These weren’t traditional houses. Painted stone and wood appeared to be the building blocks of these homes, and the colors ranged from pink, green, and white to earth tones that mirrored the desert area around us. Though the shapes of the houses differed, they all had the honeycomb stained glass design.
Solar panels lined all of the buildings. To top it off, each home was built into the earth, only the front part rising out of the ground. Again, there were plants everywhere. I could see them inside the large window panels at the front of each home.
“Do all of these buildings have greenhouses?” I asked Chael, realizing that he still held my hand in his grasp.
“Yes. I designed them that way.”
My eyebrows almost touched my forehead. “You designed all of these?”
He peered down at me, nodding.
“Alpha,” a deep voice interrupted before I could ask a follow-up question.
I turned to see a tall man standing in front of one of the homes. He bowed in Chael’s direction. Giggles pierced the air behind him, and I noticed two laughing children pop out from behind him.
“Alpha! Alpha’s back,” they shout and point before bowing. “Is she our alpha queen?” the little girl questioned while the man, presumably her father, lifted her into his arms. Her round brown eyes stared at me. The man murmured something in her ear, and she giggled and ducked her head into his neck.
I turn to see others emerging from their homes, bowing their heads at Chael as we passed and looking at me with interest and broad smiles. Even more questions arose.
My hand tightened around Chael’s when I spotted a few wolves out in the distance, growing closer.
“You’re safe here,” he reassured. “Every wolf here would lose their life, protecting you. None of them would hurt you.”
I heard his words, but it’d been less than twenty-four hours since I was attacked by wolves. He might trust them, but that didn’t mean I had to. I kept my eye on the wolves until we came to a stop at the end of the crossroad, a white building with the word Shaman across the top in big black letters.
A bell chimed overhead as Chael pushed the door open for me to enter first. We walked into a lobby filled with plants and tons of natural sunlight. A woman with rosy-red cheeks glanced up from behind the front desk and stood, bowing her head. Behind her desk was a far wall lined with plants, tinctures, and natural oils and herbs.
“Alpha, Dr. Drake was about to have me call you for an update.”
“Thank you, Sheri,” Chael answered, “Where is he?”
“In the back room, watching over him.” Her blue eyes landed on me, and her smile broadened. “Alpha Queen.” She dipped her head at me.
I shifted from one foot to the other, causing Chael to peer down at me.
He gestured toward the back hallway. We came to a door and he knocked before opening it.
My heart hammered in my chest, frightened of what might be on the other side. Chael said Henry was okay, but why was he there, in what looked like a hospital room?
“Alpha, good morning,” an older man in a long white coat said from the room’s far end.
When I stepped inside, I inhaled sharply. In the middle of the room sat a large bed. At the center of the bed lay Henry, sleeping with an oxygen mask over his mouth and nose.
“What happened?” I asked, moving around Chael and approaching Henry. My heart sank when he didn’t stir at all. I scanned the length of his body. The only indication that he was alive was the rise and fall of his belly and the muffled sounds through the mask. Bandages stretched around the lower half of his body.
I turned to Chael. “Did the wolves do this to him?” I remembered that Henry and I had made it out of the woods. He was able to run with me after we got free from the wolves, but there had to be injuries that I missed. I hadn’t had time to inspect him before Chael showed up, and I passed out.
My heart sank the closer I got to Henry. I stroked behind his ear.
“It wasn’t from the attack.”
Chael stepped next to me, lightly petting Henry’s head.
“He had surgery.”
I snapped my head up at Chael. He dipped his head in the direction of the doctor.
“Dr. Drake is our pack shaman. I brought Henry last night once we arrived and asked Dr. Drake to do the hip surgery he needed.”
