Drowning with Fire #3 ✔

Chapter 26 - Theo

[Warning: this chapter contains some mature content]

Waiting for your pack to return unharmed is one of the worst feelings an Alpha can experience. In spite of that newfound power, I felt utterly powerless. There was nothing I could do.

Not even sleeping beside Ember consoled me as much as it usually did. Unable to find sleep and unwilling to move to find something to read, I watched Ember sleep instead with a myriad of questions and worries plaguing my mind.

I'd had a rough day, to say the least. From Ember admitting I was her anchor, to Alistair showing up – then Alistair leaving and me accepting myself as Alpha. Then me searching Victoria's mind while Ember and Thea teleported, without my knowledge, to track down Eric, and then the pack deciding to split up to search for answers. Plus the answers the dryads gave us: the fact that the dark spirit possessing Killian had been wreaking chaos for over a century...

Then Ember almost drowned in the bathtub.

As I watched her sleep, I felt thankful that she was still by my side. Even though I now had several other people to worry about and look after other than her, I somehow knew things would turn out okay as long as she was with me.

"I love you," I murmured to her as I brushed a curl of hair off her face and tucked it behind her ear.

She didn't respond to me – seemingly caught in an intense dream world that I couldn't hope to decipher until the morning when she would regain consciousness. Her face was immovable, her features frozen, and she grasped the bedsheets with one of her hands.

I was half-tempted to wake her up, but I knew she'd need the sleep – whereas I'd cope just fine. By that time, I found myself well accustomed to insomnia.

Though I was grateful when the dawn began to struggle in through the half-open blinds.

It was unlikely that the rest of the pack would return from Hopecliffe until later that day, but the new day refreshed my hope.

<How was the shift?> I transmitted to Thea, aware that she'd insisted I get some rest while she would watch Victoria for the second half of the night.

<I had to keep listening for her heartbeat to check she wasn't dead. She barely moved last night.>

<Do you think me... entering her mind affected her?> I silently voiced the question that had been lingering on my mind.

Once I'd retracted my claws from her neck the day before, her head had flopped down lifelessly and lolled there until I'd propped it against the back of the armchair. Her heartbeat was slow, yet steady. Yet since none of us is a neurosurgeon, we had no way of knowing whether I'd impacted her brain activity, or if she was acting catatonic by choice.

It didn't particularly matter now, though. Victoria wasn't exactly helpful when she was fully cognisant, and I highly doubted she'd be able to reverse Kaden's transition into Killian. Victoria forcing Kaden to murder someone had awakened Killian, and it wasn't like we could just flip that switch and make that dead person alive again.

<Don't know, don't care,> Thea responded flippantly, before elaborating, <I mean, as long as we keep her here and she doesn't go on a murderous rampage, it doesn't matter, does it?>

Unsure of whether it should matter or not, I simply asked, <Want me to come and watch her for a while?>

<Nah, don't bother. Keep an eye on Ember. Whatever happened with her in the bath last night... I don't know, but she needs you right now.>