Page 128 of Claimed

“Go?” I ask, reeling, dizzy.

“Go help Cat help the sick. Got at least twenty-five seriously sick folks here that’ve been poisoned. We’ve rounded up the whole pack to the big building out there. Some women are here lookin’ after the sick. Some of the kids are even helpin’ the sick. I told them all we’re here to help. Luke told them, too. He’s over there right now waiting to help Cat unload supplies. It’d help if they all saw you, see you’re well.” Grey touches my face and waits, before he softly says, “Blossom?”

“He… he told me he’d start culling the useless if I didn’t do what he wanted me to do. He told me he’d send the prettiest girls to a guy who’d sell their … their bodies and split the profit with Wy. He… he threatened about Halla, said we’d never see her again.”

Grey growls out his anger and I shudder. “He… he’s doing what he swore he’d do, isn’t he?”

“Sorry about your aunt, sweetheart.”

“Aunt Shea is Wyatt’s aunt, too. Father’s youngest sister, his last living sister. Or she was. He didn’t care? That shows how little pack and family mean to him. Halla’s just four years old. What did he do with her? Where is she? I promised Aphra, I…” I sob and bury my face in my hands.

He wraps me up in a hug. “Sorry about all of it, baby. Gonna make this better. Somehow. Brody’ll find Addy and hopefully that leads to the other girls. If not, I’ll ask Linc and Jared to get on the trail. We’ll look for Halla. Fuckin’ swear it to you, Stace, I’m gonna help however I can help. Let’s go get started with helping the sick. That’s the best thing we can do right now.”

I blink a couple times and do my best to shake it off, woodenly moving toward the worst of the scents, inside our mess hall. The closer we get, the stronger the smell of sickness is. And that’s all I can think to do right now, help those who need it. And wait.Wait for word on Addy, Halla, and the others. Wait to see what Wyatt does next. Wait and hope they stop him and that this truly is the beginning of things getting better for the people here.

I step into the building, the space our pack gathers the most, and see two dozen people camped out on their mattresses on the floor, other female pack members all sitting with their backs against the wall, looking frightened and confused by the presence of the Arcana Falls people, and my knees almost buckle. I don’t allow it to happen. I need to be strong right now.

My eyes pan to one corner where all the kids of the pack gather, sitting in a huddle with their frightened eyes pointed at me. The opposite corner of the room has all the men sitting on the floor other than younger teen boys who sit in their own huddle near the kids.

I catch the eyes of Eloise, Aunt Shea’s best friend. She’s squatting beside someone on a mattress, holding a cloth to their forehead. That’s Roger she’s helping. Her chin trembles as she rises, rushing toward me, wrapping her arms around me. “Thank the stars, child, thank the stars.”

“T-talk to me,” I whisper.

She looks exhausted. Exhausted and dirty. This space reeks of vomit, of waste, of body odor.

Cat Savage rushes in with a medicine bag in one hand, a duffle bag in the other, two men following her carrying boxes.

“These men came and ordered everyone all in here. But me, Martha, Margaret, and Lucille were already runnin’ around and tryin’ to take care of the sick folks. We were worried about having everyone together in case it’s contagious, so many are down with it and nobody’s recovering so far. But these men said having all of us in one place is better, makes the most sense. Theone with the beard said it’s not contagious. He said it’s poison and some of us were fed it and some of us weren’t.”

My heart aches right now.

“Those folks are all so sick, Stacy,” she goes on, “We’re dropping like flies, and Wyatt locked us in and told us we’d die if we tried to leave. Why did he poison us?”

“Oh Eloise. The Arcana Falls people are here to help. That’s Cat, their healer. She’s got medicine and hopefully it’ll help.”

“Thank the stars,” Eloise says, looking at those coming in. “Gonna get a little tricky in here once it’s dark. Power got cut off and we’re low on candles. Ellie saw the power cut off notice in your brother’s office. She was helping out, doing your job before he closed the office down to get ready to roll out with the betas to go where you were. We’re… it’s not good, Stacy. Not good at all. He’s been gone with all the rest of the younger fighting age betas saying he was goin’ off to claim our new land and save you from that warped pack, but it’s been days since he left, and people are dyin’ faster than ever. We got no power to boil the water and we’re runnin’ low on propane, not to mention low on food. We’re boiling drinking water on an open fire, and we all know how bad of an idea an open fire is around these parts.”

“They’re not a warped pack,” I tell her. and I raise my voice hoping everyone can hear. “The Arcana Falls pack are not warped at all, people. If you saw the way their pack is set up, how the leadership team treat their people, how healthy everyone is and how they flourish? You would all want that. Wyatt’s attacked them unprovoked repeatedly in the name of this pack, and yet they came to help. I want all of you to know you’re safe under their care.”

“If they’re good and not warped, where’s my son?” Matilda asks, tears in her eyes. She’s on a mattress, looking pale.

I hear some coughing, some shuffling, but nobody says anything.

“Most of the guys Wyatt brought in have died. The Arcana Falls people have only defended themselves and their loved ones. One of ours is still alive and in Arcana Falls but I… I don’t know who.”

Matilda weeps. “Thorn is gone. I feel it in here.” She thumps her chest.

“They attacked Arcana Falls repeatedly despite the fact that Grey, my mate, tried to reach out to Wyatt repeatedly for a truce. Wyatt set one of his traps in a pregnant woman’s house. He kidnapped some witches including attempting to take a witch who’s mated to one of their alphas repeatedly. He showed up with machine guns, even putting one in Lucas’s hands when the pack there was willing to talk things out.” Luke is a good shot, which must be why he brought him because there are still able-bodied men here.

I continue. “I poisoned several of them at Wyatt’s orders and I shot one of their alphas, the alpha Wyatt says assassinated my father, but they know these are Wyatt’s orders that I’ve followed, and they have treated me with nothing but kindness, trying to understand what went wrong instead of just jumping to conclusions.”

“And one claimed you,” Matilda says with distaste. “Took you from us.”

I stare for a second and say, “We’re fated. And Aphra said I’m the key to things improving here so maybe this is what she meant. That my fated mate would help. Grey and his people are here to help, Matilda.”

She looks away sourly.

Nobody else says anything. Many sets of eyes are on me, though.

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