#Chapter 44 Lights Out

Olivia’s POV

I recognize Alpha Herold’s bed as I sit up, gripping his blanket that has been placed carefully over my body. I glare up at Herold who offers me a cup of coffee but I am too startled to take it right now. I feel around my body, my clothes still the same, even though he has changed and looks far more calm than I feel in this moment.

“Please, tell me it’s not morning. Tell me I didn’t fall asleep here.”

Herold grimaces as he replies, “you passed out on the couch while looking for the bottle. I tried to wake you but you were understandably exhausted so I just moved you to my bed for the night.” He pauses, seemingly reading the horrified look on my face as he explains this situation. “I slept on the floor, nearby, just in case you woke up.”

I throw myself out of bed, running downstairs to grab my shoes, to leave this packhouse, already picturing Gabriel’s ferocity after he finds out I spent the night here. I can’t be the reason he starts a war, not even with an Alpha who deserves one after our history.

I push that aside at once, eyeing the phone across the room and rushing over to it.

“Dammit, dammit, no…” I gust, repeatedly calling the palace phone, the hospital lines, any number at all to make sure Eugene has been released okay and that Reese’s condition is still somewhat stable for now. The lines go dead at every call. “No! Why won’t they answer?”

“The power is out,” Herold says from the stairway. “I heard about it a few hours ago but I figured they turned it back on by now. Someone or something tripped half the power grid of the Royal pack. I heard they think it’s the rogues that attacked in the clearing but it’s a rumor.”

I run my sweating palms over my unruly hair. “And you didn’t think to tell me this sooner, Alpha Herold? What the hell?!”

“It was safer to keep you here,” he says, shrugging. “Plus, you were so exhausted. You needed to sleep and I wasn’t going to push you back into more trouble.”

“You don’t get to decide when to involve me in anything having to do with the Royal pack, Alpha Herold! I am the Luna; Reese is on life support in that hospital. I have to get back—I have to shift and run—I can’t believe—what if he is—”

“Okay, okay, I’m sorry,” he huffs. “You’re right. I will drive you back to the Royal pack. It’s safe to go by car incase there are rogues in the woods looking for trouble.”

As much as I don’t think I can handle another long, awkward car ride with Alpha Herold, I know myself too well to know that my incessant panic and dreadful thoughts will consume me and make my defenses fall to the wayside.

I climb into his car and he bolts us out of his pack at a harshly quick speed. I fall backwards into my seat, my knees jumping while I feel my heart dare to explode with every passing minute. The wait is killing me and I dare to reach out to Eugene through the pack link, worried he could have been affected by the blackout and is in danger as well.

Eugene, are you okay?

There’s a heavy, thick pause of a few seconds that feels like years.

At last, I hear his calm, soothing tone, I’m here, Olivia. Where are you? Gabriel and I have been looking for you all night. He is—

I know, I know. He is furious.

He is worried sick, Olivia. I have been too; he barks in reply. I wince at his frustrated tone. I tried to link you this morning and heard nothing. He said your scent led to the parking lot but after the rain, we couldn’t smell where you went after that. We thought the rogues got to you!

I bury my face into my hands to hide my blushing mortification. I made a mistake, Eugene. But I’m on my way back to the pack now.

Where were you?

Shaking all over, I admit the truth, knowing it will probably come off out of context but it’s not important anymore. What matters is I make it back to Reese and help the pack I am a Luna to. I have to help them all more than I have to defend myself right now.

I was at Herold’s house last night and I accidently drifted asleep. We aren’t far from the Royal pack hospital now. I will meet you there, okay?

Eugene doesn’t answer and I half expected that to be his reaction. I will clear up this confusion later but as Herold leads us back into the pack grounds, I see the mild chaos already. The hospital has flooded out onto the sidewalks and the parking lots, tents perked up with electric cords set up all over the place.

I jump out of the car without worrying about Herold’s attempts to stop me. he wants to protect me, so he says, but I feel safer without him around anyways. I sprint through the dark, crowded halls where doctors and nurses are scattered in confusion and disarray.

I’m breathing hard, my legs trembling as I force myself up the stairs to the top floor, running straight down the dark hall toward Reese’s room until I see the scene unfolding before me. A nurse is centered over his body, preforming CPR over and over again while a handful of other medical personnel try to aid in the help of saving his life.

Eugene grabs me mid-sprint, both of us falling to the floor but he doesn’t release me. I scream a noise of anguish in my crumbling, shriveled soul at the thought of losing my brother.

“I know, I know,” Eugene pants, running a soothing hand over my back and trying to calm me down. It’s pointless, though. “They are going to keep working on him until the power is back on. Don’t worry. We won’t give up on him.”

I’m sobbing endlessly, my body shaking as I fall into Eugene’s embrace. I go limp, hoping it stops the shakes, but it doesn’t. Reese hardly looks alive at this point but they still pump his chest, keeping his heart going by manual force without the power to help.

Gabriel rushes to my side now, Eugene reluctantly passing me over into the King Alpha’s arms as I unfold emotionally on the hospital floor. He hums a tune to comfort me, his bold, strong scent kissing me all over and bringing me a sense of hope. He is the King Alpha. He will figure out a way to turn on the power and it will keep Reese alive.

I repeat those wishes in my mind over and over again.

“Please, moon goddess!” I scream, my voice carrying down the dark, chaotic hallway. “Don’t take him from me!”

“Shh, my dear,” Gabriel breathes into my scalp, keeping me tight in his grasp. “It’s going to be okay; I promise. They are going to keep him alive. The power should be back on any minute now. Just give it time, I swear to you, my dear, he will live through this.”

If he doesn’t, my second shot at life will be as devastating as the first.