Chapter 54 Survivor

*****EJ’s perspective*****

With the exception of the Blood King, things were going pretty well. I felt bad for Aunt Scarlett, but she seemed to be doing okay with everything. Mom and Dad were very supportive of her.

I held a council meeting to get more warriors to patrol the area. I didn’t want us blind sided when the Blood King showed up. I asked my father to double the patrols around the territory and asked Taylor to put a protective barrier up.

I made sure we had things in place and that we were ready for any attack. I found it odd that the Blood King was using lycans to attack the packs, but then it kind of made sense. Use wolves to fight wolves.

A few weeks had gone by and nothing had happened around Hyacintho Lunar. The Blood King was getting closer, but still hadn’t discovered where Scarlett was, if he was indeed looking for her. We weren’t sure.

As the council warriors finished helping the other packs rebuild, they came to Hyacintho Lunar. We were getting ready.

One night, the patrol found someone lying outside the wall surrounding the territory. He was badly injured. They called it in and then brought the man to the pack hospital. The pack doctors took care of his injuries and put him in a recovery room. When he regained consciousness, we learned he had escaped from the Blood King. His name was Henry Stone and he was from Idaho. He was a rogue who had refused to join the Blood King and was tortured for it.

He couldn’t remember exactly where he was being held and tortured. He just knew he needed to get far away. He said he had been running for days before he collapsed outside our walls. He also mentioned that they moved him a lot and where he escaped from may not be where the Blood King was currently, if he could remember. There were others still locked up, vampires and lycans alike.

Henry’s injuries were severe but with Taylor’s help, he would heal completely. Hopefully, he would be able to give us some more information after he has healed some.

With everything going on, I took a sabbatical from school. I will have to catch up on everything later, but for now I needed to focus on this new threat to my family and pack. I had Ethan, Beth, and Lucas taking notes for me and collecting all my assignments. Coach York said he will consider my morning and evening training sessions for gym credit.

I visited with Henry often, every time the hospital notified me that he was awake. I had hoped he would remember something that would tell me where the Blood King is or at least help me figure out where his next attack would be.

Henry had been in the hospital for a week when he finally remembered something.

“Hey, Henry. How are you today?” I asked.

“I’m doing okay. Doc says I’m healing just fine. I’ll be able to shift and go for a run soon,” he laughed. “Oh, hey. I remembered something. Before his last attack, he said something about a pack that got wiped out a few years ago. I think he said he found where the survivors were taken.”

“Do you know which pack he was talking about?” I could think of two that I destroyed, but I knew there were a few others that had been wiped out by other packs prior to that. The lost boys were from one.

“No, just that he found some survivors. He wants to recruit them.”

“That’s not good. Thank you for the information.” I said. “If you can think of anything else, let me know. I’ll take you to your physical therapy session now.” And with that, I helped him get dressed and into the wheelchair.

When he was first brought in, the doc said it was amazing that he made it this far. Henry had many broken bones, including both feet, and had lost a lot of blood. Doc said that his adrenaline must have kept him going. Henry was definitely a survivor.

I took him to his physical therapy. He would have it everyday now. I wanted to be there in case he remembered anything. So I decided I would take him everyday. Ethan says this will look good on college applications. I told him that wasn’t why I was doing it. But he’s right, it would look good. Henry’s pt session lasted two hours. He was walking pretty good, as long as he was holding on to something. He still wasn’t quite able to put all of his weight on his feet. But I think after a few more healing sessions with Taylor, he’ll get there.

I took Henry back to his room and helped him into his bed. I watched TV with him for a little while. I left when he fell asleep.

I called a family meeting when I got home. After everyone got to the packhouse, I told them what Henry had said. I still did my weekly trips to the cells to check on our prisoners, but with this new information, I asked my dad to triple the guards out there as well as send a few scouts to notify us and the guards if the Blood King should come looking for the prisoners. I also asked that we extend an invitation to join the pack to Henry. He had been through a lot and would need time to recover mentally as well as physically. Plus he seemed like a cool guy. He was born a rogue so he never had a choice, I wanted to give him one.

After the family meeting, I went to the school to meet up with Beth, Ethan, and Lucas. School was just getting out. Ethan handed me my backpack full of today’s assignments and notes. I had all my textbooks at home already. We headed to the cafe for smoothies and to catch up on what I missed at school today. This has become a daily ritual since I took the sabbatical.