KARA/CAROLINE

Late the next morning, Will guided me to council room three for the follow up after Lawrence. I stared around the room, noticing the scratched-up bench and white board drawn out in a quick map.

"Right here, Love." He held a black rolling chair out for me.

He then seated to my left, as I gave a shy wave to all the people around the table.

Will pointed to Garrett and Tarin across from us and introduced me to them. I knew their faces, but never was truly introduced so I gave a forced smile. "Nice to meet you."

Garrett just grunted, but the pretty Tarin smiled back. "Glad to see you. Did you get the bath things? We weren't sure if you'd like the scent, but strawberry sounded pretty universal."

I nodded. "It was lovely. Thank you."

Jeremy was to my right and swiveled close, giving a good wink. "You already know me babe."

"Yeah yeah," I rolled my eyes, then greeted Eric at the head of the table as well.

Jeremy twisted out to see William. "Glad you brought her this time."

His emphasis had me twisting to William too. "This time?"

William scowled at Jeremy. "You don't need to bring that up."

"Bring what up?" I prodded.

Jeremy chuckled and leaned back in the chair, fingers threading behind his head. "Willyboy here kept you at home away from council yesterday because he didn't want you helping out with the werecreatures."

"You can stop now," William growled, but Jeremy just talked over him.

"But it did the exact opposite of what he hoped anyway." He laughed. "If he would have just invited you to the meeting, you would have been close and never been able to run off."

"Jeremy!" Will shouted.

Jeremy's hands came up in the air. "What man? Admit it. If you weren't babying her, she never would have gotten caught."

William growled a low throaty noise. "I know this is my fault. Now will you please drop it?"

Tarin soothed. "Oh William, come on. It's not your fault. We couldn't have known what was going to happen."

Eric sat forward in his chair, hands clasped on the table. "William, this would have happened sooner or later. There's no need to beat yourself up about it. What's done is done."

I patted his arm. "It all worked out."

He fisted his hands, staring at the scratched table surface under his arms. "You aren't angry that I kept you home?"

"Well, a little I guess. You should have trusted me enough to tell me at least. Instead, you made it sound like you were just doing boring pack work. I should have known to be watchful."

He sighed and took me into a hug over the arm rests. "I'm sorry. I know I'm being overprotective."

"Being protected is nice. But knowing why is nice too." I hugged him back, knowing my face was warming in a blush at everyone watching.

"I'll keep you informed from here on out," he promised as he pulled away.

"That's all I ask," I smiled.

Eric let the words pause on the air for a few moments and then cleared his throat. "Alright, now that that is settled, let's get to business."

"Isn't John coming?" Tarin asked, looking at the door like he was bound to appear late.

"Uh, no," Eric spoke tentatively. "He got a good whiff of that wolfsbane smoke and he's still passed out in the hospital." He turned eyes on me. "You said that the smoke would keep them out for two days, correct?"

I shrugged. "I guess so. That's what Melvin said to one of the guards at least. Maybe a single sniff wouldn't last as long?"

He turned back to Tarin. "Either way, he's still out and I didn't want to involve his trackers in this business any further. Did you get their report?"

She nodded, looking through her paperwork and pulling a page out. "It just states where they went to find the cave, a little about the smoke and leaving to get John back to safety."

"Good," he nodded. "Anything to note?"

She was quiet as her eyes darted over the paper. "No, doesn't look like anything. They crossed paths with the Fremont trackers on the way out and they pointed them the cave direction."

Garrett agreed. "Yeah. The Fremont's came upon us as we were pulling the guards out. They reported to David and then just ran off." He gave a sly smirk. "Shows them who the better trackers are."

Eric scolded, "they are probably competent trackers. We had the head start. We were lucky to have their help."

"Yes Alpha," Garrett's head bowed in forced submission.

Eric turned to me then. "Kara." He paused a breath, trying to word his thought. "Would you be able to report your time?"

William recoiled as he hadn't even asked for what happened yet, and I placed a hand to his arm, sending calm thoughts.

Eric continued, "is it too fresh? We could have you write it instead. What would be easier? Either way I do think we need to know what happened."

I blew out a long breath, trying to give myself strength and nodded. "I can talk about it."

I then spent the next few minutes giving them the play by play.

Even Garrett marveled by the time I was finished. "There was so much of your blood all around that lab."

William stared blankly to the opposite wall, completely pale. I grinned and grabbed his hand, giving him a squeeze. "It's okay. I got out."

He looked down to our entwined fingers and used his other hand to guide over my wrist.

I put my other hand up and circled my wrist around a few times. "See? All healed now."

He sighed, closing his eyes hard and lifted our hands to kiss over my wrist. "You shouldn't have had to do that though. I should have kept you safe."

"You don't have to worry about me," I said with a soft smile. "I've got that inner wolfie that helps me beat the bad guys, remember? You taught me how to bring her out."

He finally let out a small chuckle. "Yeah, I guess I did."

Eric nodded at the exchange. "Garrett. On to you. What happened after she left?"

Garrett sat tall and proud. "We all went in. The cave entrance had the smoke dissipated enough that we could walk through, but the lab was still too saturated. Bill was taken down immediately, so I went back to Kara's stolen helmet and used it. I got in the lab and it was as she said. The three guards were out and they didn't wake until we had them secured clear out of the cave and being loaded on side by sides. The two she hit clearly woke with concussions. We took them all to our containment cells until a DOSS representative could arrive, late last night." He looked gravely to Eric. "The old man was in very bad shape. We ended up taking him to the hospital instead. When DOSS finally came, Doc even had him on a ventilator."

"Could they move him like that?" Eric questioned.

"They did, but they don't think he'll last. I called for an update an hour ago and they have him in their ICU. His cancer has taken over and with the extra strain on his lungs from the broken air connection, they're just keeping him comfortable."

I spoke in indignation. "Keeping him comfortable? What does that mean?"

Will squeezed my hand and spoke gently. "He's going to die sweetheart."

I bent forward in outrage. "What? No! He can't die! He killed that wolf! All those wolves! He started this disease. He needs to be prosecuted."

Garrett stared hard eyes at me. "There's nothing we can do. This is a good thing. He will die and this disease will die with him."

"Nothing we can do!?" I exclaimed, standing clear up. "Of course there's something. I can heal him. I can heal him and then he goes on trial for all the hurt he's caused us."

Tarin shook her head sadly. "I think he should go on trial too, but you can't heal him Kara."

"And why not?" I bristled.

William grabbed my hand and pulled me back to my chair. "Honey. We don't want DOSS to know about you. If you heal Lawrence, yes he will go to trial, but then DOSS will know about your power and we can't have that. DOSS does watch over werewolves, but like I told you, they ask for favors in return. Your power is something they surely would crave. And I can't stand to see you get turned into some wolfen bodyguard for the president."

"Then we sneak in," I offered.

He shook his head. "They have ten times the cameras and security that we do. The moment your hands went on him, they'd know something was up. And don't you think once he was healed, he'd tell everyone about you?"

"He didn't know who I was. He thought I was from Fremont."

"And some at Fremont know who you are now. DOSS can be persistent. They could hunt you down."

Eric cut in. "David could command them to stay quiet."

William turned to Eric, thinking it over. "It would probably be a good idea for him to do that anyway. In case the other guards talk too." He looked to me. "But honey, I think it's just better if he dies."

I glowered. "No, no it's not better. He needs to be prosecuted for his crimes. For all those wolves he's killed. For all those wolves that have been diseased for years, kidnapped for years." My voice broke. "For Jeremy."

His eyes closed in hurt. "I know. I want him to pay too, but it's better that they don't know anything about you."

I sat back, rocking in my chair, a scowl across my face. It was not better if he died. All I could see was the battered face of that wolf he tortured to death and my breathing started getting ragged. "This is bull. He can't get away with it."

No one said anything because everyone agreed.

As my mind pictured what the other men must have looked like after Melvin was done with them, and what Dan must have gone through for the months he was a lab rat, the heat of tears pricked at my eyes. He was just going to get away with it. Die comfortably.

Angry tears glistened my eyes and I quickly stood up, needing to leave before they poured over. "I'm done here. You guys take over the meeting. You know all I have to say anyway."

William stood and I shot a hand toward him, but not looking at anyone. "Just stay. Finish your meeting. I'll be in the tub."

I didn't mean to command him, but I must have because he sat back down, lips closing in a tight line. "I'll be up when this is done."

"That's fine," I said as I spun around and dashed to the hallway.

I wiped the silent tears into my hands and started walking the halls to the stairs. A few wolves passed by me, but my stance must have said don't even try because no one stopped to ask.

Melvin couldn't get away with this, but what could I do? I had a feeling deep inside me that what Will said was true. This healing gift was precious and whoever found out about it would want it for themselves. Wasn't that the whole reason Rick wanted me? Or the reason that my professor 'sold' me? This power was something that brought out greed in the best of people. Those already criminal would be a thousand times worse. I'd have more than my blood drained. Like Melvin threatened, my marrow, brain, heart, it could all be a display.

But something still told me that I couldn't let him go.

Then how to make him pay?