Chapter 85

Claire POV

I returned to the Royal pack, with Nathan’s personal guard acting as my security escort over the border.

He had pledged more warriors to put down the rogue threat still roaming the woods, and now that the truth was out in the Silverfang pack I doubted he’d have a hard time recruiting volunteers.

Nathan had also promised he’d help me figure out every single pack involved in organizing these attacks on my realm.

We would bring them to justice, every single one of them.

Somehow.

For now I needed to go home, and try to take care of my father.

But it wasn’t easy to bury the anger at Sabrina that I carried inside of me, or the frustration that she had somehow escaped.

Sabrina was dangerous even when I knew exactly where she was. I couldn’t imagine what kind of evil deviousness she could get up to when no one knew where she was.

I felt like I had a target on my back. Like all I could do was just wait for her to make her next move.

Would I never be free of her??

By the time I made it to the Royal clinic, saying my thanks to the security detail, I was utterly exhausted. My head was pounding.

All I wanted was to find a small dark quiet room to disappear into.

And that was the one thing I just couldn’t do.

“Claire!”

Amelia rushed up to me as I walked back into the office area, throwing her arms around me.

I returned the hug with all the strength I had, suddenly so glad to have my friend here in the Royal territory that tears burned in my eyes.

It took everything I had not to burst to tears in my friend’s arms.

“Oh sweetie,” she said, pulling back and taking in the state of me.

“You look completely exhausted. Come on, let’s get you a cot somewhere.”

I shook my head. “No, I need to see my father. I’ll rest after that, I promise.”

She studied my face, then said, “Alright. How about I have a cot brought up to his room, so you can rest there?”

I told her that it sounded perfect, and she gave the order to a passing nurse. Then we made our way up to my father’s private room.

“Has there been any change in his condition since I left?” I asked.

Amelia shook her head, sadness and frustration on her face. “While his body is healing at the rate you’d expect for someone his age, he remains in a coma. And why he won’t wake up is a mystery.

“So far none of our tests have even given us a clue about what’s wrong with him.”

When we walked into his room, when I saw my father looking so small and weak in the hospital bed, tears once again threatened to fall.

I brutally locked them away.

Placing my hands to either side of his head, I once again used my abilities to scan his brain, to look for and heal any injury.

But there weren’t any to find.

Or maybe, tired as I was, I had no strength to find them.

With a sigh, I stopped, realizing Amelia was right. I needed to rest.

Dr. Baldwin came into the room just as I was sitting down onto the cot an orderly set up in a corner of the room.

“Princess,” he said, his voice soft and low. “I heard you returned. Rumors are starting to fly about Princess Sabrina. Or rather, the false princess Sabrina?”

I nodded at his raised eyebrows and curious look, confirming at least one rumor that had apparently already made its way to the Royal pack.

“It’s true, Sabrina isn’t my father’s daughter, or a Royal at all.”

He shook his head. “I’ll be eager to hear more about how you found that out. But first - I can tell your head is hurting again. May I?”

Grateful, I nodded, lowering myself onto the cot and stretching out. Dr. Baldwin crouched down beside me, placing his hands to either side of my head exactly as I had for my father.

I felt the warm glow of his healing settle over me, and immediate relief from the pain throbbing in my forehead and my temples.

“You should sleep now, Princess,” he said softly as he finished the healing session.

Finally free of the pain, and unable to fight my exhaustion any longer, I was asleep within moments.

The next few days passed in a repetitive blur:

Wake up, try to heal my father. Make no progress.

Run tests, wait for the results, deal with the frustration when they still showed no sign of what was wrong.

Try to heal him again, struggle against feeling useless, deal with the headache and exhaustion brought on by the effort.

Over and over again, the same routine.

And still, my father’s coma just went on and on.

Nathan POV

It was hard to let Claire go.

The night Sabrina escaped was one of the most frustrating nights of my life.

Sabrina, who had poisoned me and infected my pack with her lies, all in an attempt to steal the throne from her father, had completely disappeared. The fact that I wouldn’t be bringing her to justice just yet burned in my stomach.

And Claire, the woman I had come so close to losing, and who I had grown so close with over the last few days, needed to leave. Just as I had my own duties to attend to, so did she.

And yet, it took everything I had not to grab her, hold her, beg her not to go.

That feeling stayed buried inside me over the next few days as I returned to my office. It hummed inside me constantly.

Everything inside me told me to go after her.

Go get my mate.

But I needed to focus on putting the pieces of my leadership back together.

The members of Silverfang pack were dealing with a lot, and I could sense the unease in everyone I spoke to.

The fear and concern over the rogue attacks was at least turning into a determination to stamp out the threat, especially now that we knew who was behind it.

But the confusion over “my” orders not to send aid, the “illness” I’d been suffering, the revelations about Sabrina being behind the attacks on her own kingdom and then turning out not to be an actual Royal at all -

It was a lot to take in.

“Sir,” Beta Evan said from the doorway of my office, “I have those lists you asked for.”

“Good,” I said. “Bring them in.”

I needed lists of available supplies, as well as volunteer warriors and support staff, if I was to know just what we could send to the Royal pack.

But I set them to the side for a moment.

“Sit down, Evan. I want to talk.”

“Yes, sir,” he said, taking a seat.

“First of all, I want to thank you for everything you’ve been doing since Sabrina…”

This was something I needed to say, but it was still difficult. It hurt my pride to recognize just how much damage I’d allowed.

How much I’d let Sabrina make a fool of me.

“You’ve helped hold this pack together,” I finished. “And I want to thank you for it.”

“Thank you, sir,” he said. “I appreciate that, but it’s not necessary. I was simply doing what needed to be done.”

Knowing we were both uncomfortable, I nodded once and then moved on.

“I need to address the concerns the pack still has, and set the record straight about what orders were mine and which were Sabrina’s.

“I’d like you to set up a press conference.”

I hated press conferences, but had decided setting one up was the best thing to do.

“Actually, sir, a reporter from The Star just contacted the office. She wanted to set up a live, televised one-on-one interview with you.”

I considered that. The Star was a well known and popular newspaper that regularly contributed to local TV news stations. I knew they often liked to dig for the juiciest bits of gossip, and yet…

Yes, a live interview was risky.

But it would also be a good chance to set the record straight, in a way people would trust was as honest as possible.

“Alright,” I told Evan. “Set up the interview.”