“Wake up. NOW!” Rocky jolts me from a deep sleep. The shock makes me pull Zara tighter against me to protect her. She sighs with a whine, but doesn’t wake up. I rub circles on her back to lull her back to a deeper sleep. Dad is sitting beside the bed staring at Zara and me sleeping, but his eyes are pitch black. “Avalanche. What are you doing?” I rub my eyes in the dimly lit room. “I came to apologize.” His deep voice rumbles. “I shouldn’t have killed him. Now my mate is mad. So is Phil.” “Where is Dad now? Is he listening?” I don’t think Dad has ever let Avalanche have free rein in human form before. “I asked for privacy to talk to you.” He twists his mouth, looking uncomfortable. “You don’t need to apologize to me. My mate would be dead if it hadn’t been for you.” I give him a nod of appreciation. “Mom and Dad will come around. They just need time.” “He was your brother. Their son.” The wolf looks confused. “If he valued our relationship, he wouldn’t have acted the way he d
“Zara, come on Pocket. Doctor Khe is here for your appointment and Estelle has a test she needs to run, so she’s here, too.” I sit on the side of the bed and brush her hair back. “Do you want me to have them come in here or meet with them in my office?” She hasn’t gotten out of bed except to go to the bathroom and to eat in almost a week and it is worrying me. She says she’s too tired and sleeps all day. Doctor Khe says it’s a normal reaction to what she went through and to keep encouraging her to do routine things and stick to her new medication schedule. Estelle warned me that all the chemicals could change her demeanor until they have regulated everything. What she didn’t tell me was that the mixture of chemicals would change Zara’s scent. Now hidden between the rose and chamomile, I can smell the ocean breeze. It’s pleasant, just different. Zara has nightmares that make her cry in her sleep. She hides herself against me with her arms over her head, shaking and fearful of her dre
Once I’m able to convince Zara that I’m actually happy about the news, things seem to get better. She still has days where all she does is lay in bed and cry, but they are fewer and fewer. Doctor Khe has to change Zara’s medications, yet again, which makes things more challenging in caring for her. The time she spends whispering to herself or staring off with a very un-Zara-like scowl has become more frequent. If you ask her who she is talking to, or what she is thinking about, she gives you a suspicious look and turns away or tells you she does not know what you’re talking about. One night, Dad even stopped her from deleting all her data from the server. When he asked her why she was doing it, all she could say was ‘they told her she had to’. After that, Dad set up an auto back-up of the server that Zara couldn’t access to be safe. Mom, Dad, and Estelle take turns staying the night, so I can go to work from eleven p.m. until three a.m. with Jasper. We hand out warm clothes and food
Zara seems in better spirits once school starts back up. Having a routine and figuring out how to balance school, homework, and working on the sigma cure seems to keep her mind off of other things. She also shows an interest in converting the guest room into a nursery and the nursery into a guest room so the baby will be closer to our room. Mom is happy to help have the guest room furniture moved and to have everything from the existing creepy nursery donated. One particularly rough night at work, Jasper and I find the body of a girl we had been speaking with under a bridge. The sickly sweet smell of ketamine is heavy in the air. “I think it’s time for me to take a page for your book, Kel.” Jasper puts his hands in his coat pockets and watches the ambulance with the girl’s corpse drive away. “I thought about the dark side of my bad habits. I’m done partying like that. Sticking to beer and liquor.” “It’s gonna change your life, Jas. You’ll see.” I clap him on the back and lead him
Jasper’s POV I had never seen a dead body. The body of the girl my best friend, Keller, and I found under a bridge was Lanie. She was a sigma werewolf and a hardcore addict, not like the party girls we meet at the clubs. Keller is a werewolf. We’ve been friends since grade school and I just found out he is a werewolf a couple of months ago. He tells me most of the sigmas he has ever met are addicts or prostitutes. Except for his girlfriend, Zara. She’s a sigma, but doesn’t even drink. We had been talking to Lanie for a couple months to make sure was not in danger. She seemed really sweet and polite when she was lucid. I even got to know her well enough for her to tell me she was going to be a professional ballerina when she got older. I know it wasn’t true, but I would not be the one to crush her dreams. After not seeing her in her usual hangouts for a couple of weeks, we went looking for her. I kinda wish we had never found her. Not like that, anyway. She still had a syringe hangin
Keller’s POV Zara and I are meeting with a woman who Mom is paying to paint a mural on the nursery wall when my phone pings with a text notification. Zara is showing her examples of underwater paintings she has been pinning on mood boards and the furniture we ordered for the room. “Excuse me, Ladies.” I squeeze Zara’s hand and step out of the now empty guest room. “I won’t be long.” Jasper: VIP at Velvet Rope for Sam’s birthday on Saturday. Sam: Holy shit, really? Jasper: Yeah. Kel, can you invite Estelle and Tyree? Keller: Yup. Jasper: What about Zara? Keller: Nope. She’s not 21 and she’s pregnant. Keller: Besides, she’s excited to kick Dad’s ass in Scrabble. Sam: Bummer. Okay. Next year. Jasper: Kel - ask Estelle to let Tyree know about the dress code. Keller: Will do. Jasper: Sam - Melissa Jackson is coming. Don’t blow it. Sam: Bro. Jasper: See you at 11:30 Saturday “Everything okay?” Zara smiles when I come back to the room. “All good. Jasper made plans for Sam’
“What are you doing?” Mom looks into the back seat of Dad’s truck while we head home. “Just making sure he’s not hurt.” I look him over, squeezing his legs gently and pulling his sleeves up to make sure there are no cuts or bruises. When I lift his chin up, he gives me a little whine, making me pull my hand back. I chuckle when he squints his soft, gray eyes at me with a scowl. He looks just like Skylar. “Sorry, little guy. I’m just making sure you’re good to go. Don’t beat me up.” “He doesn’t look like a goblin. How can he be so cute when he looks like your brother?” Rocky asks, admiring the infant. “It’s going to make our mate sad that his mother left him.” “No idea how he can be so cute, Rocky, but he’s already growing on me. Imagine how it’s going to feel when we meet our own pup.” I brush my finger over Dillon’s nose gently. I take the baby to the living room with Mom and finally let her hold him while Dad speaks with Beta Stone in the entryway. “Mom, what are we going to do
“It’s not too late. I can stay home, Pocket. Sam will understand.” I sit on the bed next to her and Dillon. “Go spend time with your friends.” She takes my hand and smiles at me. “Who knows when you’ll have another opportunity? Mom and Dad are here. They set the travel bassinet up. Mom showed me how to make bottles of formula and how to change his diaper. If anything happens, she and Dad will help me. I’m going to leave the bedroom door wide open just in case, but right now, you need to go out. You said the Doc told you to. Don’t go against the doctor’s orders, Keller.”“If you want me to come home, you’ll call me right away, right? Like for any reason. You’ll call me?” I stroke my fingers over Dillon’s soft brown hair. He gives me another scowl and a little grunt. “It doesn’t feel right to leave you two on the first night.”“Don’t make me manipulate you, Keller Joseph.” Zara raises her eyebrows at me. “Tonight, you go out with your friends. Tomorrow, the three of us will spend the d