My Defender(45)

Ellie stared. "Is this a hospital?"

"Yup." Keegan nodded.

"You all built an entire hospital last night?"

Keegan laughed. "It's not that big and nowhere near as fancy as some of the human hospitals I've seen, but I think we managed to get all the basics." He pointed to the first floor. "There are three floors. We set up the first floor for all the patients. We made little alcoves for the hospital beds that have electricity so that all the individual monitoring machines could be plugged in. Sulis was able to grab thirty beds, so we have fifteen on each side. At the back of the first floor, we installed some industrial sized washers and dryers. We had to spell the pipes to make sure the water got hot enough to disinfect. That was not a fun thing to figure out at two in the morning, let me tell you." He raised his arm. "The second floor has some private rooms for anyone who needs to crash but can't leave, a small lab, and some test machines." He pointed to the top floor. "So far that's empty, so we set it up for storage for the extra mattresses, linens, gowns, and beds. We got enough supplies that in a pinch the hospital could take in as many as one hundred patients." He grinned. "Overkill I know, but you should have seen the twins last night, we actually expanded the hospital twice to keep them busy." He scratched his chin. "We couldn't figure out how to do an elevator, so we installed a mini-tunnel that's large enough for gurneys and the machines." He shook his head. "I had no idea it was so complicated to get sick. Humans have it rough."

Ellie still couldn't believe that they had created a hospital out of thin air in a single night. "This is amazing!" she gushed.

Keegan blushed and nodded to where warriors were still carrying things into the building. "We're just about done. Some of the vendors have already volunteered for food and laundry detail so you can concentrate on the kiddos."

Ellie was about to hug Keegan when a long tortured wail echoed throughout the level. Ellie's blood froze as all movement around them stopped. An anguished howl followed the wail and catapulted everyone into motion.

Ellie and Grant ran back to the children. They slammed open the front door and stormed through the house. When they reached the courtyard, they watched in horror as Susan Garcia shifted to her wolf. Her sobbing mate wrapped his arms around her body to keep her from hurting herself.

Ellie ran and fell to the floor beside Clara. When she reached out to check for a pulse, a hand stopped her. She looked up and her grandmother's eyes were full of sorrow as she shook her head.

"She's gone, Eleanor." Slowly, her grandmother pulled the sheet up to cover the tiny girl's face. Around them the sobs and sounds of weeping seemed to magnify as the final gesture made the nightmare a reality for the small wolf pack. Susan howled her grief, and her pack answered her cries. Gently, Tobias picked up his mate and stood. When he looked down at her, his eyes were lifeless as if all his joy had left with his daughter's last breath. "Thank you Doc."

"What? But I..." Ellie couldn't understand. Why was he thanking her?

"Because of your help, she wasn't in any pain. If you hadn't come, her final days would have been filled with confusion and fear. Thank you for her peace." His voice broke, and he couldn't speak anymore. He turned and headed toward the house to be alone with his mate in their grief.

Ellie felt detached. Clinically, she knew she was in shock, but she also knew she couldn't afford it. Not right now. She stood and looked around. "We need to move the children as quickly as possible to the hospital and get them hooked up to the monitoring machines."

When Grant started to wrap an arm around her, she stepped back. She looked up. "I can't. If you touch me, I'll fall apart, and I can't right now."

Grant nodded. "What do you need?"

She looked down at the sheet-covered body. "Ellie, I'll take care of her," her grandmother said.

"Thank you." She swallowed against the knot in her throat and turned to Grant. "Can you help organize the warriors to get the children moved while I start checking vitals?" She took a deep breath.

"Of course." She could tell he was fighting the urge to hold her. "We'll be okay Ellie," he said softly.

She looked at the Garcia's back door. "They won't be. They never will be okay again."

She walked away because if she stayed much longer, she would throw herself into her mate's arms. Squaring her shoulders, she started helping the scared children around her.





*****





Grant watched as his mate walked toward the first cot and immediately started to calm both the child and the parents.

Marjoram stepped beside him. "I need to ask a favor."