The Mute Wolf

Chapter 22

Dante Raine POV

I opened my eyes and looked across to my bleeding mate. I carefully reached to shake her, feeling whiplash in my neck and a sharp pain from my left shoulder. Ruby started to wake slowly thank the moon goddess and I awkwardly turned in my seat to check on Ember and Zak. To my horror Embers side door was open and there was so sign of my daughter.
"Zak, wake up!" My voice broke hoping he would be alright. If anything happened to him James would never forgive me.
"Wha..." My wife started to mumble as she came to, touching the cut on her head. It didn't look too deep.

I fumbled with my seatbelt struggling to free myself from its grip and pushed open my dented door. It wouldn't open at first but after a few pushes it clicked, allowing me to not so gracefully climb out.
"Ember!" I shouted again, this time with more volume. I staggered around to the other side of my wrecked car hoping to see my daughter. No sign of her. Blood on the cracked window was the only thing left behind. I saw Zaks face come to life and he instantly reached out to where Ember had been sitting.
"Where?" He stammered and I shook my head.
"Dante... How long have we..." My wife asked but truth was I had no idea. My phone was somewhere inside the car and I was in no fit state to be hunting around for it. We were all banged up pretty bad and probably needed to see a doctor sooner rather than later.

As luck would have it, a couple of rouge looking werewolves found us not too long later, offering their assistance. I was unsure whether to trust them, especially after the leader had confirmed they were rogues. But we didn't have a choice. The leader with red hair introduces himself as Soren Gray and with him was his Beta Luke. He offered to carry my wife and aid Zak and I to their pack not far away. I wasn't happy seeing my mate in the arms of another man but I didn't have the strength to hold both her and myself up. Luke supported Zak in one arm and myself in the other and led us through the woods until we came to a cabin buried deep within.
"It was an abandoned lodge which my pack and I took over. It's not much, but it's home." Soren introduced us to the small handful of men hanging around outside sniffing at us suspiciously.

As we entered this run down lodge smelling of pine and moss, I noticed how run down the place really was. Wallpaper hanging off with stains covering the walls, furniture with holes in like it had been a snack for mice. The wooden floorboards were rickety and loose. Everything was old and dirty looking. The beds they had given us weren't much cleaner; dirty animal hide covered them as a makeshift blanket. I started to wonder if our wounds would actually get worse, infected even just by being here.
"We have a good doctor amongst us. He'll fix you up. Rest. We'll check on you three later." Soren left us in a room each with our own single bed. Not the most comfortable. I could feel a spring jamming me in the back but couldn't move to my side as my shoulder was killing me. I looked to Ruby who was barely awake and Zak looked half way asleep himself. I didn't have time to sleep. I needed to find Ember. She must have been taken by whomever ran us off the road. I had a pretty good idea who.

I contemplated getting up to search for this doctor myself when a man claiming to be him walked in. His shaggy dark hair and beard made him look more like a lumberjack than a doctor, but if he could fix us then that was fine by me.
"My daughter is missing. I need to find her." I told him as he started tending to my wounds.
"You're pretty banged up mate, best rest a while. I can give you something for the pain, don't have a lot of stuff on hand but I'll give you what I can. I know a few herbal remedies that will help too." He pulled and pressed on me to assess if anything was broken and focused on working my shoulder.
"Nothings broken mate. But you have a lot of bruising internal and external. That shoulder is going to need rest. I'd say you'd be back to normal in a few days." He told me and I knew I couldn't accept that. I needed to find Ember now! I tried to get back up but he held me down telling me I needed to rest. He gave me something to swallow and then began assessing Ruby's wounds. I watched him closely as he laid his hands over my mate, feeling myself become drowsy. No, I didn't have time to sleep! But I was out cold before too long and I didn't start to wake until nearly a day had passed.