Grace heard the pain in his voice. The pain of an Alpha whose people were suffering and he hadn’t protected them. It didn’t matter that they weren’t Cascadia wolves. They were wolves. The Alpha and the doctor in Grace felt that pain. She put her tray on the floor next to the bed and snuggled into him, holding him tight.

“We need to get the word out about this silver dilution. And we need to find those labs.”

“You know Ben and his people went into the lab location you gave us in Chicago. It was deserted but they couldn’t take all the equipment so we were able to destroy it. Nina is providing some help with the computer stuff. Ben and Benoit are working together to find the other locations. You said there were several in Chicago. Lex may go out to help with tracking if they need him to. We’re working with the Enforcer from Mid-States Pack and Eastern Seaboard on tracking labs there as well. Nashville seems to have a problem with your brother’s people so they’re concentrating there as well. Can you work on something to combat the silver in the lab?”

“We’ve tried for decades. The most effective thing we’ve found is to bring the wolf. Once it’s in the bloodstream, it’s fatal. Over half the time it’s fatal even if we can bring the wolf. Dialysis would take too long and it’s not convenient. If someone happened to be at a kidney center or a hospital with dialysis machines right when they were injected, it might work.”

“I’ve advised Cascadia people who are farther out from this area to take their children and go away into the Clan haven. I don’t know what else to do. I can’t risk our children to a monster like Warren and his insanity.” The haven was a failsafe, a bolt hole of sorts where the Pack would send the weakest members to safety. Children and their mothers came first and then the elderly.

She sighed and rubbed her hands up and down his back. Wishing she could comfort him more. “That’s a good idea. You said the haven was the safest place and no one but you and Lex and the driver of the busses knew the exact location. That’s for the best.”

“I think you should go too.”

She laughed. “Cade Warden! I’m Alpha of this Pack too. I don’t run and hide. My place is at your side. Anyway, I’m needed here in the lab. I think we should move most of the personnel to creation of a vaccine. I’ve advised all but two people to move to that. We’ve got two of Warren’s strains and the clean strain you had here before. I think that’ll be enough to come up with something. I’m afraid if we don’t we’ll regret it.”

“If you think it’s a good idea, I trust your judgment. Let’s talk to Lex, Ben and Jack tomorrow too. Will it work on humans?”

“I don’t think so. The issue is what happens to wolves when given the virus. What it did to Gina, well, it was what it was because it forced her system to fight itself. It killed her immune system. Her cells disintegrated. What it’s doing to humans, I can’t deal with, with this vaccine. The problem is that there’s been no effective cure or preventative inoculation against lycanthropy for humans. We’ve isolated the virus and your people have been working for nearly four years on this and haven’t been able to find a solution. If we did human trials, it might work in a few years but with the escalating violence, the humans are even less inclined to work with us. We can’t force it either. I’ll speak with Benoit again, see if we can’t get National’s lab working on that aspect if we can drum up some volunteers.”

“You’re such a help to me. I wish…” he sighed, running his fingers through her hair, “…I wish we could just be together without any of this stuff. I just want things to be simple and peaceful. I want to lay around with you in bed all day. I hate the thought of you being in danger. I hate the thought of my niece and nephew being in danger, of the child Nina is carrying being in danger. I can’t seem to stop it. Only you make it all right. You listen and you help. Thank you.”

She hated that he was so pained, wished she could make it better for him. Wished she could get rid of her brother for him and make the world okay again.

“I’m glad. I want to love you, Cade. I want to be at your side and run this Pack. I want my brother gone.”

“You’re not going to work tomorrow until noon. It’s a weekend and you’re exhausted. For now, eat the rest of that food and then you’re going to sleep. I’ll ravish you in the morning.”

She yawned and held him tighter, seeking and giving comfort. “I’m always for a good ravish.”

Cade lay awake, cradling the most precious thing he’d ever seen in his arms. Worried. Upset. Satisfied. Overjoyed. Not all the wolves had openly accepted her. While she was their Alpha, they hadn’t had the official ceremony to bring her into the Pack yet. That was planned for the next weekend. She held power over them but many distrusted her because of who she was. It had pissed him off to no end, but she’d simply accepted it and urged him to do the same.

Despite that rocky start, smudges of purpled exhaustion marked the skin beneath her eyes. She was at the lab twelve to fourteen hours every day and when she wasn’t there she was at home working. On top of that, a few wolves had trusted her and began to seek her counsel about health-related problems.

But she hadn’t been overwhelmed or annoyed by the added pressure. No, Grace had responded with joy and leadership, already making notes about the creation of a Cascadia walk-in-care clinic at the Pack house in Queen Anne.