"April!" A piercing scream ripped across the evening air, echoing through the trees around me.

I lifted my weary head — barely able to take the weight of my own body much longer — and my pulse quickened at the sound. Kalmia? My heart instantly hoped it was. But I was just as happy to see the child that actually was sprinting across the open lawn.

"Amethyst!" I barely managed to get out before she was tumbling into my arms. The brunt force of her weight, coupled with the momentum she had from her incoming speed, knocked me back into the grass, with the child on top of me and her face buried into my neck. Her breaths were fierce as she inhaled against my skin, as if she couldn't believe I was real, and smelling me would confirm it — even though I definitely smelled horrible!

She didn't let go for a while, ignoring the gasps of the woman who had found me every time the kid moved against my fragile body. When she finally sat up, she didn't move off of me.

"It's really you, right?"

Wrapping my feeble arms around her shoulders, I nodded and pulled her back into a hug.

"I missed you." She whispered against my neck.

I squeezed her harder, not able to respond with words while she laid on top of me.

"April?" Another call sounded past the woman. "Oh my Goddess, it's her!"

Emerald.

Amethyst finally climbed off of me, gripping my hand in hers to help me back up into a sitting position. Shifting my eyes to the left, I could see Emerald and River running just as hard as Amethyst had been. River held his phone against his ear, panting as he tried to converse with whoever was on the other end of the line.

Reaching us, he ended the call and his mate dropped to her knees next to me. Tears were freely streaming down her face — never had I seen Emerald cry, wasn't even sure if she could! — and she cupped her hands around my sunken cheeks, no doubt feeling the angled bone protruding against it. With a sob, she shifted them down, grasping my shoulders, my arms, my hands, and finally my shins with a tenderness only a mother could possess.

My face cracked into tears and I did my best to throw my arms around her neck in an embrace. It was weak, but she made up for that with a tight squeeze of her own. Pulling back, she wiped away the moisture from my face, her hands lingering on my cheeks again.

"Hi." I whispered.

Emerald's face crumbled even harder. She seemed incapable of any words for a long, long time.

"I'll alert the doctor." The woman I had originally encountered announced suddenly, shooting me a welcoming smile before she turned towards the house.

"Is Jade. . ." Amethyst was still attached to my side, but I hadn't seen her brother come out with her or their parents.

River smiled, knowing how close I had become with his pups, "he's with his grandma. He probably doesn't know you're here yet."

I nodded, too weak to think straight, or respond in any other way.

The Alpha bent down next to me, hooking one arm beneath my knees and the other securely around my back. "Let's get you inside," he lifted me with ease, and all I could do was lean against his chest and be carried across the lawn.

The grass blurred beneath us and I fought with every ounce of strength I had to keep my eyes open. Truly, I was afraid that if I closed them I wouldn't ever be able to open them again; I was terrified I might've ended in a coma.

I made it to the kitchen, staying awake as I was placed at the counter on a bar stool. Thank the Goddess these ones had backs to the seat, or I would have just toppled over to the floor. Emerald rushed to the fridge and poured me a tall glass of water, and while I couldn't feel the physical pains of thirst, I knew I needed to drink every last drop. She kissed the top of my head before walking around the counter to speak to River.

I focused on the water, willing my hand to lift the glass to my lips, successfully getting a gulp of liquid into my mouth. The second my throat was coated, the desire to drink hit so strong, the weight of the glass no longer bothered me and I poured every ounce of water down my throat in one go.

The second the glass touched the counter, emerald snatched it away to fill it back up. I downed that one, too. The third one I was finally able to slow down and take sips as my eyes cleared up and my focus got broader, my body finally gaining some strength back now that I was hydrated.

As I took another sip, I was faintly aware of a figure standing in the doorway. I shifted my eyes over, seeing River gesture him in. I didn't recognize the man, but based on the lab coat he wore, it was safe to assume he was the pack doctor. Besides, the woman from before was standing behind him, and I remembered her saying something about fetching him.

"We should get her to a cot to lay down, be examined, and hooked up to be monitored." The man said firmly. My eyes were unblinking as I stared, never taking my eyes off the doctor. I had been in the presence of far too many doctors recently, I was not about to trust another one, no matter what pack he came from.

"I think she needs food in her system. She needs energy." A bowl slid in front of me, containing a heaping serving of pasta and chicken. Carbs and protein; that should help for sure. I lifted the fork and dug in, my eyes still trained on the doctor.

"But Luna-" he protested.

River held up his hand to intervene. In my peripheral, I could see his concerned eyes were focused on me. "Maybe bring the IV bag here?"

"Alpha, she will need to rest."

"And she will." River's voice was firm enough that the doctor obliged, disappearing down the hall. "Are you okay?" He asked me.

I swallowed my bite of pasta, giving a slight nod to him.

"You were so tense I wasn't sure if you were breathing." He was right. I hadn't noticed how rigid I had become until the doctor had left, and I had sunk back down into the chair. "Is it something about where you were? What happened?"

I wasn't sure how much I would be able to talk about, to anyone ever, but at least the doctors only ever tested me, never really abused me. It was abuse in its own way, of course, but it wasn't the worst thing done to me over the span of my time there. So, I nodded. "So many doctors." I said.

River's eyes shifted to over my head, and I assumed he was meeting Emerald's.

Amethyst climbed up onto the stool next to me. "Were you in a hospilal?" She inquired innocently.

Her mother lifted her out the chair, "Ames, why don't you go get ready for bed? Find Grandma and Jade, okay?" The child huffed, but obeyed, scampering away down the hall.

"She was fine." I said softly.

"She doesn't need to be here for everything." River pointed out, and he had a point.

The doctor came back, wheeling with him a stand that held a bag of fluids connected to a chord. I shrunk back when I saw the needle; I was so tired of being poked and prodded. Emerald squeezed my hand.

"It's okay, we just need to get you fully hydrated."

So, I held still while he inserted the IV into my arm, holding my breath the entire time. When he left, I relaxed and kept eating. As I swallowed the last bite, I could faintly hear the front door open on the other side of the kitchen doors. As if it were a flashing billboard, Xavier's name appeared in my mind, flooding me with a sudden emotion — and guilt — about him not being the first person I asked for.

"Xavier?" I called, though my voice wasn't capable of carrying very far. But I knew he heard, because I picked up his smell, and his voice, the second he was inside the house. He burst through the kitchen door, letting it swing freely behind him, and he barely even looked me over before I was lifted into his arms like a child, cradled against his chest. The aroma of his scent surrounding me topped me over the edge, and once again I was sobbing, my breaths racking my body as I clung to him as hard as I physically could.

His face was buried in the crook of my neck, his nose in the spot I would he marked, and suddenly the spot was wet. He was crying too. I fisted his shirt in my hands, shaking with the amount of effort it took, but I had no intention of ever letting go.

Obviously it was inevitable when he finally set me down, and my hands could no longer clutch the material. He scanned me from head to toe, eyes swimming and his breathing fast. It was the most emotion I had seen from him, but it was mixed with anger that I was familiar with. But this time, I knew it wasn't about me. Well, it was about me, but it wasn't directed at me or himself. He was mad I was hurt, he was mad at who hurt me.

"Who?" He asked roughly, "who took you, how did it happen? You were supposed to be safe at my house." His voice broke, "I should've stayed with you, or let you come with me."

I reached up and placed a hand on his cheek, and he covered it with his own, soaking in my touch. "You didn't know, how could you? We could see the house, I was out of the trees." My inhale was shaky with exhaustion, my body was working too hard after the months I'd had. "Jacob." I whispered.

Xavier went rigid beneath me, his blue eyes flashing open. "What?"

I nodded to confirm I had said what I said.

"But he was with me, he-" he broke off in thought. I stayed silent, mostly to let him figure it out, but also because I was reserving my strength. I could not pass out right now, not when we just got each other back.

"It was a distraction." He thought aloud. "To let you go by yourself where someone else was waiting. And the way he would simply disappear for a day or so at a time; often too." He shook his head, "how did I not catch it sooner?"

"You trusted him, of course you wouldn't suspect."

"You suspected though, before it even happened." I met his striking eyes, hard with anger for his beta. But there was softness in the depths too, softness for me.

"I didn't like him." I told him, "he always made me a little uncomfortable. I didn't suspect anything until I saw him there." I took a deep breath, trying to catch up with myself. Goddess, I was weak.

"If he shows his face again, I'll kill him. I mean it."

I nodded, leaning my head into his chest. His arms snaked around me in a soft hug. "I doubt he'll come back now that we've escaped."

His lips brushed my hair, but he didn't respond. I closed my eyes against him, sleep seeming so enticing, but no! I flashed them back open. I couldn't sleep! What if I don't wake up?

"What's the matter?" He whispered in the silence, and I realized Emerald and River must have left us alone a while ago.

Everything. I thought. "I'm afraid to sleep." I told him.

His embrace tightened. "Flashbacks and nightmares?" He assumed.

I turned my face deeper into his shirt and breathed in, the scent calming me down. "I'm afraid I won't wake up."

Xavier tilted my head up and his lips brushed my forehead, and I welcomed the electric shock that flashed across my skin. "C'mon."

I was confused, but too unfocused to care where we were going. As long as I was with him, I supposed it didn't matter. He helped me up, securing an arm around my waist to keep me from falling. I assisted the process by wheeling the IV cart beside us as we walked down the hall the doctor had come and gone through. I figured we would be going towards the front door, but instead I started to realize we were in the infirmary wing.

I sucked in a breath and tensed up, so he stopped. "You okay?"

Not really wanting to go into details right then, I just nodded and let us keep going. "Are you taking me to the doctor?" I whispered, almost afraid of the answer.

"Sort of. Not for you, though. You seem to be covered." He gestured to the tube coming out of my arm.

Even more baffled, I let him keep leading me slowly down the hall. I nearly fell a few times, but he supported me the whole walk and we eventually stopped in front of a door that was identical to the rest. I was definitely not expecting what I saw when he opened the door.

My inhale was sharp and fast, "Kallie."