Logically, I understood that. Wyn was the best, and she’d figure out what was wrong with my sister. She’d fix it, she would. But standing there, watching everyone converge on Lyra, knowing I could do nothing to help, made me want to claw off my own skin. Briggs attached equipment to her chest while another nurse cut off her clothes, and Wyn barked orders. Lyra shook and bled and…fuck, I couldn’t breathe.
I couldn’t lose my little sister. I couldn’t watch her die. I couldn’t—I couldn’t?—
“What the hell is he doing here?” Kodiak said when he walked into the medical bay, his dark gaze raking over both of us. “Mill, take him to the hallway. Caelum, go get cleaned up.”
“Kodiak, please,” Caelum said. “I didn’t hurt her. Please, let her be okay. I didn’t do anything, I swear.”
“Hey.” Kodiak put his hands on Caelum’s shoulders and leaned down to stare him in the eyes. “Right now, I need you to shower and get her blood off you. When she wakes up, she’ll feel worse if you’re still a mess. Can you do that for me?”
Caelum gulped and nodded before heading to the hallway leading back to the dorms.
“Mill?” Kodiak raised an eyebrow and nodded at me, but I was stuck staring at my only remaining family member, struggling to stay alive.
My best friend grabbed my shoulders and guided me out of the infirmary to the hallway, leading me down to a sitting area we’d designated as the waiting room. He pushed me onto a couch and plopped down next to me with a sigh.
“She’ll be okay, Fen,” he said. “Whatever it is, Wyn will figure it out.”
I rested my elbows on my knees and hung my head, praying to whatever Gods or ancestors listening that he was right. Hours…days…centuries passed while he sat with me in silence. Maeve came to check on us and bring us coffee, but he sent her away with a kiss and told her to let everyone know Lyra was still alive.
I couldn’t shake the image of seeing her writhing in pain, leaking from every orifice, her life pooling on the floor of the med-bay quicker than she could recover. And with that came memories of my parents.
Two decades ago, our enemies, the Bloody Scorpions, had snuck onto our territory during a full moon, attacked during the shift, when we were our most vulnerable. They’d taken out damn near half the pack before we realized what had happened, my parents among them.
At twelve years old, I’d stood over their mangled corpses and burned the images into my brain so I’d never forget. Their hands joined together, even in death. Their blood mingling on the grass underneath them. Their flesh torn and their insides exposed to the elements. Their white, lifeless eyes.
I didn’t truly understand death until then. I’d heard of it, of course. The random elder or two who passed away warm and content in their bed, surrounded by their family.
But standing over what remained of my parents, surrounded by countless others in the same position, I’d learned death could come for any of us at any time. It had no qualms about children or lives yet to be lived. It didn’t care about age or gender or love. It took what it wanted and gave no thought to the consequences.
Then I’d gone home to my two-year-old sister, scooped her into my arms, and swore I’d never let anything happen to her. I’d promised to live my life for my parents, to protect Lyra, to raise her the way they would have wanted, and find life anywhere I could. Had I taken it too far? Was Wyn right? Did I not take myself seriously up to this point because I knew all of it could be snatched away at any moment?
“Did you know they were…” Mill asked, breaking me from my dark train of thought.
“Of course.” I sighed and leaned back in the chair. “You?”
He pursed his lips and nodded. “They were trying to keep under wraps, but nothing stays secret for long in this place.”
“Don’t I fucking know it.” It had been less than a week, and word had spread like wildfire about Wyn and me. Hell, the whole pack already knew what we were, even if we didn’t.
Mill huffed a laugh and reached over to finger the bite on my neck, raising an eyebrow. “This is new.”
I covered the bite and winced. “Yeah.”
“She got one matching it?” He raised his eyebrows.
I shook my head. “We didn’t get that far, yet.”
“She bit you first?”
I put my face in my hands. “It’s complicated.”
He blew out a disbelieving breath. “Well, fuck.”
“Don’t tell me you’re going to beat my ass and burn my life down.”
Mill laughed and shook his head, and I smirked at the sound. Before Maeve, he’d gone through a rough patch where all he did was sulk around and brood. I’d forgotten how much he used to laugh before that, how much I enjoyed the sound.
“Gods know I can’t tell her what to do,” he said. “I’ve spent my whole life trying, and all she does is snap at me and force me to do whatever she wants. Half the time, I’m following her orders before I even realize what the hell I’m doing.”
