I woke in the soft sheets of my bed, slowly opening my eyes to see Max and Milly sat at my feet.

"Hey," Milly said softly, reaching for my hand.

I furrowed my eyes in confusion and looked down at the pillow as I tried to make sense of everything.

It was a few moments of blissful ignorance before I sat bolt upright.

"Luca," I said, "Where is he?"

Max smiled and pushed me back down as I tried to stand up, "He's still in the hospital but he's alive and relatively stable."

"Relative?" I asked.

"He's in a coma. As you know, the wolf healing process doesn't trigger when unconscious so until he wakes up, we just have to hope that the human part of him is strong enough," he replied, "But they've stitched him up, given him a blood transfusion, kept his heart beating and his lungs breathing. The Doctors didn't think he'd get this far but now they say so long as he wakes soon, he'll be fine."

I nodded, "So all we can do is pray to the Goddesses that he wakes up?"

Milly squeezed my hands, "Yes."

"How did I get here?" I asked looking all around the room.

The last thing I remember was Leo carrying me through the forest as my head pounded with grief.

"You passed out. The Alpha brought you here and told us to leave you to sleep until you wake up," Milly explained, "He's gone out to clear up the territory and help with the search for injured and missing soldiers but the children are all sound asleep in bed."

I smiled, "You were amazing," I said to her, "How did you do that?!"

"I don't know," she replied, "It just felt right. To use it to protect the kids. I'm sorry I couldn't help you."

"It's okay," I said, "What you did was more than I can ever thank you for. And plus, had I got away with you, I wouldn't have had the chance to finally shoot that motherfucker in the head like I should have months ago."

Max grinned, "Proud of you, cuz," he said, wrapping his arm around me, "And you Mils," he said pulling his sister into the hug, "You two women saved this pack."

I grinned at Milly, "Does that mean you're staying?" I asked excitedly.

Max nodded and kissed us both on the head, "I can't control Milly's life anymore. She's not a kid anymore and besides...she'll smoke my ass easily."

Milly smiled.

"But I'm still your brother and you said you'd get some rest once Ella was awake," he said sternly, "Get to bed."

He then released her from the cuddle before shoving her towards the door as she laughed, "Now."

After that, Milly headed to bed and Max and I were certainly not about to wake the eight noisy beasts from their sleep so it was just us sitting in the library.

I couldn't bring myself to read with the thoughts of all the suffering and grief still going on out there and Luca fighting for his life in the ICU. So I sat with a book splayed out in my lap, staring at the fire in the hearth.

Max was pouring over some thriller. How he could read such a thing considering the circumstances I don't know, but it had been at least half an hour since he las looked up to check on me.

He was engrossed.

"What are you reading?" I asked, dragging my stare from the flickering flames to Max.

"Zombie genocide," he said without taking his eyes off the page, "It's good."

I rolled my eyes, "How can you read right now? Are your thoughts not too loud?"

"There's no point sitting there wallowing," he replied, "Distract yourself."

"Were you injured?" I asked and he sighed before looking of from his book.

"Or don't..." he muttered, "No. I was lucky to get off with a few scratches and bruises. It was a blood bath."

"So we've lost a lot of men?" I questioned.

He nodded, "Hundreds."

I sighed and rested my head on my hand, "There'll be a lot of work to rebuild the pack and help the families who lost soldiers."

"Fortunately for us all, we have the best Alpha, Luna duo the world has ever seen to do that," he said, "We'll get back on our feet soon. Don't worry, Ells."

I blushed, "I'm gonna go and make some food to distract myself. Are you hungry?"

"I'll just finish this chapter and then I'll be down..." he said already fixating his eyes on the page once again, "Hold on..."

So I got up alone, wandered along the dark hall to the stairs and then down to the dark kitchen. The house was deathly quiet. With every step, the floorboards groaned and the clock on the wall in the kitchen ticked intensely against the silence.

It was the stark contrast to the usual noise in the house that you can hardly hear yourself think over.

As I opened the fridge, the quiet shattered with the ringing of the doorbell.

I looked at my watch. It was the crack of dawn. Hardly a time to pop round with good news.

My thoughts immediately went to Luca and how we'd be one of the first to be told if something awful had happened.

Panic already setting in, I rushed into the hall and tried to peer out the window to make out any shadows but there was nothing. The only thing suggesting I hadn't imagined it was Max appearing at the top of the stairs.

"Do not open it," he ordered, "I'll get my gun just to be sure."

He had a point. The war was over but some stragglers of Andrea's army could still be about. My dumbass was too concerned about Luca to even think about that.

But the knocker hadn't bashed through the door and hurled any threatening words. Maybe it was a Doctor? Or a pack member seeking refuge?

I crept closer, eager to get a better look out the window.

Nothing was unusual except a trail of wet, sticky red across the porch and then the sound of heavy breaths and groans of one man on the other side of the door. Whoever it was was in a great deal of pain so I didn't hesitate to grab the key off the top of the door frame and open it.

What I saw was nothing short of a shock.

I took a quick step back and reached for the door to slam it straight back shut.

But a blood-smothered hand slammed onto the door. The action seemed to sap all the remaining energy out of the owner and he sunk to his knees, wiping red down the wood of the door.

"I'm sorry," he whispered. "I didn't know where else to go."

He then lifted the other hand from his stomach to reveal a deep wound.

"Please," he added as I just continued to stare down at him, completely dumbstruck.

Never did I think Luciano would come begging for my help.

I will admit, it brought me some pleasure to seem him so weak and helpless. There was no sly smile on his lips and even that evil glint in his eye had diminished. In its place was the expression of desperation.

"You can't be here," I said at long last.

"You have every right to be hesitant," he replied, his voice getting hoarser. "But I won't hurt you. I can't hurt you. I'm dying."

I looked around at the forest. It was still and empty. I then looked back down to him. At his paled lips and ghostly complexion.

I bit my lip before crushing all my doubts and leaning down to put his arm over my shoulder and begin dragging him to his feet.copy right hot novel pub