Chapter 104

Amber’s POV

Panic and fear gripping my soul, I was desperate to protect my daughter, even from herself, so I chased her into the forest. I’d follow her for as long as she needed to run. Every time I nearly caught up to her, she changed paths, careful to avoid me.

Her wolf was frightened and fast, and with her small size, she could zip through places that I had to push my way through – under bushes and through logs.

I would chase her forever though. She was my daughter and she needed me. I would never let her get away and be hurt. I would do whatever I had to do to keep her safe, even from herself.

Finally, I managed to corner her inside the stump of an old, rotted-out tree. Her wolf was small, still a frightened pup. As I towered over her, she shrunk against the stump, whimpering and grunting, still in pain. Still afraid.

I chuffed a few times in response, trying to be comforting. Yet, every time I tried to edge nearer, the pup would panic and push itself further into the stump. It was starting to hurt itself now, the wood rubbing the skin raw.

So I froze, not wanting to hurt her further, but I couldn’t back off, afraid she might run away and I would lose her permanently.

Before long, as I was caught in my indecision, Julian came through the brush in his massive Alpha wolf form. As an Alpha, he was larger, both taller and longer, than a regular werewolf. And his aura demanded obedience and respect.

My fear for Alice kept my own wolf from immediately submitting to who she viewed as her mate. Alice, though, started to cower in the presence of her father. Her wolf lowered down, belly and snoot into the dirt.

A soft sort of noise escaped from Julian’s throat. Alice immediately returned the sound, all quiet and pathetic. My heart ached.

Yet, the comfort seemed to work, as Alice slowly started to shift back into her human form. In human form, she curled up into a small ball, dirt and dried blood on her skin.

“Mommy…” she sniffled.

Immediately, I shifted back as well. Rushing to her, I pulled her into the safety of my arms and kept her there. The cuts she had left on me had already mostly healed. While they were still sore, I did not so much as wince as she grabbed over that raw skin with her blunt human fingers.

She trembled as I held her, crying and shaking.

“It’s okay now,” I promised her. “You are safe.”

And while this was the truth, I didn’t know what tomorrow would bring. Without the necklace, the fear of her shifting was very real again. And there was nothing I could do anymore.

It had taken so long to track down that necklace…

To find another one felt more impossible than finding a cure.

If only I knew where to even begin. If I had a starting point, I would work diligently to cure her. With other medicines and cures, I’d always had other research to build on, to utilize and push farther, to develop my own solutions and treatments.

With a condition like Alice’s, there just wasn’t enough information.

My heart cracked down the middle. What kind of healer was I, when I couldn’t even cure my own daughter? When I was instead forced to watch her suffer in pain?

As a healer, I was helpless. As a mother, all I could do was hold my crying, frightened daughter in my arms as my own fear rippled through me.

Behind me, Julian shifted back to human form too. I felt the change in the air, even without seeing it, as his domineering aura was greatly subdued. But then, I felt him too, even as he came up behind me, dropped to his knees, and closed his arms around both Alice and me.

I leaned into him, finding comfort in the hard line of his chest and the strength of the arms that encircled us.

For a moment, as broken as things were, I felt a fleeting sense of peace with our small family together. But then, that moment passed, and I just felt sad.

Like this, Alice soon cried herself to sleep. As she rested in my arms, I shifted a little so that I was sitting on the ground with her in my lap. Julian shifted too, sitting beside me but no longer touching. He was still close enough to feel though, the warmth of his body keeping the chill of the forest at bay.

Julian and I both watched our daughter sleep, before his gaze lifted up to me.

“How long as she been suffering from this?” he asked.

A brief thought passed through my mind, something a little wild, about keeping the full truth from him. But, with things as they were, that didn’t seem fair to anyone. Not to Alice or to me or to him.

“When that plane came down,” I said, “both our wolves manifested to keep us safe.”

“She wasn’t even born yet,” he whispered.

“No…” I said. “Our wolves kept us safe in that crash. We would have surely died without them. Yet, for Alice, manifesting a wolf so young did not come without consequence. I cannot wish it undone, because she would be dead without her wolf, but… To see her in such pain…”

I bit back a sob.

Julian wrapped his arm around me, tugging me closer against him. He rested his chin atop my head, tucking my face into the crux of his shoulder and neck.

“It’s not your fault,” he said.

“Isn’t it?” I asked. “If I wouldn’t have gotten on that plane…”

“Then it’s my fault,” he replied. “Because I am the one that pushed you into leaving.”

That didn’t sit right with me. Julian wasn’t the one who had forced the plane down. Though, neither was I.

I supposed I could see his point then, that neither of us were to blame.

“I just wish there was more I could do,” I said. “All my healing abilities, and I am no closer to a cure than I’ve ever been.”

“I’ll help you,” Julian said. “You aren’t going to be alone in this anymore.”

Julian’s POV

I’m already making a mental list of who to reach out to. I’d get a whole medical board together to research Alice’s illness. I’d pump every last dollar I owned into finding a cure. There was no lead I wouldn’t exhausted, nothing I wouldn’t do to help.

Yet, even as I was making those plans, part of my mind was still piecing things together.

Amber must have been too, because she said, “I have no idea why Chase would want to hurt Alice.”

I didn’t either. The rumors of him spoke of a playboy, someone who was careless with women’s hearts and wallets. It said nothing about him being callous or malicious, especially toward children.

He could have just been hiding it. There could be more to Chase than any of them know.

Or… he could have been put up to it.

I couldn’t stop thinking about Chase and Olivia arguing in the restaurant. I wished now, that I had gotten closer so that I could have overheard what they’d been saying.

Olivia didn’t have premonitions, yet she’d issued me a warning something could happen.

Had she been speaking of this?

Had she known this was going to happen?

Had she planned it?

I needed answers, and though I’d threatened to tear his throat out, there was only one person who could tell me what was going on.

Chase.