Chapter 114

Nathan's POV

Lewis Manor

"Make her go away!"

I shouted into the phone before Rachel had a chance to speak and instantly felt remorseful.

My apology was sincere, if brief, as I stepped away from the wailing at my door to hear Rachel better. Given how we'd parted ways, I knew something serious had to be happening for Rachel to call me. I couldn't imagine what was going on, but I wasn't about to fail Rachel the first time she trusted me after leaving Moonglow Pack on a bad note.

"Nathan? Nathan, what's going on? Make who go away?"

Shoving my hand through my hair, I mumbled, "Nothing. It's nothing. Are you alright? How can I help?"

"Have you spoken to Art? Do you know what's happening with Ethan?"

I felt as if the banshee-level moaning was splitting my head in two. I took several steps back only to realize the woman got louder the farther away I moved---as if she could sense me moving away. Could she? Was that possible?

My wolf, Lyon, growled inside my mind without answering. I couldn't tell if he wanted me to open the door or leave it closed, walk back or walk away, reach out or ignore her.

All I could hear was her piteous sobs.

"Nathan?" Rachel asked again, her voice sounding more frantic than I'd ever heard it, "Nathan, please talk to me. Tell me what you know!"

Rachel's distress prompted me to go to the door. I unlocked it before throwing it open and waving at the woman who was down on her hands and knees by this point, her face buried in her palms as she cried hard enough for her shoulders to shake with every wracking sob.

"Fine! Fine. You can come in. You just---need to be quiet. Rachel is on the line. Something is wrong. I need you to be quiet. Quieter," I corrected, realizing she might not be physically able to totally stop crying at this stage, "Can you do that? Can you be quieter so I can help Rachel?"

Lindy nodded hard before literally crawling through the door to collapse at the foot of the stairs. I was glad my parents weren't in the main house. Even if this girl wasn't claiming to be my fated mate, my parents would have never tolerated seeing anyone treated so badly.

"Rachel," I tried again, "What's happened? You said something about Art?"

Rachel started talking in a rush, her words tumbling out of her mouth so fast I wasn't sure if even she knew what she was saying. I caught bits about having left Lindy with Bella -I could tell her the results of that decision- only to get lost when she said she'd gone home to Wright House then Art had disappeared? Reappeared?

"What? Is Art there now or did he come then leave? You're not making sense---I am having a hard time following you," I corrected quickly, not wanting to escalate Rachel's anxiety any further, "Take a deep breath."

I'd backed up to the stairs while pacing along with Rachel's rambles; Lindy was leaning heavily against my legs, her face had drenched the thigh of my trousers from catching her tears. She wasn't sobbing anymore though, thank our blessed Moon Goddess.

Without thinking too closely about the decision, I followed my own advice to take a deep, cleansing breath in, held it a few seconds, then blew it out loudly enough to be heard by Lindy at my side as well as Rachel on the phone line.

Both women seemed content to breathe along with me so I repeated the exercise twice until calm seemed to be restored.

Rachel started to speak, "Nathan, I---"

Her voice cracked, caught on whatever she meant to say to me, choked up and I stretched out my hand as if I could touch her across the electronic divide.

Before I could let my hand drop to my side again, empty and alone, Lindy captured it between both of hers. I was so startled by how cold her hands were, I didn't tug away, but, instead, squeezed back against her grip.

"In your own time, Rachel. I'm here for you. I can wait. I will wait for you."

I'd wait for Rachel forever though I kept that fact to myself as I held the hands of a woman-child who seemed to only know how to hold onto her grasp on reality while holding onto me.

If we were fated mates, why hadn't my love for Rachel vanished into the wind the way her love for me had done? Why hadn't I been overcome with lust for my virginal mate who was throwing herself at me? What made our destined joining different from the one Rachel experienced?

'Every mating is different. We loved Rachel and Rayne first. We'll love Lindy and Queen last. If you let us,' Lyon intoned from the deep corner of my mind I'd thrust him in.

"Art materialized into Wright House. He didn't wait to knock on the door or be invited. He just appeared and then, then, then he told me Ethan was in the hospital. He's been fighting. He fought a Lycan! Nathan, they had to take him into surgery. Art told me then left."

Rachel was crying now. Every tear felt as if it were being wrung out of me instead of her. I wanted to be able to materialize in Tyler Wright's home, take Rachel in my arms, stroke her hair while I told her I'd take her to her brother.

"He'll be fine. He's with surgeons? Art took him to surgery or Art followed him there? How did he say he knew about the surgeons?"

I found myself holding tighter to Lindy's chilly hands, grateful to feel them warming around mine.

Wolves were meant to run hotter than other species. We carried the warmth of the sun with us on the inside so we could stand to live a life ruled by the cool mistress of the moon. Lindy should be warm with her complexion. She really did look so like my Rachel.

"I don't know. It all happened so fast and I had been so happy and Nathan," Rachel cried again, tears beginning to come once more, "Tyler says Art is right. They won't let me go to Ethan. He's my brother, Nathan. I'm all he has. What if he dies? What if he dies before I get a chance to see him again?"

"He won't. I'll be there soon. I have to leave. Make her go away so I can get to you, okay? Speak to her for me, Rachel."

"Speak to who?" Rachel asked, confusion coloring her words, "Make who go away?"

I put the phone on speaker and held it down for Lindy, telling Rachel, "Linda Campbell is here. Lindy, why don't you listen to Rachel now? She's our friend. You know she's your friend as much as she is mine. Her brother is in trouble. I have to help her and you have to go away. There's no place for you here. Tell her, Rachel. Tell her to go away."

Lindy began leaking a new flood of tears, clutching my hand desperately between hers as she begged, "No! Please no. I'll be good. I'll stay here. I'll wait here for you. I'll be quiet. I won't bother you. I won't bother anyone. I can't leave you. You're my mate! I'll die if you make me leave. I swear it. I know it to be true. I'll die without you."

'We know how it feels to die without someone, don't we?' Lyon asked.

The tricky wolf was trying to get me to pity this girl who wanted to usurp my love.

Clenching my jaw, I demanded, "Rachel, tell Lindy she won't die. Make her go away! My parents are just outside. They haven't seen her yet so there's still time to get her out of here."

"They don't know? Your mother? Your father? Neither of them know Lindy is there and she's your fated mate?"

Rachel sounded incredulous instead of tearful and I was grateful I'd distracted her even that much. I never could stand her tears. Rachel was meant for joy not sadness.

"No. They're in the back garden. Mother is tending her roses."

Mother spent as much time on her roses as other women her age spent on their grandchildren. A part of me broke a little more as I mourned the child Rachel carried who would never have my blood, never be mine.

"Go to them. Take the phone. Take Lindy. I want to speak to them myself. Do it. Do it now, Nathan, or I swear I'll never speak to you again."

Sighing in defeat, I tugged Lindy onto her feet and led her out the house to find my parents. I didn't give them a chance to ask who she was, why she was attached to me with the grip of a barnacle, or why I was thrusting my phone at them.

"I'm here with Mother and Father now, Rachel. Say what you need to say so I can help you."