(tw: description of injury)
I fully intended to avoid Val like a plague after our last meeting but she seemed to be avoiding me instead. For three days straight she had been gone from the territory. I wondered what she could possibly be doing but with Liam being gone also, I figured it was pack business. Her scent had started to fade from underneath our shared doorway and its absence had started to make me feel sick.
Everest had been soothed at first after our meeting. I had felt stronger again for a time but as the days dragged on I started to get dreary and exhausted.
I finished the shower and turned it off, stepping out into the restroom and drying my hair. The kids had been thriving well here. I could tell Donte kind of resented eating from the hands of people who murdered our pack but he had also made quite a few friends in his time here. Emerald seemed to be fairing well.
Some of the smaller kids were still crying at night. Missing their parents, asking why we couldn't go back home. From what I had seen, the caretakers at the nursery were very gentle with them. They did their best to answer the questions honestly but sensitively.
I was walking through the garden with Frankford. He had become vaguely more talkative since I risked getting jumped to keep his company. We passed rows and rows of different colored rose bushes and he gestured to the orange looking ones.
"These were the Luna's favorite shade. She planted most everything in the garden herself."
My eyes widened as I walked through the vast maze of it. It seemed unthinkable that one person could have planted all of this, even if they lived a hundred lifetimes.
"No way, there's thousands of flowers here."
Frankford grinned and nodded.
"Oh yes she did. She was out here more than she was inside. Day to night, planting and pruning and singing to them. She loved them as much as she loved her own children."
I frowned as I remembered the fate of her and the Valeriano pack in general.
"Did you know Rosaura?"
Frankford nodded and met my gaze with a serious look.
"We don't speak her name here anymore. It's too painful for them- for everyone."
I bit my cheek and took one of the roses in between both of my hands. The smell here was fresh and lively- ever since I came to this place. Frankford sensed my curiosity and took the bait.
"Rosaura was a spunky kid. She had an attitude like you wouldn't believe. Gave her own father lots of hell right up to the end of it. She was kind and smart and the only Valeriano kid I've ever seen with hair so white."
When he mentioned it I tried to remember the lightest hair color of the kids in the nursery. It was true that most of them had black or brown or auburn hair if anything, I had been hard pressed to even remember a blonde. I turned to him cautiously, sensing the topic wasn't something to be taken lightly.
"How white was it?"
"White as fresh fallen snow."
I chuckled a little, trying to picture it. Then I pushed gently further.
"Was it because she was born under the blood moon?"
Frankford had a look of astonishment when he met my large peering eyes. He rubbed the stubble of his chin and nodded at me to warn me I was pushing dicey territory.
"I'm surprised Vallory even told you that much. She never talks about Rosaura, you know? Neither of them do. Not since what happened."
"Her real name is Vallory?"
Frankford laughed and teased me for my curiosity.
"Don't call her that. Ever. She hates that name."
I grinned widely and caught myself. It was insane and insufferable to me to come to the stubborn reality that I missed her. It wasn't as though we regularly existed in each other's presence. But there was something inexplicably and unavoidably comforting about knowing she was nearby. My chest skipped a beat with the acknowledgement that it was likely the same for her. I turned and walked down a separate row of flowers, about to ask what they were called when shouting in the distance caused both me and Frankford to stop mid stroll. A large kong of a bell started to ring out and Frankford's face steeled.
"What is it?"
"We have to go, now."
I didn't need any further explanation and quickly started to follow him. When the sound of lots of wolves running surrounded the woods nearby, Frankford broke into a sprint and I followed also. We made a break for the back door, which he yanked open for me and I rushed inside quickly. When we were inside he slipped a wooden board behind a curtain through the doors. Seeing the careful but fast work he made of it, I stopped him for just a moment.
"What's happening?"
"The bells mean there's some kind of emergency and everyone needs to get inside."
I watched Frankford move down the hall for each doorway and brace them each with well concealed wooden planks. He turned to me quickly and told me to go directly to my room and board the door. I opened my mouth to argue about leaving him but closed it. We were close, sure, but the man didn't seem incapable of handling himself.
Reluctantly, I started to sprint down the hall towards my bedroom. It was almost night time but still early enough the sky was a searing hot pink. I reached my room and closed the door. I shoved the wooden board from my closet underneath the door to brace it shut and listened closely, trying to understand what was happening.
I couldn't tell if time was passing quickly or slowly. Several beats passed with my heart slamming, staring at the door. I heard a set of footsteps heading my way, too light to be Frankfords, they stopped right outside my door and someone started to pound on it.
"Liana, are you in here?"
I knew the voice but couldn't tell who it was.
"Who is it? What's wrong?"
The voice sounded panicked, terrified even.
"It's Liam. Come out and follow me now."
I had never seen him anywhere so close to this hallway. I opened the door and met his pale, scared face. I had never seen him look like that, so panicked. It aged him down nearly ten years and he looked the way I imagined Donte would look right about now. I did what he said and followed him as he ran at full speed through the halls.
When we reached the hospital on the top floor I got a horrible feeling in my stomach. The door opened and I saw five doctors scrambling around a white hospital bed. I felt like I was choking on glass as I stared down at the sight in front of me. Val had a wooden spike that went all the way through her side where her ribs were. Everyone was scrambling and shouting and my heart was beating so loud I almost didn't hear anyone talking to me.
The spike looked like it had been sharpened before it was put into her. She was losing lots of blood from the dark pomegranate red of the bed sheets made me dizzy.
"What happened?"
The words left me in a whisper and Liam looked like he was going to be sick beside me.
"She can't focus on anything, she's almost passing out and the doctors need her to transform into her wolf so she'll stop losing so much blood. Do something!"
He shouted at me like it was an order but all I heard was the sound of a scared child begging me to save his sister's life. I moved towards the side of the bed where all the blood was. The doctors rushed around me worriedly but let me through. Wolves healed better nearby their mates.
I didn't know how to get her attention. I held her head between my hands and called her name. Her eyes were rolling back from the pain and blood loss. I yelled at her again and somewhere in the chaos her eyes opened a little bit and landed on me.
"Liana?"
"Transform. Turn into your wolf right now."
She looked confused. I held her again and repeated myself. Finally just as her eyes started to roll back again, she seemed to understand what I said and started to transform. Her wolf was larger than I expected but looked just like her, dark as night with the same swimming hazel eyes. Just after her transformation was completed, the wolf collapsed and became unconscious. The doctors looked somewhat relieved and ordered me to back up so they could remove the spike.
Still in shock of what I was seeing, I took a step back and stared at the entire surgery without moving a single inch. It was almost two o'clock in the morning when someone finally dragged me away from the hospital room. When we exited the doors, I realised it was Frankford.
"Come on kid, she's going to be okay. Let's go see your kids, alright?"
I heard his words but my whole body felt numb and I had become vaguely aware of Val's blood that was all over my jeans. The spike had only narrowly missed her lungs. Frankford slapped my face gently and I shook myself out of it.
"Let's go to Donte, alright?"
I nodded and we walked away from the hospital.