We’re wolf shifters who need to shift for our own physical and mental health. That’s why Wyatt doesn’t allow it unless with his permission. He wants us weak. He wants our throats underneath his boot. In Arcana Falls, you can shift as much as you want. Run the woods. Swim in the lake or the river. You get to live there and thrive there. And the women? Treated very differently from how we’re treated here.”

Patsy is smiling. “It sounds wonderful. It sounds like what it was like when your grandfather was our alpha.”

“Yeah,” I whisper, choking up.

Some people here have tears in their eyes. Some look angry. Some are looking down or looking away.

Mitch Blakely is recording me. I feel uncomfortable under that scrutiny suddenly, but I hear a whimpering sound, so my eyes find a crying child on a mattress. Kimmy Dean. She’s six or seven. She’s not the only child on the floor. There are three others beside her.

“Larry!” I snap.

He’s standing by Grey, Jase, and Floyd by the door. Grey is no longer on the phone. He’s watching me, listening to me.

“Why are they here, Larry?” I demand. “You’re feeding the poison food to the kids?”

I’m seeing red right now. I want to break something. Scream.

I see Jase nudge Larry, growling, “Answer her.”

Larry stares with fear and what looks like remorse.

“What is wrong with you?” I demand and storm to get right in his face. I smack it hard, leaving a red mark.

The room is dead silent before Kimmy whimpers again.

“Answer her,” Jase demands. “Or you’ll have my hands on you next.”

Larry clears his throat. “I only gave it to the one Wyatt told me to. Kimmy. The others must have snuck extra food when they weren’t supposed to.”

“Fuck sakes,” Jase barks and Larry jumps like he’s about to be hit. Jase backs him up to the wall and shouts in his face. “You’re directed to poison some of your people including a fuckin’ child, and not only do you do it, you’re careless about leaving the poison food around when your people are hungry? I heard your people are only eating once a fuckin’ day. Of course little kids are gonna go hunting around for more when all they get is one bowl of shitty soup a day!”

Larry is cowering, showing his throat. Jase is infuriated, growling.

“Get over there,” Grey clips to Floyd and points at Larry and then at the group of men. Both Floyd and Larry hurry to the cluster of men. There are around fifteen of them. About half of them are older or elderly and most of them look about ready to shit themselves.

“Blossom, you tell me who does and doesn’t deserve our help. You also tell me if any of those men are fuckers that deserve the opposite of our help. Larry, you and Floyd are on bed pan and puke-mopping duty.” Grey points at the crowd of men cowering even further. “All of you are on notice. When I get all the information about which motherfuckers have been hurting your women, your kids, the elderly? You answer for it. And why the fuck didn’t the group of you do something to protect your people? You got a fucked-up alpha? You do something about it. There are how many of you? My wife says a lot of your younger men fled to get away from this shit but why the fuck didn’t anybody nip this shit in the bud before it got so outta hand instead? How many were there when things started down the road of going wrong? You don’t let him pick off your innocent, your weaker pack members one by one? Fuck sakes. You sure don’t bloody well take women against their will as your fuckin’ reward.” He kicks a folding metal chair, and it flies into the wall beside the group of men.

He knows. I might throw up.

His eyes snap to me and fear spikes at the look of fury in my mate’s eyes. He exudes power and danger. And he now sees most of my secrets. Seeing this place, the place I come from, he now has a clue of the life I’ve led.

I’m mortified. My chin is trembling.

Grey isn’t looking at me like he wants to reject me because I’m a product of this awful place. He looks at me like he wants to fix it all for me. Like he plans to punish those responsible for it.

I move to him and put my arms around him, sinking into him. It takes a second before he wraps his arms around me and presses his mouth to my forehead. He exhales hard.

“I love you,” I whisper, looking up at his beautiful, angry face.

He kisses me again and releases me. His lip is still curled, he’s still enraged, but he says, “I love you, too, Blossom.”

And that’s good. Because these people here can see that when an alpha is furious, he can still be gentle. He’s outraged on behalf of injustices and not blaming or taking things out on the innocent for it.

There’s a long beat of silence until Cat speaks up. “I could use some help measuring out this medicine and distributing it. Could a few of you give me a hand?”

“Of course,” I say, dashing tears off my face and squaring my shoulders to pull myself together. “It’ll help?”

“Hopefully, but…unfortunately some are advanced and in liver failure, I’m afraid. But this syrup, every four hours, should help slow the effects of the poison and give most of them enough strength within the next couple of days to start shifting. We’ll administer anti-nausea pills too as soon as Declan and Boyd get back from the nearest town with the stuff I asked them to get. The priority is to help the folks stay hydrated and boost their strength so they can keep their food and liquids down. We’ll fight the fever, headaches, and nausea and once they can gain strength to shift they can heal themselves the rest of the way. I’ve done a quick mental tally, and I’ve got enough of this syrup to last the next forty-eight hours or so.”

Dr. Blakely speaks up. “I’ll have some rushed in from the nearest supernatural clinic. I know of an experimental drug that may also help people shift sooner. I’ll get it sent.”

Dr. Blakely walks past me, giving me a kind smile while dialing on his phone as I move toward Cat. We move to an empty table against the wall that one of the men that came with us is currently washing down with an antiseptic wet wipe. Another comes in with arms full of more supplies from Cat’s van.

Cat, Eloise, and I work together to measure out and set up two dozen medicine cups of the syrup and by the time we’re done, Dr. Blakely is with us again, sleeves rolled up and helping us dispensing fever medicine and anti-nausea meds into other cups to be handed out.

Half an hour later, everyone on a bed has had doses of the medication and Eloise, Martha, and Jane, another of the women of Aunt Shea’s generation are warming up soup that Cat brought as well as making either peanut butter and jam or tuna sandwiches for everyone.

A couple hot plates and two microwaves have been brought in from nearby homes and fresh fruit, bread, and other perishable food has been brought in by one of the betas who went to the supermarket. We now have power to this building at least, as the ones sent for supplies came back with two generators, more bottled water, the anti-nausea meds, and several air mattresses and sleeping bags along with a dozen bags of ice and some more groceries.

***