Page 167 of Ensnared by the Pack: The Complete Series (Destined Realms #3)
AUDREY
I found Quinn in the sixth patient room on the right, sitting in a chair beside the bed and holding Zavier’s paw. His fur had been shaved from most of his body and large white bandages encircled his torso as well as three of his four legs. His eyes were closed and his breath came in short sharp pants, indicating that even while unconscious, he was in pain.
“Audrey,” Quinn cried when she saw me, and she sprang up and rushed the few feet to me, wrapping me in a tight embrace. “Thank the Sisters you’re all right.”
“Thank the Sisters you’re all right,” I replied, hugging her back.
I’d been terrified for Quinn and the children during that fight, and it was such a relief to see she only had one bandage around her forearm and no other injuries.
Zavier whimpered, drawing her attention, and worry squeezed around my heart. He didn’t look good, and Quinn looked wrecked. Even if I was wrong and there wasn’t anything more than sisterly affection for her adoptive brother, the two of them were still close, and it would destroy her if he died.
“You were amazing, you know,” Quinn said, her voice soft, her gaze locked on Zavier. “Thanks to you none of the children were hurt. Not even a scratch.”
I tightened my grip around her, hoping physical contact with me would help steady her soul even as I selfishly used my shifter connection with her to steady mine.
My insides squirmed with the need to help her, help those children. Help my pack.
“So what happens next?” I asked even though I was sore and exhausted.
There were people hurt worse than me and just as tired, and I was sure they were doing their duty.
“After all the grimalkins are dead and the injured are taken care of?”
I nodded.
She swallowed hard. “After that come the funerals.”
My throat tightened as if I could feel her grief and fear. Her parents had died when she was young, probably because of a grimalkin attack or something just as horrible, and now there was a chance the not-brother she loved was going to die too.
“Then we rebuild and—” Quinn said as Nova stepped into the doorway of the hospital room and gave me a stern look.
“You’re supposed to be resting and letting the elixir do its thing,” Nova said. “Go. Rest. The pack is still hosting a formal dinner for the alliance members tonight, and Cyrus and Bishop will want you there.”
“They’re still going to hold it?” I asked even though this was my first time hearing about it, although I was sure Bishop would have mentioned it once the town tour for the delegates and their aides was over.
“More than half of the work is already done,” Nova said.
“Yeah, Eloise and Kira have been working on the dinner for over a week now,” Quinn added.
“But a lot of the alliance members stayed to fight,” I insisted. “Some of them will be hurt.” Or dead, but I didn’t want to say that out loud.
“Everyone still needs to eat.” Nova’s expression turned grim. “They’ll also want to discuss what happened, possibly blame Cyrus and Bishop for not providing enough protection. Having a meal while they talk about it will partially distract them. Hopefully, that will help them keep an honest perspective on this. We’ve lost far too many people in the last few months to grimalkin attacks.”
And while a part of me wanted to argue with Nova and say I could help, the rest of me was exhausted and worried. Somehow, I’d controlled those grimalkins and threw up black smoke. Getting to the bottom of that was as important as helping out, possibly more so.
For all I knew, I was dangerous. Sterling had already influenced me into hurting myself. What if the smoke was connected to him… what if the grimalkins were?
He’d been able to control those shadow snake monsters through the rip between my old realm and this one. What if he could somehow control the grimalkins? Their alpha power felt a little like the heavy ominous power in Anakar, and that power came from Tzanagoth.
I was probably grasping at straws, searching for an explanation for something that had no explanation. Grimalkins were mindless beasts. They attacked because they attacked not because of some evil magic seeping from the ground.
Except I couldn’t make myself believe that. Even animals in my realm had reasons for attacking an obviously more powerful pack. Sure, the grimalkins could take a single shifter one on one, but not the whole pack. Something had to have made them think this attack, and the one that had happened when I’d first gotten here, was a good idea or at least the better of two terrible options.
“Go,” Nova insisted, a whisper of her power rolling over me, not enough to make me submit but enough to tell me she was serious. “You need your rest.”
Nova directed me to stairs at the back of the hospital so I could leave the building without being swarmed again, and I hurried outside to reunite with Knox before he lost control of his wolf— or rather lost control of the primal wildness at the core of his wolf’s soul.
“Nova says there’s nothing wrong with you,” Knox said as he yanked me close and held me as if I was the only thing keeping him in his human form, which I probably was.
Given how much stress leaked through our mating bond, I was surprised he hadn’t shifted into his wolf.
“I still feel like I’ve gone ten rounds with a grimalkin,” I replied, sinking into his embrace and savoring the heat of our shifter connection warming around my heart.
“Then you’re not going to the formal dinner tonight.” Knox swept me into his arms so he cradled me against his chest and headed up a deserted narrow street toward the Residence, completely naked.
“I have to,” I said, pressing my nose into the hollow at the base of his throat and breathing in his rich wood smoke scent.
I also wanted to go. If I was there, I might notice or overhear something important. And despite the positive reception I’d just received in the hospital, I still needed to feel useful, still needed to prove my worth to this pack.
Besides, I had an ability no one else had. I could understand every language in this realm because of the magic in the rip between this realm and mine, not just the one spoken by the pack. I was the only one who could fully observe the Mountain and Sea Alliance delegates and their aides and, more importantly, the merchants.
I hadn’t seen the merchants or their powerful monster-killing weapons after the grimalkins attacked. All I knew was that none of them had fled with the aides and translators who couldn’t fight, and a part of me screamed that I needed to find them and find out what they were up to.
Because they were up to something.
It had been chaos when the grimalkins attacked, but if I thought back to that first moment, only one of the three merchants had looked surprised. The other two had worn strangely blank expressions as if they were trying to hide what they were feeling.
Of course, Cyrus, Representative Folmar, and King Gower hadn’t looked surprised, either. They’d all looked angry. But they’d at least had an expression.
Knox growled, the sound rumbling in his chest. “I don’t want you to go.” Then he huffed. “I don’t want to go, either.”
“To the dinner?” I asked, surprised. There was no way Cyrus would demand Knox go inside the Residence and be surrounded by anyone, let alone all of the delegates and aides. That was the fastest way to get him to snap and Cyrus knew that.
“No,” he snarled. “I don’t want you to go to the dinner, and I don’t want to leave you for a hunt.”
He blew out a heavy breath then pressed his nose to the top of my head and inhaled my scent.
“We have to send hunters— hell, send anyone still able to fight to scour the area around town for more grimalkins,” he said. “Deacon’s only given me enough time to ensure you get back to your suite. Then I have to go.”
My heart stuttered with a ridiculous fear for him and for how long he might be gone. It was silly. Hunting was his job in the pack, and he needed to make sure there weren’t more grimalkins out there waiting to attack.
I knew of at least two grimalkins that were still alive and had no idea how long they’d obey my command… if I’d actually commanded them.
No, I had commanded them. And as much as I wanted to crawl into bed and nurse my aches and pains until the formal dinner, I needed to talk to Whil and find out what was wrong with me… or possibly right. Controlling the grimalkins may have made me sick, but it had saved everyone in the smithy.
Knox carried me down the narrow streets and alleys, avoiding the main roads and anyone who might be on them. He hurried along the winding Old Town streets and through the open main gate of the Residence.
It had been eerily quiet after we’d gotten a few blocks from the hospital and even farther away from the market and the chaos, and it was still quiet on the Residence’s grounds despite that the Residence would be hosting a diplomatic dinner in four or five hours.
I still couldn’t believe Cyrus was going through with the dinner, despite Nova’s perfectly logical explanation.
Knox rounded the side of the large castle complete with multiple wings and turrets to the French doors leading into my suite.
“I want to stay,” he said, his voice low as he slowly lowered me, letting me slide down his naked body.
Worry and yearning and anger radiated through our bond, and I pushed as much love and confidence back to him as I could.
“I’ll be fine. I’ll have Bishop whenever he’s done with whatever he’s doing.” Although whatever that was, it was upsetting him. He’d almost completely blocked his emotions from me and what little that was seeping through our mating bond was anger and grief. “You need to protect our pack.”
“Our pack?” he asked, his pride swelling into me despite his expression remaining hard.
“Yes, our pack,” I repeated.
I’d thought the pack was mine when I’d been defending, Quinn, Zavier, and the pups in the smithy, and I felt it even more now. Whether I was actually an alpha or not, this pack and these people were mine.
“Alpha.” Knox tangled his fingers in my hair, drew my head back, and captured my lips in a searing kiss.
It wasn’t as wild as his usual kisses, I could tell he was trying to be mindful of my injuries, but it burned with passion and need. It claimed me as his, always his, and I happily submitted to him.
Deep in my soul, I knew I was safe with Knox. We might have had a rocky, unwanted start, but love and commitment roared through our mating bond. He’d do whatever it took to protect me and love me, and I loved him for that. I especially loved that the emotions in our bond didn’t feel insincere, like they were all his and the mating bond wasn’t compelling him to love me. He’d more than made his peace with being mate bonded with me, and he loved it. He loved me.
With a groan, he jerked away and shifted into his massive black wolf, his head reaching to the middle of my chest.
Must go, he growled in my head before bounding away and leaving me with my breath a little too fast, a warm ache in my core, and my lips tingling for more.
Love you, I thought at him even though I didn’t have telepathy. I still needed to tell him. Stay safe.