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.

was true. All of us came from nothing and built ourselves up in our own images. We raised our children together, and we did it through blood, sweat, and tears. We did

little rogue women with no names, no identities, and no chance. It's different because we are. It's different because we know our worth;

that escapes, and Zoe, I see, bites her lip

away, not to be seen. Understood the trauma that was left behind from that experience. I know the feeling of walking out the hospital doors with a newborn in your arms and not knowing what you're doing or who to turn to. Not knowing how

Zoe says, pursing her lips, a faraway look in her eyes, and I brush her lower back with my feet through the blanket, bringing

drove us to prove everyone wrong. We would be heard, seen, and prove to them and

place and faced new challenges, but now we had the knowledge and drive backing us to overcome them. And most of all, we had each other

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

that all our flaws and scars, the peeling paint and cracked crumpling pieces, didn't mean we were broken or condemned. No, those broken pieces, once put together

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

burden, and responsibility because we once had others willing to share it. And not out of obligation

as he came over to me. He leans down, kissing my forehead and

hold Baby C,

"Yes," Valen whispers.

and then Tatum. He pecks her cheek. "I'll help you organize the funeral,"

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

your mate," Zoe

I wish I was your fated mate, I understand you need to

leaving him there to rot,"

yourself, Macey. You know this,"

"I know it's just,"

to pretend not to care, Macey, just because of

another question I have for you, Zoe?" Valen says beside me. Marcus growls, the sound threatening, and he presses

she states. I see her walls go up as if she was about to take a blow. I had hoped Valen held off,

out. Derrick has him in the cells. He is the last one. We found

nods his head. "We want to know what you want to do? The council supports any decision you make. Well, what is left of the council?" Valen tells her,

"Amber?"

she was the motivator for her father." Zoe nods her head

kill him, and Amber dies." she

tells her, but what

he

"Zoe?" Marcus says.

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

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