Chapter 163

Cara’s POV

Days later, I sat at Mia’s bedside in her hospital room. She remained asleep, and the Healers were no closer to discovering what was wrong with her. When they spoke with me, they tried to do so with confidence, yet I could see the doubt in their eyes.

They had no idea what was wrong with Mia, and didn’t even know how to figure it out.

DuskWood Healers had failed us just as BloodyMoon’s had.

I wondered if we would ever find a solution. I wondered if this time, I would lose Mia for good.

I didn’t want to have to face such a harrowing possibility, but every hour Mia remained unconscious, my worry intensified.

And then there was the matter of my own failing health.

My lethargic weakness had only been the beginning. Since that morning, I had started coughing up blood. I kept a napkin in my pocket, and continued to hide my condition from the rest. If they knew, Alaric and my brothers would be angry, but I didn’t care. Mia needed to remain the focus.

I would not take even one Healer away from my daughter until she was diagnosed and cured.

I had some comfort, at least, that the Healers seemed to stabilize Mia’s condition. She wasn’t actively getting any worse, which was good, but neither was she getting any better.

They could only treat symptoms, they kept telling me. They couldn’t heal the cause until they knew what it was.

The brothers took turns sitting with me, though they often were away attending to other matters, many times doing things with Ethan to keep him busy, help him with his schoolwork, or take him home to rest.

Alaric is the only one who had been a consistent rock at my side. Since his arrival, he had been here almost as much as I had, only stepping from the room to make important Alpha-related phone calls or speak to his Beta John.

For twenty minutes a day, he would leave to shower and change, then he would keep watch while I would do the same.

We had both taking to sleeping here, sometimes in the chairs, sometimes on the floor. Neither of us were willing to leave our daughter alone for very long.

Right now, my brothers were out, the twins with Ethan, while Colin was on some more mysterious errand.

Alone at Mia’s bedside with Alaric, I felt the walls I had built to hold back my more devastating emotions finally begin to crack under the pressure. Tears welled, mostly in response for my fear and worry over Mia but also because I truly physically felt so very awful.

I was trying to be so strong, and I knew that I was strong. But right now, I needed a moment – just one minute – to fall apart.

Alaric, as if seeing this, sat from his chair to round the bedside to come to me. Grabbing me by the shoulders, he yanked me up and into his arms. I was glad for it. Without his assistance, I didn’t know if I could have risen from the chair on my own.

“This is the worst it’s ever been,” I told him. “She’s always gotten better by now. I don’t know what to do, or how to make this better.”

“We have every Healer in both DuskWood and BloodyMoon looking into this,” Alaric said. “We will find an answer.”

“When?” I asked, feeling defeated. “The Healers have been searching for answers since she was born and have yet to come up with anything. How much longer to we have to wait? How much more does Mia have to suffer?”

There was no way for Alaric to have the answers I sought. If he would even to attempt to answer me, I knew it would be a lie.

Instead, he just held me closer. I melted into him, trying to soak in comfort from the strength of his body and the firm grip of his arms around me.

It worked in part, helping me build up my emotional strength once more. It was nice to know that I wasn’t alone in what I was feeling, that Alaric was here in this with me. We might be powerless, but we’d been powerless before and still saw success in the end.

We saved Mia from the kidnappers. We stopped my potential assassin.

Still, how I wished I could go back to the blissful morning when he brought me breakfast in bed, before I started to feel like hell and before Mia was sick again. When there was peace for us and hope for a future of happiness.

Now, I wasn’t sure what the future held anymore. For Mia or for me.

“I don’t know how, and I don’t know how long it will take,” Alaric said, “But I will never let the Healers rest until we find a cure for Mia. If I have to bring in specialists from other packs, even from around the world, I will. We will find a way to help her so that she grows up healthy and strong.”

His voice was filled with conviction, enough to make me believe him. It helped that I trusted him. Even with our sorted past and the hesitations I still held about entering into a romantic relationship with him, he had proven himself to be a dedicated father to our children.

So when he made a promise like this, I did not doubt him as I might have in other promises he made. His love and affection for our children was genuine.

“I’ve already started to make a few calls,” he said.

“Thank you,” I told him.

He gave me one more squeeze before easing me back, thinking I could stand on my own.

Any other time, any other past day, I probably would have been able to. Unfortunately, right at that moment, I still hadn’t recovered the strength in my knees, and they clamped up at once.

I started to topple, falling down.

Alaric, alarmed, scooped me up into his arms before I could hit the ground. “Cara?”

Suddenly, I felt so very tired. My eyelids drooped. I didn’t want to worry him. Mia needed to be the focus. Yet, I couldn’t pretend anymore. My body was failing me and there was nothing I could do.

I grabbed Alaric’s arm with the last of my strength. I desperately wanted to tell him to stay with Mia, to protect her no matter what happened to me, but in my weakness, I could only utter his name.

“Alaric…”

Then everything went black.

Alaric’s POV

I had no idea what was happening. One minute, I was holding Cara, and in the next she was entirely collapsing in my arms.

She said my name then her eyes closed.

Panic surged through me. Mia, my darling daughter, was already sick in bed, and now Cara was ill too? It was almost too much to handle.

But immediately following the panic was an overwhelming protective urge. My mate needed me. I couldn’t freeze with fear. I needed to act.

Holding Cara up in my arms, I turned toward the door and carried her out into the hallway.

“Healer! I need a Healer!”