Chapter 117

Rachel POV

Our Blessed Goddess Medical Center - Surgical Waiting Room Floor 3

No one came to tell us any updates. No one came into the waiting area to join us in the waiting. No one came for any reason at all.

Nurses and doctors bustled around outside the surgical waiting lobby while the overhead intercom went off in unpredictable bursts.

I could tell Our Blessed Goddess was a living hive of busy worker bees all buzzing around while they did their errands in the name of their queen. I doubted the hospital was ever still or quiet. I should have been comforted by the constant hum of energy.

All I could feel was increasingly cold panic freezing me from the inside.

In spite of the buzz of the hospital, I became quieter and quieter myself until I wondered if any sound would come out at all if I opened my mouth. Would I be able to scream? Was it possible to scream loud enough to purge myself of the freezing fear paralyzing me in place?

Nathan paced the waiting room from one wall to the other until Art snapped at him---then he began to pace around the perimeter of the room in a stiff square. I watched his trek until I was feeling tired myself.

Anxiety had always affected us differently.

Tyler was a statue at my side in direct opposition to Nathan's relentless journeying. When I looked away from Nathan, I could count on seeing my inner deep freeze echoed in the stiff figure beside me.

I couldn't imagine Tyler getting upset enough to start stalking the walls of a room.

Art was neither frozen nor in motion. He seemed content to simply exist in his seat across from me and Tyler.

I caught him staring a few times, but couldn't bring myself to ask him any questions. What could he tell me? No one had come with any news for any of us.

There was no new knowledge to share.

"Goddess take them, why hasn't anyone come yet?" I yelled, bursting out of my seat to begin pacing myself.

"They don't have anything to report. They can't spare anyone to come tell us there's nothing to tell us."

Art sounded reasonable yet tired. I was tired myself.

Tired of waiting.

Tired of wondering.

Tired of wasting away with worry for the only family I could really claim for my own.

Whirling around to face him, I accused, "You could get information from them! They'd have to talk to you if you demanded to speak to someone. They couldn't refuse the Alpha Council."

Art cocked a brow at me, his features perfect to the point he was almost pretty, "What would the Alpha Council demand to know? How long they're going to fight to save Ethan's life? Whether he'll be able to be revived for questioning? If he'll have permanent brain damage from the skull fracture?"

"Skull fracture," I whispered, all my breath stolen from my lungs with those two words.

Brain damage was something to be feared even among the supernatural.

The body could be healed, but the brain? It was an organ without muscles or maybe a muscle without motion. However the brain was considered, it didn't heal the way other muscles and organs did.

Even a werewolf could be left with brain damage and then what? What would happen to Ethan if he was reduced to a shell of himself? Would I take him in to live with me? Would Tyler allow me to with a baby on the way? What if he was dangerous?

Brain damage could leave him without the ability to control his shifting or his impulses. Could I risk letting him be around my daughter if he had no control?

"You're worrying about all the wrong things now. What matters the most to you: knowing Ethan isn't crippled or knowing he's alive?"

Art stunned me into stopping, one foot raised to take a step until I deliberately let my leg down.

I mumbled my answer through numb lips, certain I was telling the truth with my whole being, "Alive. I just need him to live. I can't do this alone."

Tyler took my hand, tugging at my arm to get me to come seat myself beside him again. His dark brows were drawn together; his concern was obvious in a way emotions rarely were for Tyler.

"Come sit. You'll tire yourself for nothing. He'll live."

If I could have been comforted with words, I would have been comforted by Tyler's until he spoke again and killed the hope beginning to bloom inside me.

"Or if he doesn't, we'll handle things together and you won't be alone. You will never be alone, Rachel."

"Handle things?" I whispered, taking my hand away from Tyler, "You're talking about 'handling' my brother's death. He is only eighteen! Eighteen, Tyler!"

My thoughts went back to when I was just a week beyond my own eighteenth birthday.

"I had my life stop when I just turned eighteen because Patrick stole what was left of my innocence from me when he sold me to pay his debts. If I hadn't met you, I would have been broken by his bookies. I'd done nothing to deserve what he did to me. What has Ethan done to deserve this? Why is this happening to him? Why can't you understand? This can't happen to Ethan. Not to my brother. It can't. I can't stand it."

Tyler remained frozen in the seat beside the one I'd left empty, but Nathan prowled his way around the room to reach my side. His arms weren't as heavily muscled as Tyler's, but they brought me comfort all the same.

I lay my head against Nathan's chest and wept, shaking in his arms while Tyler seemed to be focused on thinking through what I'd said.

How could he not understand? Tyler had siblings of his own. Charlotte wasn't much of a sister to him, true, but she was his flesh-and-blood.

Come to that, Tyler had a crippled brother of his own! He had been taken from his mother as a way to replace the whole son John Wright had lost when his heir, William, had lost his ability to access his wolf.

How could Tyler not compare what was happening to Ethan to the fight which had left William barely more than a human? Didn't he love his brother at all?

I barely knew William Wright. We had met on a few occasions when all I could really focus on was not embarrassing myself or Tyler in front of House Wright. I had never gotten used to being surrounded by the kind of wealth Moonrise Pack held.

"Don't you understand? He might wind up like your brother and that looks a lot different for a Flores than it does for a Wright. How is Ethan supposed to get through life if he's left without a wolf? Without control? He won't be as lucky as William. He won't have your family's resources to arrange his care."

"Yes. Yes, he will," Tyler stated.

Surging to his feet and crossing to stand beside me, Tyler rested his hand at the small of my back. He didn't try to take me away from Nathan -for which I was grateful because I needed his support to keep myself on my feet- and he didn't try to make me turn to face him.

"Ethan will have every resource I have at my disposal ready for him. If he needs to go into care, we'll get him care. I'll see to it he's given all he needs the way William is---only we will see to him. We'll visit."

I hugged Nathan once in thanks for lending me his strength before I turned to fall into Tyler's arms.

He held me against him with a desperation which spoke to how worried he was for me if he wasn't so worried for my brother. I was grateful for his pledge of support.

Tyler Wright would never make a promise he wouldn't keep.

"You're sure? If he's---damaged, we'll still visit him? Not like William? We won't leave him on his own? Promise me, Tyler. I need you to promise me my brother won't be put aside somewhere and just forgotten. I couldn't stand it. I can't even stand thinking about it."

Tyler looked stricken as he pushed me away to promise, "You will see your brother. If he's willing to be seen."

I realized I didn't know if William wanted to be visited by his family. I'd never asked. Why hadn't I ever asked about William before? Why hadn't I taken the time to try to show I cared about Tyler and House Wright?

Our mating was still such a mess. I had hope for us, but my heart was a lump of lead in my chest, weighted down with fear for Ethan.

"Excuse me. Which of you is Nathan Lewis?"

An uncomfortable looking wolf rocked from foot to foot in the entrance to the waiting area. Why were they asking for Nathan?

"Your mate has arrived and we need you to come take her from the lobby. Please."

Goddess wept, what had Lindy done now?