The Gamma’s Second Chance (Crescent Lake #3)

34. Chapter 34

Chapter 34

NOLAN

Cassandra screams in agony as flames flare to life in Haven and Wesley’s hotel room, leaping out and licking over her feet and legs as she crawls towards me after tackling me to the floor. The bloodcurdling sound echoes in the hallway, louder than the roaring fire and the harsh chirping chimes of the fire alarms and sharper than a knife in my soul.

My wolf roars in agony with her, and I leap into action, tugging her away from the flames before they can do any further harm to her. Unintelligible noises fly from her mouth, her body shivering with pain in my arms. The flames can’t reach her anymore, but the damage is done—the fire seared her flesh, burning through to the deep tissue beneath the outer layer of her skin. I scoot us as far away from the room as I can, until we’re next to the stairwell we used earlier. My heart sinks, and my chest heaves as I stare at Haven and Wesley’s room and then down at my mate in my arms, my soul aching.

The sprinklers kick on, raining water down on us, the downpour an outward echo of the hopelessness rising in me. It’s too little and too late. The fire grew too large and too hot too quickly, spreading throughout the entirety of Haven and Wes’s room and now it’s seeping into the hallway.

I lift my eyes to their room again and grit my teeth, cradling and clutching Cassandra to my chest as I rise to my feet. She cries in pain and jerks sharply in my arms before returning to the shivering tremors wracking her body.

“I’m sorry,” I croak out, smoke already coating my throat.

She only nods, hugging her arms against her body and curling into me. I glance at her injured legs and feet again, my throat tightening at the severity. I set my jaw, and with one last look at Wes and Haven’s room, I exit into the stairwell, heading downstairs and out to the parking lot as fast as I can without hurting Cassandra more.

Even if I was alone, or Cassandra wasn’t injured, there’s no way for me to get through the burgeoning flames and into their room to help them. And with how violently the fire raged behind their hotel room door…

I shake my head and squeeze my eyes shut, shoving that thought away for now. I need to focus on Cassandra and getting her to safety. Getting her home. Emergency services will be here soon, and there will be too many questions about the speed of her healing if the EMTs get their hands on her.

A severe burn will take longer, even with our enhanced healing, since new skin cells need to grow, but it will still be much faster than a human. Fast enough to raise suspicions.

I burst out the door to the hotel exterior and rush towards the south parking lot. Other guests already fill the lot, lingering near the edge furthest from the hotel and staring up at the top floor. I skirt around them as best I can with a shivering Cassandra in my arms. Thankfully, it’s only the lower half of her legs that are burned, but the wounds are severe, and even the slightest bounce of her body has her whimpering and gritting her teeth or tensing and crying out in pain.

I scan the crowd for any sign of our pack members, but I see none. I don’t have time to dwell on that, though. My priority is getting back to Crescent Lake and dealing with the aftermath of this event.

“Shit!” I say, stopping in my tracks in front of Wesley’s truck. Cassandra’s eyes flutter open for a second in reaction to my exclamation before they shut again. “I don’t have the keys.”

I glance back over my shoulder at the hotel, towards the top floor, where the flames continue to spread, covering at least half of the floor. Tears form in my eyes, but I blink them away. I can dwell on our loss later. For now, I need to find a way to get home.

“Nolan!”

I whip my head towards my yelled name, to where Benjamin stands with a small group of his pack members, all of them half asleep, half dressed, and disheveled. His eyes flick down towards Cassandra in my arms, concern filling them as soon as he realizes she’s injured, and he excuses himself from his pack members, rushing over to us.

“What do you need?” he asks when he reaches me.

“I need to get her home,” I say. “I don’t have the keys. Wes and Haven—” I cut myself off, glancing towards the upper floors, hoping he’ll understand what I can’t put voice to.

He follows the path of my eyes, and his face falls, a sadness matching mine filling his eyes as he turns back to me. “Here,” he says, reaching into his pocket and pulling out his keys. “Take my jeep. Get her to Crescent Lake. I’ll take care of your pack members.”

“Thank you,” I say with a sigh of relief, grabbing the keys from him.

He nods, his gaze catching on the fresh mark on Cassandra’s neck before meeting mine again. He claps me on the shoulder as sirens from emergency vehicles echo off the nearby buildings, signaling their impending approach. “Let’s go,” he says, leading the way towards his vehicle.

I speed walk to his jeep, careful not to jostle Cassandra too much, sliding her into the backseat after he opens the door. His jaw clenches as he stares at her and me, and when I shut the door, it seems as if he wants to say something to me, but instead, he nods and sprints back over to his pack members.

I hop into the driver’s seat, glancing over my shoulder at my mate as I start the engine and take my phone from my pocket, calling home.

Reid answers on the first ring. “What the fuck is going on?” he asks, and I can hear him pacing in the background. “I have tons of pack members blowing up my phone, and no one can get ahold of Wesley or Haven.”

“There was a fire,” I say, backing out of the parking space. “It started in Wes and Haven’s room. I don’t…” I shake my head and swallow. “I don’t know if they…”

Reid’s pacing stops and his breath catches. “What is it?” Taryn asks from somewhere near him.

“I need to talk to Taryn,” I say, clearing my throat of the emotions forming a knot there, once again pushing the thoughts of Haven and Wesley to the side so I can focus on my mate. I can’t change what happened to them, but I can help her. “Cassandra is injured.”

There is a rustle of noise as the phone passes from Reid to Taryn. “What’s wrong with Cassandra?” she asks.

“Burns. Second, maybe third-degree. She pushed me out of the way of the flames when I kicked the hotel room door open.”

“And how is she?”

I glance in the rearview mirror at her. Her eyes remain closed, her face stark white, and she’s curled in on herself, arms still hugging her middle and tremors still shaking her body.

“I can feel them healing,” she murmurs, licking her lips and squeezing herself tighter.

“That’s good,” Taryn says before I can repeat Cassandra’s words to her. “Julia, the royal healer who trained me, says burns take longer to heal and can be very painful. Dr. Russo will need to clean them before I can do anything to speed up the process. How fast can you get here?”

I push my foot harder on the gas at her question. “Ninety minutes. Maybe less if I speed.”

“I’ll send an alert out to our contacts in law enforcement,” Reid says. “Tell them not to pull you over.”

“I’m in Ben’s jeep,” I tell him. “It’s white.”

“I’ll let them know.” He’s quiet for a moment, and all I hear is his breathing. “As far as Haven and Wes…” He swallows and clears his throat. “Just focus on getting Cassandra here so Taryn can heal her. We’ll worry about the rest later.”

I reach the pack in a little over an hour, driving faster than I should have. I go straight to the hospital, and Dr. Russo greets me at the door, ushering us into a room where Taryn and Reid are already waiting.

“I haven’t said anything to anyone yet,” Reid says.

None of us exchange a word beyond that, but the look on his face says what we’re all feeling.

Shock. Devastation. Disbelief.

Dr. Russo guides me to sit on the bed with Cassandra propped against me. She laces her fingers through mine, gritting her teeth and squeezing my hands with everything she has as he cleans her burns. I take it all, focusing on the pain in my hand instead of the pain in my soul.

Tears stream down her cheeks, and I kiss each one as they fall, wrapping my arms around her. I hum softly in her ear, vocalizing the notes of the song I played on my guitar the day I asked her to be mine, the song I wrote for her. Quiet whimpers sound from behind her pinched together lips, and she clings tighter to me.

“Done,” Dr. Russo says, moving out of the way.

Taryn rushes to take his place, Reid at her back with his arms around her waist so she can use his strength if she needs to. “I’m just going to heal her past the painful point,” she says, catching my eye. “Once she’s free of the pain, her body will take care of the rest much faster.”

I nod, and Taryn places her hands on Cassandra’s legs, right above where her burns begin. Cassandra hisses through her teeth, but as soon as Taryn’s hands glow with her golden healing ability, she relaxes against me.

I don’t know how long we stay like that, with Taryn’s hands on Cassandra, her healing light flooding through her. I focus all my love towards Cassandra, even though there’s no bond connecting us for her to feel it. Her faint noises of pain wither away until all that’s left are her inhales and exhales and Reid’s soft whispers of encouragement towards his mate.

When Taryn lifts her hands off Cassandra, I dare a glance at her legs. They are now pink, new skin completely covering where the flames burned it away. Color returns to her cheeks, and the tension releases from her body. I sway her side to side and exhale, resting my damp cheek against her hair, the tension in my muscles easing as well. My wolf howls in my mind—one long, held note of bittersweet sorrow.

Our mate is safe. But at what cost?

Another tear falls from my eye and into Cassandra’s hair, and her shoulders vibrate with a soft sob as well. I cling to her and her to me. Her presence in my arms and the love we have for each other helps with the pain.

Taryn touches my shoulder, and love and healing trickle into me, running through my veins like a small, bubbling stream over rocks in the forest, breaking through the heartache and bringing a little extra peace to my soul. I smile at her and cover her hand with mine. “Thank you.”

She nods and then takes Reid’s hand and heads to the door with him. “We’ll let you two rest.”

“I need to find Sebastian,” Reid says, pinching the bridge of his nose and shaking his head. “And Maddie, Harrison, and Emily. Goddess, I’m not—”

The door flies open, cutting off his words, and Wesley and Haven rush into the room, dressed in their clothes from the mating ball. They are exhausted and frazzled, but very much alive.

My head falls back against the pillow of the hospital bed, a relieved sob escaping me as I cover my eyes with my hand. Reid lunges towards Wes, wrapping his arms around him, and Haven rushes into the room, grabbing Cassandra’s hand in hers as she perches on the edge of the bed.

“Dickhead!” Reid says, shoving Wes after releasing him from his hug. “Don’t you ever die again!”

Wes’s lips twitch as he tries not to laugh. “I didn’t die.”

Reid frowns at him. “Well, don’t make me think you’re dead!”

I bury my face in Cassandra’s hair, a mix of tears and laughter shaking my body as Haven takes my hand with hers, too. “What happened?” Cassandra asks Haven, stroking my forearm that’s wrapped around her. “Where were you?”

“I took Haven to the garden on the roof,” Wes explains. “I paid for it to be reserved all night for Nolan to give you your ring, but since he already asked you, I decided to take Haven up there instead. We never went to our room when we left the ball.”

“It’s a good thing, too, since the fire started in there,” I say, squeezing Haven’s hand. “I tried calling you, though, and you didn’t answer. And no one could reach you through mindlink.”

“I was groggy and disoriented when I woke up, and I thought it was my alarm. I tried to snooze it,” Wes says, glancing down at his feet. “We didn’t um… get much sleep…” he adds, his cheeks heating.

“Neither did we,” Cassandra says, smirking, and I growl and pinch her side.

“Same, but unfortunately not for the same reasons as you four,” Reid says, crossing his arms and pouting.

“Sour Patch is teething,” Taryn explains.

“Anyway,” Wes says, clearing his throat as Haven moves back to his side and into his arms. “By the time I realized it was someone trying to call me, the fire alarms in the hotel started going off. In our rush to get dressed and get off the roof, I dropped my phone from the top level of the fire escape to the ground, and it shattered. And Haven left hers in our room all night, so she didn’t have one either.”

“How did no one see you?” I ask.

“The fire escape is on the north side of the hotel, and the evacuation plans have everyone gathering in the south parking lot,” Wes replies.

“When we got to the parking lot, the crowd was massive and panicked. We stayed off to the side because Wesley didn’t want to risk wading through the mob to find anyone we knew,” Haven explains, stroking her belly.

Wes covers her hand with his. “I was so worried about keeping Haven and our pup safe, I must have unintentionally blocked off my mindlink.”

“Ben finally saw us and told us about Cassandra and how he let you borrow his jeep to head here, and we left after that,” Haven says.

“Why didn’t you call me from Ben’s phone, or have Ben call me?” I ask.

“I knew you’d be too focused on your mate,” Wes says. “As you should be.”

I wrap Cassandra up tighter, and she rubs my thigh with her delicate hand.

“Ben could have called me though,” Reid says, pulling his phone from his pocket. “Oh, he did,” he says, his brows lifting in realization. A collective groan runs through the room, and I close my eyes to hide their rolling. “What? I have like five hundred missed calls and even more texts coming through on this thing right now!” He waves the phone at us. “And we were helping Nolan and Cassandra!”

“Oh good. You’re back,” Sebastian says, strolling into the room and closing the door behind him, casual as ever, not a hair out of place, and looking as if he had the best night of sleep of his life with no stress or worries. “Ben called to tell me you were on your way but he wasn’t sure when exactly you’d get here.”

“How are you so calm right now?!” Reid exclaims. “Wesley died!”

“He didn’t though. Which…” Seb places a hand on Wesley’s shoulder. “Thank you for not dying. I never want to take over the pack for you.”

Wesley huffs in exasperation and shrugs his brother’s hand off his shoulder, and the rest of us laugh, the last pieces of stress from the emotional rollercoaster that was the mating ball drifting away. Cassandra leans her cheek against my chest and closes her eyes, her fingers drawing lazy, casual swirls on my torso. I recline back against the pillows, my focus entirely centered on her and her well-being now that I know my alpha and luna are home and healthy.

“Let’s get out of here,” Wesley says. “Cassandra and Nolan need to rest.”

“Actually…” Sebastian shifts his weight between his feet and glances at the door, double-checking that it’s closed. “I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but we have another problem.”

Wes groans and cracks his neck. “What is it now?”

“A she-wolf showed up a bit ago. She’s a luna from another pack and is demanding to speak with the alpha, luna, and gamma.” His eyes flick to me, and dread, agony, and nausea pool in my stomach, coagulating into a block of cement, and somehow, I know what he’s about to say before he even says it. “She says her name is Kimberly.”