Chapter 12

POV Eric

Dr. Stevenson walked into the room looking disheveled.

"Luna, young Alpha. She's stable but still unconscious. Alpha had the remains from the cave sent to the morgue. I'm going to head out, get cleaned up and then get started on the autopsies." He said.

"Do you think she will be ok." Joann asked.

"She is holding strong; her wolf is working quickly to heal her now that we have the infection under control. The rest is up to her." Dr Stevenson replied giving her a knowing look.

He continued. "Physically she is going to recover but we can't know the psychological damage until she wakes up. From the Alpha's reports, I can only imagine how traumatic this was for her."

"Thank you for all of your help Elijah." Joann grabbed his hand; with a squeeze and a sad smile she dismissed him.

"We should return home. Not much we can do here and I'm anxious to know what your father has found out." She said as she started packing up the few items, we had with us. "How is Braxton doing?"

"He seems alright. Now that she is safe and being cared for his pull to her is gone. We looked through some of Miss Evens books and found a few notations about a veil bond." I showed her the marked pages we had been reading earlier.

"That would make sense. Her wolf pushing through the veil early would be painful. Sending ripples of distress through the veil. Understandable why he would keep it from you." She replied while thumbing through the pages.

"What do you mean?"

"I don't believe any of the other teenagers are expected to shift this year. If Braxton felt her in the veil, how does he even begin to explain that? Once you take your place as Alpha, you will be able to feel when one of your pack members is in trouble. You can sense them but having no connection to someone and feeling their pain. Knowing they are in trouble without any idea who or where they are would be completely different." She stated as she walked over to me. Putting her index finger under my chin forcing me to look up at her. "Braxton, you did good. If you hadn't found her, she might have died out there alone."

I could feel him beaming with pride and a calm come over him. "Ya mom we are ready to leave." I replied as I grabbed my bag and we left.

Back at the house I could hear dad angrily pacing and muttering to himself in his office. Giving mom a worried look she handed me her bag and took off in that direction. I put her bag in their room and proceeded upstairs to shower.

The hot water pouring down made me realize how sore and tired I was, the clinic beds nothing like my own as far as comfort. I grabbed a towel, wrapping it around myself and laid down on top of the covers. Only meaning to rest for a minute I quickly fell asleep.

POV Aiden

Another dead end call! I rang twenty of the closest packs asking if any of their members were missing or went somewhere without returning. Few would speak with me and those that did denied having anyone unaccounted for.

Joann walked in wrapping her arms around my waist and burying her face in my back. Her touch soothing me I released a large sigh. "No luck I'm guessing?" She asked.

"Half hung up on me when I asked about missing pack members and the rest were indignant about it. I was sure the male was someone important but I'm beginning to have my doubts."

"Don't doubt yourself, Elijah left the clinic right before us. He said he was going to get started looking at the bodies soon. Hopefully he will find something." Joann responded. "Did you tell them what you found?"

I turned around to face her, I didn't care to relive what I had seen, and my gut feeling was to keep this situation a secret until I had more information. "I don't think we should let just anyone know what happened here. The rumors around those caves are bad enough without announcing there was an incident. I gave Miss Evens the pendant to examine as I'm sure it has something to do with the deaths. This whole thing makes the hairs on the back of my neck stand up."

"You need to go talk to Eric. He didn't bring whatever trouble maybe coming and he needs to know that you aren't angry with him." Joann urged.

"I am mad at him, he took off. You didn't see what happened there. Eric could have been one of those bodies if he stumbled on that place." Concern flooded my voice.

"Go!" She demanded pushing me through the doors.

Reluctantly I made my way down the hall and upstairs but when I reached Eric's door, I could hear him snoring loudly. The door was cracked, looking in I could see him asleep laying over his cover. Grabbing an extra blanket from his closet I covered him before sitting on the bed next to him.

Looking down at him I knew why Joann had sent me, not to talk to him but to see him. Really see him. Eric is our only son and child. His birth was too hard on Joann to risk her life to try for more.

Eric has his wolf, they blatantly disobeyed me but in doing so saved a girl's life. He is no longer a little boy. He's becoming a man and an Alpha it's time I let him figure out what kind of man he will be.