I leaned into him, findingfort in the hard line of his chest and the strength of the arms that encircled ollibus/bb. /b/li/ol

    For a moment, as broken as things were, I felt a fleeting sense of peace with our small family together. But then, that moment passed, and I just felt sad.

    Like this, Alice soon cried herself to sleep. As she rested in my arms, I shifted a little so that I was sitting on the ground with her in myp. Julian shifted too, sitting beside me but no longer touching. He was still close enough to feel though, the warmth of his body keeping the chill of the forest at bay.

    Julian and I both watched our daughter sleep, before his gaze lifted up to me.

    “How long as she been suffering from this?” he asked.

    A brief thought passed through my mind, something a little wild, about keeping the full truth from him. But, with things as they were, that didn’t seem fair to anyone. Not to Alice or to me or to him.

    “When that ne came down,” I said, “both our wolves manifested to keep us safe.”

    “She wasn’t even born yet,” he whispered.

    b“/bbNo/b…” I said. “Our wolves kept us safe in that crash. We would have surely died without them. Yet, for Alice, manifesting a wolf so young did note without consequence. I cannot wish it undone, because she would be dead without her wolf, but… To see her in such pain…b” /b

    I bit back a sob.

    Julian wrapped his arm around me, tugging me closer against him. He rested his chin atop my head, tucking my face into the crux of his shoulder and neck.

    “It’s not your faultb,/bb” /bhe said.

    b“/bIsn’t it?” bI /basked. “bIf /bI wouldn’t have gotten on that ne…”

    “Then it’s my fault,” he replied. “Because I am the one that pushed you into leaving.”

    That didn’t sit right with me. Julian wasn’t the one who had forced the ne down. Though, neither bwas /bbI. /b

    I supposed I could see his point then, that neither of us were to me.

    b“/bbI /bjust wish there was more I could do,” I said. “All my healing abilities, and I am no closer bto /bba /bbcure /bthan bI’ve /bever been.”

    “I’ll help byou/bb,/b” Julian said. “You aren’t going to be alone in this anymore.b” /b

    Julian’s POV

    I’m already making a mental list of who to reach out to. I’d get a whole medical board together to research

    Alice’s illness. I’d pump everyst dor I owned into finding a cure. There was no lead I wouldn’t

    exhausted, nothing I wouldn’t do to help.

    Yet, even as I was making those ns, part of my mind was still piecing things together.

    Amber must have been too, because she said, “I have no idea why Chase would want to hurt Alice.”

    I didn’t either. The rumors of him spoke of a yboy, someone who was careless with women’s hearts

    and wallets. It said nothing about him being callous or malicious, especially toward children.

    He could have just been hiding it. There could be more to Chase than any of them know.

    Or… he could have been put up to it.

    I couldn’t stop thinking about Chase and Olivia arguing in the restaurant. I wished now, that I had gotten

    closer so that I could have overheard what they’d been saying.

    Olivia didn’t have premonitions, yet she’d issued me a warning something could happen.

    Had she been speaking of this?

    bHad /bshe known this was going to happen?

    Had she nned it?

    I needed answers, and though I’d threatened to tear his throat out, there was only one person who could

    tell me what was going on.

    Chase.