Savage Awakening (Alpha Pack #2)(51)

Nobody wanted a repeat of the awful scene from the other day.

"Did you hear that?" she asked her brother, her determination unwavering. "We know you're in there, listening. You're not a quitter, never have been. Let us all help you."

"No," Micah whispered.

Both he and Rowan leaned forward to hear what else he might say, and she reached up to grip Aric's hand. The man didn't speak again. Instead, his eyes welled with tears that spilled down his face, even as he stared into nothingness.

Rowan made a sound of distress and moved as close to him as she could, wrapped an arm around his shoulders and tucked his head under her chin. Rocked and held him tight, talking to him quietly. The blank expression never changed, despite the emotion behind the tears.

Aric had never wanted to run so badly, ever.

Twenty minutes crawled by with excruciating slowness, and finally Rowan eased her brother onto the pillow again. He was asleep, no doubt having worn himself out being full of the despair he couldn't express.

Aric took her arm. "Come on, sweetheart. You can come back later." Reluctantly, she allowed him to escort her out. "Hungry for dinner?"

"Not yet. Walk with me?"

"Where to?"

"Anywhere."

He understood-anywhere but here. He took her hand and they walked together out into the hallway. The more distance they put between themselves and the infirmary, the more the stiffness left her posture.

"He's going to recover, you know," Aric told her firmly. "Physically he's much better already, and Mac will take him the rest of the way. She's really good at what she does."

"I know. He's got great friends, too, to see him through." She squeezed his hand.

Guilt clogged his throat, but he managed to speak around the terrible knot. "We'll all do everything in our power to make sure he gets well."

"I know." She gave him a small smile. "Alpha Pack may battle monsters, but what you do here is about so much more than that. You guys help the innocent, whether they're human or not."

"I hadn't really thought of it like that, but I guess it's true. Though Kira and Sariel, with the help of the doctors and nurses on staff, do the hard work of rehabbing all sorts of supernatural beings through their project."

"Block R. They've told me some about it."

"Did they tell you Nick approved construction of a new building for their program?"

"Kira mentioned it the first day I was here, but just briefly."

"They're going to expand and give it a better name, and they plan to make it a haven for displaced paranormals as well as sick ones."

"That's a neat thing for them to do." She paused. "Is there really a basilisk here?"

"Kira told you that?"

"Yes. She also started to say something about a wolf, but Jax stopped her from saying more."

"Oh. Well, the wolf is a sore subject," he said, unable to keep the emotion from his voice. "His name is Raven, and he was one of our team members when Micah, Jax, Ryon, Zan, and I were in the SEALs. He was turned along with us. The difference is, he never came back from his shifted form. He's feral."

"God, that's horrible," she breathed. "They're trying to reach him?"

"They have been, for almost six years. They're hoping that with the opening of the new center and hiring an expert or two, they'll finally succeed."

Rowan's expression was so compassionate it made him ache. Why couldn't this woman be his?

"I hope so, too. What about the basilisk?"

"Actually, he's a basilisk shifter, and his name is Belial. He's quite a handful, tries to seduce everyone in sight to get what he wants. Of course, he doesn't get anywhere because we've all got his number. No one trusts him, with good reason."

"Can't they kill if a person looks them in the eye?"

"No, that's Internet bullshit. But when he shifts, he goes from a regular-looking tall, lean guy to a snake the size of a f**king sedan. His fangs are each about a foot long, and he could swallow a full-grown man whole if he wanted. He doesn't need more abilities than those."

"Jesus, no kidding."

"They haven't let him out much just yet, but Kira's lobbying for leniency so he can prove himself."

"He might prove useful in the fight against Sariel's father and those Sluagh things."

Aric shrugged. "We'll see."

Their trek led to the rec room, where Rowan stopped. "I suppose skipping through the woods is out of the question. What a waste of great scenery."

"Yeah, unless we want to take two others with us. Kinda cramps the style." He pulled her toward the sofa. "Want to play a game on the Wii?"

"What are we, twelve?" she joked.

"Mentally, that fits most of us around here. Keeps us sane. Anyway, I love video games. I used to spend hours in my room with my old PlayStation, just to stay away from my stepsister..." He trailed off, immediately cursing his stupid mistake. Of course, she caught his blunder, eyes narrowing.

"So you have a stepsister. You told me you didn't have any family left."

"I... Well, my mother remarried when I was in high school, but I don't consider my stepfather or his daughter to be my family. Far from it," he said bitterly. "Bruce was a world-class ass**le and his precious girl was a witch, and I mean that literally. She still is, and a dangerous one."