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Tears sprang to my eyes. I wanted to wrap my arms around her and hug her, but knowing how fragile she was, I held back. “Mom… It’s okay. I’m here. I’ve been here the whole time, waiting for you to wake up.”

“What happened?” she asked hoarsely.

Water, she needed water. I pressed the call button for the nurses. “Dalesbloom attacked,” I explained quietly. “They followed you guys from the hotel to your house. Do you remember any of that?”

My mother went silent with thought. She hadn’t replied by the time a nurse appeared.

“She’s awake,” I told the nurse. “Can she get something to drink?”

“I can bring her a cup of ice cubes,” said the nurse, who then went to the side of the bed, checking on the IV and monitors. “Hi, Gretel. How are you feeling?”

I stood by as the nurse delivered a routine set of questions, to which my mother lamely groaned and mumbled her answers. Only once the nurse left, came back with a cup of ice and handed it to me, then disappeared again did my mother seem to collect her response from my last question.

“I remember having to leave the hotel,” my mother said, laboring to utter the words. “Your father and I took Muriel back to the house… Where is he?”

A lump formed in my throat. I didn’t want to reveal the truth to her and see revelation cross her face, or any other emotions that might follow. Reaching for my mother’s unburnt hand, I clasped it in mine and took in a shaking breath. “He was killed.”

My mother blinked, failing to process the answer at first. “Your father?”

“Yes, Mom.”

“He’s dead?”

“Yes.”

She stagnated on the answer for a long time. Those emotions I dreaded unfolded across her face, a slow disbelief ebbing into shock and grief and sorrow. Her bottom lip trembled as tears prickled in the corners of her eyes. “How…?”

“I don’t know who did it. It might have been David or Lothair,” I said with difficulty.

My mother’s eyes drifted away from me and toward the ceiling. The tear that swelled and rolled down her cheek shattered my heart. “Those monsters took Oslo away from me,” she whispered. “I remember more now. He was only trying to protect me from them. Your father… he was trying to keep Muriel and I safe.”

“He did everything he could.” I wasn’t there, but I didn’t have to be to know that my father had given his life to protect his wife and the unicorn. My father was valiant and kind, loving and brave. He’d been Gavin’s parents’ Beta for a good reason, and his absence would leave a void in Grandbay.

“What about Muriel?”

My mother searched for my eyes again. I pursed my lips and swallowed hard. “They have her.”

A long, defeated sigh left my mother as she closed her eyes and laid her head back. The sheer gravity of the situation contorted her face with emotions she couldn’t withhold. I watched her crumble, lying stiffly on the bed, unable to even wipe her own tears away due to the pain of her burns. Watching her cry left me damaged too. With what little strength I had myself, I leaned forward and kissed her temple, embracing her as gently as I could.

It would take a long time before she was well enough to leave the hospital again, but at least her wolf would help her heal faster than normal humans. I spent the rest of the night with her. We grieved over my father and the others that had been lost, as Gavin informed me later that Niko had perished too. Even my sparring partner was taken away from me, so soon after I’d come to terms with him. Nothing would ever be the same in Grandbay after that night.

The moon was little more than a waning sliver on a night that I spent at Everett’s house. Although I would have spent every day at the hospital waiting for my mother to recover, eventually the humming of hospital lights and murmur of nurses and series of buzzes and beeps began to drive me mad. My packmates stayed with her to give me a break. I curled up on Everett’s bed with him, deeply submerged in my thoughts while he ran his fingers through my hair, tucking strands behind my ear.

“We never got to tell Muriel that Kiara’s here,” I said in realization.

“No. And we haven’t detected her since,” said Everett. “I worry that Dalesbloom has captured her as well.”

“How would we even know?”

“Well, we can’t. Unless we managed to track them down.”

I pondered the circumstances that left Dalesbloom in such ambiguity to us. After the attack, the Mythguard had never been able to find Dalesbloom and the Inkscales again. The town was absent of them, except for traces of dragon scent. Hexen Manor was abandoned—again, except for traces of the dragons that occasionally came by, probably to monitor the house and make sure nobody was trespassing. But David, Colt, and Lothair’s whereabouts were completely unknown. If the Mythguard knew where to find them, they would have made another extermination attempt. That was most likely why they were in hiding… and nobody even knew where to look. There was nowhere safe to look, because one wrong step in Dalesbloom could mean another massacre, and neither the Mythguard nor our packs were willing to take that risk.

“Ev…” My voice croaked. “Do you think we’ll survive this?”

Both Grandbay and Eastpeak had already lost so many members. Grandbay was down to nine including me, having lost two, as well as Eastpeak, having lost one. We didn’t know what Dalesbloom’s numbers were, nor the Inkscales, but even with our total of eighteen wolf shifters, I didn’t think we stood a chance against the thirty or more that remained of our enemies. They were slowly but steadily whittling us down to nothing.

Everett pressed closer, taking in a long, slow breath through his nose. “I must have faith we will survive, or else I’ll have already given up. And I can’t let my packmates suffer under David’s cruelty.”

“I know you’ll never give up. But realistically, do you think we’ll come out of this alive?”