Alpha Bound

by Holly Hook

  As I near, I see more of the waiting room, and the stench of metallic adrenaline fills the air. Layers upon layers of it rest on the chairs and have soaked into the floor. This is a place of fear and worry. It's musty, somehow, and mixed with the acrid salt of intense sadness. Swallowing to hold down another gag, I eye Ellie, who raises her gaze at me. She's pale. Freaked out. My gaze goes to her hands, which grip the chair and add their own layer of fear to that of all the others.

  What makes me feel worse is Noah's parents.

  Mr. and Mrs. Carmichael sit side by side, holding hands. The middle-aged couple are both as pale as Ellie, and in addition, they're both red-eyed. Not good. I sit down beside Ellie as Aunt May sits on the other side of me.

  “What happened?”

  Ellie swallows like she's not sure how to tell me. The sound hangs in the air.

  “It was weird. A freak thing,” she says. “We were going through a scene and Mr. Saffron was filling in for you. This rafter broke above us, came down, and hit Noah on the shoulder. It shattered it. They have in in surgery because the break was so bad.”

  I let my jaw fall open. “It shattered his bones?”

  Ellie swallows. “Mr. Saffron‘s stumped. He said everything on the stage just got inspected this last summer and it shouldn't have happened. Jansen was standing on the stage, too, and the beam barely missed him. He actually—”

  “Where is he now?” My blood boils and I grip the armrests of my seat.

  “Maybe he went home? He didn't get hurt.”

  “I need to know where Jansen is. And what he was doing at the time.” No one's died from a broken shoulder, right? But what if one of Noah's bones hit an artery? He would have bled out before getting to the hospital.

  “Jansen has nothing to do with this,” Ellie says.

  “Well, when can we see Noah?”

  “It will be awhile,” Mr. Carmichael says. “His shoulder got messed up bad. They have to set a lot of bones and they think a bunch of fragments got loose in him. The doctors are working with a mess.”

  I look around for Olivia. She's not here yet. But she will be.

  “How big was this rafter?” I ask.

  “I don't know if that's the term for it, but it was big. If it had hit him on the head Noah might have died. He barely got out of the way in time. We were all freaked. I heard his bones break.“ Ellie leans over the floor like she might puke. “Noah went down and he couldn't feel his arm. The break must have hit nerves.”

  I imagine Noah without the use of his arm. Not being able to act anymore or with it in a cast saddens me more than I thought it would. I hold back tears.

  Did this happen because I left him?

  Had I been there, I might have been able to pull him out of the way in time. I would have heard the beam breaking before it came down. I would have moved fast enough to save him and stop anyone from getting hurt. Maybe Everly‘s idea wasn‘t the right one.

  And I would have been able to deal with Jansen.

  A doctor walks into the room. It's Dr. Bertram, Olivia's mother. She wears a grim expression she must have to don every day in the ER. She waves Noah's parents towards her and they follow, shuffling their feet to receive whatever news she has. Aunt May leans forward in her chair, ready to listen, and I do the same.

  “You won‘t hear anything from back here,” Ellie says. “Let's hope they don't go into a room. That's always a bad sign.”

  “Noah isn't dead. He can't be,” I say.

  As I speak, a few shadows dance around the periphery of my vision. Mr. Hayde's dark spirits, or maybe Brett's, made of hatred and everything vile. I shudder. Maybe they hung around Noah and Ellie when I left. It's Brett's warning I can't leave Jansen's sight. And that I must keep a close eye on my friends.

  He's gone to soft targets. Like a terrorist attacking a school. Brett knows how to get to a Noble Wolf. I sniff, but Brett isn‘t here.

  I listen as Dr. Bertram pulls Noah's parents not into a room, but around the hallway corner. Good sign. “His shoulder is, for lack of a better term, shattered,” she says. “We had to pull out a lot of bone fragments and he may require a donation from a cadaver bone to put Noah's shoulder back together. Multiple surgeries may be needed--”

  “Is Noah going to be okay?” his mother bursts.

  “With a few surgeries, yes. But he will have to immobilize his shoulder for a good period. Nerves and tendons got damaged, and the shoulder is a complex joint. Noah will hurt for a while, so I suggest we do heavy pain meds when he wakes.”

  “Will he be able to participate in normal activities?”

  “Those that don't involve the use of his left shoulder, perhaps.”

  “This doesn't bode well for the play,” Noah's mother says.

  “He'll live,” I tell Ellie. “He'll just have his arm in a sling for a while.”

  She faces me like I'm crazy. “How do you know?”

  Oops. “Because he broke his shoulder and we're not in Victorian times. We have modern medical technology and all that stuff.”

  Aunt May winks at me for the good comeback. I've smoothed everything over in one line and Noah won't die.

  At least, not yet.

  The double doors to the waiting room open. I smell Mr. Saffron and Olivia before they even get through the door. I should have smelled them sooner, but Dr. Bertram took up all my attention.

  “How's Noah?” Mr. Saffron asks. He's sweating around the brow.

  “He will pull through, but his arm is out of commission,” I say. I don't want to see him not after his anti-Cayden tirade. “I'm not sure if he will take part in this play. It's a long stretch, unless you don't mind someone in an arm sling.”

  “Where is he?” Olivia asks. Her eyes brim with tears as she tucks her car keys into her purse. It looks as if she's driven our Drama teacher here. They both smell of natural makeup as if Mr. Saffron was sitting in her car.

  “In surgery,” Ellie says.

  “He got hit so bad,” Olivia says. Her voice cracks and she's losing her composure. She's found acceptance and now a rogue beam has threatened to take it away. She's legit terrified for Noah. “It was such a freak thing. Like someone voodooed him.” She looks to me, seeking answers, but instead of glaring, she's questioning.

  I get up and open my arms to Olivia, offering her a hug.

  And to my shock, she takes it.

  Olivia, who knows what I am, is hugging me for the first time since the seventh grade. She wraps me up tight and all I can smell is her makeup, caked on sometime early this morning. Her natural, clay makeup that no other girl in the high school wears.

  “He's going to pull through,” I say. Then I lower my voice to a whisper. “I don't know what's going on, but I'm coming back to the play to make sure it doesn't happen again.”

  Chapter Nine

  We sit and wait for what feels like forever. At last, Dr. Bertram comes into the waiting room to tell us we can visit Noah, though he's out.

  She leads us to the elevator where we go up to the third floor, which is the ortho floor from what she says. Our small group passes a guy on crutches walking with a nurse. His leg is amputated below the knee and he wears an expression like he'll never feel happy again. This is the floor for accidents, amputations, and broken bones.

  “Rest assured,” Dr. Bertram explains to us, “we don't have a high death rate on this floor. The ICU is on the next floor.”

  “Hilarious,” Olivia mutters.

  Her mother doesn't even look at her. She's clueless that her daughter needs more than clinical explanations or gallows humor right now. The more I'm around her, the more I understand her attitude. Olivia's hug still lingers around my shoulders and I smell traces of her tears on my hair.

  Dr. Bertram leads us to the end of the hall. We pass beds of patients with legs in casts, including that of a child. Noah's on the far end, and he's awake when we enter the room.

  And he's alone. The other bed holds no one, but Noah, who looks pale and foggy, eyes us. Tub
es attach to him. A large cast covers his arm. I smell dried blood, plaster, and chemicals.

  “Hello, beautiful,” he says as he sees Olivia. He turns his mouth up into a smile. Even in his hospital johnny and with those plain white sheets covering him, he's still Noah.

  “Noah!” Olivia races to him.

  “Wait,” her mother says. “Don't hug him yet.”

  Too late. Olivia leans on Noah, who grimaces.

  “I feel like my arm has been through a grain masher. Or whatever they call those things.”

  “How is he?” Mr. Saffron says. “Noah. Do you think you'll be able to return--”

  I've had it. I turn to Mr. Saffron and glare at him. “Noah needs to rest,” I say. “I'll come back, okay?” I have to make sure Ellie and even Olivia are okay and that nothing falls on them. The shadows at the corners of my vision vanished back in the waiting room, but they can return at any moment. The Haydes might still have my hair. Or Jansen collected some of Noah‘s for them. “Noah needs to nurse his arm and not worry about getting kicked out of the plays forever. And he needs to not have a teacher breathing down his back. Leave him alone.”

  “I think Brie has a point,” Mr. Carmichael says. “Noah needs to take time off and heal. The damage to his shoulder was bad.”

  Mr. Saffron backs off, silent.

  When Olivia pulls away from Noah, I see and smell the plastic of the sling. All black, there are so many straps on it that mummify his arm I can't believe it. Noah can't move his arm at all. He has to lie with it bent up against his stomach. Even his hand is immobilized, with some kind of ball between his fingers and palm.

  “Hey, Brie,” he says, forcing a smile as he struggles to focus. “The drugs aren't too bad, but the rest of this sucks.” A question burns in his eyes.

  “I'll make sure no more beams fall on people,” I say. The scent of dried blood leaks through the sling. Drugs make Noah's musty, creative smell diluted and chemical.

  Mr. Saffron exits the room, leaving the air thinner.

  “And make sure he stops hounding me,” Noah says. He studies Ellie and Aunt May for a moment. “I'm lucky I got pulled out of the way in time.”

  “Yeah. Thanks,” I tell Ellie.

  She goes to say something, but Noah continues.

  “Can you make sure no one else gets hurt, Brie?”

  I know what he's asking. I have to go back even though I've already decided. Maybe the Savage King wants me back where he can track me, but the alternative has proven to be worse. Noah could have died tonight.

  “I will,” I say, numb. “Just lay here and get better. And pray you don't have too many itches you have to scratch.” Lame attempt at humor, but I have to try.

  By the day, everything gets worse and worse.

  Cayden's gone and now Noah's out of commission. Soon, I might have no one.

  Maybe that's what Romulus wants.

  “I will. I'll get out as soon as I can,” Noah says. He looks at Olivia. “And when I do, I'll romance you in ways you've never experienced before.”

  Olivia smiles and blushes as she brings her hands up to her mouth. Letting out a gasp, she says, “Your parents are here!”

  “It's the drugs,” I say, stepping between Noah and his parents. But his father turns up the corner of his mouth in a grin. Now I know where he gets his sense of humor. “I think most of us should let Noah sleep this off.” I'm finding it hard to hold back a grin myself. “How does that sound?”

  * * * * *

  Aunt May and I drive Ellie home, not speaking much. We leave Olivia, Dr. Bertram, and Noah's parents in his room. Besides, the nurses demanded that most of us leave for the night. Apparently, they don't like having too many people visit at once.

  And we spent hours in the hospital. The surgery itself took a few.

  I have to talk to Cayden.

  I have to tell him and Leonora everything, but I can't. Coming back will be death.

  My next best option is to find Brett again, but with Romulus breathing down his back, he won't come back to my side. And even without the Savage King, he won't help me.

  But what about Karina? She's out there, too. But she wanted to help her father and Brett would have told her I killed him.

  We drop Ellie off, and Aunt May says nothing as we drive to our house. At least, not until we get into the driveway.

  “Brie, I'm sorry.”

  I snap my gaze to her. “For what?”

  “For removing your pendant. I doomed you to this. As a result, you're no longer required to work at the Grocery. You need no more pressure.”

  She gets out of the car and walks towards the house, not looking back. I'm left alone as she unlocks the front door and climbs inside, consumed with her own inner storm.

  I have thought little about how Aunt May must have felt since doing this. Since making me turn. She's been quiet about it until now and hasn't said a word.

  “Aunt May.” I get out of the car and slam the door behind me. “I'm helping you out and there's nothing you can do about it. If you hadn't done what you did, I'd be dead.” Her guilt is just making me feel worse.

  “I did this to you, Brie. If I'd known you would get thrown into this situation, and that you were a royal Noble--”

  I close the front door behind me. “None of us knew,” I said. “That's the result of all the secret keeping in this town. You did the best you could and saved my life. I'll become the alpha if it means protecting us all.”

  Aunt May whirls in the kitchen doorway. “That's what I fear. I don't want to lose you, Brie. Call Cayden and bring him back here.”

  “But that'll kill him.” I want to more than anything. “And I won't stand for that.”

  “If it happens, it happens, but it's another layer between the Savages and you,” Aunt May says.

  “What are you saying? No. It's not. Him being away is the layer we need. Once he's gone, Romulus will have a free go at me. Trust me, neither of us want that.” Aunt May‘s never been in love, has she? She can‘t understand.

  She swallows. “I also don't want you to lead the pack. You're too young for this.”

  “So is Cayden. This isn't human society we're talking about.”

  She grips the kitchen table so hard her knuckles come out. Aunt May trembles. The room fills with metallic anger and adrenaline. She doesn't know where to turn or what to do, and I'm the cause of that. “I said you were too nice,” she says. “And that includes how you feel after attacking Mr. Hayde. It's killing you, Brie, and I can see it in your eyes. You shouldn't feel bad about saving Cayden's life, but if you let this fester too long, it will destroy you.”

  “So I'm still too kind?”

  “Yes. You won't survive this.”

  Her words just make me want to challenge Cayden, take his place, and face down the Savage king even more. “If you want to convince me that becoming alpha is a bad idea, then you used the wrong words.”

  “You will not become alpha. That's my order,” Aunt May says.

  “But I'm beta, and you're just a pack member,” I shout. “I have more authority than you. This isn't the human world where you could boss me around. Let me take care of this and don't worry about it. You're killing yourself over me and the store and I won't let that happen.”

  We face each other for what feels like forever. Aunt May lets go of the table and storms to the back door, twisting and invisible knife through my chest. She can't stop me and she knows. This isn't the human world, and as a Wolf, she's lost all control over me and all of her power. While turning lifted me up, it pushed her down. I read the submission in her gait as she opens the back door and steps into the night.

  Aunt May removes her coat, kneels, and pops as she changes shape.

  “Where are you going?” I demand.

  Once the horrible noises of transforming stop, a grayish-blond wolf stands on the back deck, forcing her way out of Aunt May's clothing. She faces me with blue eyes, and I read the meaning in them without trying. She will mark the territor
y border whether we need it or not. And she doesn't want me to follow. Aunt May needs time to think.

  I nod. “Okay.”

  And I watch as she darts into the night, leaving me along with my thoughts.

  * * * * *

  It hurts to see Noah absent when I go to school the next morning. It hurts that Aunt May said little as she drove me to school, thanks to my car still not smelling right under the hood. The oil leak continues, leaving me with no vehicle independence.

  But Ellie waits at my locker in his place.

  “Mr. Saffron's glad you're coming back to the play,” she says. “And yes, Jansen is still there. I know you don't like him, but give him a chance.”

  I can't tell Ellie anything. That leaves Olivia, and though she let me hug her last night, we're not best friends forever. We never will be. The best I can hope for is just to be friendly, right?

  “How's Noah?”

  “Recovering. Says his shoulder feels like someone's driving a knife into it. He will be on pain meds, but he doesn't want to take them after what he said last night.” Ellie grins. “He was so embarrassed when he sobered up again.”

  “I figured. Come on. Let's get to class.” I look up to see Jansen standing at the corner, watching the two of us. “Now. Wait. I have to go talk to Olivia about something real quick, so go without me.” Ellie doesn't share our first class, anyway.

  And Cayden won't be there, either. My universe is falling apart.

  “I'll see you at lunch. Are you still going to sit at the Lowe table? Noah said you were planning to sit with them more.”

  “That's off. After what happened, I'll hang with you guys.”

  I watch Ellie walk off and turn the corner.

  And as she does, Jansen peels himself from it and follows her.

  My stomach turns. It's what I feared. Even though people crowd the hall, I weave through them and go after him. He's human and can't outrun me, but I take time to close the distance between him and me to avoid looking suspicious. As Jansen watches Ellie vanish into her first class, Economics, I clamp my hand down on his shoulder in the middle of the hallway.