Page 29 of Tangled Fates

While Maribel’s mother started to push.

“Come on! You can do it!”

“Focus on that tree over there. The one with the white bark. There you go. You’ve got this.”

“Let it out. Don’t hold it in. Just let it?—”

AH-OOOOOOOOOOOOO!

It all happened so quickly that I wasn’t sure what to do next. One second, the entire pack had gathered around the outside perimeter to watch for bears, and the next second everyone was rejoicing. Maribel’s mother broke down into tears as she cradled her newborn. The healers rejoiced by pumping their fists into the air while shedding pound after pound in an attempt to heal our newest mother back up. Cheers and applause ricocheted around the entire compound, bringing a moment of joy to one of the darkest situations we had ever encountered.

It was a cause for celebration.

But of course, my mind was elsewhere.

“Congratulations, Milan,” Dean said as he crouched down.

The tired woman reached her hand out to him, grasping his forearm. “I’m so hungry.”

One of the healers jumped up. “I can fix that! I’ll be right back.”

“Levi?” Dean asked.

I turned around and smiled down at the new mother. “You did good, Mama.”

She smiled tiredly. “Gods, I could take a nap right now.”

“Well, when you’re finished healing,” Dean said as he lifted the bucket of water to her mouth, “I’ll help you get home and situated. But for now, let us help you get your energy back.”

“I’m going to go check on Brody,” I said.

Dean’s gaze whipped up to mine. “You want to wait? I can come with you if?—”

I shook my head. “It’ll only take a second. I just want to see how he’s doing.”

He searched my gaze. “Report back, all right?”

I didn’t like the way his tone of voice sounded, and it put me on edge. “Of course.”

“Here, here,” the panting, sweating healer said as he dropped to his knees, “we got some nice venison stew with a fresh loaf of bread and a nice, big slice of lemon cake.”

Our newest mother of the pack growled with delight. “You’re amazing. Thank you.”

I didn’t want my negative energy to further impact the joyous moment, so I started moving back toward the house. Everyone should have poured out of their homes to form that barricade, and yet I didn’t see Brody. Hell, I didn’t even smell him, and sometimes his stench was damn near unbearable. I was worried that he was more injured than we realized. But the smallest part of me wondered if he was even there.

After all, we hadn’t heard a damn peep out of him since we sent him off to help with the wounded.

“Brody?” I called out.

I made my way into the house and peeked into all the rooms.

“Brody, you here?”

Colin’s house was expansive, and there was no telling where Brody would have set up camp. I went room by room, sticking my head inside and calling out his name before I abandoned the house altogether and went looking through Brody’s chalet.

“Brody!” I exclaimed.

His place looked pretty put together. I mean, not that Brody was necessarily a neat freak, but it didn’t look ransacked.

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