Chapter 38

Sarah POV

Zane outpaced me, but I wasn’t far behind when we reached the hedge maze. I heard the most terrible snarling amid the girls’ screams, and then something the snarls were cut off. Zane rounded the last turn on the path and plunged into the maze.

By the time I caught up just inside the maze’s entrance, Zane was kneeling over Grace, feeling for a pulse at her neck. Chloe saw me and ran to me, crying, “He hurt her! He hurt Grace!”

I gathered Chloe up in my arms and stepped over to the horrible sight of a blood-covered Grace being looked over by her father.

“She’s alive,” he told me without looking up. “But she’s been mauled badly. We have to get her to the hospital.”

I spun around at the sound of the hedge being run through, but it was Mavis. She held a pump-action shotgun and wore an expression of rage.

“It is still here?” she demanded, looking around.

“What?” I asked even as Chloe was shaking her head, rubbing his hair against my breastbone.

“Damn rogue werewolf! I—” Mavis broke off as she spotted Grace and Zane. “Oh, goddess,” she whispered. Then she got a phone out of her pocket to dial 911.

I looked back to see Zane had taken his white dress shirt off to wrap it around one of Grace’s legs. I thought desperately of something to do, but all I could manage was to stand there with Chloe in my arms.

I finally realized we still didn’t really know what had happened.

“Chloe, sweetie?” I asked as gently as I could. “A rogue werewolf attacked you?”

“He was here, waiting for us,” she whispered, tears still streaming down her face. “He went after Grace. I tried to stop him, but he threw me into the bushes.”

I checked her over and saw a few scratches on her arms, but nothing more, thank the heavens.

“There’s no way you could have stopped him,” I said, making sure she was looking me in the eyes. “It takes more than one grown werewolf to stop a rogue. There was nothing you could have done.”

“Will Grace be OK?” she wailed, twisting her head and trying to look. I turned so she couldn’t see. She had enough for her nightmares already.

“Did he say anything?” I asked, trying to keep her busy.

“No, he just snarled and growled and hit Grace. I was so scared!”

“Of course you were.”

I heard a siren and thought it was an ambulance, but the vehicle that pulled up was part of Zane’s security team. Two betas got out, went to the back of the van, and pulled out a gurney. One pushed the gurney over while the other got out a backboard. Gently and expertly, they took over Grace’s care from her father, strapped her onto the backboard, and got her on the gurney.

“We’ll be taking her to Charity,” the female one said.

“Yes,” Zane said. He looked at me and Chloe. “Charity Hospital. You know it?”

“We’ll be right behind you,” I said. Everyone in the territory knew major trauma victims needed to go to Charity regardless of their bank account.

“I’ll drive you over to the garage,” Mavis said, turning to walk out of the maze.

The betas got Grace into the van, helped Zane sit next to her, and then sped out with the siren wailing.

Mavis pulled up in her electric cart, and I noticed she still had her rifle as I got in with Chloe. “Ollie’s bringing your purse and a change of clothes for Alpha Zane,” she said as we raced down the path.

“Thank you,” I said. “And thank you for coming to the girls’ defense like that.”

“Damn thing should never have gotten on the grounds. I’ll be raising hell with the security detail, you can be sure.”

“I almost feel sorry for them,” I said, though in truth I wanted to tear them all a new one. How did the rogue make it through security, though? The villa wasn’t Fort Knox, but it wasn’t just some house in the country either.

We reached the garage where, indeed, Ollie was waiting for us. Opened the rear door as I scurried over with Chloe still in my arms. I saw my purse and a small suitcase I assumed was for Zane as I got into the seat.

“I need to put you in your seatbelt, honey,” I told Chloe, who only tried to hug me tighter in response.

“Ollie can’t drive the car until we’re in our seatbelts,” I said. “And Ollie needs to get us to Grace, OK?”

She sighed, and then she nodded and got out of my lap to sit next to me on the seat. I had us buckled in by the time Ollie got the car in drive and pulled out of the garage.

I had never been inside Charity before, but the clean, orderly urgency of the place was somewhat reassuring. I knew Grace was getting the best possible care, and I repeated that in my mind over and over.

The nurses station directed me to the Emergency waiting room, where I found Zane waiting. Someone had gotten him some light green scrubs, though there was still dried blood on his hands and some on his face.

“Oh, goddess, Sarah,” he said as he saw me. Chloe allowed me to let go of her hand, and then Zane and I were locked in a desperate embrace.

“What do the doctors say?” I asked into his shoulder.

“He tore her skin with his canines and claws,” he said, his voice full of despair. “There’s damage to her spine, and she has a severe concussion. She’s lost a lot of blood, and there’s concern about damage to her abdominal organs.”

“Oh no,” I breathed. I had hoped despite the blood the damage might be superficial.

“If she were older, she would recover, but at her age, the doctors just don’t know.” Zane shuddered through a breath. “They told me they’ll let me know more when she gets out of Radiography.”

“She’s stronger than she looks,” I said. “Stronger than we know.”

“Goddess, I hope so.”

I felt small hands on my hip and looked down at Chloe. With a bit of shifting, we were all holding each other while the hospital raged and heaved and healed all around us.

An hour later, we were sitting there in the waiting room—the same sterile, uncomfortable space all waiting rooms were, with hideously unexceptional reprints of oils on the wall. Zane had taken the suitcase and put it by his chair, not wanting to leave the room even for a few minutes. A nurse had come by with antiseptic wipes for his hands and face.

I was holding Chloe in my lap. She’d stopped crying, and I hoped she’d fall asleep for a bit.

The door from Emergency opened, and Zane was on his feet before the doctor was properly in the room.

She smiled at us, but I could see it was comforting, not celebratory. “Grace is in stable condition,” she said. “We’ve got her on fluids and antibiotics. We’ve given her a tetanus booster, and we’ve sedated her for now.”

“Can we see her?” Zane asked.

“I’m afraid she’s in quarantine for now, but we will be moving her to a room where you can watch her through the window.”

Zane nodded, and I knew he was sharing my thoughts. Werewolves went rogue for a handful of reasons, and one of them was basically the werewolf version of rabies. The treatment for it was painful and hazardous, especially for someone Grace’s age. They needed to keep her quarantined for two days to see if she showed any signs of the infection.

It was just one more horrible thing to worry about.