Page 25

Gabriel POV

Please be okay. Please be okay.

Summer had to be all right.

I wouldn’t accept any other outcome.

My stomach churned with fear as I looked at the closed hospital room door. Two of Healer Aja’s assistants had taken Summer in there an hour ago. Healer Aja had followed quickly after, assuring me that they were going to do everything in their power to save Summer.

But how could they save her when she had lost so much blood?

No.

I refused to think like that.

Summer would be all right.

It was a few hours after I killed Axel. As soon as I saw that bastard had cut Summer’s neck, I ripped off part of the sleeve of her shirt—because I didn’t have any clothes on—to stop the bleeding.

But blood had immediately soaked through the fabric of her torn shirt. And when I put my hand over Summer’s heart, it was barely beating.

I’d begged Summer to stay with me, but her eyes had fluttered closed and her head lolled to the side.

This was too severe of an injury for Summer’s accelerated shifter healing to mend her.

I frantically called for help, feeling more scared than I’d ever had in my life. Eventually, a warrior named Ava from our shifter army who had medical training came to help me. One of the Alphas called the buses back and Ava grabbed a medical kit I’d stored in there. I watched anxiously as Ava did her best to stop Summer’s bleeding. She was able to get her bleeding under control, but Ava warned me that her pulse was weak and she needed to get to a hospital soon.

Unfortunately, the closest hospital was my compound.

Two hours away.

Now, I was leaning against the wall, staring at Summer’s hospital room door, praying that she would be alright.

After the battle was over, the other Alphas took charge since I couldn’t focus on anything except for healing my Mate. Our shifter army helped transport our wounded—and the four Rogues that we captured—and brought them back to my compound. Healer Elijah—as well as some of his other healers—came over to help Healer Aja with the overflow of patients.

I began to pace and as I waited for news.

“Gabriel?”

I spun around and was met with Healer Aja and her two assistants standing in front of me. I studied Healer Aja’s face, trying to decipher what kind of news she had for me.

“Summer’s going to be fine. She needed a blood transfusion and we will have to keep her overnight, but she’s going to be all right. You can come see her now,” Healer Aja said and smiled.

I let out a long, slow breath. My shoulders slumped, most of my tension leaving me. The relief I felt almost knocked me over.

“Thank you,” I told Summer’s medical team as I passed them.

Summer was sitting up in her hospital bed, propped up by her pillows. There was a jagged red scar across her neck and her face was pale, but other than that she looked allright.

Actually, she looked strong and beautiful.

“Summer,” I breathed out, rushing to her side and grabbing her hand.

Our gazes locked and my heart skipped a beat.

“Thank you,” she said, her voice hoarse, the wound still healing on her throat made it difficult for her to speak. “For…saving me.”

“You’re the one who distracted him by…actually, I’m not sure what you did to distract Axel.”

Her lips twitched and she squeezed my hand.

“I stabbed him with a rusty nail.” There was pride in her voice.

“You managed to get a hold of a nail with your hands tied behind you back?” I said with awe. “Your cleverness and skill continues to amaze me.”

A smile crossed her face, but after a moment she sighed and looked at our intertwined hands.

“We have a lot to talk about, don’t we?” she murmured. “You’re going to have to explain to me why everyone in WaterLock thought you were going to get married to Olivia.”

A tiny shock went through me.

How does she know about that?

But when our eyes met again, I realized it didn’t matter how Summer found out about my dad’s plans. In a way, I was glad she had. Moving forward, I wanted to have open and honest communication in our relationship. Even if the worst happened, and Summer only wanted to be co-parents together, that would be hard for me to accept, but at least I would still have her in my life.

“But that conversation can wait for another day,” Summer continued. “For now, I’m just grateful to be alive and to be able to hold your hand.” She squeezed my hand again.

My throat became thick with emotion.

I leaned down and kissed her cool forehead.

I stayed like that—with my lips pressed against her forehead—until I could fully wrap my head around the fact that she was going to be alright.

***

I stared out at my pack, focusing on all the familiar faces of the WaterLock community to draw strength for what I was about to do.

It was two days after I’d killed Axel, and I’d called an emergency pack meeting.

After I was certain Summer would be all right, I went to the holding cells that the Rogues were being kept in and obtained the information I needed. I videotaped their confessions and then sent them with ten guards from the army to a Rogue prison I helped set up with the other Alphas two hours away. While we were putting together the army, we developed prisons all over our three kingdoms. The plan was to fill the prisons with Rogues as the shifter army fought through the kingdoms. The Rogue army was still out there causing death and destruction every single day.

Now, I was standing on stage in our meeting hall, facing my entire pack. I gripped the wooden podium until my knuckles were white.

As soon as my eyes met Summer’s, my body instantly relaxed.

She was sitting in the back of the meeting hall with her mom—Aunt Mia was back at my compound watching Grayson since he was too young to hear what I was going to discuss at this meeting. I’d asked them to come to the pack meeting. Summer’s mom said that it was too dangerous for Summer and Grayson, but I assured her that my father and I talked to the Elders yesterday.

When I said this, Summer’s mom began to scream that I had no right to endanger her daughter and grandson by doing that. But Summer assured her mother that I’d asked her permission before I spoke with the Elders.

I told the Elders that my one condition of WaterLock being protected by the shifter army was that Summer and I—and by extension, Grayson—be granted a full pardon for breaking pack law six years ago. After I explained everything that happened, there was a tense moment where a few of the Elders were outraged, and one even suggested that Summer, Grayson, Summer’s parents, and I be exiled immediately. The Elder had always held unbending loyalty to pack law.

But most of the Elders were just grateful that our pack would now be protected from the Rogues. The majority of them spoke up in support of me and praised my work toward helping eliminate the Rogue army. My heart lifted when most of the Elders took pride in my role in helping create the shifter army.

The five of us were granted a full pardon.

Summer and Grayson were free to come back and live in Brindle Creek. When I told Summer the news, her eyes had filled with tears of joy.

The past two days had been filled with a whirlwind of activity, but I could deal with anything as long as my Mate and my son were safe.

My family.

Summer and I were still staring at each other from across the room. She looked beautiful in a checkered red and black flannel and jeans. Her long hair was in a high ponytail. There was also an angry pink line on the middle of her neck from the wound Axel had given her.

The bastard.

Everyone who had been injured on our side was able to be mended and discharged from the hospital that same day or the next morning. The two fatal casualties on our side were my two guards—Finn and Rachel. When I had time yesterday, I sat down with Finn’s wife to tell her the news and called Rachel’s family, who still lived in the Pryegate Kingdom. I told them that their loved ones were great warriors, but even greater people and I was here if they needed anything.

Now, it was time to tell my pack that I’d been keeping the shifter army a secret from them for a long time.

“Good afternoon, everyone,” I said into the microphone attached to the podium. “Thank you for coming on such short notice.” I cleared my throat and kept my eyes on Summer’s. The only way I’d be able to do this was if I kept looking at her.

She felt like home.

She and Grayson were my home.

“You’ve got this,” Summer mouthed to me.

A grateful smile crossed my face.

“As you all know, there was a pack lockdown two days ago, and you might have seen warriors patrolling the borders. These were not soldiers from King Ezekiel’s Royal Guard. These warriors are a part of a shifter army that I have helped create. They are going to travel around our kingdom—and the Pyregate and Whispborn Kingdoms—to fight the Rogue wolf armies. Which our former pack member—Axel—had been a part of until I killed him during battle.”

There were few gasps in the crowd.

“Why would we need a shifter army?” Mrs. Stone, who owned a small bakery in town, asked. “Aren’t we gaining protection from the Royal Guard because you are marrying the Alpha King’s daughter?”

Summer frowned at Mrs. Stone’s question.

“No,” I said firmly. “I am not marrying the Alpha King’s daughter. I know that my father told you I was. But I’m not. I apologize for the confusion.”

My dad shifted in his seat in the front row.

I wished that I could introduce Summer as my Mate and Grayson to our pack, but I knew that Summer and I needed to figure things out before I did that. The past few days had been so hectic that we hadn’t had time to talk about our relationship.

“Won't backing out of a marriage deal affect WaterLock’s relationship with the Alpha King?” the Elder who had called for my family to be exiled yesterday asked.

“Yes,” I answered honestly. “It might. But, I believe that King Ezekiel is corrupt.” I paused. “No, not only do I believe he is. I can prove he is.”

For the first time, our meeting hall was completely silent.

“When I was developing my army, I found evidence that the Alpha King might be helping the Rogue wolves get into territories in exchange for money to fund his gambling problem,” I said and folded my hands on the podium.

“That’s ridiculous!” the same Elder from before cried, his ruddy cheeks growing even darker.

“Don’t just take my word for it,” I said. “I have four different testimonies of Rogue wolves confirming the same thing that I just alleged. Should I play one?”

I didn’t wait for a response, but instead, I played all four videos. With each video that played, the meeting hall became progressively more quiet.

“I also have obtained proof of King Ezekiel exchanging wired payments and emails with a few well-known Rogues,” I said. “With this proof—and the four Rogues testimonies—I believe that I have gathered enough evidence to get the Alpha King dethroned.”

For a long moment, my pack was silent, but then Mrs. Stone asked a question about the shifter army, and the tension in the room seemed to break.

For the next hour, I answered my pack's many questions about the Rogue wolf threat—which was still a concern. Even though we had won a single battle, that was only just one army of Rogues. There were still many more out there.

Once the meeting was adjourned, my dad came up to me and pulled me aside.

“Son, I am so sorry that I allowed my worry for the pack to cloud my judgment. I can’t believe I’ve been so foolish…I ignored you every time that you tried to tell me that the Alpha King was corrupt. And you were right this whole time, ” my dad said with guilt in his eyes.

“It’s okay, Dad. Your heart was in the right place the entire time.” I paused, but the corners of his mouth were still turned down. “Dad, you tried to find evidence that the Alpha King was corrupt before you even considered making a deal with him.”

“I did,” my dad sighed, his shoulders slumping. “I don’t understand how I wasn’t able to find any proof.”

“Because King Ezekiel had hired corrupt software engineers to conduct his shady business,” I answered. “But the engineers at my company are better than his.” I grinned. “My team was able to find all that evidence I just presented to you. I believe that the Alpha King wanted my company so he could use my engineers to hack into other pack technology to steal their money and pack secrets.”

My dad sharply inhaled.

“I can’t believe I almost let myself with that asshole. I’m glad you’re taking him down. I can help you with whatever you need on that front…on all fronts.” We shared a smile. “Again, I’m sorry for not trusting you, Son.”

We all make mistakes, Dad,” I told him. “Sometimes we inadvertently hurt people, even when we think we’re doing the right thing.”

I looked past my dad’s shoulder and made eye contact with Summer.

For a moment, the gold thread that connected us flickered, then disappeared.

Hopefully, I would get a chance to rectify my past mistakes.