Chapter Four

Zander’s POV

Self control is both a blessing and a curse. It means the burden often falls on me to put my own needs last. There is a constant expectation to be there and pick up the pieces, be the strong one, lead everyone else when the shit hits the fan. Of course that falls under my remit as Alpha, but our pack has two Alphas, yet I seem to be the one putting myself on the back burner.

I’m not blaming Christian, he is only doing what I have always allowed him to do, and it was Gabe and Uriel who dragged me to the hospital to have my leg rebroken and aligned. It just really boils my piss that yet again I am not there for Liberty when she needs me. I know, I’m being petulant. All that should matter is that she is okay. But that isn’t what my heart feels and when I saw her, she was far from okay.

When the lightning struck me, the only thing I saw, all that occupied my thoughts, was her. Liberty has become the centre and my life and world revolves around her. I may be more reserved and guarded with my emotions, I don’t want to overwhelm her, but that doesn’t mean I feel any less. It was different in the beginning, when we were trying to make her see what the bond felt like, but now she needs a steady, stable presence in her life and that is the need I fulfil. I am the yin to Christian’s overbearing yang.

The addition of Arly to our little family was unexpected but a gift all the same, and I know that whilst Christian is there for Liberty, Arly needs me here. I only started thinking about a family when we found Liberty. Until then I had resigned myself to living a lonely existence, running the pack and securing its future. Now we have pups on the way and little Arly, and I could never go back to how it was before. I had no idea what I was missing, and now that I have felt it, I want more, and I will fight to the ends of the earth to keep hold of it.

When my brother links me to say they are just coming through the main doors at the entrance to the hospital, I fight my way through the crowd of bloodied pretty boys all waiting for treatment, and head straight to meet them with Arly clinging to me. Her arms grip my neck and every time I try to put her down for a moment she cries and tightens her hold, and I can’t stand seeing her cry, so I don’t put her down. Liberty says the little madam has me wrapped around her little finger, I deny it out loud, but in truth there is no denying that I am well and truly under our little witch’s spell.

It feels like the world stops spinning and I may very well float away when I see Liberty being carried in, her skin is pale and she is strapped to a board. This is not good. What the hell happened out there? Six men are sat in triage, bloodied and broken, my mate looks to be closer to death than I had imagined and my little sister is back, but not the same as she was when she left.

When Chris and I reached them in the forest, Lottie was standing over Liberty’s unmoving body, her arms outstretched, chanting in a language that sounded vaguely familiar. I was distracted by the wolves trying to breach the wall of fire to get to the girls, and one of them managed to latch onto my leg and broke the bone clean in half. I don’t know if it was adrenaline or sheer will power that kept me going, but I didn’t collapse to the floor until the last wolf had taken its final breath.

Gabe and Uriel weren’t too far behind us but still managed to miss all of the action. When they saw the state of my leg, the fractured bone protruding awkwardly from the bloody wound, they carted me straight to Doc. I tried to put up a fight, but I was in no condition to resist for long, especially with the mood Gabe was in. He has been a prickly bastard for a while, but this was a whole other level. I thought he might actually knock me out and throw me over his shoulder. A thought which now amuses me.

His mood hasn’t improved since being here, and the pretty boys bore the brunt of it. I sat back and listened to the tirade of abuse for a little while, after all they were meant to protect my sister, and they did a piss poor job of it. As it turns out she is perfectly capable of protecting herself.

“Baby. I’m so sorry I left you. I’m here now. How are you feeling?” it’s a stupid question, but I’m hoping whatever she says will assure me she isn’t as bad as she looks. No such luck though, she barely opens her eyes to look up at me. I see the pain on her face before she notices Arly on my hip, then she does her best to hide her agony and give the little madam a forced smile.

“Our pups are okay. I can’t feel my legs. Marcel wants me to have a transfusion of his blood. He thinks it will heal my spine, but the Doc isn’t sure how it will affect us.” I look down and see her hand cupping her bump, the lump in my throat grows to such a size I can barely swallow past it. The ‘us’ she refers to, being her and our pups. I feel like an absolute shit for thinking it, and I try to tell myself it’s a normal thought to have, but if the blood can save her, she needs to do it. I can’t lose her. We will deal with the consequences later.

“What is the worst that could happen?” I turn to Marcel and ask him the question I’m not sure I want an answer to.

“Her body could reject my blood. But her latent Vampyre genes should prevent that. I think that is why she doesn’t heal like a wolf. The gene was replaced but never activated. A transfusion of my blood should change that and she will heal the same way I do.” I have no idea what half of what he said even means, the synapses in my brain aren’t firing on all cylinders right now. All I know is that we need to try anything we can. How can we not? Marcel would never suggest something that would leave her worse off, he has come to be one of Liberty’s most loyal friends and advisors.

“Liberty agreed to the transfusion and I have had everything set up, but Alpha Christian wants to give the blood she ingested a bit more time to work.” The Doc gives Chris and annoyed glare. I have a feeling there has been a heated discussion before their arrival with no obvious victor.

“What do you want baby?” I take her hand in mine, lacing our fingers together and laying it back on her tummy. It feels like forever since I felt her skin against mine, when in reality she was sat on my lap in her office only a couple of hours ago. I make a silent vow to myself to have a word with my brother about our roles and how it’s time things changed, after all, a lot has changed in the last couple of months and we need to adapt if we are going to get through all of this.

I don’t want to be at logger heads with him, but I can’t keep pandering to his volatile nature. He is doing so much better now than he was, it’s time to stop being an enabler and break out the tough love, for his sake and mine.

“I don’t think the blood is working. At first it did. It kept me here. But I’m not healing. The pain is no better and I’m scared. I can’t feel anything Zander. How will I live without my legs? I can’t look after Arly and our babies if I cant get around. Kendrick is coming and I can’t fight from a bed. I need to try this. I trust Marcel and if he says it’s worth a try, then I think we should try.” You wouldn’t be able to tell by looking at her, but I can feel how terrified she is, not just for herself but for how her injury would effect everyone around her. She has her game face on for Arly who is wriggling and desperately trying to climb down from me and onto the bed Liberty has been laid on.

I have always been in awe of her strength, but never more so than right now. She is going to be the best mother our pups could ever hope for. The way she looks after Arly, even with everything else going on she has made this little one her top priority, and it shows. Arly loves her, and I know she came to us in shitty circumstances, but she is ours now, and she is meant to be here. I look at Liberty and think about how far she has come since that night we found her. She has learned to speak up for herself and I’m not about to stand in her way.

“Do the transfusion Doc, it’s what she wants. Liberty knows what is best for her, and if she says try, we try. End of debate.” Christian glares are me from the other side of her bed. It’s not uncommon for us to disagree, but we have always seen eye to eye about Liberty, until now.

It only takes a few minutes for Liberty and Marcel to be taken into one of the private rooms and the transfusion set up. The Doc insisted we stay out in the corridor until they were settled, so I take this opportunity to smooth things over with my brother and find out what Lottie is doing back here. It turns out Christian has the same idea where Lottie is concerned.

“I wasn’t deliberately going against your wishes. We promised Liberty she would have control over her body, her life and her future. She had made her decision, and our only responsibility is to back her up. I’m worried too, but better we suffer now, than her hold a grudge if we try to stop her having the treatment she wants.” I bullshit my way through a half assed apology, still feeling a bit bitter about everything, but I do mean most of what I said. It does the trick and Chris dumps himself down in the hard, plastic seat beside me.

Lottie hovers around the door to Liberty’s room, not making eye contact with either of us. She looks different, like she has grown up in the last couple of weeks. I know she can’t have changed that much, maybe it’s me, and I’m just seeing her in a different light. No, that’s definitely not it. What I saw in the forest was more than a change of perception. She was using magic. I don’t know how, or where she learned it, but I know magic when I see it. There is a thought I never would have imagined thinking.

“You can’t avoid us for ever little sister.” Chris, ever the diplomat, wades right in with both feet. Perhaps I’ve been too harsh in my criticism of him. I may shoulder the responsibility, but he has done more than his fair share of the dirty work.

“Have you told Zand?” she asks Christian but looks directly at me.

“Hell no. It’s your news to share. I’m quite happy to sit by and watch.” Christian reclines in the chair, extends his legs in front of him and exaggeratedly folds his arms over his chest and crosses his legs at the ankle. A passing nurse raises an eyebrow and mutters something under her breath as she has to step over his legs which almost reach the opposite wall. He just seems to find it all the more amusing.

“Tell me what?” My nerves are on edge enough as it is. When it comes to Lottie, I have learned the hard way that nothing is beyond the realms of possibility. The amount of trouble I’ve had to dig her out of is ridiculous, even though half the time she claims she has nothing to do with it, and things ‘just happen’.

“It’s Gabriel... erm. You see… before I left, I felt like maybe I shouldn’t go. I didn’t know why, I just knew there was a reason to stay. But I ignored it.” She looks at my through the hair she has allowed to hide her face like a pair of curtains whilst she studies her shoes.

“Mmmm hmm.” It’s always best to let her say her piece and not question until she is done, or you end up with twenty five detours on the way to the point.

“When Gabe and Uriel came to help, when they brought you back here... it was the first time I had seen him for a while. I don’t know if he has been avoiding me, or just been busier than usual, with everything going on...” she hesitantly continues, beating around the bush.

“Lottie, please get to the point.” I rub my tired eyes, then my aching temples, and clear my throat with a hint of impatience. I can appreciate the finer points of a good story, when I have had a full night’s sleep. At the moment, the only person here who is getting their full sleep quota is the munchkin currently snoozing in my arms.

“When I saw Gabriel in the forest, I felt It. The mate bond. And I know he felt it too, but I think he is avoiding me. That’s what I felt before I left, the pull of him. Only I didn’t know what it was at the time.” Lottie spills the beans so quickly I barely have the chance to process it all before she bursts into tears and slides down the door to Liberty’s room until she is sat on the floor, hugging her knees to her chest.

“Gabriel?” I don’t believe it. I know she isn’t lying, but I can’t think of two people less suited for one another. It would certainly explain why our Beta has been acting like a lion with a thorn in its paw.

“Yeah.” Gabe’s voice bounces down the corridor. He obviously heard me, but how much of what Lottie said did he hear?

Christian raises an eyebrow and runs his hand through his hair, something he does when he is feeling stressed or smug. None of us have the chance to say another word about it, because that is the precise moment the Doc opens the door and Lottie tumbles backwards into Liberty’s room. She lets out a startled squeal and I hear Liberty snort with laughter from inside.

The scene is ridiculous. Lottie on her back, Doc looking startled as he tries to step around her instead of on her. Marcel tries and fails to hide his amusement behind a straight lipped stare and Gabe jogs over to help Lottie back to her feet. Chris and I both just stand and stare, I’m not sure what to deal with first, so I don’t. I step around them and head straight for Liberty, who already has a bit more colour in her cheeks and is attached to Marcel by a couple of feet of narrow tubing. I swallow down my own reservations and paint on a smile as I lean over to kiss her forehead.