Page 10 of Fate Awakened

He sends the response quickly and efficiently. No fluff, all business, that was Jake.Now there was a guy who knew how to keep his damn head in the game.

In an effort to appear calmer, I take a long deep breath and release it slowly before exiting my office past the now-occupied desk of my assistant, Quinn. She looks up at me, reading my mood before waiting on my directions.

“Can you push my call back an hour? I have a complication down in medical,” I ask, staying intentionally vague. I know Quinn gets most of her office gossip from my sister, her best friend, but I also know with this missing witness, things need to stay tight-lipped until we can get everything solved.

“Of course. Did you also want to reschedule your lunch with Mr. Ruffin?” she asks, pulling up my calendar for the day.

“No, I should have this taken care of by then. Can you ensure Elijah knows the time we need to leave and have Noah take a second look at the contracts? I’ll need them printed when I get back.” I rattle off before marching myself down to the fourth floor, which houses our medical wing.

As I enter 4A, I take note of the restraints locked around Cain’s muzzle, and the harness around his chest is chained solidly to the wall.

Though he appears completely unconscious, I understand the need for additional precautions. Cain remains the only wolf to date who would be a challenge to me. His inky black wolf stands over four feet tall and weighs almost 300 lbs. Couple that with the bastard's inability to see reason and a stubborn streak longer than the Mississippi, and it would be a hell of a fight. One I wasn’t looking to get into today.

“What the hell happened down there?” My question is directed at Jake, who’s standing guard near the door, looking every bit the good soldier, but I can feel the anxiety that rolls from him as he sees Cain’s wolf in chains. Jake may have a good time bringing pain to those that could harm us, but deep down, he has PTSD from being shackled that very few people know about.

“He hasn’t been sleeping. Ever since he lost her… hell, ever since he met her. He just hasn’t been himself.” He shakes his head as if trying to figure out why Cain lost his mind.

I stare at him momentarily, realizing Cain has kept the pack out of his Mate situation and that it isn’t my place to rectify that now. I turn to Dr. Radolf, one of the senior members of the pack from when my dad still led, and wait for his assessment.

“His heart rate and pressure are both high. It could be consistent with a lack of sleep, anxiety, or strain on his wolf. All of his vitals are within normal range with the exception of his adrenaline output which is running off the charts even for us. His wolf is in fight mode, and he hasn’t been able to regulate back to normal levels even with two shots of Midazolam to sedate him into a state of rest.” The doctor flips through the screens on his iPad before projecting the numbers on the monitor on the wall.

Our medical facilities are state of the art. Every innovation or upgrade to any system in a hospital lies here within our facility. We even have a hospital-grade operating suite and a world-class surgical team ready at a moment's notice. My father had prided himself on the safety he was able to provide the pack. I took that initiative and threw it into overdrive, ensuring every device was available to guarantee we could save our team. Now if someone could just figure out things like cancer, Alzheimer's, and other autoimmune diseases that we had absolutely no way to correct, we would really be safe.

“Is there anything you can give him to counteract the adrenaline for now? Something that’ll allow him to work but will keep him from killing everyone who gets in his way?” I ask, hoping that such a thing exists because if I have to keep my best friend sedated while we work to get his Fated Mate back, he’ll undoubtedly be ready for a fight when he wakes.

“I wouldn’t recommend giving him anything else at the moment. I’m hoping once he calms down some, his wolf will relinquish control, and he’ll be able to discuss why he’s having this reaction. If he doesn’t settle, I can try to sedate his wolf directly. It won't be pleasant, and it could make him disoriented to not have his wolf guiding him,” he says, his face set in a grim line as he watches the heart rate monitor beep at a rate far faster than average. I nod, attempting to work through how likely that is as I change my line of questioning.

“And Kole’s status? Is he still alive?”

“Mr. Delvin had almost nine hundred milliamps of current running through him for nearly half a minute. Many wolves wouldn’t even have survived that kind of stress to their heart, but we were able to revive him and have him shift. He’s conscious and resting in his cell. He will receive treatment once he has decided to return to his human form.” Dr. Radolf sets down the iPad and adjusts the IV lines I now notice have been inserted into Cain's hind leg.

“Please keep me posted on both patients. Any change.” I turn, nodding to Jake before exiting the room with him at my heels.

“Cain’s current condition and the incident this morning stay between the people present. The last thing we need right now is another leak. Our pack’s only as strong as we appear, and right now, we have a rogue mole and a homicidal Second.” I stop, locking eyes with him and really seeing him for the first time. His shirt gapes open from a tear at the shoulder, and his flank has a large blood stain.

“Were you injured in the exchange?” I ask, looking for more injuries and finding wounds healing on his neck, arm, and cheek.

“Nothing I can’t handle with a shift,” he pauses, considering his words carefully before continuing, “Not to overstep, but is there something I need to know about this girl? I’ve worked with C for more missions than I can count, and I’ve never seen him lose his cool. He’s always in control, not only of his wolf but of every situation. But, since Erik got shot, something has been off; the only thing that adds up is her. Tell me I’m not losing it.” I can tell he’s reading me. Looking for a reaction, something to give away the truth, but I’ve spent my life training to be an Alpha, and part of that’s having a good poker face and knowing how to pull the focus off one thing and firmly place it on another.

“Cain’s had a lot on his plate lately with Erik’s injuries, finding an Unawakened, and then trying to retrieve our stolen technologies. Trust me. I’ll ensure he lands on his feet. None of us should be okay right now. Hudson betrayed the pack. That has all of us on edge. We need to be united in this fight to get the witness back and to bring Hudson to justice. I’ll be leaning on you as we negotiate for her safe return. No one else will get hurt on my watch, do you understand?” I clamp my hand on his clean shoulder, squeezing it as we nod in unison.

“For the pack,” he states, the motto rolling from him with a loyalty deeply ingrained.

“For the pack,” I repeat, hoping he can’t see through the bravado I've placed over my thinly veiled patience. My pack is slowly unraveling, and my best friend is so tied up in his Mate that I can’t even lean on him. These are the times I wish I still had my dad. He always knew exactly what to do. He always led the pack in the right direction.

“Your wolf needs to run.Go.I’ll let you know when he wakes,” I order, not leaving room for argument, before returning to my office.

I traverse the stairwells in hopes of avoiding anyone before I can get this situation more under control, but as I reach my office’s floor, I see the distinctive pop of red hair, tousled into a messy bun and held down with her oversized, pink, cat-shaped headphones. She’s leaning against the wall outside my door, music blaring loud enough for me to hear from the stairwell. How she can listen to her music at those volumes is a mystery to me. Still, she has an uncanny ability to be completely aware of her surroundings while oblivious to how loud she is, both visually and audibly.

Everything about Pres is loud, and most of it is annoying. My entrance catches her attention, and she slides the oversized noise-canceling monstrosities down around her neck without bothering to lower the volume.

“How’s Cain?” she asks, concern evident on her overtired face.

“As if you don’t already know. Let’s not pretend you didn’t hack into the medical room to listen to the update as I received it,” I respond, raising an eyebrow at her as I pass into my office. She flushes crimson. Not because I caught her snooping, Pres very rarely followed the rules despite me being both her older brother and her Alpha, instead, she flushes because she still feels guilty about the witness leaving in the first place.

“I should’ve said something to her. I should’ve, I don’t know, explained. It’s hard when you do what I do, behind the scenes knowing things about people you shouldn’t know. I don’t often think about the fact that they don’t know anything about me.” She plops herself down into the chair across from me as I settle into my own.

“You couldn’t have predicted it would go down the way it did,” I say, trying to comfort her and knowing she’ll blame herself until the female returns unharmed. “We’re doing everything we can to get her back, and we do have a bit of leverage, though I wasn’t planning on releasing Kole.”

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