Thicker Than Ink

Forty Seven

"Hold on! Wait... Blood, Sigh... Inhale deeper... Smell..." Liam needs to aide his words with throwing his arm in front of my chest in order to keep me from rushing at Pop as he breaks away from the treeline still in shifted form... His wolf's eyes watching us as carefully as he damn well should be coming back here after what happened the other day... My Beta being the only thing keeping me from shifting to run the old man off... No side of him welcome here...

As much as I don't want to wait and stop and smell... I more than learned my lesson the other night over letting my anger and emotions towards the man goad me into acting like a neanderthal and even though it pains me... I take a step back from my anger and pay attention to what Liam is actually saying to me... My nose scenting the air in order to pick up the tangy metallic scent currently flooding towards us carried on the breeze... My eyes scanning the wolf that belongs to my father trying to figure out if he's hurt someone or something... The scent too strong for it to be from him hunting in that form...

It doesn't take long to notice it... The heavy way he's limping... The way he wines with every step... His fur sticking so completely to his left side, glistening so unnaturally that even I can see that something is wrong... A long whine escaping him as he lifts his eyes to mine, stopping just a few meters away before stopping and starting to sway... The way he lays himself down in the grass disconcerting... More of a collapse than anything else, a tight yelp sounding out when his belly makes contact with the ground...

Pop didn't come here to piss me off...

He came here for help...

...

Adrian

...

Even being apart, Silas and I are still close enough to each other mentally with our need to draw comfort from the link that binds us for me to know when ice decides to splash itself through his veins and I don't think twice about dropping the cupcake I'm currently smearing icing and the butter knife too before flinging myself out of my chair and bolting towards the library... One hand on my lower belly as I rush towards the father of my unborn child hoping that he and everyone else here today is okay... Quinn startled enough to follow me as I seek out my mate to find out what's happened...

My mind keeps circling the drain over just how many things could possibly go wrong in an unfinished room full of power tools and an antsy Alpha... And it causes a lump in my throat so large that I'm not sure if I'll ever be able to swallow it or if I'll even want to if I walk in and find someone missing a finger or a hand... My mind doing what it does best by coming up with multiple scenarios over just what went wrong and who got hurt because I'm not sure it was Silas himself... At least I don't think so...

Strangely enough though... When Quinn and I finally hit the library it's mostly empty, the flurry of activity going on nowhere near anything that seems like what Silas said they'd be doing today, a few pack members rushing by us into the main part of the house... Something that normally doesn't happen, and something they were advised against today because I'd be inside and Silas is even more overprotective now that I'm pregnant... They had been told to proceed with caution and running is definitely not what Silas and Liam meant when they were made aware of what we were attempting today...

...

Silas

...

It's like everything happened in slow motion... My eyes had gone wide and Liam had taken over, yelling at the guys to hustle and grab all the towels and water they can carry, someone reaching out to Paxton through the link and doing it so loudly that we all hear it... My vision going a bit hazy over the sight of Pop on the ground...

It just... It doesn't make sense in my mind... To see him this way... All... Weak... And asking for help... Asking me for help...

The man has hated me for so long I never thought I'd see the day where he tries to push himself onto his back to show me submission but can't because he's bleeding out on my lawn...

It's almost as if my mind cannot make sense of the sight of him... I can't believe he's here...  That he's here and he's crying, his mind reaching out and trying to link with mine even though it's a connection he himself severed...

None of it makes sense to me and for some reason, I can't seem to make myself move... I just keep standing here and watching everything unfold... My body not moving a single inch when Liam kneels by Pop's side and tries to gesture to me to come over... Because he... He wants me to see what's going on...

But I have no idea how to tell him that... That I can't...

Pop has always been such an asshole... And a bully... He's always seemed slightly larger than life should allow, and even though lately I've done more than hold my own for some reason in the back of my head I didn't ever consider the fact that someone or something could actually bring him down... Someone or something brought a timber sold down... The surliest one too... It had gotten close enough to him to tear his side to pieces... And... And what the hell could do that?

If it were another timber it would make sense... But I'm the only other one in the state...

None of this makes sense to me... None of it at all... And as fast as my head is spinning all I can do is stand here and stare at Liam and Pop wide-eyed and horrified... The coldest of sweats starting to drip down my spine...