Chapter 115

Julian’s POV

We were a long way from my pack. For the driver, the person attempting to kidnap Amber, to be from there felt like more than a coincidence.

As Alpha, I had many enemies, but none were more prevalent, especially against Amber, than Olivia. Still, to think her capable of something like this…? How would she even arrange it? Did she truly have this kind of influence?

I couldn’t make assumptions, not when it came to something as important as Amber’s safety and her life. For now, until I could reach out to my pack for more information, I had to stop speculating and worry more about our overall survival.

Fortunately, the police had already been informed about the situation, and with the fire from the car, it wasn’t long until emergency had locked in on our location.

I kept Amber close to me, holding her tightly to my side. She didn’t talk much though, and I knew she was likely going through it. As if this situation wasn’t traumatizing enough, it had to have reminded her of the plane crash she survived those years ago.

I could protect her from the physical things, but I was helpless to stop her mind from wandering back to those darker times. The most I could do was keep her close and guide her toward the emergency vehicles as we heard their sirens.

Scooping her into my arms, I carried her up the side of the mountain back to the top where the car had veered off the road. There, we connected with the police and the ambulance. Immediately, she and I both piled into the back of the ambulance.

The doors closed, and the paramedics took us back to town. They looked over both Amber and me in the back. My healing had already closed all of my wounds and stitched my broken bones back together.

I was relieved to hear that I had saved Amber from any damage from the fall. She had some dried blood on her from a few scrapes and bruises, but her wolf had healed her too.

Amber was quiet as she was inspected, stoic as they prodded her for any lingering injuries.

“She’s in shock,” one of the paramedics said, stating what I had already guessed. They produced a blanket and wrapped it around her shoulders. I stayed there too, glued to her side with my arm around her, holding her tightly as she trembled.

As we reached the hospital, she looked at me. “Alice?”

“Safe,” I assured her, and then showed her a few minutes later. After helping her down from the back of the ambulance, I led her into the building, where Alice was sitting behind the reception desk, between the receptionist and one of the nurses.

When she saw us, she hopped down from the chair, rushed around the desk, and hurried toward us. “Mommy! Daddy!”

Amber came to life then. Bending down to one knee, she opened her arms and caught Alice as she hurried forward. As Amber hugged her daughter tightly, Alice glanced over to me. “Daddy, what happened to your clothes?”

I’d been so caught up in protecting Amber, in getting her where she needed to be that I hadn’t looked down at myself. My clothes were mostly in tatters, destroyed in either the chase, the fall, the crashing through trees, or the lick of the flames from the car explosion.

“I just had a little bit of trouble. I’m fine though,” I assured her.

She gave me a quizzical look, like she didn’t quite believe me.

I looked like hell, so I couldn’t really blame her.

The reunion seemed to do wonders for Amber. Holding Alice, she seemed to breathe more steadily than she had before. As she leaned back, she took her daughters face in her hands and kissed her nose. Alice giggled as she playfully pushed Amber away.

“Mom… people are looking!”

“Alright, alright,” Amber said as she stood up again. After taking Alice’s hand in hers, she looked at me. “I think we are okay but we should be checked out by healers once more, just to be certain.”

As she was the Healer here, she knew what needed to be done. I trusted her.

“You go ahead first,” I told her. “I want to call my pack and get them started on investigating.”

Her look turned more serious then. I didn’t want to get too much into the details in front of Alice, so I was glad she seemed to understand what I was talking about.

I had to get to the bottom of this, finding out as much as possible about the driver as I could.

Finally, Amber nodded, then went with Alice more towards the back. I went to the receptionist and asked if there was a private room I could use to make a phone call. Embarrassingly, pulling my phone from my pocket, I realized it had smashed in the crash. “I’ll need to use a phone too. I can pay the long distance.”

The receptionist kindly directed me to one of the administration offices. As it was after hours, the office was empty.

Standing in front of the desk, too amped up with adrenaline to even consider sitting down, I picked up the receiver of the landline there, pushed the button to dial out of the hospital, and then called the familiar number of my Beta.

It was after hours in my pack too, but my Beta was diligent and picked up right away.

“Alpha?”

“Something has come up here, and I need you to look into a name for me. Find out whatever you can about him. His relations, his friends, who he might be working for, any kind of criminal background…” I gave the name.

“At once, Alpha.”

“Thank you,” I said, and hoped we would have the answers soon.

After getting checked out at the hospital, I hired a taxi to take the three of us back to the hotel. Alice was dozing before we even reached the door to our room. Amber and I tucked her under the covers of the pull out sofa, then we both moved to the location of the twin beds on the other side of the room.

There was a screen that was presently bunched up but could be opened to separate the two sides of the room. As Amber went into the bathroom first, I opened the screen to give us a bit of privacy from sleeping Alice.

When Amber came out of the bathroom, I went in, showered, and changed for bed. My clothes of the day went right into the trash can.

Back out in the bedroom, Amber was still awake, sitting upright on the side of her bed with her legs dangling over the side.

“Are you alright?” I asked her, keeping my voice light, not wanting to wake Alice.

She didn’t move to nod or shake her head. She was entirely frozen. Trapped in her thoughts again?

Moving closer, I kneeled down directly in front of her and looked up into her eyes. “Amber? Are you okay?”

I dipped my head until I was in her line of sight and she could focus on me.

“No,” she finally admitted.

The single word cracked my heart in half.

“What can I do to help?” I asked.

She stared at me a moment, her face void of all emotion.

Then she swallowed and tears filled her eyes.

“Hold me?” she asked.

I did not need asking twice.

I moved at once, leaning toward her, I pulled her into my arms. She tugged me too so that we were holding each other, lying down in the bed.

Running my fingers through her hair, I kept on holding her until she fell asleep. My plan had been to sneak out of her bed once she’d done so, but I was so comfortable, before I knew it, my eyes closed too.

We fell asleep together, holding one another.

It was the best night sleep I had in years.