Page 96 of Tangled Fates

I wasted no time in scooping the barely-there-teenager into my arms. “Come on, we need to get you some help. I need a healer over here!”

“What are you doing? Our healers don’t?—”

I whipped around on Hudson, gnashing my teeth together. “He’s just a kid. What the hell is he going to do?”

“Alpha!” one of the healers exclaimed as he wrapped around the side of the house. “Alpha, are you all—oof. What is that smell?”

I walked the trembling kid over to the healer. “I found him under the porch. He’s a panther, and he’s a kid, and he’s hurt. Please, help him.”

The healer looked down at the kid in my arms. “We aren’t supposed to.”

“I’m telling you, as your Alpha, that it’s okay. I don’t know how things worked before I got here, but I don’t leave injured kids to die. Do you?”

The healer shook his head. “No, neither do we.”

I held the child out for him. “Then, help us. He’s just a teenager. Look at him.”

He nodded. “Put him on the ground. Hurry.”

I eased him back into the grass. “All right, now what?”

The healer cracked his knuckles and knelt down. “Now, stand back and let me do what I do best.”

“Don’t leave,” the kid whimpered.

I sat by his head and took his hand. “I’m right here. I’m right here, sweetheart.”

Hudson sat down at the crown of the kid’s head. “What’s the last thing you remember, son?”

He grunted the second the healer laid hands on him. “It—it hurts.”

The healer nodded. “It will for a few minutes but give it time. Eventually, you’ll heal to a point where your nerve endings aren’t exposed to the elements.”

I wiped the tears off the poor boy’s cheeks. “Can you answer him? What’s the last thing you remember?”

The boy’s eyes darted around quickly. “Mom. I was with my Mom. Do you know where she is? Have you found her?”

Hudson smoothed his hair away from his sweating forehead. “We’ll find her for you, okay? Just focus for us. Can you do that?”

I held the child’s hand tightly. “What’s your mother’s name?”

His brow furrowed. “Where am I? What is this place?”

That made me pause. “What?”

His gaze locked with mine. “I was with Mom in the living room, watching cartoons. She always lets me watch cartoons on Sundays. Where is she? Where’s Mommy? Where am I?”

“Shh,” I cooed softly, “it’s okay. We’re going to get this sorted out. You’re safe, you hear me? You’re safe with us.”

“Where’s home, son?” Hudson asked. “Can you tell us that? Can you describe it for us?”

“Hold on, he’s about to pass out for a second,” the healer said through gritted teeth.

And that was exactly what happened. The boy cried out in pain, his eyes rolled back, and then his body collapsed against the ground.

Immobile, while his wounds continued to glow with healing.

“Hudson?” I asked.

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