RYKER

The ambulance pulled up in a screech of brakes and tires and paramedics swarmed out immediately, their movements practiced and efficient as they went to work on extracting Amaris from the wreckage.

I stepped back reluctantly to give them room to work but kept my eyes locked on her unconscious form, watching for any sign of movement or consciousness.

They worked quickly, stabilizing her neck with a brace and carefully maneuvering her onto a backboard before lifting her onto the stretcher. Her arm hung at that wrong angle and I had to look away.

Nia arrived with the vehicle and jumped out carrying overalls for the three of us. She threw them at us without ceremony or comment and we pulled them on quickly, the rough fabric scratching against our skin that was still sensitive from shifting.

Her hands were visibly shaking as she watched the paramedics carefully load Amaris into the back of the ambulance, her face pale with shock and fear.

"I am riding with her," I stated, moving toward the ambulance.

"Family only," one of the paramedics blocked my path.

"I am her—" I started.

"We will follow right behind," Rowan cut me off, grabbing my arm and pulling me back.

Cole stayed behind to examine the crash site more thoroughly while the rest of us climbed into Nia’s vehicle to follow the ambulance back to the pack hospital.

As soon as we were moving and out of earshot of anyone else, Nia screamed at me from the driver’s seat. "What the hell happened back there? Was that actually the plan or did you people leave out the full details from me as you always do?"

Rowan ran his hands through his hair again, clearly in a state of panic that matched what I was feeling. "That was not the plan. We have absolutely no idea what happened to cause that crash."

"If anything happens to Amaris I will walk straight to Alpha Corvin and tell him about your sick plan," Nia threatened, her voice shaking with rage which was directed at me. "I did not want to go ahead with this from the beginning but you said it was foolproof, that nothing could go wrong."

"You are always so quick to throw us under the bus at the first sign of trouble," I shot back even though I knew she was right to be furious with us. "And what part of ’that was not the plan’ do you not understand?"

"Clearly you did not calculate well enough," Nia snapped, her knuckles white on the steering wheel. "Clearly your brilliant plan had flaws you did not account for."

"What the fuck do you mean by that?" I demanded, leaning forward in my seat aggressively.

"Both of you cut it out right now," Rowan yelled, his voice cracking with the force of it. "This is not the time for arguing or assigning blame. Amaris might be severely injured or dying and something went catastrophically wrong that none of us can explain. This is not the time to be pointing accusing fingers at each other."

We fell into tense silence for the rest of the drive, the only sound the engine and our harsh breathing.

The ambulance pulled into the hospital garage where a group of doctors and nurses with additional stretchers were already waiting in formation. They must have called ahead because the medical team moved with efficiency, immediately wheeling Amaris out of the ambulance and toward the building at a near run.

Nia parked haphazardly across two spaces and we all jumped out, trailing after the stretcher as fast as we could without actually running.

But we had to stop when they rolled her through the double doors into the ICU, the sign above clearly stating no unauthorized personnel were allowed beyond that point.

Nia started pacing immediately, her movements jerky and panicked. "This is not good. This is so bad. What if she does not make it?"

I stood against the wall trying to appear calm and collected even though my wolf was screaming at maximum volume.

She has to be okay. She has got to be okay. She is stronger than she looks. She survived years of abuse at Stormshadow and she will survive this too. She has to survive this.

I kept repeating it like a mantra, like if I thought it hard enough I could make it true through sheer force of will.

The main entrance doors burst open suddenly with enough force to slam against the walls and Alpha Corvin strode in with Beta Marco right behind him moving fast.

My father had a panicked expression on his face that I had never seen before in my entire life, so different from his usual emotionless mask that it was almost shocking. His footsteps were fast and uncontrolled as he approached where we were standing in the hallway.

"What did the doctors say?" he demanded immediately, his voice rough. "What is her condition?"

"They just took her in a few minutes ago," Rowan responded, his voice carefully neutral and giving nothing away. "We have not heard anything yet from the medical team."

"What happened out there?" Alpha Corvin asked, his dark eyes scanning all of our faces like he was searching for lies or deception.

This is exactly what we want to know, I thought but kept my expression completely blank.

Alpha Corvin continued without waiting for an answer, his words coming faster as he spiraled into speculation. "I heard Mr. Jones the chauffeur died instantly in the crash."

Rowan nodded confirmation, still giving nothing away.

Alpha Corvin turned to Beta Marco with authority returning to his voice. "I need you and your men to go to the crash site immediately and investigate exactly what happened. I want a full report with answers and I want them as soon as possible."

Beta Marco nodded once and without saying another word turned to leave, his footsteps echoing down the hallway until they faded completely.

"I have known Mr. Jones for thirty years," Alpha Corvin stated, and he seemed to be talking more to himself than to any of us.

"He was extremely careful to an almost obsessive fault. He double-checked and triple-checked the engines before every single drive and never overspeeded even when running late. There is nobody in this entire pack I would trust with my life more than him when it came to driving."

He paused, his eyes going distant as he processed. "And they were barely out of the estate grounds when this happened, maybe ten minutes into the drive at most. Something is not adding up here at all."

I looked at Rowan who looked at Nia and Nia frowned at me, all of us thinking the exact same thing without needing to say it out loud.

Something was definitely not adding up and it was making my skin crawl.

The hallway door opened and Cole entered but he stopped immediately in the doorway as soon as he saw Alpha Corvin standing there with us. His expression guardedand he made deliberate eye contact with me, clearly indicating he had information he could not share in front of him.

Rowan, Nia and I slowly moved toward the doorpost, trying to appear casual about it like we were just getting some air.

"What did you find at the scene?" I whispered urgently as soon as we were out of Alpha Corvin’s direct earshot.

Cole’s expression was grim and serious in a way that made my stomach drop immediately. "Some fur caught on the wreckage. Dark fur that does not belong to any of us. And there is a big dent on the side of the car that does not match the damage pattern from flipping or rolling."

We all stared at him in confusion, trying to process what that information meant.

"I think they were deliberately run off the road by a werewolf," Cole stated quietly, his voice barely above a whisper. "A very large werewolf crashed into them on purpose and from the precision and timing of the impact it was definitely not any kind of accident."

He paused and looked directly at me with an expression I could not quite read. "It was a calculated and deliberate act. Someone planned this."

"Are you saying someone tried to murder Amaris?" Rowan asked, his voice dropping to barely above a whisper.

Cole nodded slowly, his expression deadly serious. "Yes. Someone tried to kill her."