The Healing Souls

Hospital

[Mike]

At the hospital, Trent and Ben went to get the report from the nurses. I saw Rock and Carmen sitting in the waiting area where they’d been when Rhett brought us here. I walked over to them and put myself between Rhett and my sister.

“Mike? Do you know what’s going on? They don’t give us updates. I’m so worried about Gemma,” Carmen said.

“Trent and Ben are getting the update. Rock, thank you for bringing the girls here. I know you don’t want to have Carmen in the pack lands. You could have taken Gemma to the fae healers, if it would be easier.”

“Wolves would know wolves better. If they can’t figure it out, I’ll sponsor Gemma to go to the fae healers. I don’t know who this guy is, but I have a bad feeling. It feels like someone’s watching us.”

Carmen nodded. “From time to time, I catch the scent of human and magic, but Rock doesn’t see anyone watching us or near us. If I could see, I could tell Rock what Rhett looks like. He seemed like he knew things about me. Things he couldn’t have known. Things I didn’t tell a lot of people.”

“Like what?”

“I told Rock I fell in love with him from the moment I heard his voice. I didn’t tell anyone else. My friends are the only ones who know I don’t care what other wolves think about me. I don’t care what anyone thinks of my choices or me. He seemed to know what others thought of me, too. Things I know wolves would never tell a human. I don’t know what’s going on,” Carmen told me.

He told us that people were talking about Carmen. He said the pack, the trolls, and her friends. Only her friends and Echo were talking about Carmen as if she wasn’t impaired mentally. He wasn’t just guessing. He was watching from the shadows.

“You said you smell human and magic from time to time. Here in the hospital?” I asked.

“Yes. That’s what he smelled like, human with an undertone of magic. Witches smell more like magic. I never smelled anyone who smelled like him. What is he, Mike? Why did he do this to Gemma?”

“It sounds like you met a warlock, Carmen. He seems to be interested in you. The positive side is that he could have done a lot worse than talking to you and putting Gemma to sleep. He didn’t so we can assume he’s not going to hurt you,” I told her.

“We can assume he’s not going to hurt her? What the hell is a warlock and how are they different from witches? I can’t protect Carmen if I don’t know what’s going on. There’s something watching us from the shadows and has been ever since we were in the office. I can’t find it, yet, but I will,” Rock growled.

I explained to him the difference between a warlock and a witch. That didn’t seem to make him any less angry and protective. It wasn’t just Rhett watching us, though. Other werewolves, people in the waiting room, hospital staff, and my friends, were watching us.

They were absorbing everything that was being said and I knew some were reporting it to someone else through the bond link. Our drama was being broadcast across the pack.

“I know you’re worried, Rock, but we’re on it. We can’t ignore this trespass on our pack. Fighting a warlock is harder than fighting a witch. They don’t have as many weaknesses. We don’t know everything he can do with his magic, but we know the darkness in him only fears a greater darkness. He won’t tell us where to find a greater darkness,” I told him.

“You have a greater darkness in your pack, if this feeling is any indication of his power. There’s an easy way to figure it out, though,” Rock answered.

He let go of Carmen and stood. Rock strode across the admission area and with a swoop of his hand, grabbed Rhett out of what appeared to be thin air. He lifted the warlock off the ground and held him up to his face.

“I’ll assume you’re Rhett,” he growled and shook the warlock.

My eyes widened and I took a step toward them. Trent caught my attention and held up a hand. I moved back to my sister and I held her hand. She squeezed it tightly.

‘I can smell him, Mike. Rock caught him?’

‘Yes. He pulled him out of thin air. Apparently, he was watching from across the room,’ I answered.

“Ah, Rock. Nice to meet you in person. I have some questions for you.” Rhett tried to smile.

“I have a few statements for you, but most of them involve smashing your head into the ground. Wake Gemma up now,” Rock snarled.

Rhett chuckled breathlessly and snapped his fingers. “She’s awake. Can I stand on the ground now, or do you intend to keep stretching my jacket? This wasn’t a cheap piece, I’ll have you know.”

“What the hell do you think you were doing around my mate?” Rock asked.

“I just wanted some questions answered. As I said, I have some for you as well. Tell me, when did you first fall in love with Carmen? Is it true that you had never slept with anyone other than troll women? How do you tell if a troll is a woman? How are fae ears different from human ears? Wha–,” he was cut off by Rock shaking him again and slamming him against the wall a few times.

The other people in the admission area were standing stock still and staring as Rock’s glamour started slipping. The angrier he was getting, the harder it was for him to keep his glamour on. The scent of fear started spreading through the area.

Carmen stood up and let go of my hand. She started walking toward Rock and Rhett. I reached out to stop her, but when my hand landed on her shoulder, she pushed it off and growled at me. My sister never growled at anyone.

I let her go and watched as she moved as if she could see. She walked around people who were frozen in her path. I followed her, keeping an eye on my Alpha, who was taking in the whole scene.

She reached Rock and put her hand on his arm. He looked at her. His glamour snapped back together.

“Let him go, Rock. He woke Gemma up. She linked me,” Carmen whispered.

“I don’t like him getting near you. I don’t like him hurting your friend,” Rock answered.

“She was just sleeping. I need you to calm down. Please.”

Rock took a deep breath and pulled Rhett close to his face. “You don’t talk to my mate without me around ever again, do you understand, Warlock?”

“Yes, I got it. Don’t tell the wolves where to find the darkness and I will play by your rules,” Rhett told him.

“I agree. You are never alone with my mate and I don’t tell them where to find the darkness,” Rock agreed.

Damn it. He put Rhett on his feet and wrapped Carmen’s arm around his. I looked over at Trent, who appeared to be a mix of angry and disappointed.

“Will you answer my questions?” Rhett asked, straightening out his clothes and smoothing his hair, which had been mussed when Rock slammed him against the wall.

“I loved Carmen from the moment she asked to come home with me, but I was attracted to her from the moment I saw her. I’ve only been with troll women before Carmen. A female troll is shorter than a male. Fae ears are better. That’s all you get for now. You call to make appointments to talk to us and never show up at my home or office unannounced. Do you understand?” Rock growled.

“Certainly. Thank you for answering my questions,” Rhett said quickly and was instantly swallowed by shadows.

So that was why Rhett was afraid of Rock? He could find him and nullify his magic. I wondered what that was about. Was Rock really not aware of what he just did?

He turned to my sister and tucked a loose strand of her hair from her bun behind her ear. She tilted her head up as if she was looking into his eyes.

If I weren’t her brother and didn’t know for sure that she was blind, witnessing that would make me doubt she was really blind. The way Carmen sprung into action was like an Alpha’s mate. A Luna often kept her mate from overreacting. She kept him from becoming angrier.

Carmen just kept a troll in check when he was losing control. I moved over to where my Alpha was. He was staring at them, too. It looked like I wasn’t the only one who realized what had just happened. Other witnesses started whispering among themselves and I saw a few mind-linking.

“Gemma is awake,” Ben said quietly. “She linked me when she realized she was in the pack hospital. She told me she was fine.”

“What the hell was that?” I asked him and Trent.

“It seems there’s a reason Rhett was afraid of Carmen’s mate and it had nothing to do with his strength. If he could have disappeared, he would have. He couldn’t leave while Rock had ahold of him,” Trent murmured studiously. “But he was able to wake Gemma….”

“He was calling his darkness back,” Rock replied. “His darkness used to be bound to earth. I could feel it trying to seep into me when I touched him. Trolls are living earth.”

I turned to see Rock and Carmen had come over to where we were standing. He didn’t look upset at all now. It was as if none of that had even happened.

“You agreed not to tell us where to find the darkness. It was a promise and fae can’t break promises.” Trent seethed.

“Yes. You’ve got all of the hints I can give you. And since I said ‘the wolves’ I can’t tell Carmen, either. I have felt a darkness greater than his, though. Can we go back and see Gemma? Carmen wants to talk to her outside of her head,” Rock said nonchalantly.

I stared at him. He really didn’t have a problem with keeping this from us. He gave us all the hints he could? What hints?

“What hints?” Trent echoed my thoughts.

“I told Mike.” Rock shrugged.

A nurse came over. “Miss Holden is asking for her friends. May I take them to her, Alpha?”

“Sure. Take them. Ben, you stay here and see to your cousin. Mike, come with me,” Trent ordered, then turned and walked out of the admissions area.

I knew better than to try to argue with my Alpha or stay behind too long after he told me to go with him. I looked back at my sister and Rock, who were heading into the hospital, then over to Ben.

“I’ll let you know if anything happens with Carmen or Rock. Go with him. You know he’s pissed,” Ben whispered, then hurried after my sister and her mate.

Taking a soothing breath, I jogged after my Alpha. He was walking fast. Trent didn’t pay attention to his speed when he was thinking. If he was mentally rushing around, he was physically rushing, too, as if his entire body was controlled by the speed of his thoughts.

We rushed through the pack lands and into the pack house. I was walking a few steps behind. Trent was more dominant when he was upset. If I kept pace with him, he could have attacked me. His wolf would have seen it as a challenge.

When we ended up back in the Alpha’s office, I closed the door and found a seat. Trent went behind his desk but didn’t sit. Instead, he paced back and forth for a while. I tried to focus on what Rock told me about the darkness.

Trent stopped and sat in his seat. He stared at me as he pulled a pen out of a drawer and opened a notebook. It was unnerving.

“Tell me everything Rock said to you since you went over to talk to them. I need to know everything. Don’t leave a single thing out, no matter how insignificant it seemed at the time,” Trent told me.

I carefully replayed the whole conversation in my head, repeating Rock’s parts of it. Trent wrote it down as I talked and asked about wording. He needed it to be exact, not a paraphrasing of any part of the conversation.

“Rock said the greater darkness was already in the pack. He felt it…. Is it a person or a place? Rock’s been here and to the hospital. He stopped to talk to the border guards twice. That couldn’t be it. Maybe a person from the pack?” Trent pondered.

“Dozens of pack members came out to see Rock and Carmen come back. It can’t be Gemma, because Rhett would fear the greater darkness and there’s nothing dark about Gem. Maybe Roald? The place he comes from has more darkness than light in the winter. Like four-hour-long spans of daylight or something,” I suggested.

“They also have a span of time when the sun doesn’t fully set. That wouldn’t make sense. He’s not a member of our pack.”

“He only said ‘in your pack’ not ‘part of your pack’,” I reminded him.

Trent nodded. “You’re right. He could have meant several different things. Maybe it was something he sensed while driving to the packhouse or the hospital…. We’ll figure this out without his help. Once we figure it out, we can see if we can use it to keep Rhett from doing something like this to one of our packmates again.”

He was always thinking about how to take care of our pack. Some people may think our Alpha was cutthroat, but he wasn’t. Trent cared about our whole pack. Sometimes hard decisions had to be made, but I always trusted that the choices Trent made were for the good of our pack. Nothing would change that.