Chapter 161

Cara’s POV

I paced back and forth in the hospital waiting room for nearly twenty minutes before Colin made me sit down.

“I’m fine,” I told him, even shorter than I had before.

Softly, he said to me, “You are worrying Ethan.”

Glancing at my son, I could see the fear in his eyes as he stole nervous little glances at me. Colin was right. I was making his anxiety worse. We were all already on edge, and I needed to keep it together, especially for my son.

It didn’t help that I still didn’t feel well myself.

I wasn’t as lightheaded as I had been on the stairs, but my movements felt sluggish, my muscles tired. I had continued pacing because I had been partially worried that if I stopped, I might not be able to move again.

For Ethan’s sake, I needed to better things. I had to sit, to try to comfort him. Then, I would force myself to move again. Whatever exhaustion my body was suffering from, I wasn’t going to let it win.

I was strong. Compared to what Mia was going through, my own fatigue was nothing.

So I moved closer to Ethan and forced myself to sit. I draped my arm around his shoulder. Immediately he curled up against my side. He was an independent child, who had his own ideas and his own ways of dealing with things. But right now, he was a scared little boy who needed his mother.

I would shield him however I could.

“Is Alaric coming?” I asked Colin, who had taken charge of things in my distraction. Already, I’d seen him on the phone with Eamon and then Alaric, as well as a few others.

Now, he sat on the other side of Ethan. “He’s on his way.”

Nodding, I found some comfort in that. Hopefully he would know what to do, because I remained at a loss.

In coming to DuskWood, I had hoped that the Healers here would be able to make advances that those in BloodyMoon could not. But they’d both seemed to hit a wall, else Mia wouldn’t have to keep coming back here.

When a Healer emerges from the backroom, it was all I could do not to hop to my feet to approach him. Mindful of Ethan, I carefully moved him to Colin’s waiting arms first before I carefully rose.

The Healer, seeing me, dipped his head to the side, indicating that we should speak away from my son. My stomach clenched. That could only mean bad news.

When we are far enough away, the Healer began.

“I’m sorry, Ms. Auburn, but we continue to struggle to find the cause of these symptoms,” the Healer said, regret on his face.

“How can this be?” I asked. “There has to be something wrong.”

“We agree, and we are running tests,” the Healer said. “But until we can discover what the root problem is, we can only continue to treat her symptoms.”

My disappointment was palpable. Taking a step backwards, I felt like I couldn’t find enough air.

All at once, my light-headedness returned, and I felt myself spinning.

Instantly, I was caught in a pair of strong arms.

Alaric looked down at me with concern. “Cara, you are pale. Are you well?”

“I’m afraid I just gave her troubling news, Alpha,” the Healer said, and started to tell Alaric what he told me.

Colin’s POV

“I think it’s time,” I said. “We’ve put off calling Richard for too long.”

“For good reason,” Ryan replied. “I don’t think I have to remind you of what happened the last time Richard was around, and how much he hurt…” Ryan glanced at Ethan, who appeared to be sleeping, but we couldn’t trust appearances. “He was not kind to Cara.”

“He didn’t know who she was then,” I said. “We were all still under the impression that Lilia was our true sister.”

“Even so,” Aidan said.

“I don’t need to remind you that we are all guilty of mistreating our true sister,” I said gently. My intent was not to make them feel guilty, but to remind them that our mistakes had been forgiven, so why not Richard’s?

Yes, his actions had been the worst of all of ours, but that was only because he came first and acted before all the facts were known. Any of us could have made the same mistakes.

“Even so,” Aidan said again, softer.

“Cara will not be happy to see him,” Ryan said. “He went away specifically to avoid hurting her again.”

That was only partially true. While he had gone away out of shame for his treatment of Cara, he stayed away to continue to research potential remedies for Mia.

Cara might not know it, but all of us had stayed in touch with Richard, giving him updates on the going-on’s. When he heard about Mia’s condition, he seemed to take it upon himself to search for a cure, as if hoping that would redeem him from his mistakes of the past.

Maybe it would.

“He might have found something,” I said. “A cure or some kind of treatment. We should update him on this development at the very least.”

“Don’t act like you just want to call him,” Aidan said. “You want him to come back.”

Yes, I thought Richard had served his self-inflicted punishment for long enough. But truly, more than that, I just wanted the best for Mia.

Richard was a well-trained Healer, who had been spending all of his time away refining his skills and study. He could help Mia, I was certain of it. And I was tired of trusting these Healers who had no personal stakes in Mia’s well-being.

Despite his grievous errors of the past, Richard was family. I was certain he would treat Mia better than anyone else possible could.

“He’s been studying for this,” I said. “He could help Mia.”

Ryan considered my words more carefully than his twin brother, who was already shaking his head.

“But how would we explain it to Cara?” Ryan asked. “Would she even trust him to be near Mia?”

“She wants what’s best for her,” I said. “If these Healers don’t have answers, we have to bring in someone who either does, or who won’t rest until they find them. Richard is that person.”

Ryan looked at Aidan, who crossed his arms.

“He does have a lot to prove,” Ryan said.

Aidan didn’t seem happy about any of this, but eventually even he relented. “We have to do whatever we can to help Mia. Cara will understand.”

“I’ll make the call,” I said, though didn’t move yet, with Ethan still resting against me.

“I’ll do it,” Aidan said instead, surprising Ryan and me. We both looked at him with wide eyes. Aidan, seeing our expressions, explained, “I’m going to make a few things very clear to him. We might be giving him a chance to make things right here, but if he botches it again, I’m going to personally see to it that he regrets it.”

“I could say that,” I said.

Both brothers shook their head at me. “You are too soft, Colin,” Ryan said. “Aidan’s much more threatening.”

“I truly don’t think the threat is necessary,” I said.

“Yeah, well. Just in case,” Aidan said, and almost seemed like he was looking forward to it.

I was pleased to have convinced them of this plan, though one hiccup did remain.

Convincing Cara.