“Ms. Jensen,” her voice was shaky but in control.
“Headmistress,” my reply echoed hers. A moment later, I shook my head, realizing that in all the panic I’d forgotten the reason I’d gone through all of this. “Ms. Donahue, Xavier was shot protecting me. He’s in the old books vault in the library.” I dug the bottle and a needle out of my pocket and put them in her hands. “This is the antidote for silver poisoning. Can you get this to him? Please?”
She nodded gravely and paused for just a moment, her eyes dark and worried. “Is he…” she trailed off and I understood what she wanted to ask.
I shook my head. “I don’t know. But, the faster you get this to him, the better chance he has.” I closed her fingers around the bottle. “I hid the key to the vault in the big plant just outside the door. Go.” I nudged her forward and heaved a sigh when she turned and began to run.
“Well,” a voice that made goosebumps spring to life on my arms said from just over my shoulder. “Looks like we have a few things to talk about.”
I whirled around to see a woman with messy auburn hair and blue eyes step out from behind a prop wall, pulling a robe from the set over her naked shoulders. My lips dropped open as I realized this was the wolf that had fearlessly leaped into the fight with Viktor to defend me.
My voice cracked as I spoke her name, so I tried again and this time got it out.
“Katherine?”
Chapter 25
Katherine LaFlamme cocked an eyebrow at me and laughed. “Who’d you think it was? Donahue?”
I shook my head, too stunned to respond with a witty quip. I doubted I’d have been able to come up with one even if we weren’t knee deep in blood and terrorists. I looked around for some kind of intervention or intermediary, but there was just me and the first daughter of the Canadian Alpha, who also just happened to be my personal hero. My nerves crackled like Pop Rocks.
A thought filtered through my nerves. How utterly stupid was it to be nervous after the day I’d had? My lips quirked. I squared my shoulders and tried again.
“Thanks for the backup out there.” I nodded towards Viktor and saw Bash standing over his still fallen wolf form. He was talking to a man I didn’t recognize but seemed to sense my gaze and lifted his head to smile at me. His gaze darted between me and Katherine, and I saw curiosity and respect flicker in them before he turned back to his own discussion.
“Glad we showed up in time. It was pretty close, I’m sorry about that.” Katherine sized me up and nodded towards my leg. “Gunshot?”
I nodded. “Yeah, but I got the antidote in right away so I’ll be fine.”
Katherine smiled. “That’s good. We’re going to need more of it to treat the wounded. I called in a few favors there.” She ran a hand through her hair and looked amused to find it a nest of knots. After a moment of trying to finger comb it, she gave up and shrugged.
“I thought you were gone,” I said, remembering the talk from the meeting. Katherine was an important woman with a ton of responsibilities, including a husband, daughter, The Sisterhood, and the work she was doing to help her mother. People loved to gossip about her here.
“I was delayed,” Katherine responded with a shake of her head. “Another hour and I would have been on my way back to Wild River.” She sent a seething glare in Viktor’s direction. “I’m glad I was here, though. I’m just sorry it took so long to figure out the attack wasn’t about me.” She said the words flippantly then paused and her eyes widened ever so slightly.
It hadn’t been about her. No, people were dead because of me and, apparently, she knew that as well as I did. The weight of the day dropped like lead into the pit of my stomach.
I glanced over at Viktor and thought about everything he’d told me, about who I was, how I’d been saved from the fate of my family, how The Sisterhood had hidden me and protected me all these years. A million questions leapt to my tongue.
“Is it true?” I asked, deciding to just get it out in the open. If Viktor was right, my entire life was about to explode and I needed to know how hard to brace. “Am I who he says I am?” Everything around me narrowed in on Katherine and the answer she’d give, the answer I already knew in my gut. A soft buzzing sound filled my head.
Katherine regarded me with soulful eyes that seemed to apologize for what she was about to say. “It’s true,” she said softly, keeping her voice low. “He’s your biological uncle. Your father’s brother, and Alpha of Russia.”
The buzzing intensified and I had to draw in several deep breaths to clear it. “Which makes me…” I trailed off, wanting to hear it from her lips.
“Heir to the Russian Alphaship.” Her gaze stayed steady on mine. I saw her reach for me through the buzzing and pulled away before she could touch my arm.
I shook my head. Denial was a powerful ally in the moment, I thought absently, deciding I’d run with it for now. Who could blame me? My entire life was a fabrication, and my parents, the man and woman that had raised me from an infant, had lied to me every single day of my life. I’d started the day Elena Jensen from small town Newfoundland and was ending it the fucking heir to the Russian Alphaship.
“No,” I said with as much firmness as I could manage. “I… um…” I looked around like a child, looking for something or someone to take me away, and focused in on Bash. “I have to go right now. But…” I forced myself to look at Katherine and offer her a smile. It felt so fake, I knew she’d see right through but couldn’t bring myself to care. “I’ll see you soon. Okay?” My gaze met hers and in her eyes I saw worry and understanding. Unable to stand there any longer, I turned and walked towards Bash.
He looked up and raised an eyebrow but didn’t ask questions. He just opened his arms then wrapped them around me tightly when I buried my face in his chest.
“Let’s get out of here,” he whispered.
I let him lead me off the stage, only once looking back to see Katherine’s body guards hauling Viktor, still in wolf form, onto a stretcher to be taken away. I sagged against Bash, too exhausted to do much more than lift one foot after the other.
We checked on Daniella on the way back to the dorms and found her sitting up in the nurse’s office and officially annoyed. I figured if she had the energy to be annoyed, she was well on her way to being back to normal. Bash must have agreed, because after he’d seen her safely to her room, he followed me to mine.
I stood in the middle of my room and stared at my bed with a strange sense of otherworldliness. It was like I’d never seen it before. How could something so normal exist in the same world I’d lived in for the last few hours?
The door clicked behind Bash, locking that confounding world out and us in. I turned slowly and raised my gaze to his, then just let myself fall.
He caught me, in every way possible. His arms came around me and cradled me as we sank to the floor in a heap. I laid my head on his shoulder and closed my eyes.
I was too tired to cry. I’d spent the day running away from imminent death and now I was supposed to act normal, but I didn’t know what normal was anymore. So, instead, I inhaled Bash’s scent and felt safe in his arms.
His hand touched my hair gently and began to stroke. The feel of him, the smell of him, it was soothing and made my skin tingle in a way that chased all the nightmares away. I hummed with pleasure and shifted on his lap.
We sat face to face and looked at one another, while our breaths mingled sweetly. I raised a hand to his face and tucked a strand of his gorgeous black locks behind his ear. I loved looking at him and noticing the way his cheekbones cut sharply and his eyes glinted with whatever he felt in the moment. Right now I could read his eyes as easily as I could my own heart.