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I looked up and Celia, wondering if her stomach dropped to the ground like mine. She was clearly concerned, but I didn't feel like it matched my own.
"He's right. We have to push them, use every bit of magic that we can so that he won't hurt us or anyone else," Darla said quietly.
"The way the power and the magic are flowing through him, it's becoming stronger. The tattoos are helping, but it's not enough. We have to push him until we exhaust him. That way he can rest and start again the next day. I don't know what his Walk is going to be like, but I have a feeling that it's going to be worse than anyone else's," Artie said.
When I looked over at him, he had taken off his glasses and was rubbing his eyes. Lou wasn't the only one to work hard today.
"But if you push him like this every day, aren't you just going to run him down before his Walk?" Priscilla asked and turned to her own Sentinel.
Pete, a short, stocky Native American man studied Lou from across the room. Pete kept his dark eyes on before he finally spoke. "If it's as bad as they say it is, they have to do it. He'll be fine by morning," Pete said quietly.
Celia looked to Artie. "Why didn't you tell me?"
That was the question of the day, wasn't it?
"We didn't have time. That explosion that you told me about earlier?" Artie said.
Celia nodded.
"That was Lou. Every other time that's he has become overwhelmed like that, the forest was able to contain him. This time, it was much stronger. The forest was unable to contain it all. The people in town shouldn't have been able to feel it. We had to do something fast and Darla's idea was the best."
Clint turned to look at Darla. Darla spread her hands helplessly. "If you saw what we saw, you would understand the urgency of it. There was no chance to call any of you. All I knew was that he was in danger and I had to get him away from the people in town and some are safe. The forest was the safest place that I could find. It contained most of it, but he knocked me flat too. He didn't hurt me," she added in a hurry.
Clint turned back and looked at Celia. Celia shrugged.
"But I could feel the strength of what he has in him. It's wild. Once he has his pack, it'll be better, but that's still two days from now. We'll study with him, use as much of his magic as we can, but you have to understand that every day, he'll come back like this. He has to," Darla explained.
Celia met my eyes and even though I didn't like it, I accepted it. There was no choice here, but we would do what we had to do to keep them all safe.
"When he wakes up tomorrow, he'll be good as new. His magic will have replenished by then. It will always come back to him. He's running low now, but I guarantee you, he will never run out," Pete said.
I sighed. "Fine. Just give me a little warning next time. Clint, can you hand me has bags?"
Instead, Priscilla picked up the bag and slung it over her shoulder. She gestured for me to go up the stairs and she followed.
My room was big enough for a king size bed, which was also enough to accommodate both of us. Priscilla set the bag down on my desk and came to my side as I laid Lou down on my bed. He snorted and smacked his lips together, but otherwise did not wake.
"I hope you don't take offense to this, but we thought you would never settle down," she said.
I began to unlace lose shoes from his feet and looked over at her.
When we were younger, Priscilla had a crush on me. And I wasn't one to say that she wasn't desirable. She was beautiful and smart and funny, trained to be alpha by her southern mother and grandmother. But something deep inside me told me that she was meant for someone else.
Just like I was meant for someone else.
"You make me sound like I was sleeping with everything that moved," I said.
Priscilla snorted and shook her head. She also unlaced the other shoe and I took it from her and tucked them underneath the bed. I went to his bag and pulled out some pajamas. The house got cold at night because all the werewolves here ran so hot.
"I mean, yeah, you dated a lot but it was something else too. You were always so particular, I didn't think that you would settle down."
"Well, I guess that's true. I guess you could say that I have always been particular about who I wanted to spend my time with," I said.
"Because we only have so much of it, right?" She prompted.
My parents weren't the only ones that died at the hands of the Ascendancy. Priscilla was the last of her name and I knew that she felt it just as much as any of the rest of us did.
I could only nod.
"And you care about him. Probably a lot more than either one of you admits," she said. She sat down on my bed and put a hand to Lou's forehead. It was such a motherly thing to do, it gave me pause.
"What's on your mind, Priscilla?" I asked.
She remained quiet for a very long time. I wondered if I was prying. I didn't always have the social graces that my sister and brother did.
"If it's too personal, you don't have to answer. You just seem like you have something you want to say," I said.
"I want a baby."
The words were so quiet for a moment I wondered if I had imagined them. But when I looked up at her, staring at Lou, I knew I heard her right. Her eyes were bright with tears and I was at a loss.
"Well, I'm afraid to say that Lou doesn't have much interest in girls," I finally managed.
She laughed. There were tears on her cheeks and she wiped them away. "That's not it at all, silly. This is the first time I've met the man and he is unconscious."
"He does that a lot," I said.
We both fell quiet and Priscilla watched as I laid out the pajamas next to Lou and then reached to pull his hoodie and shirt off him. She turned her back and I watched as she bowed her head.
"If Celia does this, if she defies the Ascendancy with Lou and his friend's help, if she is able to bring in new pack members and survive, then maybe I can do the same," she said quietly.
Then her wish to have children could be fulfilled, I realized.
"Oh," I said softly. I tried to keep my hands busy, keeping my eyes down and on Lou's still form as I began to undress him.
“I guess it's a selfish reason to come out here and help you all.”
“Not at all. Wanting kids is not selfish at all. We appreciate you being here because we know it's not easy. And if we can help you, later on down the road, I know Celia will be happy to do it,” I paused and pulled the shirt over Lou's head and then worked on his pants. “You will be a fantastic mom.”
Priscilla turned back around and studied the two of us. "You know, someone very wise told me once that being in a relationship is about forgiveness. Forgiving yourself and forgiving the other person."
"Well, he's the one that has to forgive me. I was the one who screwed up," I said quietly. I began to pull the blankets down but Lou's body was making it very difficult.
"Here, you lift him," Priscilla said.
I did and she folded the blankets down. I laid him back down on the bed and pulled the blankets up and over him.
"Have you tried apologizing?" She asked.
"He still not talking to me. It's a pretty new fight," I said.
"Well, he's your boyfriend for a reason. I'm sure he'll come around when he's ready to talk," Priscilla said quietly.
"That's the thing. We never said what we are. We never had that talk that we're exclusive or anything. I don't know where we stand," I said.
Priscilla scooted off my bed and stood up. She came around the bed to my side and grasped my chin so that I was forced to look her in the eye. She was so slight that it was hard to remember that she was an alpha. She could have passed for any southern sorority girl at any university.
Priscilla looked me in the eyes and said, "I have something very important to tell you. Are you listening? Do I have your undivided attention?"
"Yes," I said.
Priscilla took a deep breath and nodded. "Okay. Here it is."
I nodded.
"Get your head out of your ass," she said.
I was so stunned that I couldn't reply.
"You need to talk to him. We both agreed that we don't have a lot of time here. None of us are long for this earth. And if this is how you feel, you need to tell him. If you care for him, as much as I can see you do, then tell him. Until then, he probably won't talk to you."
She left me sitting there as she left the room and quietly closed the door.