CHECKING IN

Freya and Lucille lounged in Freya's room, the remnants of their training session evident in their relaxed yet slightly weary postures.

They huddled together, glancing at Freya's phone with hesitant expressions, silently debating whether to disobey their mother's order to call their sister Emma first.

Lucille had been the one to see the message at first. Due to Derek's comatose state and her role in it, she had been unable to sleep—she had kept turning and tossing on her own bed. And unable to take it anymore, and not wanting to disturb her mate whose sleep was to too necessity to be ignored, she had crept into Freya's room, to sleep with her sister.