Gabrielle fell to the ground. Ava screamed her sister’s name. The man looked at Ava and his fallen colleagues then shot Gabrielle again in her belly before taking off. Ava automatically began to run after him. She would kill him. Strangle him with his entrails… the sound of Gabrielle choking on her blood stopped Ava.
Ava ran back to her sister. “Gabrielle, stay with me.”
She tore open Gabby’s shirt to see two holes in her sister’s abdomen pumping out blood. The bullets were silver. Ava didn’t have any equipment to use to extract the bullets and if she used her claws she would not only widen the wound but she could leave a shard of silver in Gabby that could lead to blood poisoning.
Ava put pressure on the wound not knowing what else to do. For all her medical experience, she couldn’t save her sister. It hurt.
“Ava…” Gabrielle coughed up more blood.
“Please don’t talk too much. I’ll try to contact Adrian through the bond…”
Gabby gripped her arm and when Ava looked at her, a tremulous smile was on Gabby’s face. “I… I forgive you.” Gabby gasped around the words. “Be happy, little sister.”
“No. No. No. Please don’t say that. This isn’t goodbye, it can’t be.”
Gabby’s eyes fluttered and then her grip on Ava went slack and her eyes closed.
Ava reached for the mate bond and tugged hard on it.
Adrian please I need your help. Please.
All around Ava, glass from the shot-up diner littered the floor. The diner should have called 911 by now but they were on the outskirts of town so before they got here it would be too late not that they would know how to treat a werewolf wound.
Blood stained the broken glass and Ava’s head swam. She should move. She needed to get help but how? Her hands shook and her legs refused to work.
She hadn’t felt so weak and helpless before as she put pressure on the wound praying for the goddess to keep death at bay for just a little bit more time till Adrian could come. Because surely he had felt her. He would come.
Ava closed her eyes as she prayed.
When the border guards came minutes, or hours later with a doctor, Ava had wept all the tears left in her eyes. She watched them carry out first aid on Gabrielle to stabilize her somewhat before taking her to get treated.
Ava’s hands were stained with her sister’s blood. If anything happened to Gabby, she would never forgive herself.
*******
Adrian ran. He had contacted the border guards immediately after he’d connected the dots and realized that he knew the spot from Ava’s memories. But it didn’t stop his fear. It was like he was always too late. Too late to save her from the hunters in Washington. Too late to save her from Gabrielle.
What was the use of being Alpha if he couldn’t save the woman he loved from danger?
He reached the banged-up diner. The medical team passed by him.
The stretcher held Gabrielle, not Ava.
Adrian looked and saw Ava standing frozen in the midst of so much damage. Adrian didn’t care to know what miracle had saved Ava as he crossed the distance between them.
He hugged her and she returned his hug.
“Adrian. Gabby…” She sobbed into his shirt. She smelt like blood, sweat, fury and that intrinsic scent that was Ava.
“It’ll be okay. It’ll be alright.” Adrian didn’t know what had happened but he didn’t really care. Ava was alive in his arms and unharmed. That was all that mattered. All was right in his life once more.
********
Many hours later, Gabrielle opened her eyes. She was alive. She had made it. Of course, she had. The pain burned through her. She recalled her last moments of lucidity. She remembered telling Ava that she forgave her.
The pack doctor entered the room with an aide. “Welcome back. We nearly lost you for a moment there. We’ll need to check your vitals.”
Gabrielle nodded her acquiescence. After an extensive check-up, the doctor seemed satisfied.
“If you feel up to it, your family is outside. Luna Ava is also outside. Shall I tell them to come in?”
Gabrielle looked at her hands. She hadn’t felt more alive in a really long time. She was ready. “Yes.”
It was getting old. It was like Adrian could not catch a breather even if he tried. He was beginning to understand why his father had aged so quickly. He woke up in the wee hours of the morning to an emergency.
Adrian got up quietly so as not to wake Ava up. She needed as much sleep as she could get with her burning the candle on both ends. She was training as if her life depended on it and at the same time finally immersing herself in the pack’s social life with help from her sister.
It was wild. Adrian could almost not believe that Gabrielle had forgiven Ava so easily while she still gave him the cold shoulder. It was like the life-and-death experience had bonded the sisters in a way he failed to comprehend. Not that it mattered, it wasn’t like he needed her friendship anyway.
Ava’s parents were still distant but less distant than they had been before the sisters had made up. But that wasn’t the problem now. The problem now was the wolves at their border. Adrian shifted and ran to the borders luxuriating in the feel of his wolf form running in his pack lands.
He reached the pack borders soon enough and paused, his mind not fully comprehending what he had just seen.
He walked up to Calvin who had been beckoning him forward.
“What is all this Calvin?”
Calvin opened his mouth to speak but she beat him to it.
“We have come to ask for refuge according to the old ways.”
Adrian paused and looked around him at the populace and how they were dressed. He also looked at the children. How could he turn them away?
“Refuge is given.”
They began to cheer and Adrian hoped he would not come to regret his decision, it would seem like that was the only prayer on his lips these days.
*******
Ava woke up alone and automatically listened for Adrian. He wasn’t in the shower or anywhere else in the room.
She entered the bathroom, took a shower then she was off. She started with a slow circuit around the pack but before she could finish it and head into the woods, she noticed something.
A lot of wolves were awake. It was just around 6 am. Why were there so many wolves about? And why did their pack smell so… strange?
Ava called over one of the pack guards that stood loitering about. She searched for his name in her memory banks. Andy. “Andy, what is going on?”
Andy bowed. “Good morning Luna. The remnants of another pack came here to seek sanctuary as their pack was decimated.”
Ava paused. “By who? Werewolf hunters?”
After the stint at that diner, they had investigated the presence of those hunters but before they could interrogate the men, the men had bitten poison teeth rather than divulge their secrets. Since then the area had been quiet with no signs of hunters in our region.
Could this be a change in that regard?
“No Luna, it was rogue wolves.”
Ava was shocked.
Rogues? They had not had significant rogue activity in years. What was going on? She needed to talk to Adrian now.
It was like she had gone to bed in one world and awakened in an alternate one.
“Where is Adrian?”