And Then There Were Four (Lilith Carrie)

Hale.

Three days had passed since Ivy had the children, and Damian was pronounced missing. I wasn't sure what to expect, but I stepped into my role as alpha of the pack to ensure everything ran smoothly.

We had gone to the cabin where the seer was Damian supposedly met. It wasn't hard for us to find the location with the information he had left on his desk. However, as soon as we got there, it was clear the woman had been long gone, which was lucky for her, considering I would have torn her to shreds to find my brother.

The disheartening feeling of coming home empty-handed wasn't something I wanted to do again. The look in Ivy's eyes when she threw open the front door only to find that Damian wasn't with us... it haunted my mind.

"Have there been any recent signs?" I asked Talon, who walked through the office door looking grimmer than he had the day before.

"No, but I do have patrols watching the borders expecting the worst if it comes to it. We have to find Damian. Have you seen the state that Ivy is in?"

I had seen the state of her.

Every single day she refused to eat the right amount of food or get the right amount of rest, and every time we tried to force her to do it, she would snap as if she was slowly losing herself.

For the first time in my life, I had questions I didn't have the answers to, and it burned a hole through my heart, knowing there was nothing I could do right now to help Ivy. We knew who had done it. We knew the Council had Damian, but without proof, we couldn't just storm in there and accuse them of something.

"I'm at a loss for what to do to help her. She's spiraling, and I only see her smile when she's with the twins. She is happy and content one minute, and then it's like someone flips the switch as soon as they're asleep. She becomes unstable."

Talon stared at me. His facial expressions were unreadable, but I had no doubt he saw the same things I did in his mind. "What do you want to do, then? We have to find a way to be able to help her."

Talon was right. We had to help her. I was just at a loss for how to do that. It was hard trying to decipher what was wrong with her while trying also to find my brother.

Letting a heavy sigh escape me, I shook my head. "There's been nothing that's been brought to the border, no sort of message or anything."

"It's only been three days, though," Talon replied. "If they were going to come, they would have surely come by now. The only thing I can think of is the Council didn't do it, and someone else is behind it."

Talon's reasoning had crossed my mind more than once, but I didn't want to be so hasty as to believe the Council was actually on our side. They weren't pleased by the outburst that had happened the day we were all taken to court before.

I have thought about that situation a million times over. Tried to contemplate what exactly was going to happen, but every single time I searched for answers, I came up empty-handed.

"I can help with that," Kate said from the open doorway as she stared at Talon and I with determination on her face. I hadn't even realized she had gotten back from her trip. The day after the children were born, she had made her way back home in search of answers from her own family.

"Did you just return?"

"Obviously, I'm glad to see that the two of you are happy to see me," she replied in a sarcastic tone as the corner of her lips turned up into a small smile.