The medical team had met us at the airport, immediately transporting Dad and Luke to their intensive care unit.
She shook her head, her dark eyes big. Her throat worked as she swallowed hard. “The doctor said that the longer he’s in a coma …” Her lower lip wobbled as she trailed off. “It’s not good.”
“Skye was in a coma for almost a month and survived,” I replied fiercely. “Dad will survive this, too.”
He had to. I wasn’t ready to be an Alpha yet.
“Mom and the twins are with him,” Katy said softly. “I told her we would stop by later.”
“Do they need anything?” I shifted my weight, feeling the stress of everything starting to press on my shoulders.
“Larkin and Addie were going to bring them lunch,” she replied.
I had only spoken briefly to Addie on the phone, but she was handling Skye’s disappearance the same way I was—throwing herself into the present and focusing on what she could do.
I just had to keep moving. As soon as I stopped, I remembered what had happened and fear started to choke me. Moving was good. Moving would keep me alive.
Rhodes cleared his throat, grabbing my attention. “The council wants to meet this afternoon. It sounds like Norwood is making waves on the east coast already. They’re worried about what that could mean here.”
I rubbed my jaw, exhausted and anxious as the hits kept coming.
I was worried, too.
It wasn’t dumb luck that Damien and Trace had left the Summit hours before the bomb went off. I would bet my pack on them being behind the explosion, which meant they were responsible for the deaths of dozens of Alphas.
Katy touched my arm and drew in a sharp breath. “There’s more.”
I angled my head in her direction, waiting for her to explain.
She ran a hand through her red hair, the strands practically shimmering in the sunlight. “I talked to Michael on my way out here. Some of Dad’s betas are planning to offer to handle the pack for you.”
“Handle how?” Dante growled for me, scowling.
“Take over,” she clarified weakly.
My eyes narrowed. “I’m the Alpha. At least until Dad wakes up.”
“Dad’s in a coma, Skye’s … missing. Remy, you’re eighteen. No one would fault you for stepping aside until we know what’s going to happen,” she said kindly, her eyes watching me carefully.
I knew she was trying to help, but the more she spoke, the more pissed off I got.
“No. This is my pack. If one of Dad’s betas feels the need to challenge me for the pack, I’ll handle it.” I folded my arms across my chest.
Hell, the way I felt now, I could go for putting my hands on someone. I wouldn’t even need to shift to rip someone apart.
My wolf rumbled his approval. He was definitely onboard for some gratuitous violence and bloodshed. He had been leashed for too long. First through Skye’s testimony, then the explosion, and now this.
“Okay,” she said simply, touching my shoulder. “We’re with you. Come hell or high water, we’ve got your back.”
Rhodes gave me a grim look. “You’ll need to appoint your own council. At least for the interim.”
I ground my molars together. I wasn’t supposed to pick my own council for years yet.
My attention turned to Dante.
He gave me a short nod. “Until we know what’s happening with our pack or if this merge turns permanent, I won’t challenge you. I’m behind you, whatever happens next.”
I tilted my head back, my gaze unfocused as I looked up at the tree canopy above. “Okay. Rhodes, call Will. I want him at the meeting tonight, too.”
Rhodes nodded, shoving his hands into his pockets. I didn’t need to tell him to show up or make a formal announcement; Rhodes was my beta and everyone in the pack knew when I became Alpha he would be at my right hand. I knew my best friend would follow me into hell.
Pretty convenient, since I had a feeling we would be walking through it before this was all said and done.
“He’ll be a good addition to your council,” Katy murmured, her fingertips brushing her lips as she nodded in agreement thoughtfully.
“For now I’m merging Dad’s council and mine,” I said finally, knowing in my gut it was the right call. I knew those people, and they knew Blackwater.
We would all need to work together for whatever came next.
“It’s a good plan,” she said. “But you know these guys will probably push back, Rem.”
I felt the smirk pulling at my mouth before I spoke. “They can push all they want, but at the end of the day, they’ll fall in line or they can find a new pack.”
Rhodes chuckled and grinned at me. “Hell yeah.”
Even Dante cracked a small smile.
I looked at my sister. “I want you there, too.”
She blinked, surprised.
“Most of the people I trust are standing right here,” I told her. “I’ll need all of you for what comes next.”
Rhodes sighed hard. “Be a hell of a lot easier if we knew exactly what was coming next.”
“We do,” I replied grimly, finally giving into the urge to pull the chain from my pocket. I clenched it in my fist, the crescent moon pendant digging into my palm. “We stop Norwood, we find the missing shifters, and I get my girl back.”
3
Skye
By the time the plane landed on a snow and ice covered runway, my nerves were shot and my brain was turning faster than I could keep up with. Whatever medicine Dimitri had given me was starting to wear off, and the jarring jolt from the wheels touching down made my stomach roll with nausea as my pulse hammered against my temples.
The roaring inside the plane was deafening as the flaps lifted, slowing our arrival. I glanced over, relieved to see that Tate was still out of it.
The plane slowed, the noise receding, as Dimitri unhooked his belt buckle across from me and stood up before the plane coasted to a gentle stop. He jerked his head at the guys in the back and called out a few words in Russian that I didn’t understand.
He looked down at me. “We’re switching to a helicopter.”
“Why?” I asked, looking out my window at the small building that served as the airport. There was no one around. Dirty snow mounds lined the airstrip, but a fine mix of snow and ice was still coming down.
“The pack is located in the mountains. We can’t land a plane there, so we have to switch. Usually we’d drive, but there’s a storm coming in from the North that we won’t beat. The last place we want to be is driving up a narrow road on the side of a mountain when it starts coming down.”
The mechanical beep of a lock behind me had me twisting in my seat to see the door opening as the two men unlocked it.
I could make out a vague shape in the dim light. A man was slumped over in his seat. From this angle I couldn’t tell if it was Elias or my uncle, though. Still, panic made me stiffen in my seat, my fingers curling around the armrest until my knuckles were white.
Dimitri’s hand touched my shoulder lightly. “They can’t hurt you, Skye. They won’t wake up for several more hours. Besides, we won’t all fit in one helicopter. They’ll be in a second one behind us.”