#Chapter 117 Sister Business
Rachel POV
Our Blessed Goddess dical Center - Surgical Waiting Room Floor 3
No one ca to tell us any updates. No one ca into the waiting area to join us in the waiting. No one ca for any reason at all.
Nurses and doctors bustled around outside the surgical waiting lobby while the overhead intercom went off in unpredictable bursts.
I could tell Our Blessed Goddess was a living hive of busy worker bees all buzzing around while they did their errands in the na of their queen. I doubted the hospital was ever still or quiet. I should have been comforted by the constant hum of energy.
All I could feel was increasingly cold panic freezing from the inside.
In spite of the buzz of the hospital, I beca quieter and quieter myself until I wondered if any sound would co out at all if I opened my mouth. Would I be able to scream? Was it possible to scream loud enough to purge myself of the freezing fear paralyzing in place?
Nathan paced the waiting room from one wall to the other until Art snapped at him---then he began to pace around the periter of the room in a stiff square. I watched his trek until I was feeling tired myself.
Anxiety had always affected us differently.
Tyler was a statue at my side in direct opposition to Nathan’s relentless journeying. When I looked away from Nathan, I could count on seeing my inner deep freeze echoed in the stiff figure beside .
I couldn’t imagine Tyler getting upset enough to start stalking the walls of a room.
Art was neither frozen nor in motion. He seed content to simply exist in his seat across from and Tyler.
I caught him staring a few tis, but couldn’t bring myself to ask him any questions. What could he tell ? No one had co with any news for any of us.
There was no new knowledge to share.
"Goddess take them, why hasn’t anyone co yet?" I yelled, bursting out of my seat to begin pacing myself.
"They don’t have anything to report. They can’t spare anyone to co tell us there’s nothing to tell us."
Art sounded reasonable yet tired. I was tired myself.
Tired of waiting.
Tired of wondering.
Tired of wasting away with worry for the only family I could really claim for my own.
Whirling around to face him, I accused, "You could get information from them! They’d have to talk to you if you demanded to speak to soone. They couldn’t refuse the Alpha Council."
Art cocked a brow at , his features perfect to the point he was almost pretty, "What would the Alpha Council demand to know? How long they’re going to fight to save Ethan’s life? Whether he’ll be able to be revived for questioning? If he’ll have permanent brain damage from the skull fracture?"
"Skull fracture," I whispered, all my breath stolen from my lungs with those two words.
Brain damage was sothing to be feared even among the supernatural.
The body could be healed, but the brain? It was an organ without muscles or maybe a muscle without motion. However the brain was considered, it didn’t heal the way other muscles and organs did.
Even a werewolf could be left with brain damage and then what? What would happen to Ethan if he was reduced to a shell of himself? Would I take him in to live with ? Would Tyler allow to with a baby on the way? What if he was dangerous?
Brain damage could leave him without the ability to control his shifting or his impulses. Could I risk letting him be around my daughter if he had no control?
"You’re worrying about all the wrong things now. What matters the most to you: knowing Ethan isn’t crippled or knowing he’s alive?"
Art stunned into stopping, one foot raised to take a step until I deliberately let my leg down.
I mumbled my answer through numb lips, certain I was telling the truth with my whole being, "Alive. I just need him to live. I can’t do this alone."
Tyler took my hand, tugging at my arm to get to co seat myself beside him again. His dark brows were drawn together; his concern was obvious in a way emotions rarely were for Tyler.
"Co sit. You’ll tire yourself for nothing. He’ll live."
If I could have been comforted with words, I would have been comforted by Tyler’s until he spoke again and killed the hope beginning to bloom inside .
"Or if he doesn’t, we’ll handle things together and you won’t be alone. You will never be alone, Rachel."
"Handle things?" I whispered, taking my hand away from Tyler, "You’re talking about ’handling’ my brother’s death. He is only eighteen! Eighteen, Tyler!"
My thoughts went back to when I was just a week beyond my own eighteenth birthday.
"I had my life stop when I just turned eighteen because Patrick stole what was left of my innocence from when he sold to pay his debts. If I hadn’t t you, I would have been broken by his bookies. I’d done nothing to deserve what he did to . What has Ethan done to deserve this? Why is this happening to him? Why can’t you understand? This can’t happen to Ethan. Not to my brother. It can’t. I can’t stand it."
Tyler remained frozen in the seat beside the one I’d left empty, but Nathan prowled his way around the room to reach my side. His arms weren’t as heavily muscled as Tyler’s, but they brought comfort all the sa.
I lay my head against Nathan’s chest and wept, shaking in his arms while Tyler seed to be focused on thinking through what I’d said.
How could he not understand? Tyler had siblings of his own. Charlotte wasn’t much of a sister to him, true, but she was his flesh-and-blood.
Co to that, Tyler had a crippled brother of his own! He had been taken from his mother as a way to replace the whole son John Wright had lost when his heir, William, had lost his ability to access his wolf.
How could Tyler not compare what was happening to Ethan to the fight which had left William barely more than a human? Didn’t he love his brother at all?
I barely knew William Wright. We had t on a few occasions when all I could really focus on was not embarrassing myself or Tyler in front of House Wright. I had never gotten used to being surrounded by the kind of wealth Moonrise Pack held.
"Don’t you understand? He might wind up like your brother and that looks a lot different for a Flores than it does for a Wright. How is Ethan supposed to get through life if he’s left without a wolf? Without control? He won’t be as lucky as William. He won’t have your family’s resources to arrange his care."
"Yes. Yes, he will," Tyler stated.
Surging to his feet and crossing to stand beside , Tyler rested his hand at the small of my back. He didn’t try to take away from Nathan -for which I was grateful because I needed his support to keep myself on my feet- and he didn’t try to make turn to face him.
"Ethan will have every resource I have at my disposal ready for him. If he needs to go into care, we’ll get him care. I’ll see to it he’s given all he needs the way William is---only we will see to him. We’ll visit."
I hugged Nathan once in thanks for lending his strength before I turned to fall into Tyler’s arms.
He held against him with a desperation which spoke to how worried he was for if he wasn’t so worried for my brother. I was grateful for his pledge of support.
Tyler Wright would never make a promise he wouldn’t keep.
"You’re sure? If he’s---damaged, we’ll still visit him? Not like William? We won’t leave him on his own? Promise , Tyler. I need you to promise my brother won’t be put aside sowhere and just forgotten. I couldn’t stand it. I can’t even stand thinking about it."
Tyler looked stricken as he pushed away to promise, "You will see your brother. If he’s willing to be seen."
I realized I didn’t know if William wanted to be visited by his family. I’d never asked. Why hadn’t I ever asked about William before? Why hadn’t I taken the ti to try to show I cared about Tyler and House Wright?
Our mating was still such a ss. I had hope for us, but my heart was a lump of lead in my chest, weighted down with fear for Ethan.
"Excuse . Which of you is Nathan Lewis?"
An uncomfortable looking wolf rocked from foot to foot in the entrance to the waiting area. Why were they asking for Nathan?
"Your mate has arrived and we need you to co take her from the lobby. Please."
Goddess wept, what had Lindy done now?
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