they’ve started moving to the middle of the country. They were already into North Carolina before we got you and Luke onto the plane. By the time we landed, they were in Florida and had taken over all the packs on the eastern seaboard.”
Dad’s eyes flared wide with a momentary glimpse of shock.
“We have a plan to stop him,” I went on. “We’re offering sanctuary to any pack that doesn’t want to join him. Several packs have already agreed. They’re joining Blackwater at the end of the week.”
“It won’t be enough,” Dad muttered. “Damien must have a few thousand shifters now. Our numbers can’t match that.”
“Actually we can,” I replied. “Thanks to Skye.”
Mom tilted her head curiously as Dad looked at me suspiciously. His eyes darted around the room like he expected Skye to pop out from behind a door.
I fucking wished.
“Where is she?” he asked slowly.
“Skye and Tate were taken when the bomb went off,” I said. That familiar crush of regret and anger rolled through me, but the sting was a little less now that Skye was coming home. “I wasn’t with her, and by the time I got to the cabin to get her, she was gone. They both were.”
His eyes went frighteningly lethal for a second. The blue in his eyes turned glacial. “What?”
“Turns out that guy, Daniel? He’s actually Skye’s brother or something. He took her home to her father when shit went down. He thought he was protecting her.”
I held up a hand before he could say anything. There was nothing he could say I hadn’t already thought. “She’s safe, Dad, and she’s leaving to come home in a few hours.”
“She is?” Mom started to smile.
“Yeah. The storm cleared out sooner than they thought so she’s getting on a plane in a few hours, but she isn’t coming alone.”
I launched into what had happened since he was knocked unconscious. I told him everything from what I knew about Skye’s dad to the plan to make a stand against Norwood. I filled him in on Elias, and how he had dicked us all over. Dad listened quietly, absorbing everything I said.
When I finished, he shook his head in amazement.
“I'm proud of you, Remy,” he said sincerely.
My breathing hitched as emotion swelled in my chest. It wasn’t the first or fiftieth time he had said those words to me, but somehow it meant more now. Maybe because I had been questioning myself so much lately.
“You’re doing exactly what I would have done,” he added, practically in my damn head as he spoke the words I needed to hear. “Hell, I think you’ve thought of some things I never considered. Using the new housing development is smart.”
“That was mostly Katy,” I replied.
“Yeah.” Dad sighed quietly before turning to Mom. “Can you give us a second, baby?”
“Of course.” Mom kissed him before sliding off the bed and leaving the room.
Once she was gone and the door closed, Dad gave me his full attention.
“You know, I always figured we had a few more decades before you took over,” he started with a wry smile. He gestured to his body laying on the bed. “But here we are.”
“Mom said you’re going to make a full recovery.” I frowned at him, my eyes already scanning his body to check for any injuries I might have missed.
“I will. Eventually.” He exhaled, his wide shoulders lifting and falling. “But I’m in no shape to be Alpha right now, Remy. We both know that.”
I ground my molars together defiantly. This man was my hero; he was the guy who was infallible.
Seeing him in a hospital bed with pale skin and tucked under sterile white blankets made him look almost mortal. Almost human.
“It’s not just the busted arm and ribs, or the knock on the head. Doc says I have a compressed nerve in my spine,” he added lowly, like admitting that being hurt by a thousand pound steel beam was somehow avoidable. “They’re going to have to do surgery on it. At least one, maybe two. Yeah, I’ll be okay, but not today. Hell, probably not this month.”
Rubbing the back of my neck, I sighed.
“I’ll tell my council that you’re keeping control of the pack. Hopefully that will help smooth things over.”
I scoffed. “Too late. First thing Lodge did was challenge me.”
“Fucker,” Dad muttered, shaking his head. “How’d that go?”
“Kicked his ass,” I replied, smirking.
“That’s my boy,” he said with a wide grin. After a second, it slipped away and his expression became serious.