Jane was hooked up to various machines to monitor her vital signs as well as being connected to a drip for pain medication. The doctor was confident that she’d pull through, although a lot of physical therapy was in Jane’s near future to help her recover full or nearly full use of her shoulder.
If Maggie had struck a few inches further down, she could’ve pierced a lung and Jane might’ve died.
His heart tightened at that thought. Despite her tough attitude, his human was fragile.
Since Kai had been given a dose of the special moss formula to erase the effects of the drug in his system, his dragon was out inside his mind and spoke up. But she didn’t die. Jane is alive, Maggie is in custody, and Rhydian is trying his best to clean house.
Don’t try to make me feel better, dragon. I fucked up by trusting Snowridge far sooner than I should have.
Rubbish. We’ve been here many times and met many of Snowridge’s Protectors. We had no way of knowing that they always showed their best recruits to us and kept the unworthy hidden. Besides, Maggie fooled most of her clan with her skittish act. If they couldn’t tell what she was up to, then there was no way
we could’ve noticed it.
His dragon was right, but Kai wasn’t going to stroke his ego just yet.
Kai had spent the last few hours focusing on Jane and reaching out to Bram, but now that he had a moment, he asked his dragon, Why didn’t you go into the mate-claim frenzy when Maggie kissed us?
His beast huffed. I don’t want her. You should know that, but you never listen to me when it concerns this topic. True mate pulls fade with time. Jane is our human and will always be our mate.
Raising Jane’s hand to his lips, he kissed her warm fingers. “We’ll get through this, Janey, I promise.”
His mother spoke up. “Of course you will. You chose Jane without any instinct involved and fought to keep her. I only hope that you’ll now stop doubting her and worrying that she’ll leave.”
He glanced at his mother. “How do you know I doubted anything?”
“You’ve always had a secret side, to doubt everything. You keep it hidden from the world, but I’m your mother. More than that, Jane told me. If all of this doesn’t prove she’s going to stay, then I don’t know what will. Cherish her, Kai, and happiness will follow.”
His dragon said, I agree. Cherish her, but don’t smother her.
Says the overprotective dragon.
His beast merely huffed.
Kai was about to reply to his mother when her mobile phone chirped. She quickly answered it. “Hello?”
Because of Kai’s hearing, he easily listened to the reply on the line. “Lily, this is Wren. We found Delia and she’s alive.”
“Alive?” Lily echoed.
“Yes, and before your fret, she’ll live. But it’s going to take some time to flush out all the drugs in her system.”
Kai growled, leaned toward his mother’s phone, and barked, “Instead of dangling bits of information, just tell us what’s going on.”
Lily clicked a button and the phone went to speaker. Wren’s voice filled the room. “I can’t say much over an unsecured line, but we’ll be back on Snowridge within the hour. Eira will fetch you and bring you to us. We can divulge all the details then.”
Since his mother sat still, Kai jumped in. “What about the missing children?”
“We have them, too. Again, I can’t say anything else until I’m back on clan lands.”
Lily cleared her throat. “Hurry, Wren. I need to see my baby girl.”
“Of course, Lily. We’ll return as quickly as possible.”
The line went dead. Kai laid a hand on his mother’s shoulder. “She’s alive, Mum. That’s all that matters.”
She nodded. “I know, but there’s more to the story and I’m afraid of what it is.”
He pulled his mother to his side and hugged her. “We’ll survive it together, Mum. Add in Jane and Gareth, who will also stand with us, and we’ll be able to tackle anything.”