Once In A Blue Moon

Chapter Eighteen

Thanks for all the votes and comments on the last chapter!

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--Marie's POV--

I paced back and forth on the tiled floor. I twisted my fingers nervously in front of me.

Something is wrong, I thought to my wolf.

All day, the pack had been tense. Mates snapped at each other and children sat quietly, not talking or playing, just sitting and watching. Alpha had sensed something was wrong as well and had increased the number of guards on duty. Drappa had begged Alpha to send out wolves to search the forest. When he had asked why, she just shrugged.

I was ordered by Alpha to be on stand by in case anything happened.

Suddenly, everything went quiet.

There were no birds calling out to each other or wind whistling through the tree branches. Pack members stopped moving and gazed at one another in confusion. It was as if the entire world had slowed to a halt.

Then I felt it. We all felt it.

That emptiness in our minds. I had never felt it before but from the horrified cries from some pack mates, they knew exactly what was going on.

"Who did we lose?"

"Oh God, please no."

"Count the children!"

"Who's unaccounted for?"

Voices yelled out, cracking the endless silence. Mothers immediately rushed to gather their pups, and mates clutched each other in an embrace. Those who were neither parents or had mates were reaching out and touching their pack members; trying to find comfort in one another. Then it dawned on me.

We had lost someone in the pack.

A howl ripped through the forest.

It's Alpha Will! Get Marie, we need a healer now! Connor's voice snapped through the mind link.

"Oh no," I whispered.

Connor and Derek came stumbling out from the trees carrying a bloody mess, which I could only assume was Alpha Will. Parents quickly covered their children's eyes or turned their head's away from the gore. Candice suddenly appeared out of thin air, her hand fluttering to cover her mouth in horror.

"Oh Will! No! Not my Will!" She sobbed out.

I sneered at her before rushing to hold open the door for Connor and Derek. I looked down at Alpha Will and my stomach churned.

Is he even alive? I wondered.

Candice took one look at his face and rushed over to the garbage bin.

"Lay him on the table!" I ordered.

Derek and Connor were quick to follow my directions, they immediately stepped back to allow me room to work. I grabbed a knife and cut away what was left of his shirt. I could faintly hear Candice throwing up again. I was immediately overwhelmed with his injuries.

Where do I even begin?

I breathed out deeply through my nose and centered myself. I needed to block out everything else but Alpha Will.

"Derek, I need morphine. Connor, get me lots of clean cloths." I demanded and then added as an after thought, "Oh and Candice, get the hell out."

Everyone rushed at my orders. I quickly started to clean off the blood on his chest and neck. The gashes on his arms were deep and would need stitches. The more blood I cleaned off, the worse his condition became. His entire chest was covered in black and green bruises, as if he had been hit full force in the by a car.

"What happened?" I snapped.

"We found five dead rogues a hundred feet away from him. They probably jumped him when he was swimming in the lake." Connor answered.

I blew out a puff of air in anger. Five against one. He was lucky to even be alive.

As I continued to clean his wounds, I could start to picture out exactly what took place. There were many teeth marks on the outside of his forearm, from blocking a rogues teeth from hitting his neck. Deep gashes along his back from where another wolf dug in his back claws to find purchase. A broken hand and wrist from where Alpha Will had fought back and delivered a punch, probably to a rogues jaw or spine. A tooth was still embedded in his neck from where Alpha Will had ripped the animal off when the wolf had managed to get past his guard. Then finally, a dislocated shoulder from where he had bear hugged a rogue until the animal stopped breathing.

"What are these from?" I wondered out loud.

I gingerly cleaned his elbows where rocks had teared away at his skin, and dirt had filled the wounds. The only way these would have occurred was if Alpha Will had tried to crawl only using his arms...

Connor hesitated to answer, "We found him trying to crawl to the road."

I looked up at Connor and noticed the stiffness in his shoulders and the tightness in his eyes.

"But the road is away from both packs." I answered in confusion. If Alpha Will had been crawling, he would have been trying to get help from a pack. Right?

"There was another scent. A rogue had taken... his..." Connor struggled to force out the words. His head dipped down and I saw a tear hit the ground. "They took his mate." He choked out.

My heart thudded painfully in my chest. He had been crawling after his mate. Even after he had been attacked and should have passed out from the pain, he managed to drag his ruined body after the one he loves. He had caused more damage to his chest by dragging himself along the ground, allowing his wounds to get ripped open further and filled with dirt. I momentarily wondered what it would be like, to love that fiercely that you would risk everything, push yourself past pain and death just to crawl those extra inches closer to your mate.

Something dripped down onto his face, and I realized I was silently crying. I shakily took the cloth and wiped away the tear from his battered face.

His eyes snapped open and he grabbed my wrist painfully. I yelped out in surprise. His one eye was nearly swollen shut but he managed to pry it open to glare at me.

"Leah." He gasped out through cracked and bleeding lips.

My mouth opened and closed, no words coming out. Alpha Will's eyes became determined as he shakily tried to lift his body. His healing wounds ripped open again and blood poured down onto his lap. I tried to push him back down but he was too strong. His head whipped around, his eyes frantically searching the room.

"Where. Is. She?" He choked out.

I just shook my head and continued to push him down.

"Leah! Leah!" He cried out.

My heart squeezed painfully at the sound of his desperate cries to his mate.

Connor pushed the morphine into my hands and I immediately injected it into his bloodstream. This seemed to frighten Alpha Will even more, because he began to thrash around on the table. Derek and Connor leaped into action and held him down, trying to keep their hands away from his more serious injuries.

"LEAH!"

His one last desperate cry filled the air before he slumped down onto the table; unconscious. The room filled with a heavy silence. I touched my aching heart for a moment, allowing myself a second to compose myself. I only allowed myself that small amount of time before I jumped back into work.

I didn't even notice the bloody hand print on my shirt, directly over my heart.