Chapter 26

Willow and Bruin ran to the truck. It was well after midnight, maybe closer to two in the morning, and a summer storm had cropped up, bringing thirty and forty mile-an-hour winds.

A fat raindrop landed on Willow’s cheek while heat lightning split the sky to their south. She loved storms, but something about this one unsettled her.

Or maybe it was Bruin’s new, darker mood. She’d felt the shift when he’d realized the truth about who he was. His destiny had clicked into place, negating something. He still had his overall zen attitude, but now it had an edge, like he knew he was in charge and he was ready to act like it.

Willow watched the treetops along the sides of the country roads whip and occasionally break off and fly alongside them. Only a few drops of rain fell, and electricity bashed its way through the heat of the sky regularly.

Willow had never been someone who prayed, although she suspected her mother of praying to the ‘angel’ every night, but still, at that moment, she found herself offering a prayer up to someone. Who? She didn’t know. Her father? No, that didn’t quite seem right. Rhen? The “goddess” who was a strangely-feminine-looking bear in Bruin’s bear mind, but looked more like an angel of light in Bruin’s human mind? Maybe. She would try it.

Rhen, please watch over my sister and her-

Huh. “Bruin, will her babies be human?”

Bruin shook his head. “Nobody knows. Young between two wolven would normally come out as humans, although they occasionally are born as pups and shift soon after. But this? No one knows what will happen, what the young will look like, how strong they will be, or even if they will shift at all. They should though. Ella’s will be one quarter human, one quarter angel, and one half wolven. Trevor’s a strong male. He’s got two prophecies about him. Those pups will be something special, all right.”

Willow’s mouth went dry with sudden shyness. “What about us, Bru? What will we have?”

Bruin looked at her quickly, a pleased look on his face, before turning back to the road, swerving around a small branch that had fallen into the road. “You’re thinking about that?”

She nodded. “That’s the plan for us, right? Why this is all happening?”

He frowned, then grasped her hand, his manner more solemn than she’d ever seen. She realized he had lines around his eyes and his mouth that hadn’t been there the day before. “You have a choice, Willow.”

She knew she did, and she appreciated his gentleness with her, even on this subject. She plucked a thought out of his head and whispered the word to herself. She’d already used it and not even noticed. “Cubs.”

Willow dropped her hands to her legs to rub them on her skirt. How long had she known this man-ah, male? Two days? But nothing could have sounded more right to her in that moment. Cubs. Fat, roly-poly cubs with big eyes and sweet dispositions. She couldn’t wait to hold them in her arms.

The mobile medical center came up quickly on their left and Willow gasped. The number of people in the parking lot had trebled. There looked to be almost a thousand strong, now, and they all faced the building, their faces solemn, none caring about the occasional rain drop or the heat, or the possibility of being fried by lightning.

Bruin wound his way along the dirt road that lead to the back. They parked next to a huge RV that glowed with lights. For a moment Willow wondered if Ella was in there because she sensed two beings in there, one a sister of hers who was uncomfortable and laboring toward something big, and the other that sister’s mate, a male who was doing his best to take care of her.

But Bruin ushered her past it and back to the same building they’d gone in the first time. The two black wolves and a tall, stern-looking male with silver hair were on guard in front of the door.

Bruin quickly made introductions. “Willow, this is Trent and Troy, two of the finest wolven you will ever meet. And this is Harlan, the backbone of the KSRT. Wolves, this is Willow, my mate.”

The way he said it, completely matter of fact, almost made tears spring to Willow’s eyes.

Harlan grasped Bruin’s hand and pulled him in close. Willow heard him whisper, “I’m so happy for you, bear, you deserve it.” Then he bowed his head to her. “Pleased to meet you, Willow.” He was sad, gutted almost, but the thought-form the emotion was contained in was old, hugging his entire body like a second skin.

The two wolves spoke in her mind and she wasn’t sure which was which but she couldn’t have made much of a distinction anyway. Words existed in their messages, but all she could hear was forest growing and river running and fat squirrel scared from its hole and hunted for food and blood spraying and fighting for survival.

She swallowed hard and nodded to them all but Bruin was ushering her inside. Things were different, so different, this time.

The same people were there, but where they’d been clustered in groups before, now all were separate, their faces harsh, their bodies tense. Most grasped the arms of the chairs they were sitting in hard enough to turn their knuckles white, some paced about the room, heads down, senses on high alert.

Mac and Rogue greeted them at once, looking like they had just gotten there themselves. “This is good,” Mac said, looking around the room. “Khain doesn’t dare show his face. If we each took a mouthful, there’d be nothing left of him in a minute.”

A pained moan came from the other room, and they all stiffened. Mac motioned to them. “They want us in there.”

In the door they went, quickly, closing it again and falling to one side, staying against the wall and out of everyone’s way. The adjoining sterile room was brightly lit, and Willow could see vague shapes moving around behind the blinds. The medical bed was still in the same spot, but this time Ella was in it. The knot of people around her was three deep, but Willow could still hear the doctor ask Ella something and her response.

“Which toe am I touching?”

“Big toe. I can feel it very clearly. This one isn’t working either.

The people around Ella shifted and sighed, their disappointment almost frantic.

Willow held on to Bruin’s arm, tightly, pressing against him. Which is why it seemed so wrong when he came up on her other side. She jumped.

The male who was there held out his hands. “Sorry, I didn’t mean to startle you.”

Bruin turned to the newcomer, and his entire being suffused with welcome. “Conri. Brother. I can’t tell you how good it is to see you.”

Conri could only stare for a moment, giving Willow a chance to study him. His body was just like Bruin’s, just as hefty and wide, but his hair was shaved to the scalp and he wore no beard. Still, as she marked his lopsided dimples, she realized he and Bruin were identical twins. So that’s what Bruin would look like without a beard. Unbearably handsome, still.

Thought-forms twisted around Conri as he stared at Bruin. Willow didn’t bother trying to block them, remembering her earlier realization that she’d been given this ability- this power- for a reason, and refusing to use it would not be in anyone’s best interest.

So she plucked at one, pulled it toward her, let it suffuse her, trying to keep her own thoughts about Bruin out of it. Conri was conflicted, deeply so. He loved Bruin but someone else he loved said Bruin was a traitor. Willow frowned, trying to see who this someone else was, but there were so many identifiers wrapped around the guy, she couldn’t be sure. Someone Conri looked up to, but also mistrusted in some fundamental way. His boss?

Conri smiled. “Bru. I’ve missed you.”

Those seemed to be the words Bruin was waiting for and he fell upon his brother, bear-hugging him around the torso, Conri’s arms trapped, as Bruin picked him up like he was light as a feather.

After several moments, Bruin let his brother back down to the floor and made quick introductions. When Bruin introduced Mac to Conri, Mac leaned forward, examining Conri’s face. “Bru- he looks just like less hairy version of you!”

Bruin pointed. “See that scar on the underside of his chin? When he grows in his hair the hair there comes in pure white.” He grinned proudly. “He fell out of a tree when we were seven, and I sewed him up while he was still unconscious.”

Conri rubbed his chin. “Yeah, with a sewing needle and Nan’s old thread.” But he grinned back, like the memory was a precious one to him.

Bruin then introduced Willow. “Conri, I would like you to meet my mate.”

Conri nodded and stuck out his hand. “Your girlfriend.”

Willow smiled and held out her own hand, while Bruin shook his head. “Not my girlfriend. My mate.”

Conri’s fingers met hers and their hands slid together, his rough and huge, the skin gliding across hers. Energetic sparks jumped from the seam where their hands joined, and Willow wondered inanely if she was the only one who could see them. Conri addressed his brother. “You’re not telling me that she’s a-”

He stopped speaking abruptly, his eyes going wide, his shoulders pulling backwards in a jerk, like his chest was on a string directly in the center and someone had yanked it.

Willow bore down, curling her fingers around his hand, before he could pull it away. Something was happening, and it was important that she be allowed to finish…

An indescribable feeling of completeness, of something clicking into place, coming into being, filled her. Conri snatched his hand away from her, and stared, eyes wide.

“Good to meet you,” she whispered, and he only nodded, his expression alarmed and unsure.

Bruin looked back and forth between them, eyes narrowed. Willow smiled sweetly at him. She didn’t know what had happened, but it would change everything forever.

Conri recovered enough to speak. “You’re well-liked by the wolves, brother. They’ve treated me exceptionally well.”

Bruin nodded. “They are nothing like we were told.” His expression darkened, as his eyes bored into his brother’s eyes, something meaningful passing between them. To Willow, it looked like an affirmation, a realization, something almost too big to comprehend in one pass.

From the other side of the room, Ella cried out and Remington called for Conri. “Conri, I will need you in ten. We’re going to have to start this.” He sounded terrified.

“What’s going on?” Mac said, his voice hard.

Conri addressed all of them. “Her twins are conjoined at the back. They’ve known for months, but only told everyone-” he waved his hand at the room. “Only told everyone a little over an hour ago. They didn’t want the shiften to worry. Remington has a team of human specialists in that room-” He nodded at the sterile room, “-ready to do surgery to separate them, but there’s three big problems.”

He stopped to take a breath. Rogue nodded, filling in. “Let me guess, one of them is that those babies might come out as puppies, and then what?”

Conri nodded. “Yeah. So far the ultrasound shows babies, so we are trying hard to get them out quickly.”

Mac looked around. “Why not bring a human into the room so they can’t shift?”

Conri nodded slowly, rubbing his left shoulder absently. “That was discussed, but there’s two reasons why we decided not to. They could shift while still inside- last minute, and we’re certain pups are able to shift while in the womb, regardless of whether a human is standing next to the mother or not. Plus, these aren’t wolven. These are the pups of a wolfen and a half-angel. Who knows if they are bound by the same biological rules we are.”

Willow held onto her belly, unable to contemplate being pregnant with a baby who could turn into a wild animal in your uterus. She stood on tiptoes, trying to see Ella beyond the people surrounding her bed, marveling at her sister’s strength. She realized something. “She’s got to have a c-section, doesn’t she? Because the babies are joined?”

Conri nodded. “Yeah, which leads us to problems two and three. Of course you must realize both of those babies might not survive. She insisted they wait to do the surgery until she went into labor naturally, to give the pups the best chance at being strong enough to survive the operation. But now she’s in labor and they can’t get her to go under. They can’t even dull her sensation to block the pain that’s going to come when they slice her belly open. Remington has tried three different medications, and at this point he’s worried about the pups. He’s given her too much. He’s scared he’s going to have to operate on her with no pain meds at all.” He glanced that way, at Trevor, who was at Ella’s head, holding her hand, smoothing back her hair, and glaring at Remington with a warning in his eyes. “I’d be scared, too. They’ve even talked about hypnosis.” He shuddered.

Willow grasped Bruin’s hand and pulled at his arm.

She could help.