Chapter 22: Husk

Back home I paced inside the main suite's living room. "We should be bringing Sky back here with us. Not waiting for the damn doctor and nurses to tell us it was hopeless.” I had the stink of illness and death on me, and all I wanted was a shower to scrub myself. But I couldn't relax, not with our brother dying. I couldn't stay here, I'd go back after I cleaned up.

"I know." Winter sank down onto the couch.

He looked miserable, like he hadn't washed his white hair in days. There was a yellow-dullness to it I'd never seen before. But the fact he’d been here and fucked Fagua while I tended our sick brother makes me want to choke him. I snatched a metal vase from the coffee table and hurled it at the patio door. It shattered, making the glass fall like an avalanche.

I whirled to Winter. "This is your fucking fault."

"Mine?" He glared at me. "You're the one who threw the vase."

"Not the fucking vase or the glass." I clenched my fists. "Sky. If it wasn't for your selfishness, Sky would be healed. But no, you wanted Fagua for yourself. You're a little fuck toy."

"Watch your mouth." Winter leapt to his feet. "Don't you ever say that about her again or I'll rip your head off."

I scoffed. "Face the facts, you screwed us over. I bet you didn't even tell her she was our mate—and the cure to our curse."

He didn't have to answer me, his pale face and the quick glance away told me everything.

"What were you going to do, Winter? Keep her for yourself? And I thought I was the bloody bastard of the three of us."

"I made a mistake." He marched to me. "She got under my skin. I-I told her we all had to mate with her and then...then I lost my way. She's an addiction I can't stop," he said the last part under his breath. His blue eyes met mine. "And now she's gone."

"Then go find Keith and drag her ass back here." Why was this so difficult? Both Winter and Sky wanted to pussyfoot around. Fuck no. Lives were at stake. And as much as I didn't give two shits about my own life, Sky deserved better than this. Better than wasting away. He was our youngest brother for fuck sake.

"I can't." Winter pinched the bridge of his nose. "Don't you think I tried? She went back to him—her father and his pack. We've lost her."

"The fuck we have," I growled. "Did she give you the necklace?" The one we'd paid a witch a hell of a lot of money to get and to be able to get Fagua out of there in the first place. Her whole town was under a powerful spell and no outside wolves could get in. Humans, though, could pass in and out without a problem, which is why we had grabbed Keith to fetch her and bring her here. Now the whole fucking plan had gone to shit.

"I've no idea. It's not here or the staff or I would've come across it by now."

"If her father gets wind of the magic from the necklace, we're dead."

"We might be dead before that." Winter raked a hand through his hair. "First thing we need to do is get Fagua here so she can fix Sky."

"And how do you think we'll manage that?" I crossed my arms over my chest instead of punching something. Half the time, Winter lived in a damn dream world like Sky. Both of them thought everything would work out perfectly. "Sky beat up Keith for what he did to Fagua and the human ran away. I checked on him two days ago, the nurse said he disappeared."

"He won't tell anyone about us." Winter shrugged and unbuttoned the sleeves on his shirt before rolling them up. "I gave him enough compulsion to think it was a regular job to give Fagua the necklace and bring her here. He doesn't know we're wolves."

"And your power worked so well, he fucking married her." If the bastard were before me now, I'd rip out his balls and shove them down his skinny throat.

"She'll come back." Winter nodded like he tried to convince himself and not just me.

His hope, so much like Sky's, made my heart twist in my chest. Why did I have to be the one with facts and reason? The one who pointed out cracks in reality. The one who watched out and protected them both from the outside world and from themselves?

"You think her father will let her out of his sight again?" I laugh bitterly. "No, he'll have her watched 24/7." It's what I would do. "Hell, he'll probably have the perimeter monitored, too. Even if she wanted to leave and still has the necklace to break through their barrier, she won't have a chance."

And I wasn't going to hold my breath waiting for her either. She'd made it clear last time I’d seen her at our first meal together what she thought of us. As animals and beneath her. We didn't need a mate like that.

Winter squared his shoulders as though preparing for a continued verbal fight. "I have faith she'll come back."

"What? Because you and her bonded and you're cured now?" I barked out a laugh and shook my head. "It doesn't work that way. It's not a one-shot cure all. She has to be mated with you for life, Winter." Well not just him, but he understood my meaning. "You can't fuck her a bunch of times in a few days and expect to be done. If you don't mate with her again before the next moon, you may have bought yourself a little bit of time, but you'll be laying on a hospital bed and fighting for your life just like our brother is right now."

"You don't think I know that?"

"No, I don't. I think you've been thinking too much with your dick."

"Fuck you." He went to the bar in the corner and poured himself a drink before downing it in one gulp. "I look forward to seeing you eat your words when Fagua comes back to us."

"If her father discovers we were the ones who helped get her out in the first place, we won't need a fucking curse to kill us, he'll do it for us."