Another four weeks later.
Everly POV
Mum was getting blood tests, and the vaccine needed to be administered every few days now. I have
just hit the 2nd trimester, and the Hotel was only a few weeks from finished. Valen sold most of his
shares to pay half the debt owed to Nixon. Still, Nixon pressed for more, and we had enough.
Valen’s scientists had managed to replicate the vaccine a week ago, and now they were working on
finding a cure. Yet as we suspected, my mother was becoming immune to the vaccine, and with it came
early-onset dementia. She was losing her grip on reality. Dad was beside himself, and Ava was
devastated.
Macey and Zoe were doing everything at the moment, from the school run to managing the renovations,
now that the structure was fully fixed. Kalen ran the Homeless shelter while Dad worked for my pack and
Valen his.
Life was hectic, and Ava and I were tasked with watching over mum, which meant taking her to these
appointments. We also carried tranquilizers everywhere we went with her, just in case. But she could
seemingly pull herself out of it before anything wrong happened.
Valen hated that I offered to help watch over her, said I was putting myself at risk, and he was right, but
she was my mother. The woman taught me to walk, speak, and use a d**n spoon, and I knew if our roles
were reversed and it was his father, he would be by his side too.
Mum thanks the nurse that took her blood before the doctor administered the next dose, stabbing it into
her arm, and she shivers. Her hair was beginning to grey, and she was aging quickly. All this because of
Nixon. We had filed against Nixon to have his pack dismantled. My father went to the media two nights
ago and outed everything, including the debt and how Nixon was the one who injected my mother.
We were waiting for the repercussions, everyone on edge since Dad went lives across the city. Nixon
was officially under investigation, and the werewolf council was now involved.
Unfortunately, that meant my father was also under investigation C;){x6:. forced to remain in his pack
territory, the same as Nixon. It was also another reason why I had to help Ava with mum.
Dad couldn’t leave pack borders, and until I married Valen, he had to stay on the opposite side of town,
and the vaccine, now that Nixon wouldn’t administer it, could only be given on Valen’s territory. The
investigation was a slow process that would buy us time, maybe not much with tensions on the rise.
Riots had started in the streets already, the city wanting answers. Nixon’s pack had gone quiet. They
don’t leave their borders, and only trucks with supplies have entered since he found himself in hot water.
Mum was in a cheery mood as we left, almost childlike and giddy as she climbed in the car. Ava sat next
to her. She was deteriorating fast, and the scientists that are working on the cure were working around
the clock. More rogues had gone missing, more turning up along the borders as forsaken, which only
amped up Nixon’s claims that they were deliberately turning forsaken to overrun the city.
Speculation and theories hung over the entire city like a dark cloud, over whose claims to believe.
Clipping my seatbelt, my phone started ringing, and I quickly answered it, seeing Zoe’s name pop up on
the screen.
“Hey, what’s up?” I asked.
“I need you to pick up the kids for me. We have sprung a leak. And the fire alarms, for some reason,
turned on and have yet to turn off. Macey is also locked in the basement because it tripped the locks,
and I am currently standing in water to my knees,” she sighs.
Great, this is all we needed. This new tech system was becoming a pain in the a*s. So many sensors
and I was second-guessing the whole thing
“Is Macey alright? Is it flooding down there?”
“Yeah, she is fine. Currently eating all the chocolate and drinking all the wine. At least we know the
basement is waterproof,” Zoe laughs. I chuckle. Bad news, but we would live.
“The damage?”
“Costly,” she answers, and I groan.
“Okay, I will grab the kids.” I glance at my phone screen to see I had to get them now and curse.
“I may need to drop mum home first. I only have five seats in this car, and I have mum and Ava with me,”
I tell her, which means I would be late when I see Tatum outside walking directly toward us. S**t! He
must have followed us out. He was on security at the clinic, and he had tried to stop me on the way in but
got called away.
“Never mind, I have a solution,” I tell her hanging up, just as Tatum taps on my window. I push the door
open and climb out.
“I thought I missed you,” he says, tugging on the tie around his neck to loosen it.
“Nope, still here. And I kinda need to ask you a favor,” I tell him.
“Great! Then maybe you could do me a favor?” he asks in return. I knew what he wanted, and we had all
been at Macey for weeks about it, but she refused to listen. The woman was stubborn, but this was the
first time I had spoken to Tatum. Usually, all messages came through Valen, to me, to Macey. It was
driving me insane!
“You first,” I tell him.
“Macey has not answered a single call from me. She refuses to speak to me, and I can’t even mind-link
with her since she isn’t a pack member.”
“Well, I have a solution to your problem, too, since you are about to solve mine,” I chuckle.
“I’m all ears,” he says with a smile.
“Macey is stuck in the basement, but it has an intercom. Zoe is held up, and I need to get the kids from
school,
including Taylor. Come with me and help pick them up. I don’t really want them in the car with mum,” I
whisper, and he glances behind me and nods his head.
“Now that I can do. I haven’t seen Tay in ages. Wait! Will Macey be okay with that? “ he asks, and I
shrug. It was either that or I will be 20 minutes late getting them by the time I drive mum back home.
“Well, I am out of options, so she’ll get over it,” I tell him.
“You sure?”
“She has no choice. Besides, you should both talk. I am sick of passing notes for you both,” I tell him,
opening my door.
“I’ll meet you at the school,” he says, and I nod. We pulled up out front, and I quickly raced in and got the
kids from their classes. Valen’s pack school was under heavy security at the moment. All children were
being required to be signed out with the growing missing reports of out with the growing missing reports
of the rogues, Better to be safe than sorry.
Walking back out to the car, my phone rings, and I pull it from my pocket and answer it. My father was on
the other end.
“I am just about to drop her home,” I tell him.
“No, don’t. Investigators just showed up. I was ringing to see if you could hang onto her a bit longer? She
doesn’t do well with strangers in the house, and I currently have seven with warrants,” he tells me. F**k!
Could anything else go wrong today?
I pinch the bridge of my nose in frustration. “That’s fine. I will figure it out.”
“Why? What happened?” he asked.
“Nothing; I have the kids, is all,”
“She won’t hurt them,” yet I could hear thatnarin hicuaian
the worry in his voice.
“It’s fine. Tatum will drop the girls off, and I will ask Kalen to get Valarian. Valen doesn’t want Valarian
around her when it is only Ava and me since I can’t shift,” I tell him and Dad sighs.
“As soon as they leave, I will send someone to come get her,” he replies.
“Okay,” I tell him, hanging up. The kids look up at me, but I shake my head. Walking out of the school.
Taylor spots
Tatum and squeals, running ahead of me.
“Hey Tay!” he says, scooping her up, and she wraps her arms around his neck before showing him her
pasta necklace around hers. She takes it off before wrapping it around his neck.
“Aw, thanks,” he says, pecking her cheek.
“Are we coming back home soon?” she asks, and I know she must be confused. Tatum had been part of
her life for months now, only to wake up and not see him again.
“I’m working on it. And I am hoping to see your mother this afternoon,” he says before looking at me. “I
only have two car seats in the car. Her old one and my sister’s daughter’s one.”
“On it!” Ava calls out from where she was leaning on the car smoking, I give her a disapproving look and
she rolls her eyes, tossing it and pulling Valarian’s car seat from out of Valen’s car I was driving. We
spent a few minutes anchoring it before buckling the kids in.
“Change of plans. Mum is staying with me for a few more hours, so can you swing by my place before
you drop the girls off? Ava texted Zoe on the way over to tell her you were dropping the kids over. She
also assured me that Macey was still locked in the basement.” I chuckle, knowing it had been fixed, and
Zoe was just keeping her locked in there. 1
“I feel like a d**k,” Tatum says.
“Yeah, well, she thinks you left because she can’t have kids,” I tell him.
“Well, if she would let me explain, that wasn’t the reason I left,” he says while shaking his head.
“Then why did you leave?” Ava asks, her tone coming off the defensive. He looked back in the windows,
ensuring the kids weren’t listening
“Macey said she never wanted kids. She made that clear. I thought I could change her mind. And then
she told me, and I felt a little angry that she didn’t tell me. But more because I had been bugging her
about kids for weeks!” He groaned.
“I even went and bought baby stuff. I wondered why she got so angry and tossed it out. Then the next
day, she told me, and I haven’t heard from her since,” he says.
“It will work out,” I tell him.
“Yeah, but I feel like s**t! My sister went through IVF for years before having Sam. Had I known, I
wouldn’t have pushed so hard or at all. My sister hated when people mentioned anything baby-related or
asked when she would have kids. I became one of those people. That’s why I left.” Tatum growls,
shaking his head. 3
“I was angry but more embarrassed than anything. I am happy just having Taylor Even though her toy
collection takes up half our house!” he chuckles.
“Well, Zoe locked her in the basement. So now she has no choice but to hear her out. “Ava says. He
nods his head and turns to the driver’s door.1
“And Tatum?” I call, and he stops looking at me.
“Every person she has dated walked the same day she told them. She held off only twice hoping they
would stavance they twice, hoping they would stay once they knew her, but they also walked. The only
reason she didn’t tell you is that she was worried about losing you.”
“I know that. But I wasn’t going anywhere,” he answers.
“But you! She didn’t know that is why you left. Before you, she tried dating, and all of them walked out
halfway through the first date,” I tell him, and Tatum frowns. He nods his head before climbing into the
car. I go back to mine and climb into the driver’s seat, and Ava climbs in the back with mum.
I had Ava text Kalen on the drive home. He would be half an hour. We were just down the end of the
street from home when static went over the radio. I flicked the station over to find them all the same
when the traffic lights suddenly went out up head. I peered up at the sky, wondering if a storm was
brewing, yet the overcast day was the same.
The sky hadn’t darkened more. I glanced at Ava, whose face was scrunched up as she peered at her
phone. She was playing some game on it.
“I have no cell service,” she says, and I reach over and pass my phone to her, and she unlocks it.
“Neither do you,” she says just as the tornado sirens blare. However, the sirens weren’t used for tornado
warnings. No, we never got tornadoes here, and I hadn’t heard that noise since I was a kid.
My eyes widen, and I peer at Tatum’s car behind me when Valen’s voice and my father’s booms through
the mind link.
“All warriors to the borders! Everyone else, get inside and lock your door!”I swallowed, and my mother
was blissfully unaware as she spoke to herself. She looked at me and smiled. 1
“What’s that noise?” she asked. Neither of us answers her, and I glance at Ava.
She stared back and looked petrified when Valen mind-linked me.
“Get home and lock the doors!”
“How many? And where?” I ask, opening the link to Marcus, Zoe, and Tatum to join.
“Get home and lock the door, Everly!” Valen snaps.
“Valen, how many?!”I snarled. He doesn’t answer and I could feel his fear through the bond.
“Hundreds,” he says.
“The girls?” Zoe screeches through the link.
“I have them and Valarian. I’m behind Everly now,” Tatum chimes in as we pull into the hotel car park.
The shutters were rolling down on the lower-level windows and securing the doors. I roll my window
down, waving Tatum toward the underground car park and he gives me a underground car park, and he
gives me a thumbs up.
“Zoe, get to the basement! I will get to Casey!” Marcus orders her, and she whimpers before being
shoved out of the link.
“Where are they coming in?” Tatum asks
“Everywhere!” Marcus and Valen said before the mind-link turned to chaos and I nearly ran into a pillar
before I forced everyone out. We pull up and start ripping the kids from the cars, and my mother shoves
them toward the elevators, finally coming back to her senses. “Is that?” she asks, looking at Ava, who
nods to her.
Valarian hits the elevator button, but the doors don’t open. The emergency generators didn’t operate
them, leaving the stairs. “F**k!” The roller shutters start dropping as we rush the kids to the fire exit. The
bells sound as I rip the door open, and we usher the kids inside when snarling growls echo through the
underground car park.
Tatum pivots just as a heap rush inside the parking garage. He rips his shirt off and growls and they
pause observing their threat before he looks at me over his shoulder. “Get inside, Luna!” my heart raced
as I stared at the forsaken stalking into the place.
Tatum!” I called out. Tatum’s eyes were on the forsaken, and he was too focused on them circling him.
“Inside, Luna! Now!” he roared before shifting as they ran at him. My eyes widened, and I rushed through
the door, slamming it shut and locking it. Turning around, I see the kid’s frightened face peering back at
me.
“Tatum?” Taylor says, her eyes on the door where vicious growls and banging came from
“He’s okay. He will be okay,” I tell Taylor while turning her and pushing her up the stairs. Ava stares at
me. I nod to her, and her eyes turn glassy, but she nods once, pushing mum up the stairs. We were
locked in the stairwell, all the doors locked as we climbed the levels.
“Valen, we can’t get inside!” I called through the link. I got no answer, meaning he was blocking me out of
whatever was happening outside. We were halfway up the stairwell when we heard the banging on the
door below.
“Tatum!” Taylor squeals, rushing back down, and I just grabbed her before she got past me when I heard
the door burst open below. Ava looks over the side, and the blood drains from her face, and I glance over
to see Forsaken rushing up the steps.
“Run!” I screamed. Ava grabs Valarian and Mum. She was struggling to climb the stairs. She was
exhausted, as she always was after being given the vaccine.
“Get to the roof!” I screamed while grabbing Casey and Taylor.
Mum rips her hand from Ava. “I’m slowing you down. Get the kids up!” she growls at Ava, who looks at
me. I place Taylor on the ground, and Ava’s hand locks around her wrist. I grab Valarian and Ava grabs
Casey too.
“Valarian, like we practiced at training, “I tell him.
“Don’t look back. Don’t stop,”
“Mum.” Valarian stammers with tear filled eyes, and his lip quivers.
“Don’t look back. Don’t stop,” I repeat, and he nods. Seeing the fear on his face made me want to hug
him, but he listened and took off running up the steps while Ava ripped the girls up them.
“Three more flights, mum,” I tell her. She kent trying to pull my hand from
She kept trying to pull my hand from hers, but I snarled at her before commanding her.
“Move faster! Now!” I ordered. I heard them get onto the roof while vicious snarls came from below, but
the command worked as she was forced to move quicker. Only they were gaining ground fast, and we
were one set of steps from the roof when I heard a snarl behind me.
Mum freezes, and so do I. Turning slowly, I find two forsaken on the steps prowling and stalking up the
steps toward us when my mother’s hand grips the back of my shirt.
“You’re gonna run for me now, baby girl, “she murmurs as we both walk backward up the stairs as they
stalked us. Their fur was falling out and what was left was matted, blood dripping from their muzzles as
they snapped their teeth and snarled while creeping closer up the steps.
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