#Chapter 358 – Careful, Trouble
Sinclair
Everyone’s head snaps up and towards the door as we hear the footsteps pounding down the hall towards the closed door of the conference room. I can feel the aggression fill the air – almost smell it, even as all around me hackles raise and teeth are bared at the sudden noise at what sounds like an assailant –
Next to me, Roger begins to raise from his seat, his eyes fixed on the door, ready to attack whatever comes through –
But instantly I grab his collar, shoving him back down into his seat. “Down!” I order, my voice ringing out with Alpha command, and heads instantly turn to me, obedient but confused-
But I just shake my head a little bit, my eyes fixed on the door. Because I know those footsteps, know their cadence. Only Ella would barrel heedlessly towards a room of wary male wolves who can’t see or smell their attacker –
But I barely have time to heave half a sigh before she bursts through the door, shouting “Dominic!”
Everyone in the room jumps to the feet, but I’m already halfway across the room to her, grabbing her out of the air as she leaps up at me, catching her in my arms and turning to snarl at my men, warning them to contain themselves –
But Ella, true to form, doesn’t even notice the fact that she scared the hell out of all of us that she almost got herself torn to ribbons –
Instead, she barrels heedlessly forth in her excitement. “Dominic!” she says again, laughing, grabbing my face in her hands and turning it towards her. “It’s a miracle! I did it! You have to come and see! I’m going to do it again! I’m going to fix them all!”
“Ella,” I growl, patting down my own Alpha instincts and trying, simultaneously, to listen to her and look towards my men to ensure that no one is doing anything stupid in their panic –
“Come on!” she says, wiggling wildly in her struggle to get out of my arms. You have to come and see! Bring the baby! We’ll show him too!”
“What?” I ask, turning my attention back to her once I’ve assessed that my men are not on the edge of an attack, despite her heedless burst into the room. “What are you talking about?”
“Put me down!” she orders, laughing and still struggling in my arms. I blink, trying to process what’s happening, but I obey, putting her back down on her feet. She instantly dashes away to where Rafe is sleeping in his carrier on the floor, grabbing it by the handle and then running back to me, snatching up my hand and working to pull me along with her.
“Come on!” she calls again, her glee and energy infectious despite the fact that she hadn’t even looked around the room to see if she’s disturbed us, let alone figured out how much –
I glance at Roger and my dad to see them laughing a little and shaking their heads, and then I sigh and let Ella pull me from the room, figuring that the risk is gone and she is clearly not going to let whatever this is rest until she tells me what she’s discovered-
“Ella,” I say as she pulls me out of the room, leaning back a little to put my weight in my heels to slow her. “Where are we going what happened?”
“I did it!” she says, looking over her shoulder at me gleefully and pulling harder at my hand. “You have to come and see! It’s amazing!”
“Ella!” I say again, harsher now, stopping completely but not letting go of her hand so that she’s obliged, against her will, to turn back and frown at me. “Slow down for a second! Just explain! Please!”
And, seeing my real confusion, Ella shakes her head, laughs again, and then turns fully to me to explain. “Cora had an idea!” she says. “Actually, Hank did! But that’s not important!”
I frown, suddenly, at the mention of his name. But she barrels onward and I let her. “I used my mother’s gift and I healed someone, Dominic!” she says, beaming up at me. “It was so easy! I just …accessed the gift! And nudged it towards his wound! And he’s fixed! And I can do it again, and again, and I can fix all of them!”
My mouth drops open as I listen and I figure out what she’s saying. “What?” I gasp, my eyes going wide. “Are you are you serious, Ella?” I ask, looking sharply down the hall towards the little makeshift medical center we set up. If she’s serious – if she can use the Goddess’ gift to heal the men – it could change everything –
“Yes!” she says, laughing again and coming close to me, pressing herself against me and looking up warmly into my face. “I did it!”
“Miracle,” I murmur, shaking my head as I look down at her, marveling at my little mate. “You’re a miracle, trouble.”
“I know,” she says, wrinkling her nose at me and then laughing. But suddenly she’s moving again, tugging me down the hall. “Come on! I want you to see it!”
The next few minutes are as amazing as she suggested that they would be. Some of what Ella does is familiar – I’ve seen her access the gift before, after all, and heal herself. But seeing the glow spread from her body to another’s? Seeing a terrible, disfiguring wound knit itself together before my eyes in mere moments?
I’m breathless with amazement by the time she opens her eyes again and grins at me.
“See?” she whispers up at me. “Isn’t it cool?” I stare at her a little, amazed again by her powers of understatement, but all I can do is shake my head in wonder.
“The possibilities,” Cora says, eagerly flipping through her papers and looking around at the men to decide who should be next. “They’re
remarkable – I mean, clearly you can do this with fresh wounds, Ella, but can you do it with disease? Could you seek and destroy cancerous cells? Could you
Ella gasps with excitement and anticipation at the possibilities, jumping up to talk more with her sister, but I go pale when I consider the extent of this.
Because if Ella’s access to her mother’s gift makes her able to heal not only wounds, but other things as well? And people find out about it?
I grit my teeth and narrow my eyes at all of the people who I know, already, would see her as a valuable target.
While my sweet, generous mate can only see this newly-discovered power for the possibilities it offers to bring life and happiness to suffering people….
I know that the world is filled with people far worse than she. Who will see to take her, and keep her, and use her for their own ends.
And as I consider this consider how I’d rip them all to shreds – my eyes drift to my baby boy, still sleeping in his carrier despite the racket his mother is making. I can’t help but smirk a little at him, realizing that he has perhaps already learned to simply cope with some of his mother’s extremes rather than objecting to them.
But beyond that joy my child gives me, beyond the love I feel for him, the worry of what his life holds twists in me. Because the Goddess’s blood runs through his veins as well. What if he has access to this kind of power? To even half of it?
If he does, people are going to come for him too. They’ve already started – but more will come. And I will protect them both until the end of me – but will it be enough?
