Chapter 231

Julian’s POV

While sitting in the hospital waiting room, I tried to stay calm for Alice’s sake. It was difficult, knowing my mate was going through serious surgery, maybe beyond the ability to recover.

Alice and I sat away from the rest of my family, in two seats nearest the emergency room doors. I could hear them talking though.

“They had to lock Tony up,” one of my other cousins said. “He’s totally lost his mind. The council doesn’t know what to do with him. Maybe they will have to put him down.”

“I don’t know what he was thinking. Whatever he took made him go feral,” replied one of my other cousins. “Was it worth losing his mind, just to win? There’s no recovery from it.”

“He didn’t win anyway.”

“But even if he had, we can’t have a feral werewolf be Alpha of the pack.”

Softer as if suddenly conscious of me sitting within earshot, they lowered their voice. As Alpha, I could still hear everything they said.

“I’m glad Julian won. I’d been rooting for Tony, but… an action like this only shows how shortsighted he is.”

“Yeah. I had thought we needed a change, but now I’m really not so sure. Things were never that bad under Julian, were they?”

“No. I think we all let Tony’s way with words get into our heads.”

Normally, I would have been relieved and perhaps even pleased to hear them say this. But with Amber in critical condition, in surgery to have all the silver removed, I didn’t have much time for any positive feelings.

My cousins continued, “It could have been that girl he was hanging out with, putting thoughts into his head.”

“Olivia? She was supposed to be exiled after what she did to Amber and Alice…”

“Yeah, well, Tony was never a good judge of character.”

Their voices lowered even further, likely barely audible even to each other. Yet I could still hear.

“I heard they weren’t able to recover her body after she fell off the roof.”

“What do you think happened to her? It was ten stories. It’s not like she wandered off.”

“I don’t know… Do you think she could have survived?”

I stopped listening then, not giving any piece of my consideration to that possibility. Olivia was dead, and that was that. The council was in charge of finding her now, and the guards were out searching.

What did I care about Olivia at all? She was the one who had hurt Amber like this.

No one could have survived that fall. Whatever happened to her body after didn’t matter to me at all.

I checked my watch. Amber had been in surgery for hours now, and with each passing moment, I grew more and more concerned. I knew it wouldn’t be a simple operation. She had been shot many times. But I also knew she was strong.

Amber had survived a plane crash with the help of her wolf. Surely she could survive this too.

She had to.

I’d barely been able to survive when I had thought she died before. Now that she was back in my life, now that our love was remerging and growing stronger than ever before, I didn’t think I could handle losing her this time. I didn’t even know where to even begin.

Even the thought of it made me want to bury my head in my hands and never reemerge.

Only the little girl sitting quietly beside me kept me going. For Alice’s sake, I had to keep a grip on myself. Amber was my mate, but she was Alice’s mother. At just six years old, Alice was far too young to have to deal with that kind of grief.

She was being brave, sitting in that waiting room. She had her hands pressed together in her lap and she was biting her lower lip. Her eyes were red but she wasn’t crying.

We were both holding onto the sliver of hope in our hearts, and the trust we felt in Amber and her wolf to survive this.

After a time, Aunt Kathy appeared from one of the other rooms. She had a bandage around her head, but seemed physically alright.

Alice was on her feet in a second, running to Aunt Kathy. She hugged her without words.

I stood too, as did some others from our family, and approached.

“I’m so sorry!” Alice said, her voice shaky as fresh tears fell from her eyes. “I tried to listen to Olivia but she hurt you anyway!”

“Oh, darling Alice. Nothing that happened is your fault. I’m the one who should be apologizing, for being so careless. I don’t know what I was thinking answering the door.”

“Neither of you should apologize,” I said. “You both tried to protect each other and that’s what matters.”

“Your father is right,” Aunt Kathy said. Her smile was kind and warm, motherly. It made me long for the approval of my own mother, who was still unconscious, fighting for her life against the wolfsbane poison in the next room.

How much terror and pain Tony and Olivia had inflicted on my family. I was so angry, even though that anger was presently muted under the fear of losing my mother and mate. Forgiveness would never come to me for as long as I lived, not after everything Tony and Olivia had tried to take from me.

“Are you alright, Aunt Kathy?” I asked, trying to redirect my anger. With Tony feral and Olivia dead, that fury had nowhere to go, no healthy outlet.

I’d learned after the fact that Amber had called for the emergency healers to check on Aunt Kathy as she rushed to the roof to rescue Alice. That foresight likely saved Aunt Kathy’s life.

“I’m okay now,” she said. She patted Alice lightly on the head, then accepted hugs from many other family members.

With Aunt Kathy distracted, I guided Alice back to our seats, though it wasn’t long until Aunt Kathy came to join us there.

Looking at her as she sat beside me, I told her, “If anyone should apologize, it should be me. I put everyone in harm’s way. You. Amber. Alice. Even my mom. Everyone I care about.”

“You don’t need to apologize, Julian,” Aunt Kathy told me. “Families are there for one another. It’s as simple as that. You needed me, and I was there, and I would do it again in a heartbeat, even if I knowing what would happen.”

“You could have been killed,” I said.

“But I wasn’t,” Aunt Kathy replied. “Let’s focus on the here and now, alright? And when Amber and your mother both pull through, there will be no more reason for worry ever again.”

I didn’t know if that was true. Surely things would still happen that would cause me stress. But if it could be the everyday stresses of life instead of these horrible traumas that plagued me in the future, I would be grateful for it.

“Thank you, Aunt Kathy,” I said.

Aunt Kathy nodded.

For a while longer, we sat there in silence, allowing our presence to comfort each other more than our words.

Then, finally, the supervisor of the healers came out from the back rooms. He waved to me.

It was time for an update.

I looked at his face, searching for a clue what he might say. But his expression was entirely blank.

If it was good news, he would have been happier, wouldn’t he?