Captain Alcott crouched down by her daughter. She tentatively reached out and touched Grace’s arm. “How is he?” she asked.
Grace met her mother’s gaze, surprised to only see concern in the woman’s eyes. “Hurt, but hanging in there.”
“Don’t worry, ambulances are on the way,” Louise said.
“Are the children okay?” Grace asked as she stroked Derek’s hair.
“As okay as they can be, given the circumstances. We’ve released them from the cages, and wrapped them in blankets. The ambulances will take them to the hospital so they can be given the all-clear.”
“And what about the Carnegies? I didn’t see Rebecca with the group the pack was taking out.”
Captain Alcott’s eyes darkened. “She escaped in the midst of the battle. We got everyone else, and they’ve been taken into police custody. And I’ve sent word to both the precinct, and the station in Boston to block off the roads and search the area for her. Don’t worry, we’ll find her.”
“You have to make her your highest priority. She’s insane and won’t stop until she’d wiped out the pack. I heard her plans, and she wants to hunt down other packs in the state, too.”
Her mother paled. “I’ll pass this information onto Captain Rogers. He wants to take over the search for the Carnegies.”
Grace couldn’t help it, a smile spread across her face. “Does this mean Alicia will be coming to town?”
Her mother smiled too. “Yes, she’s the leader of the force Captain Rogers is sending. She’ll be here in a couple of days.”
Despite everything that had happened, Grace felt a little bubble of excitement forming in her stomach. Her best friend was coming to town. She couldn’t wait to tell Alicia about her and Derek.”
“Does … do they know? About the pack?” Grace asked, wondering how they would keep a secret so monumental from the Boston police force.
“No, but it’s something I’ve been discussing with Ben. He said, as Derek is alpha, I’ll need to speak with him on the matter. We think it will be helpful to the investigation if the officers coming to town know the truth.”
Grace looked down at Derek, whose eyes were wide and glassy. “I’ve had some thoughts on that myself,” she said, running her fingers down his clammy cheek. “But it can wait until Derek is better.”
Her mother murmured something in agreement, but Grace didn’t hear, her attention was once again on Derek. He hadn’t blinked in almost a minute, and his breathing was so shallow she could barely see his chest rise and fall.
Grace looked at her mother in a panic. “Are the ambulances close? Something is wrong…” She looked down at Derek again, but his expression hadn’t changed - he stared up at her with dead eyes. “Derek. Speak to me.” She shook him gently but he didn’t respond so made her actions a little more forceful. “Derek!”
Tears blinded Grace’s eyes as she shook her lover and he didn’t respond. She became aware that her mother had moved, and had now wrapped her arms around Grace from behind, but her gaze remained fixed on her lifeless lover. In a haze, experiencing everything as if she had left her body and was observing the scene from afar, paramedics approached and took Derek from her. They carefully maneuvered him onto a stretcher then carried him out of the building.
“What’s going on? Where are they taking him?” Grace cried, and her mother wrapped her in her arms.
“Shush. It’s okay. They’ve taken him to the ambulance. They’ll get him the help he needs.”
“I need to go with him,” Grace said, pulling free from her mother’s embrace, but Louise Alcott held her daughter firmly.
“He’s in the best hands now. There’s nothing more you can do for him, and you need to get checked over yourself. Let me take you to the hospital.”
Knowing her mother was right, Grace let herself be led out of the building. She saw the paramedics loading Derek into an ambulance, and her chest tightened. She broke free of her mom’s grip and ran to him.
“I need to go with him,” she insisted. The paramedic studied her with questioning eyes.
Captain Alcott stood behind her daughter, and said, “She’s his girlfriend. Let her go with him.”
Grace turned to her mother. “Thank you. I’ll see you at the hospital.”
She got into the ambulance and sat down next to Derek, whose face had now been covered with a breathing mask. He was hooked up to a portable heart monitor, and she was relieved to see he had a pulse. It was weak, but there. He was still alive.
Grace took Derek’s hand as the ambulance sped away from the abandoned boathouse, the siren blaring.
“Let him be okay. Let him be okay,” she repeated, her eyes never leaving the heart monitor, as they traveled seventeen miles south to Fairview Hospital, in Great Barrington.
When they arrived at the hospital, the paramedics wheeled Derek out on the stretcher, practically ignoring Grace, as they called out details. “Male, around twenty-five. Gunshot wound to the leg. Unresponsive, but still had a faint heartbeat.”
Someone from the ER took control of the stretcher Derek was on and wheeled him away to surgery. Grace tried to follow, but the paramedic held her back.
“You can’t go into surgery with him, I’m afraid. And if you were at the scene of the accident, you need to be checked over too.”
As Grace watched Derek be wheeled away, the fight left her body, and she was overwhelmed with exhaustion, everything that had happened since they’d first entered the abandoned boathouse now catching up with her. She collapsed against the paramedic.
“Okay,” she agreed weakly.
19
Derek
Derek was floating. Everything around him was bathed in warm light, and his body felt weightless. He could hear Grace calling to him, but he didn’t know where she was, and he couldn’t see through the haze to find her. He struggled to see in the brightness, seeking out his mate, only instead, he found the specter of his father.
“Murder,” Keith Hargrove accused.
“No,” Derek answered back. “I was defending myself. You were trying to drive me to suicide like you did my mother.”
“She was a worthless whore, and you’re no better. You’re a monster. An abnormality. If I’d have known what a freak your mother was, I’d never have married her. And I should have killed you too when I had the chance.”
“No!” Derek roared again. “My mother was a good woman, and you dragged her down. I’m not a monster, you are, and you deserved to die.”
Keith Hargrove dived towards his son, and instinctively, Derek shifted. He faced his father in his wolf form, snarling when another wolf joined him. Derek sniffed. The other wolf smelt familiar, and her tawny fur, tipped in gold, was similar to his own.
Side-by-side, the wolves chased the specter of Keith Hargrove away, and the ghost of a man vanished in the warm light. Somehow, Derek knew he was free of his father finally.
Beside him, the other wolf transformed into a woman, and Derek did the same, turning back into his human form. It didn’t matter that they were both naked, there was nothing sexual about this moment. He rushed forward and the woman embraced him.
“Mom?” he asked, his voice sounding like a child’s.
“Yes Derek, it’s me. I want to tell you how proud I am of you and how much I love you.”
“I love you too, Mom. Please don’t leave me again.”
Deborah Hargrove smiled sadly at her son. “You can come with me if you want, but it means leaving someone else you love behind.”
“Grace?” he asked, tears falling down his cheeks.
“Yes, your mate. She’s waiting for you so you can start your life together.”
Derek was about to move from his mother’s embrace, and run to find Grace when a realization hit him. “If I go to Grace, I have to leave you behind, don’t I?”
“Yes, but I will always be in your heart, and one day we’ll be reunited again. It’s your choice, Derek…”
“I love you, Mom, but I wan
t to live.”
Deborah kissed his forehead. “I love you too, son. Go, be with your mate. Make me proud.”
His mother took Derek’s hand, and led him away from the warm light, in the direction where Grace’s voice was calling for him to come back to her.
Derek forced his eyes open. The warm light was replaced by a blinding white light, and the smell of a clinically clean room assaulted his nostrils.
Someone’s hand was warm in his, and a woman gasped.
“Derek. You’re awake?”
“I’m awake,” he said weakly, Grace coming into view.
“Here, let me get you some water.”
She left his side for a moment to fetch a pitcher of water and poured him some into a plastic tumbler. Then, with a paper straw, she fed him some water. The cool liquid was like the sweetest nectar he’d ever tasted, and he gulped down greedily until his thirst was sated. Grace poured him another tumblerful, but he waved her away, and she placed it on the bedside table.
As Derek sat up and began to regain more of his consciousness, he realized he and Grace weren’t alone in the room. As many members of the pack that could fit were all crammed in his hospital room, with Jason and Ben standing at the front of the group.
Grace came to sit beside him again, taking his hand. “How are you feeling?” she asked.
“Sore, but okay, I think. How long have I been out?”
“Two days,” Grace answered, running her thumb over his palm. “You had to have surgery.”
Derek tensed, remembering the bullet that had seared through his leg. “My leg?” he asked, unable to force the full question out of his lips.
Grace paled and tears leaked down her cheeks. “I’m sorry, but they couldn’t save it.”
Derek wanted to howl. He wanted to rage. He wanted to break everything in the room. Then a realization hit him - he may have lost his leg, but he was alive and Grace was by his side.
He looked up sadly to see Ben and Jason beside the bed, just behind Grace.
“We’re here if you need anything, bro,” Jason said, reaching out and squeezing Derek’s shoulder.
“Yeah, if we can help you recover in any way, just ask,” Ben added.
Derek’s eyes misted, but he wouldn’t cry in front of his pack. Instead, he choked out, “Thanks, I appreciate it.”
“Anything for family, man,” Jason said solemnly. “Well give you and Grace some space now. But I’ll be back soon. I just need to check on a few things.”
A dark look passed between Ben and Jason, but Ben covered it quickly by adding, “I’ll be in the waiting room if you need anything.”
When Jason and Ben left, the other members of the pack approached the bed to wish Derek a speedy recovery. He was surprised to see Kevin and Gavin among the group, both sporting wounds of their own, and he felt humbled to know they’d risked their lives on his orders.
Finally, when he and Grace were alone, the barest hint of a smirk covered Derek’s lips, and he said, “I guess we’ll have to wait a little longer to take that vacation.”
“I can still model bikinis for you if you want?” Grace said, trying to lighten the mood.
Derek snorted out a laugh. “When I get out of here, I demand you be naked for at least a whole day.”
“Deal,” Grace replied, leaning over to press her lips against his.
“Did they get everyone?” Derek asked after a few moments of silence had passed between them.
“Everyone apart from Rebecca. Captain Rogers, from the Boston police department, has sent a task force to Lenox to hunt her down. The officer leading the investigation, Alicia Ripley, wants to talk to you.”
Derek nodded. “Okay, but I don’t know how much use I’ll be to her in this state. I won’t be able to lead the pack anymore, and my career as a firefighter is over.”
Grace squeezed his hand. “Don’t be so hard on yourself. You’re more than just your role as a firefighter or wolf. You’ve done so much good in this town, and you can continue to do so. Because it isn’t your skills as a firefighter or supernatural abilities that make you special, it’s your compassion. Heather lowered her gun because your words got through to her. You spoke from the heart and made a difference. You can continue doing that.”
Derek heaved out a breath, but after a moment his eyes lightened. “With you at my side, I can do anything.”
“I’ll always be at your side, as long as you want me.”
“I want you,” Derek said firmly, sitting up slightly and reaching out for Grace. He tugged her closer, crushing his lips against hers. “The question is, now you know I murdered my father, do you still want me?”
“I will never stop wanting you, Derek. And you’re not a murder. From what you said back at the boathouse, your father was an abusive asshole. It sounds like you acted in self-defense.”
Derek nodded sadly. “Ben always said the same, but it took me a long time to accept it was true … I saw him, you know, while I was unconscious. I saw him and my mom. I don’t know if it was a dream, a weird hallucination from the medication, or something else, but I saw them both. I told my dad he was the monster, not me. Then me and my mom, both as wolves, chased him away. Afterward, my mom told me she loved me, and I could stay with her if I wanted. But I didn’t want to leave you. Mom said we had a future together, so I came back to you.”
Tears rolled down Derek’s cheeks, and when he looked at Grace, he saw she was crying too. “I’m sorry you lost her, but I’m glad you came back to me.”
“I’m glad I came back too. I love you, Grace, and I never plan on leaving you again.”
“I love you too, Derek.”
They lapsed into silence again, content just to hold each other’s hands and be together. Derek dozed on and off, Grace never leaving his side, as she dozed in the chair beside him. At some point, the peace was broken by a knock at the door.
Derek raised his head and called, “Come in.”
A woman dressed in a police uniform pushed open the door. “Mr. Hargrove?” she asked uncertainly and then her gaze fell on Grace, and she grinned.
“Derek, this is Officer Alicia Riply, from the Boston Police department and my best friend,” Grace said, gesturing to the woman who had just entered the room. Then she added, “Alicia, this is my boyfriend, Derek.”
“Good to meet you,” Alicia said, smiling at Derek. “I wish it was under better circumstances, but I’m glad you two finally sorted things out.”
Derek shot Grace a questioning look, and she giggled. “When I went to Boston, I told Alicia that I was attracted to you. She said I should sleep with you so I could get you out of my system and focus on the case.”
Derek laughed. “How did that work out for you?”
Grace leaned across and kissed him. “Wonderfully.”
Alicia cleared her throat. “As cute as this is, I need to ask you a few questions if that’s okay?”
Derek looked at Grace questioningly, and she shook her head to answer his unspoken question. No, Alicia didn’t know about the pack. He wondered if it would make the investigation easier if the officer knew the truth. But then he realized it wasn’t his place to make that decision. He had to step down as alpha and appoint a new one. It would be the new alpha’s choice if he wanted to expose the pack to the authorities investigating the Carnegies.
“Sure, go ahead,” he said finally.
Alicia pulled over a chair and started asking questions about the Carnegies. He answered them as best he could without revealing the truth about the pack, while also giving Alicia as much information as he could so she and her team could find Rebecca Carnegie. Even if the woman was alone, with no allies or an army, she was still dangerous and Derek wouldn’t be able to easily rest until she was caught.
Satisfied with the answers Derek had given, Alicia put her notebook away and said, “Thank you for answering my questions, Mr. Hargrove.”
“Derek, please,” he insisted.
“Derek then,” Alicia said with a smile
. “I hope your recovery is smooth because I very much want to get to know the man who’s made my best friend so happy.”
Derek grinned. “And I want to get to know anyone important to Grace, so it’s good to meet you, Officer Ripley.”
“Alicia, please,” she said, mirroring his comment.
They both laughed and Alicia bid them goodbye, hugging her best friend before leaving. She’d barely left the room before Jason entered, his eyes wide.
“Wow! Who’s the hot cop?” he asked, gazing back out the door to watch Alicia walking away.
Derek smirked. “Bro, you’re terrible. That’s Alicia Ripley, the officer from Boston investigating Rebecca Carnegie. She’s also Grace’s best friend.”
Jason offered Grace his most charming smile. “Put a in a good word for me?”
Grace laughed and rolled her eyes. “Oh my god, you’re worse than him!”
The trio laughed and Jason took up the seat Alicia had used when she’d questioned Derek. Once the laughter died down, Jason’s face became serious.
“I went looking for Rebecca,” he confessed. Derek and Grace both stared at him with wide eyes. Jason rolled his shoulders and continued, “I searched the area around the reservoir, but I can’t track her scent.”
Derek tensed for a moment, a Grace stroked his hand comfortingly.
“I won’t give up until I find her,” Jason vowed.
“Be careful. She’s deranged,” Derek said, nodded down to his battered body.
“I’ll be on guard, but I’m going to make her pay for what she did,” Jason said, a dark ferocity clouding his eyes for a moment. It passed quickly though, then he asked, “How are you feeling?”
Derek smiled. “Surprisingly good, all things considered.”
Jason clapped Derek’s shoulder. “I’m glad to hear it. I was worried … you know, when I heard about your leg.”
Derek’s shoulders slumped. “I’m not gonna lie, it sucks. Having to step down as alpha and leave the fire department will be hard, but I’m alive. That’s what matters.”
“You could take an office job, like Ben?” Jason suggested.
Claimed By The Alpha Wolf (Firefighter Wolves Shifters Book 3) Page 12
