Chapter 150

Cara’s POV

After Mia’s meeting with the therapist, she is finally cleared to go home. The therapist wants to meet with her in the future, and after setting up a schedule that works for us, for now, Alaric and I check Mia out of the hospital. We all pile into a sedan outside and then take the car away.

Mia sits between us, holding both of our hands in hers.

“Is Ethan okay?” she asks.

“He misses you,” I tell her.

She nods with confidence, like she already knew that. Those two are practically connected at the hip. She probably can be sure enough how he feels, maybe even more than I am.

We talk lightly, though not at depth about anything important, as the car drives us back to the mansion. Then, once we are there, we open the doors and file out.

Ethan stands waiting for us just outside the front door. When he sees Mia, his shoulders start to shake.

“Ethan!” Mia shouts and runs to him. She has her arms out, ready for a hug, but Ethan steps back a few steps, denying her – at least for right now.

Instead, he bows deeply. “I’m so sorry, Mia!”

Mia stills, her arms still outstretched. Confusion crosses her face, dimming her happiness for a moment.

“What?” she asks. “Why?”

“This is my fault! I never should have left! Because I tried, you… you…” The tears start flowing. He rubs his arms across his face, wiping first at his eyes and then at his nose. “I did this!”

Mia continues to watch him in confusion and uncertainty.

I start forward, wanting to intervene, but Alaric gently touches my arm, holding me back.

“Give her a moment,” he whispers to me. “Mia’s got her head on straight. She’ll fix this the best way.”

I know he’s right, but it is still difficult to watch either of my kids be so unhappy. I want to fix things for them, but Alaric’s right. Part of parenthood is knowing when to let things play themselves out. It’s a tough lesson to learn, when I only want to help my children.

How could Alaric learn it so quickly? Perhaps because of what Mia said to him at the hospital. Whatever it was, I couldn’t quite hear, seems to have filled him with an unshakeable confidence.

“What are you talking about?” Mia asks, and she almost seems angry. “How can you think that?”

Sniffing, Ethan looks up at his sister.

“I did this!” she shouts, seemingly overcome with emotion. “I sneaked out!”

“But I went first.”

Mia scoffs and rolls her eyes. “Stop trying to take credit.”

Something sparks in Ethan’s eyes. It looks a lot like hope, and also relief.

“Mia…”

She holds open her arms again for a hug. This time, Ethan is quicker to oblige.

He rushes toward his sister, pulled her into his arms. Despite their closeness in age, Mia is much smaller than Ethan. Still they both hold each other tightly, reunited at last.

Alaric was right. It was better for them to work out this difference between them.

After reconnecting with Ethan, my brothers emerge from the house. Noel is there too, though he hangs back, as each of my brothers hugs and praises Mia for her bravery and her strength.

Mia is quick to dismiss her own heroism, something that she will need to work with the therapist about. But for now, there are smiles all around and it’s a joyful moment.

After the hugs, Mia is eager to play with her brother. Though I’m reluctant to let either of them out of my sight, I know they should be safe inside the house, so I let them go.

With the kids gone, both Alaric and Noel look at me like they want to share their souls with me. I’m so tired after everything, both physically and emotionally, that I’m not sure I’m ready for any kind of heart to heart, for any reason.

I don’t know if my brothers can tell that, or if they have other motives for wanting to speak to me, but Colin comes up to be before Alaric or Noel can.

“Can we talk to you alone for a few minutes, Cara?” he asks.

“Yes,” I say, eager for the out. I’m not ready to talk to Alaric or Noel just yet. “Of course.”

Colin leads me into the house and then to the kitchen, where Ryan and Aidan are already waiting.

I feel a little like I’m walking into some kind of interrogation. “What is it?” I ask. “What’s wrong?” If something else has happened, I don’t know if I’ll be able to handle it. My heart is still so sore over the pain of losing Mia. Even with her now safely returned to me, the wound of it remains.

It will need time to heal.

“We want to talk to you about Alaric,” Ryan says.

Immediately, I start to turn, ready to walk right out of the room.

“It’s nothing bad,” Colin says. “But it includes some things we observed. Things that you should hear and know.” He pauses a moment, before adding, “Good things.”

I start to turn back. Glancing between the three of them, I can see that they are in agreement about this.

“What kinds of things?” I ask haltingly, filled with trepidation about the subject.

My brothers have intervened in my love life before, but have since sworn to stay out of it. For them to want to step into my possible relationships again means they must have witnessed something of extreme importance.

“When we were searching for Mia, he was like a man possessed,” Ryan says. “I’ve never seen anything like it. We were all worried, all wanted to bring Mia safely home, but he was pushing hard, keeping an impossible pace. I have no idea how he managed to do it when none of us have seen him rest or eat since we arrived here.”

I knew that too. I had watched worryingly as Alaric pushed himself to the brink. He was so adamant on finding Mia, on righting his mistakes, that he refused to slow even for a minute. He didn’t care about his own health. He was so totally focused on our daughter.

But why would my brothers feel the need to tell me this?

“You should have seen him when you and Mia drove away in the ambulance,” Aidan says. “I was right there. I watched him. He seemed so… lost… I think he wanted to go with you, but Noel stepped in too quickly.”

He did?

It had hurt a little when he had hung back, especially later when Mia cried for her Dad. For a terrible minute I had resented him for not wanting to be there for his daughter.

It didn’t occur to me that he had.

Oh, Alaric…

My brothers watch me closely, three pairs of eyes inspecting my every move.

“Why are you telling me this?” I ask, though the truth was beginning to become clearer.

“You should know the full truth before you decide,” Ryan says.

“Decide what?” I ask them. Surely they weren’t already asking me to pick between Alaric and Noel.

“Before you made clear that when the danger is over, you would be returning to BloodyMoon,” Colin says. “Knowing everything, and feeling what you do… Are you sure that is what you really want?”