“If they cauterized it,” he says, “that's actually the better scenario. Faster, cleaner, less ongoing loss. If they just wrapped it and left her—” He sets down a syringe. “I don't know what we'll find, but I'm preparing for bad.”
I press my thumbnail into the seam of my jacket pocket. “What else?”
He's quiet for a moment. He sets down what he's holding and braces both palms on the counter. “Add the pain and the bloodloss and two days of her body running on pure stress response. She may not be reachable by the time we get to her.”
My brow pinches. “Define not reachable.”
Ezra faces me straight on. “She might be… feral. Every cell in her body will be screaming for her scent-matches.”
“Why don't I know about this?”
Ezra exhales quietly. “Because almost nobody studies what happens when scent-matches are forcibly separated. Most packs never survive it long enough for anyone to document the damage.”
Cold moves through my chest. “Sera won't know that either.”
Ezra's mouth draws tight. “No. She thought she was doing the right thing by leaving.”
My stomach twists. “And she has no idea what it's doing to her.”
Ezra shakes his head, his lips tilting down. “I don't think she would have left if she had.”
I pull one hand out of my pocket and set it flat on the counter beside the kit. “But she'll be alive when we get there.”
Ezra clasps my shoulder, his grip bruising. “Yes. She'll be alive.”
I nod. That's enough, because I want to believe it's enough.
Espie is in the doorway. Aubrey is a step behind her, one hand braced on the frame. They've heard all of it.
Espie's arms are wrapped around her own middle, her shoulders drawn up and in. The color has drained from her face and her eyes are too wide, the way they go when her brain is running threat-assessment faster than she can control it.
“Is that true?” Her voice comes out thin. “She could be — right now, while we're standing here — she could already be that far gone?”
Ezra sighs, a long, drawn-out sound. “You weren't meant to hear that. But yes. She could be.”
Espie makes a sound that isn't quite a word. Aubrey moves closer behind her, putting his arms around her.
“Then we're coming.” She raises her chin and pins me with a direct stare. “We're not staying here. I can't — I can't sit in this house knowing she's down there and that far away from us and not —” She stops. Starts again. “She’ll need us. You just said it. If she’s too distressed, we're the only ones who can reach her.” She looks at Ezra. “Tell Kev I’m right.”
Ezra doesn't answer immediately. His jaw clenches and a muscle ticks at his temple. “She's not wrong, Kev.”
She’s drowning in Sera’s hoodie. The same one she’s worn for days. Every instinct I have says no. The idea of bringing her into that place makes panic move cold through my chest.
But Sera is down there. And if Ezra is right, then the best extraction team in the county won’t be what brings her back.
Espie and Aubrey will.
Ronan has twelve people on the perimeter. Levi has six more. There’ll be bodies between Espie and anything that gets near her, and I’ll personally be one of them. Aubrey meets my eyes and the steel is there.
“You stay inside the perimeter, you don't go anywhere I haven't cleared, and you don't separate from Aubrey.”
She exhales through her nose. “Agreed.”
“If I tell you to get out, you get out. No debate, no negotiation. You move.”
She tips her chin up at me. “The same applies to you.”
That's fair. I drop my chin once. “Agreed.”
