PROLOGUE

*THIRD PERSON POV*

Two years earlier……………..

“How is my son?” The distress in Luna Phoebe’s voice could not be helped. Flabbergasted by the surgeon's hampering gestures, she retorted, “Doctor?”

Dr. Timothy Mosi blocked the Luna’s path to restrict her from entering the operating room at the hospital on the third floor. Unconscious and covered in blood, they had just pushed Heron through the swinging double door on the gurney. Blood gushed from his lower regions to the extent that it left red trails on the white tiled floor. The Luna seemed to be on the verge of cracking under worry. 

"Luna, we won't know until you allow us the chance to examine him." Dressed in light blue surgical gown, head cap and gloves, the male doctor spoke hurriedly through the mask, "Time is of the essence. Please let us do our job."

Unwillingly, she staggered backwards, waiting on the outside as time went by. Under the duress of grief, her long blue-black messy hair of chunky layers slightly covered a tear-stained distraught face. Her icy-blue iris sat in a reddened pool of swollen sockets, itching to shed more tears. 

Luna Phoebe needed to hear some good news. Anxiously, she paced the hallway, hugging herself.  Unaware of how grave her son's condition was, because she had not seen him since the Beta brought him home, she could not stay still. The entire floor was clear of all other patients, reserved only for the high authorities of the pack.

Heron was her severely injured sixteen-year-old child behind those turquoise standard steel doors.

Three additional nurses went inside and it's been hours since anyone came out of the theater. From the hallway, Phoebe demanded to hear from someone so they could let her see him. Just a peek of him would do for now. However, no one came out to provid information, after the Head Pack Doctor had prohibited her from entering the room where her son was admitted. She was uncertain of how long she could maintain her composure and cooperation before the lid was blown and she'd storm inside.

Thanks to her husband, Hudson, the rescue operation had just achieved success. Beta Dwayne had taken Heron home but first to the hospital after notifying Phoebe of the bittersweet report. Abducted outside of pack territories, he had been the victim of a heinous enterprise of unlawful testing.

Alpha Hudson had been detained with chasing after the mad scientist who experimented on their son, holding him hostage for the past two months.

With him were half of the pack’s warriors, and they duly searched the antique buildings and tunnels for his whereabouts, but it seemed that the loony scientist, Dr. Ector Whorms, and his team had disappeared in a secret passage that was yet to be discovered.

When next Dr. Mosi poked his head out to instruct a nurse, Phoebe grabbed him by the sleeve of his surgical gown. “Don’t let me ask you another time without you answering me.” Her powerful Luna aura seeped out with great intimidation.

“Luna,” the doctor pacified her but added a note of urgency, “We are going to operate. He’s in bad shape. The faster you let me to start the surgery, the quicker he might recover, and you can see him right after.”

"Go," her voice cracked and caught in her throat. Shaken and terrified, she released the doctor, knowing that he was right.

Those scumbags had to pay for hurting her son. The anger surfaced every now and then. Everyone in the hospital shuffled around woefully because their future Alpha’s life was at stake. Sorrowful eyes of sympathy were directed on her but feeling slightly drained, she had no time to pay anyone else any attention.

Phoebe resumed pacing back and forced endlessly. Apprehension coated her grief-stricken face. Hudson was not yet at her side when she needed his reassurance that their son was going to be okay. He had been working relentlessly on hunting down the bastard rogues who attacked the teenagers in their car on their way back from the amusement park that was situated in a small human town, a few miles from the borders.

Heron was taking his newly courted girlfriend on their first date, along with friends, when rogues attacked them. They gave no interest to anyone else in the car except the Alpha’s son, whom they abducted. For days neither she nor Hudson slept, and warriors worked incessantly until they were able to rescue Heron.

Just as the sun was rising and the morning sky was taking on a tinted pink to softly beam on the city streets, ushering in a bustle of early-morning activity. Hudson had found Heron in a dimly lit tunnel chained to a black operating table, lying on his stomach with his lower back cut open. There was enough silver and wolfsbane in his system to hinder any form of healing. Additionally, he was barely breathing and was incoherent about everything.

“Darling.”

Phoebe whipped her head around to find Hudson walking rapidly towards her, still clad in his black military suit. He ran a hand through his long sily black hair, then wiped dripping perspiration from his forehead before welcoming her into a long compassionate embrace. Her arms tightened around him as he held her with all the love in his heart.

“Did you catch the lunatic?” Phoebe queried, looking into his emerald eyes with deep hatred for the enemy. The anger towards the mad scientist fermented deeply.

“No,” he sadly replied and wiped her teary face with his thick fingers. “How is Heron?”

“The doctors are with him,” Phoebe sobbed, the reality ripped at her heart. “It’s not looking good.”

Hudson’s heart constricted with grief as he hurt for his only son, and he strived to comfort his despairing wife. “He is strong and he will pull through. I believe in him.”

Staying in each other's hold comforted the two as they waited for news from the doctors. After five hours, Dr. Mosi emerged from the theater, “Luna, Alpha.”

Phoebe broke out of her husband’s embrace and met the doctor at the door. Hudson stood exactly behind her.

“Heron is alive and he will recover in due time,” He removed his surgical gloves and cap from his spiky blond head. “However, I’m afraid that the damage done to his spinal cord might lead to permanent paralysis.”

“Paralysis in what way?” Hudson spoke as Phoebe covered her mouth and silently sobbed. Taking the news as though it was a massive blow to the skull. He put his hand around her waist and pulled her to his side.

“The damage committed by the crazed scientist left spaces in his spine marrow, putting pressure on the spinal cord and nerve roots. He affected the nerve bundle that exits the base of the brain and travels down the middle of the spine by removing two discs. There was severe harm done to the nerve roots that detached from the cord.” Dr. Mosi tragically explained with a heavy heart and pulled the mask from his mouth down to his chin. “To summarize it all, Heron is crippled from the waist down.”

 Phoebe gave a disbelieving chuckle, shaking her head. “No.”

“We are werewolves with fast healing abilities,” Hudson retorted, because he could not comprehend why Dr. Mosi was telling them that his spine could not heal.

“Yes Alpha,” he chose his words cautiously, though he was confident in his prognosis. “But discs were removed. We can input metal rods to hold the spine in place but the disruption of the nerve roots does not allow for Heron to be able to walk."

“Oh goddess!” An appalled Phoebe fell to the ground, snivelling in misery. A headache suddenly presented itself as her son’s demise replayed in her mind, a thousand times. Hudson quickly picked her up, holding her bridal style. His lips were pressed together in dismay.

"Later, after his recovery, we could conduct stimulating exercises to see if there could be progress.” Dr. Mosi made an effort to cast a more favorable light based on Luna's poignant discomposure.

For Alpha Hudson and Luna Phoebe, it was not enough to put them at ease. Not when their son would suffer tremendously. A pack is only as powerful as its leaders, and Heron was the FireBricks Pack's next Alpha and leader. As parents, they refused to accept that nothing else could be done.

“The anesthesia will be in his system for about twenty-four hours. We will transfer him to a private room until he wakes up.” Dr. Mosi continued to relate.

“Doctor, I don’t care what it takes,” Hudson raged with features of an ice-cold mask, “But find a way to help my son, even if it means that nobody sleeps!”

The doctor gulped with fear and his heart raced as the Alpha's dangerously dark aura plummeted throughout the hospital. Pack members shivered as they felt his wrath through the link. His bad mood was duly noted as everyone fell in silence and went around on pins and needles, being mindful of their actions.

That day, Alpha Hudson made a vow to search every crook and corner to find the scoundrels to avenge the damage done to his son. Ever since he took down the Vampire Lord Barabbas Lorcan more than a decade ago, his minions black-labelled his pack and recently they had been fishing in proximity to his territory. They didn’t do anything until that night when Heron disobediently went out of territory with his friends. He should have been more careful, but that was water under the bridge.

What mattered now was to send that demented nut a message that you don’t fuck with the Carters.

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