“Nic will want a funeral and…” I said, staring at both corpses. I didn’t know what to do about Sharon. We gave Venal a funeral but that was because he was Andy’s dad.
“Leave it to me, son,” Dad said. “I know you guys are more than grown up now but I’ve cleaned up worse. Othoni and yourcarrier are already en route to Heartville. Go with them. Keep Vallis company. Be the level head because he’s the mate of Colton and Ivan’s son. They might get crunchy.”
“Are you trying to get rid of me because I’m an omega?” I asked, crushing the empty water bottle in my fist because I needed something to hold onto.
“No,” Dad flashed me a sad smile. “Trying to get you to go because the longer you stare at your friend’s dead body the longer you’re going to have nightmares.”
Colton scooped me up. I almost walloped him with the crushed water bottle but my brother knew a thing or two about trauma too. My best friend was finally coming to see me. I’d seen him and his mate right before Yule but that felt like it was part of another lifetime.
“I got you. Don’t worry about Vallis either. We didn’t go through all this trouble to save him just to skin him alive ourselves now,” Colton said as he sat me down in the boat.
Vallis was out cold again but at least he was back in his human form.
“Mori,”my carrier’s voice came into my thoughts like a gentle spring breeze.“You’re okay, Mori. Annila will be okay at some point. You were very brave today.”
I didn’t feel very brave. I watched while the women all killed each other.
“Being a woman doesn’t stop alphas from being dumb sometimes and power hungry. Not Annila. I’m not talking about her. She decided how her story would most likely end the moment she found out that she was pregnant. She’d stop atnothing short of death to protect her unhatched egg. Life beat her up one too many times and she didn’t know how else to go out except for fighting. I’m sorry that I didn’t tell you we were in touch with her so often. After the explosion she stopped by a lot. I thought it was better for us not to mention it but best to keep our eyes on the enraged dragoness. She’s earned her rest, Mori. I’d have given her a thousand lifetimes worth of years to be happy for all she’s been through but alas I am not the creator nor the destroyer of worlds. Her egg is safe here. I think your dead wolf played a trick on us because as soon as he picked up things over the group link Lero started shouting about the egg being at my house. I think Dern or his mate wanted to ensure everyone knew where the egg was.”
“Thank you for being her friend when I couldn’t,”I thought back to my carrier as sleep pulled me under and left me wondering if I was exhausted or if Colton had dosed my water with some tasteless sedative.
“Lero,” Vallis whispered in his sleep and that was the last thing I heard until I woke up at the hospital in Heartville.
CHAPTER SIXTEEN
Vallis
Heartville
The world outside my head was loud. Monitors beeped, bopped, and squeaked. People talked. All rushing around with their shoes squeaking across the floor. Someone had stolen my pants and my shoes. The whole place smelled like a woodsy fruit salad more than it smelled like shifters or elves. I breathed in again. The world inside me was quieter. My bear slumbered inside his inner sanctum and Lero kept whispering that he was almost here. I didn’t want to open my eyes again because when I did the dream would end and I’d be back inside the coffin. The beeping fruit salad was preferable to that.
“Vallis?” some strange voice called my name.
Who had Pami recruited to work with her now?
“Vallis? Can you hear me?” the man asked again. “Vallis? If you can hear me, I need you to give me a sign.”
I flipped them off, half falling asleep with my hand still in that position. Then the guy laughed.
“That’s one way to say hello,” the man said.
“What did she give you?” I asked, not opening my eyes.
“Who give me?” he asked.
“Pami.”
“Friend, I never met her which is probably the best thing for her. I don’t think my mates would’ve liked her.”
I blinked my eyes open against the bright overhead lights. The healer in the long white coat, asked someone to turn off the lights and the room fell into darkness except for the blinking pulses on the monitors.
“Better?” he asked.
“Are you Bane? My father--- grandfather-in-law told them to take me to Bane,” it took me two tries to say the word father because my throat was so dry.
“Bane is with Mori. He’s had a bit of a shock. So, you’re stuck with me. I’m Dara. I like to think I’m just as good at shifter medicine as he is.”
“Okay,” I nodded and looked around the room. No Mori in here. No Colton either. Colton’s wolf husband slept in a chair in the corner. That was right. The world went crazy and the shebear killed Pami. Then a dragoness killed her. She might’ve killed the dragoness too. I wasn’t sure.
