Another four weeks later.

Everly POV

Mum was getting blood tests, and the vaccine needed to be administered every few days now. I have just hit the 2nd trimester, and the Hotel was only a few weeks from finished. Valen sold most of his shares to pay half the debt owed to Nixon. Still, Nixon pressed for more, and we had enough.

Valen’s scientists had managed to replicate the vaccine a week ago, and now they were working on finding a cure. Yet as we suspected, my mother was becoming immune to the vaccine, and with it came early-onset dementia. She was losing her grip on reality. Dad was beside himself, and Ava was devastated.

Macey and Zoe were doing everything at the moment, from the school run to managing the renovations, now that the structure was fully fixed. Kalen ran the Homeless shelter while Dad worked for my pack and Valen his.

Life was hectic, and Ava and I were tasked with watching over mum, which meant taking her to these appointments. We also carried tranquilizers everywhere we went with her, just in case. But she could seemingly pull herself out of it before anything wrong happened.

Valen hated that I offered to help watch over her, said I was putting myself at risk, and he was right, but she was my mother. The woman taught me to walk, speak, and use a d**n spoon, and I knew if our roles were reversed and it was his father, he would be by his side too.

Mum thanks the nurse that took her blood before the doctor administered the next dose, stabbing it into her arm, and she shivers. Her hair was beginning to grey, and she was aging quickly. All this because of Nixon. We had filed against Nixon to have his pack dismantled. My father went to the media two nights ago and outed everything, including the debt and how Nixon was the one who injected my mother. 

We were waiting for the repercussions, everyone on edge since Dad went lives across the city. Nixon was officially under investigation, and the werewolf council was now involved.

Unfortunately, that meant my father was also under investigation C;){x6:. forced to remain in his pack territory, the same as Nixon. It was also another reason why I had to help Ava with mum.

Dad couldn’t leave pack borders, and until I married Valen, he had to stay on the opposite side of town, and the vaccine, now that Nixon wouldn’t administer it, could only be given on Valen’s territory. The investigation was a slow process that would buy us time, maybe not much with tensions on the rise.

Riots had started in the streets already, the city wanting answers. Nixon’s pack had gone quiet. They don’t leave their borders, and only trucks with supplies have entered since he found himself in hot water.

Mum was in a cheery mood as we left, almost childlike and giddy as she climbed in the car. Ava sat next to her. She was deteriorating fast, and the scientists that are working on the cure were working around the clock. More rogues had gone missing, more turning up along the borders as forsaken, which only amped up Nixon’s claims that they were deliberately turning forsaken to overrun the city.

Speculation and theories hung over the entire city like a dark cloud, over whose claims to believe. Clipping my seatbelt, my phone started ringing, and I quickly answered it, seeing Zoe’s name pop up on the screen.

“Hey, what’s up?” I asked.

“I need you to pick up the kids for me. We have sprung a leak. And the fire alarms, for some reason, turned on and have yet to turn off. Macey is also locked in the basement because it tripped the locks, and I am currently standing in water to my knees,” she sighs.

Great, this is all we needed. This new tech system was becoming a pain in the a*s. So many sensors and I was second-guessing the whole thing

“Is Macey alright? Is it flooding down there?”

“Yeah, she is fine. Currently eating all the chocolate and drinking all the wine. At least we know the basement is waterproof,” Zoe laughs. I chuckle. Bad news, but we would live.

“The damage?”

“Costly,” she answers, and I groan.

“Okay, I will grab the kids.” I glance at my phone screen to see I had to get them now and curse.

“I may need to drop mum home first. I only have five seats in this car, and I have mum and Ava with me,” I tell her, which means I would be late when I see Tatum outside walking directly toward us. S**t! He must have followed us out. He was on security at the clinic, and he had tried to stop me on the way in but got called away.

“Never mind, I have a solution,” I tell her hanging up, just as Tatum taps on my window. I push the door open and climb out.

“I thought I missed you,” he says, tugging on the tie around his neck to loosen it.

“Nope, still here. And I kinda need to ask you a favor,” I tell him.

“Great! Then maybe you could do me a favor?” he asks in return. I knew what he wanted, and we had all been at Macey for weeks about it, but she refused to listen. The woman was stubborn, but this was the first time I had spoken to Tatum. Usually, all messages came through Valen, to me, to Macey. It was driving me insane!

“You first,” I tell him.

a single call from me. She refuses to speak to me, and I can’t even mind-link

have a solution to your problem, too, since you are about to

he

in the basement, but it has an intercom. Zoe is

really want them in the car with mum,” I whisper,

with that? “ he asks, and I shrug. It was either that or I will be 20

of options, so she’ll get over it,” I

“You sure?”

am sick of passing notes

and got the kids from their classes. Valen’s pack school was under heavy security at the moment. All children were being required to be signed out with the growing missing reports of out with the

to the car, my phone rings, and I pull it

am just about to drop her home,”

if you could hang onto her a bit longer? She doesn’t do well with strangers in the house, and I currently have seven with warrants,” he tells me. F**k! Could anything else go

pinch the bridge of my nose in frustration. “That’s fine.

What happened?”

I have the kids, is

them,” yet I could hear thatnarin

in his

Kalen to get Valarian. Valen doesn’t want Valarian around her when it is only Ava and

leave, I will send someone to come get

at me, but

squeals, running ahead

her up, and she wraps her arms around his neck before showing him her pasta necklace around hers. She takes it off before wrapping it around his

he says,

she asks, and I know she must be confused. Tatum had been part of her

it. And I am hoping to see your mother this afternoon,” he says before looking at me. “I

look and she rolls her eyes, tossing it and pulling Valarian’s car seat from out of Valen’s car I was driving.

can you swing by my place before you drop the girls off? Ava texted Zoe on the way over to tell her you were dropping the kids over. She also assured me that Macey was still locked in the basement.” I chuckle, knowing it had been fixed, and Zoe was just

a d**k,” Tatum

she thinks you left because she can’t have kids,” I tell

if she would let me explain, that wasn’t the reason I left,” he says while shaking

why did you leave?” Ava asks, her tone coming off the

made that clear. I thought I could change her mind. And then she told me, and I felt a little angry that she didn’t tell me. But more because I

so angry and tossed it out. Then the next day, she told me, and I haven’t heard from her since,” he

will work out,” I tell

Had I known, I wouldn’t have pushed so hard or at all. My sister hated when people mentioned anything baby-related or asked when she would have kids. I became one of those people.

happy just having Taylor Even though her toy collection

has no choice but to hear her out. “Ava

I call, and

twice, hoping they would stay once

I wasn’t going

them walked out halfway through the first date,” I tell him, and Tatum frowns. He nods his head before climbing into the car. I go back to mine and climb into the driver’s seat, and Ava climbs

home. He would be half an hour. We were just down the end of the street from home when static went over the radio. I flicked the station over to find them all the same when the traffic lights suddenly went out up head. I peered up at the sky, wondering if a storm was brewing, yet the overcast

was scrunched up as she peered at her phone. She was

service,” she says, and I reach over and pass my phone to her, and

for tornado warnings. No, we never got tornadoes here, and I hadn’t heard that

at Tatum’s car behind me when Valen’s voice and

Everyone else, get inside and lock your door!”I swallowed, and my mother was blissfully unaware as she spoke to herself. She looked

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