Chapter 142

EVERLY

Hours Later

All night I panicked, and I felt useless, sick with worry and guilt that I was just sitting here waiting for them to return. I would have just got in the way or become a constant worry for Valen.

Sometimes, you need to sit back and allow someone else to take over.

But for me, that was easier said than done. However, Valen had proven to me that he could be relied on. Even when we didn't see eye to eye, he still showed up and still kept his promises.

And this time was no different. Valen said he would bring Macey home, and he did. Earlier in the night, not long after Valen left, Zoe couldn't bear being home alone. Ava felt unsafe at home with just Zoe, or maybe it was her guilt about what happened to Zoe that she struggled to be alone with her. I didn't know; I was just relieved to have them here.

So my room in the maternity ward had turned into a drop-in center. We sought comfort from each other's presence. Zoe had some of the warriors bring in blow-up mattresses for the kids to sleep on. The nurses had also found two extra beds and brought them in.

Macey had caused quite a fuss when she got here. She refused to be checked over until she saw Taylor. Valen, Tatum, and Marcus dealt with pack dramas, council members, and officials. Ava had gone home with Dad and Kalen after they left, and I felt wired and overly emotional.

Or maybe it was because of everything that had gone on recently, or perhaps it was my fluctuating hormones from having the girls. Yet as I looked around the room, I was brought back to the day I met these two women, two women who became my sisters.

Macey laid beside me in the hospital bed, a drip in her hand, Taylor tucked against her side asleep while she held one of my girls. Zoe sat by my feet, holding my other daughter while I breastfed the other one in my arms.

Zoe feeling my gaze on her, looked over at me, placing my daughter over her shoulder to burp her.

"Don't you start? You cry, we all bloody cry," she chuckles B< A tI8UX sniffles, shaking her head and glancing at Casey and Valarian asleep on the blow-up mattress in the room's corner.

She turned back to me and smiled sadly, then stared off at Macey, who was watching us. Zoe's guilt was clear on her face. She felt terrible Macey killed her mate for her, for all of us.

"Man, this is like a dose of deja vu," Macey mutters, and it is clear she was thinking the same thing as me.

"Only thing missing is our rumbling bellies and the rude nurses and midwives," Zoe chuckled darkly.

"And the sneers and mutters, let's not forget those," Macey says, and I swallowed.

"This hospital is a little nicer, too," I snickered, peering down at my daughter attached to my breast.

"It feels like a lifetime ago," Zoe mutters, and I nod, looking around at our kids, at my sisters.

built ourselves up in our own images. We raised our children together, and we did it through blood, sweat, and tears. We did it despite not believing we could at the start until we showed ourselves what we were capable of.

the same. We aren't scared little rogue women with no names, no identities, and no chance. It's different because we are. It's different because we know our

wiping a stray tear that escapes, and Zoe, I see, bites her

hate maternity wards," Macey says, and I understood that fear. Understood what it was like seeing families gushing excitedly while we were tucked away, not to be seen. Understood the trauma that was left behind from that experience. I know the feeling of walking out the hospital

pursing her lips, a faraway look in her eyes, and I brush her lower back

that feeling of being so low we thought we would drown in our despair and fear, and it's what brought us together. It's also what drove us to prove everyone wrong. We would be heard, seen, and prove to them and ourselves

sense. It was not the same. We were far from that place and faced new challenges, but now we

we would rebuild the fractured parts of us. We won't bleed anymore. We'll patch those walls, repaint, readjust, adapt, and rebuild ourselves. We would morph into the next phase of life because life would continue, and we would continue showing

those broken pieces, once put together again, restored, strengthened us, and just added character. Showed the rough edges, and still, it came together beautifully, just like I know

and the routines we had built for so long. We lived and breathed each other. Leaned on each other or ourselves so much that it felt good to let go of some of the weight on our shoulders and breathe without restraint. And

because we once had others willing to share it. And not

to me. He leans down, kissing my

steal the baby from Zoe's arms while Tatum watched Macey hold Baby C, resting his head on her shoulder as he

"Yes," Valen whispers.

glistening eyes flicking to Zoe and then Tatum. He pecks

"I'm sorry, I know...."

Zoe

much as I wish I was your fated mate, I understand

but it didn't feel right leaving him there to rot,"

don't have to explain yourself, Macey. You

"I know it's just,"

a monster like he was. And I don't expect you to pretend not to care, Macey, just because of

beside me. Marcus growls, the sound

loudly. "Let's hear it then?" she states. I see her walls go up as if she was about to take a blow. I had hoped Valen held off,

was hiding out. Derrick has him in the cells. He is the last

and Valen nods his head. "We want to know what you want

"Amber?"

made rogue. And obviously, she was the

him, and Amber dies." she

tells her, but what

ensure he isn't jailed in the city,"

"Zoe?" Marcus says.

he did. She can live with it just like he will have to live with his mistake the same way I have to live with the memory of it," she says. Marcus nods to Valen, his free arm slipping around her waist as he pulls her to his

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