The Wolves and the Vipers

Chapter 34 - On Guard

Sorry this is a day late, but it's long, so I hope that makes up for it. Plus, the timeline is starting to overlap with Luna of Rogues at long last!! Wonder what that could mean :)

I had been given six guards for the drive over to the pack house. Walking was forbidden for the time being. And even inside, I had to keep four of them with me. Only yesterday, I would have called it ridiculous. Now, it was comforting. It meant I wasn't looking over my shoulder, it meant my hands weren't shaking, and it meant I wasn't eyeing every person we passed.

"You don't carry guns," I said, as we turned into the last corridor. It wasn't a question, but I did want an answer.

"No," Ashley replied. "We don't. And that's not likely to change."

I acknowledged that with a distracted nod. "Wouldn't want to scare the pack members."

"It's not that ... so much," he said. When I raised an eyebrow, he went on to explain. "Guns can't stop bullets. In our line of work, they're ... well ... redundant."

"We have teeth and claws. We have years of training," Bradley added. "We can't stop the bullets either, but we can stop the gunman. Like Luke did."

I pushed open the door to the medical wing. "Luke got shot."

"Yes, well," Ashley said. "They could have shot him when he first walked up to that car. They didn't because it would have made too much noise."

"And I suppose rogues are worried about making noise, too?" I asked.

"Every rogue carries a knife," Alek replied. "Never found one with a gun."

"Well, then. Let's hope we never do."

My guards exchanged a look, and then Bradley was quick to jump back in, having realised they were failing to reassure me. "That was probably Darren's only handgun, Luna. They're not easy to get hold of. Our pack only has one. We have a lot of single-shot rifles, and so will Riverside. A gun in my hand wouldn't stop that first bullet being fired. My job is to kill him in the time it takes to reload."

Only Zoe had stayed quiet throughout that conversation. But when I did glance her way, I couldn't help noticing the way her forehead was creased. She knew what this argument was about, even if the boys didn't. I was only making this trek to the medical ward at such a stupid hour of night because I had been too shaken up to sleep. One minute of lying down, staring at the ceiling in Jace's room and thinking about the events of the afternoon, and I'd felt like throwing up.

"I can't promise it'll never happen again, Luna," she said through the link. "But I can promise you won't be alone next time. We're not going to make that mistake again."

I gave her the tiniest of smiles. It was a thank-you, more than anything, but it was also unforced. And she smiled back. It made her look even more stunningly beautiful than usual, and I wished I didn't have to look where I was going for a minute or two.

Bradley seemed to know his way around the ward, even if I didn't. But when we passed one room in particular and I glimpsed the patient inside, I ground to a very sudden halt. It took my guards a heartbeat longer to realise I'd stopped and to arrange themselves around me.

Luke was sitting up in bed. He had changed his clothes — he was now wearing a loose white t-shirt and joggers, neither of which were blood-stained. Someone had cleaned and sutured the wound on his chin, so it was now just a thin red line. His right arm was in a sling, and his left was attached to a drip stand.

"How are you?" I asked him. As I spoke, I crept forwards to stand in the open doorway. From there, I could see the chair by his bedside. A young woman — his mate, presumably — was huddled up in it, legs to her chest. She had been watching him with a pale, drawn face, but her eyes now turned in my direction and widened.