Asher was just running out the door again when I felt my sense of Dallas fade suddenly. "Dallas!" Asher froze and whipped around to me. "What happened?"

"I—I don't know. I could feel him, and now I can't."

Asher's face tightened. "You're right... I can feel him... but it's faint... Ryan says he's fainted, and there's a lot of blood." 

I jumped out of my chair. "I'm coming with you," I demanded.

Asher blocked me and grabbed my shoulders, gently pushing me back into the room. "No, you're not. If only for the fact that we can't fit you in the truck on the way back. Between Simon, me, and the omega, we'll be full, and there's no way in hell I'm letting anyone, especially a pregnant omega, sit in the cold air in the back of the truck."

"I'll take Dallas's car," I said stubbornly.

"Nick, please," Asher said, and I could feel his authority as Alpha press down on me. "Stay. If Dallas comes to and believes that you're in any danger, he will probably hurt himself, and maybe others."

He was right. I stepped back reluctantly.

"Do you know where Caspar is?" Asher asked Jesse. 

Jesse shook his head. "But you know him, he's probably needed somewhere else more."

"It's just damned inconvenient for us we need—"

"A doctor?" a female voice said from the open door.

"Meredith," Asher said in evident relief. "Let me guess, Caspar sent for you?"

Meredith removed an old-fashioned velvet cloak as she walked in. "Who else?"

"Where is he?"

Meredith pointed outside. "He's waiting for you."

Asher paused to give Jesse one last kiss and disappeared out the door. "We'll be back soon."

The door closed behind him, leaving us in the sudden absence of purpose, but Jesse fixed that soon enough.

"I'm going to make more tea, and then, Meredith, you tell us what we need to do to get ready for their return.

* * *

After we had cleared the living room floor and placed clean, flat sheets on its surface, Meredith had laid out some of her supplies, and then we were left with nothing to do but wait. Again. Jesse had put Aspen to sleep before Asher had arrived, and it felt like we were back at square one, except this time it was worse, I knew Dallas was injured, but I couldn't do anything about it.

"So, Meredith, you're a doctor?" Kit asked.

"An artrean, actually," Meredith corrected.

I wrapped my fingers tighter around my mug. "What is that?"

"You're probably more familiar with the idea of druids? We're a similar society."

"She was my midwife," Jesse chimed in. "Well, is my midwife, again."

Meredith smiled at Jesse, and I was impressed by how little anxiety she seemed to have over the expected injuries. "Caspar told me. Congratulations, life carrier." She turned to me. "I hear you are expecting as well? If you plan on staying with the pack for a while, I would be honored to witness your path as well." She touched her heart and her head in a manner similar to the Catholics, but didn't cross her shoulders. 

"Thank you. I've been seeing my cousin's cousin, but it would be nice to have someone closer as well, just in case." I did need to schedule my second visit soon.

"It will be a joy to assist you and your son however I can."

I placed my hand on my stomach. "Oh, we don't know if it’s a boy or a girl yet," I said.

Meredith's eyes crinkled in a smile. "But I do. You are carrying a male kit. That's something your fancy electronics can't tell you."

I shot a glance at Jesse. "Is she for real?"

Meredith joined Jesse in laughter, unoffended. 

"She's completely real," Jesse assured me. "I wouldn't see anyone else, even if I didn't have a phobia of doctors and doctor's offices."

"You said artreans are a society?" Kit jumped in. "What does that mean?"

"We are a people bound by our gifts and a belief in a certain way of living. Of balance, and of peace. Of healing in whatever forms it may require."

"Are you a religion?" Kit's eyes were wide with curiosity.

"We do the work of the Goddess, but we do not worship her. Anyone of us could become the Goddess, or one of her many companions."

"You've never told me all of this," Jesse said, leaning forward.

Meredith took a sip of her tea. "You've never asked."

The conversation had effectively distracted us for a few moments, but when we heard the crunch of gravel, everyone popped to their feet. I was out the door before anyone else had moved. Simon grabbed me halfway to the truck. "Hold on, foxy. Your alpha will be okay. Just let us get him into the house, okay?"

Caspar appeared out of the night and helped Ryan carry my mate into the house. They were the only two big enough to do it, I realized, and I wondered how they had gotten him in the truck to begin with, if Caspar had stayed here.

I followed them, my heart dropping at the amount of blood staining my alpha's skin. They settled him on the sheets in the living room and I dropped to his side and clutched his hand. 

"We're just going to get him cleaned up to start," Meredith told me gently as the other alphas backed off. I spared them a glance, and realized they had brought a young man and a child with them, but I dismissed them, returning my entire focus to Dallas.

As Meredith cleaned away the blood, I realized the injuries weren't as bad as I had feared. He had a lot of cuts, some of them deep, and patches of his skin were bright pink and blistered with burns, but I could see he was already healing. He'd simply be in a lot of pain. Meredith placed one hand on Dallas's head and murmured something I couldn't hear, and I felt the muscles in his hand relax. 

"What did you do?" I asked. We were alone in the living room now. Everyone else had gone into the kitchen or upstairs to give Meredith the space to work without distraction. 

"I simply eased his pain. The last thing I need is an angry bear swinging at me while I try to stitch him up."

Only three cuts were deep enough to require stitches, two on his leg and one on his shoulder. 

"He's going to feel stiff for a few days, maybe a week," Meredith said as she put away her needle and thread. I helped her pull a sheet over Dallas's body. "I'm going to give you an extraction to give him. It will take the pain away. It's equivalent to the white coat physicians' oxycodone. And he will need iron. You can pick some up in the vitamin section of the grocery store, but the best source is through his diet. If you can get him to eat dark leafy greens, do it. But knowing these carnivores, he'll want meat, and lots of it. Cook it in an iron skillet for max iron value."

"But he'll be fine?" I asked anxiously.

"He'll be okay." Meredith wrapped me in a hug. "Do let me know if I can assist you in any way. Caspar knows how to find me."

She went to bid her farewells to Jesse and Asher, and then she was gone. 

"Are we just leaving him here on the floor?" I asked the couple when they came back into the living room.

"It's probably the best option," Asher said. "We can cover him with a quilt. If you'd like, you can sleep on the couch, Nick, if you don't want to go back to your room. I'd offer the spare room, but we've already put Benjamin and his son there."

"The couch is fine," I said quickly. I didn't want to be any farther from Dallas than I needed.

"We'll get you setup, then," Jesse said. "Kit's already gone back to the other house, and we sent the guys away as soon as we knew Dallas was going to be okay."

"Thank you so much. For everything."

Jesse wrapped me in a hug—I was getting them a surplus of them this evening—and said, "Dallas is family. You're family, Nick. This is what family does."

I thought I was going to lay awake deeper into the night, but the day had apparently taken its toll on me, and no sooner had I turned out the light than I was asleep.