19.

“Just when I thought things were beginning to quiet down around here.” Rosemary grumbled under her breath as Vini entered her home unannounced and delivered Farryn to one of the empty medical tables.

“How long will it take for you to fix her?” Rosemary’s eyebrow arched at Vini’s crass tone of voice. Her eyes traveled along his features slowly before she rolled her chair over to the table with her tools.

“Not long. She is exceptionally fast at healing, but this is deep so she needs the extra help.” Rosemary slid a pair of latex gloves on as Xavier and Celeste came through the door. Vini bared his teeth in warning but the male was ignored. Celeste chuckled as Xavier brushed past Vini and seated himself on the empty table across the room from Farryn’s. Rosemary’s gaze followed him for a moment before she sighed deeply.

“If you’re going to sit there could you put some clothes on?” Rosemary removed Farryn’s hand from her neck as she threw the question at Xavier. The male sniffed loudly as he shrugged his uninjured shoulder.

“She’s still naked.” He pointed out childishly. Rosemary lifted her gaze before clearing her throat and turning to rummage through her cabinets. In a moment she produced a wool blanket that she gently draped over the female before looking back to Xavier expectantly. He rolled his eyes despite the hint of a smile at his lips and slowly slid off of the table to go find himself clothes.

Rosemary usually kept extra clothes in her home for the pack. Once Xavier had left the room Rosemary go to work cleaning out the wound at Farryn’s neck to avoid infection. Her artery was already starting to close itself up which made Rosemary’s job easier. Instead of letting the fallen alpha heal herself, however, Rosemary stitched the wound up. In the time it took her to finish Farryn’s neck, the shallow wound at her ribs was already healed. Farryn had broken into a sweat and at some point in the walk to Rosemary’s home had fallen unconscious.

Xavier returned to the room with a pair of shorts on, his eyes barely drifted over the female as he seated himself once more. Rosemary removed her gloves to replace them with fresh gloves. “She dead yet?” Xavier asked as he slowly stretched his body out on the bed.

“You better hush up Xavier, if I knew any better I’d say you did this, and she did that in return?” Rosemary asked as she rolled her chair over to his side. Unlike Farryn, Xavier was not fast at healing. His eyes narrowed slightly as Celeste chuckled. “I’ve been around long enough to know when two young pups come in nearly torn apart that they usually did it to each other.” Vini moved over to his sister's side to give Rosemary room as she repeated the process of cleaning his wounds and beginning to stitch him up.

“Nothing unusual about it then, right?” Xavier closed his eyes as he steadied his breathing so he didn’t jostle the doctor in any way.

“No, nothing unusual about it. But what is unusual is that it’s you two doing it.” Xavier’s eyes opened back up as he looked at the older woman with a frown.

“What is that supposed to mean?” Farryn asked, her voice rough as she squinted her eyes against the harsh light.

“Well, neither of you were born here. Neither of you…” Rosemary seemed to realize what she had been about to say and attempted to stop herself.

“Neither of us belong here? Neither of us are true members of this pack?” Farryn offered the rest of Rosemary’s sentence for her before slowly and carefully sitting herself up with her hand on the blanket to keep it falling.

“Farryn, that isn’t what I meant, not in that way at least.” Rosemary finished her last suture on Xavier’s abdomen before moving to the other side of his bed to work on his shoulder.

“I understand Rosemary, I understand perfectly well.” Farryn swung her legs over the edge of the table and glanced at Xavier. His amber eyes were watching her closely. “Well Alpha, I suppose I’ll be packing my stuff up.” She wrapped the blanket around herself as she forced herself to her feet, just about to lower her head when he lifted his hand to stop her.

“I didn’t win, I don’t consider that a win. We were interrupted but next time, I’ll make sure there are no interruptions.” Xavier flashed Farryn a lopsided grin. Farryn’s spine straightened slightly, her mind threatening to wander into unmarked territory, but she turned quickly away from him and his smoldering gaze. “In that case, Xavier, I look forward to next time.” Farryn smiled gently, giving him one last look before heading out after thanking Rosemary with the two siblings in tow.

Once they were outside Farryn stopped and turned to both of them. “What you two did today… is unacceptable.” Vini and Celeste blinked in surprise before looking towards each other.

“We saved your life.” Celeste pointed out slowly, in case she had hurt her head.

“I understand that. A part of me is very grateful for that. However, what you two did was put me in a position where I am now going to be questioned at every turn. As an outsider what I do is under constant scrutiny. What you two did was interrupt a challenge for the title of Alpha. What you two did… was make me look weak." Farryn’s gaze drifted between both Vini and Celeste, she was grateful, a challenge for the title of alpha can sometimes lead to one’s death but that was a consequence she was willing to face. The two Fae siblings had inadvertently made her job now much harder, luckily there had been no recent activity from Deacon to worry about. Celeste’s fingertips traced the hilt of her dagger as she watched Farryn before finally lowering her head in the same fashion that a wolf does in a show of submission.

“Our apologies Alpha, we were unaware of your rules. We won’t interfere again.” Celeste’s words were formal. It was the proper response to give even if her sly smile behind her curtain of golden hair didn’t instill the most confidence in Farryn. Farryn grunted in confirmation before making her way back to her home. The sun was beginning to set, it had been a long day, to say the least.

~

Farryn was woken up by the sound of someone pounding on her bedroom door. She groaned as she rolled over, pulling one of her pillows to rest on top of her face.

“Alpha wake up!” The voice outside belonged to Tony. She groaned once more before he began pounding away again. “Alpha it’s an emergency!” Farryn quickly threw the pillow from her face and scrambled out of the bed to the door. Her hair was a frizzy mess as she threw the door open. Her large t-shirt hung off of one shoulder. She watched as Tony’s eyes took in her disheveled appearance before slowly returning to her face.

“Darius has gone missing.” Farryn stood up a bit straighter with her head tilted just slightly.

“Missing?” She repeated slowly causing the male to bare his teeth in a growl.

“Yes missing, he was with a group of us last night but as of this morning, no one had seen him. His scent at home was stale as if he hadn’t been there in hours.” Farryn rubbed at her eyes before dragging her hand through her hair.

“Tony that doesn’t mean he’s missing he… he could have just gone out early this morning. Why are you freaking out?” Tony snarled before grabbing ahold of Farryn’s arms and pulling her closer.

“Because Darius doesn’t do that Farryn, I have known him for years. We told you that the deer was going to be a sign and now Darius is missing.” Farryn pressed her lips together hard as she forced herself to maintain eye contact.

“I see. I’m sorry I misunderstood Tony, I will get a search party together and see what we can find. It would be best if someone remained near his home in case he turns up.” Tony slowly released the alpha with a look of disgust. “Pathetic.” He growled under his breath as he swiftly walked away.

Farryn slowly wrapped her arms around herself as she retreated into her room. She released a shaky exhale before getting dressed. Tony was right, she was pathetic. After her fight with Xavier, her mind had been turned into a huge mess. Not only had she been rejected in front of the entire pack but she would have lost the fight and her life. She was protected by two outsiders, she couldn’t do it on her own. Farryn closed her eyes for a moment before sweeping her hair back and quickly heading out of her room and down the hall as Celeste emerged from her room.

“Get Vini, we need to get a few others and try and find one of my pack members.” Farryn briskly walked past Celeste who was slower to follow.

“Farryn there’s a problem.” The alpha’s head tipped back as she bit back a sigh before looking over her shoulder to Celeste with an arched brow hoping the Fae would continue talking. Celeste cleared her throat with a look of unease. “Xavier is missing.”

Farryn came to a halt causing Celeste to run into her back. “What?!” Having one missing wolf was bad enough, but two was worse. She squeezed her eyes shut hard before pulling her hair back and tying it. “Okay… okay… they will be found.” She muttered as she rushed out of her home. Emily was waiting outside of the home.

“Alpha, Vini, and I have gotten together two different groups to start searching for Darius and Xavier. But, well, there’s another issue.” Farryn loosed a growl of frustration as she pinched the bridge of her nose.

“Great, that’s just great what else could go wrong?” Emily glanced at Celeste, hesitating whether she should request that the Fae be sent away but decided against it.

“It would seem that several members of the pack believe you had something to do with these disappearances. Darius believed that Xavier won yesterday, that Xavier should have taken the title from you. Now there’s talk that you got rid of the two of them.” Farryn slowly lowered her hand from her face. Her eyes widened with shock as she met Emily’s gaze. Now realizing the look that Emily was giving her wasn’t her typical hardened look, but an accusing one. Emily seemed to agree that Farryn had something to do with the disappearances.