“What?”
“You are looking at my mate like she is still the weak little friend you had growing up.” He looked down at the woman in the bed. “But she isn’t.” He pushed a strand of hair away. “You gave her the avenue to become stronger, Amy. And she spent the last few years honing it.” He looked back up at me. “When you were fighting for your life, no one questioned you or your duty because you are an Alpha. Well, Cass is a Gamma, and she is the best fucking tracker we have ever had. Stop diminishing her.”
I stumbled back a step. “I wasn’t.” I tried to push back, but he just looked at me with devastation in his eyes.
“You were. So stop it.” He looked to the doctor, who had finished cutting away her clothes, leaving her in some boy shorts and a sports bra. “How is she?”
The doctor hesitated as he inserted an IV port into her arm. “The pup obviously returned to the Goddess, but something is going on, and I’m trying to figure it out.” He pulled out a vial of blood from the IV and frowned. “Interesting.”
“What is?” My father pushed up off the wall.
The doctor turned and handed him the vial. “I had thought with her injuries that she was injected with silver, or wolfsbane. She shows no sign of healing, so I was concerned.” He looked from Cass’s body to the vial. “But…” He trailed off.
“But what?” Greyson’s voice trembled.
The doctor pointed to the vial of blood. “If there was silver, or wolfsbane in her blood. We would smell it, but we would also see it. Inside the vial there would be a distinct separation of blood, and the contaminant, yet there’s nothing.”
“Then what is going on? She isn’t healing.” My father pointed to the heavily injured Cass.
The doctor looked slightly uncomfortable. “I don’t know what is going on.”
“It’s Cass.” My words were a soft whisper in the room, but everyone turned to look at me.
“What did you just say?” The doctor looked confused.
“Cass is the reason she isn’t healing.”
“That doesn’t make sense.” He pointed out.
But Greyson nodded. “She is right.”
I nodded. “Cass would have told her wolf to focus on saving the baby. She would have made her promise.”
Greyson let a tear slip down his face. “Foolish woman.” He kissed her temple. “Come back to me.” His prayer was soft.
“Is that possible?” My father stepped closer to the bed and looked down at Cass.
The doctor seemed to consider it. “While normally, I would say no, this might be an exception.” My dad turned with a confused look on his face. So the doctor continued. “Normally, if a wolf miscarries, much like a wild wolf, she moves on quickly. She might nest for a bit, or be restless, but the wolf would move on, and try for another, probably starting a new heat within the month. If it's an attack like this, the wolf would save the human, and then console her until she was ready for a new heat. But obviously this isn’t happening.”
“She would have convinced Nora to save our pup.” Greyson’s voice was hollow. “She was so excited when she figured it out, she ran to see Amy to see if she was right.”
I stepped back into Rowan's arms. “She came to me yesterday to hang out.”
He nodded. “Yeah. She was a little disappointed, but then your dad called for a tracker.” He looked up. “She said she would see you after.”
“Why did she volunteer if she was pregnant?” My dad asked.
Greyson smiled as he looked down at his mate. “She said she wanted to finish this, so that we could raise our pup here, at home. Instead of the Agora.”
“But why would it matter?” I cried. “She had so many other ways to help, she didn't have to do this.” I shook my head. I just didn't understand.
Greyson looked up at me with a sad smile. “You know what I heard for the last four years? Every day when Cass was struggling, she would always say that she wanted to be more like you. ‘I have to be like Amy’.” He shook his head. “I tried to explain that she didn't have to be like you because I loved her as she was, but she kept saying that she had to be like you because she wanted to be someone that she could look up to. Someone that our pups would look up to and the only person that she ever looked up to you was you.”
Rowan clutched me tighter to his chest as he felt my body trembling against his. “No.” I fought back against Greyson's words. “I'm not someone to look up to.”
“Come on, Amy. You're an Alpha, you're an amazing person and have always stuck up for Cass. She absolutely loves you. You're her best friend, of course she wanted to be like you. You risk it all for the people you love, right?” I nearly dropped to my knees, but Rowan caught me. Greyson looked at me. “I don't blame you. I swear to the Goddess that I don’t. I know my mate made her own choices and I know that if this happened, it's the Goddess’s path. I'm just devastated that my pup is gone and my mate is in this bed. I know that I have to go out and still fight tokeep our home safe.” Greyson stood and he looked at the doctor. “Is she stable?”
The doctor looked down at Cass and sighed. “She's showing no signs of fading, so, yes she’s stable for now. I'm going to monitor her for the rest of the day to ensure she makes it.”
