She made no reply, so finally he turned to my mom. “If you see any sign of infection, start her on these.” The doc twisted to show her another, larger bottle of pills on the nightstand. “Twice a day, with food.”

My mother nodded, then looked past him when she noticed me in the doorway. “Are you leaving?”

“Yeah.” I crossed my arms over my chest and leaned against the doorway. “Jace is coming with us, but we’ll be back on Saturday…” For the funeral. “No matter what we find.” Then, if we hadn’t found Marc, Jace would join the offensive push into his birth Pride’s territory, and I’d return to Mississippi to search for Marc. And I would not stop until he was found, one way or another.

Dr. Carver stood, and looked from me to Manx, then back at me, as if he were trying to make an important decision. “I think Manx is okay here with your mother, and I’m on my way to check on Kaci now. But I’d like to get another look at Jace’s arm after he Shifts, and you’ll need me if you do find Marc alive.” The doctor flinched when he heard his own frank doubt, but I waved off his apology before he could voice it. He had a right to his own opinions, and could hardly be expected to put aside years of medical training to indulge my emotional optimism. “So anyway, if your dad says it’s okay, I’ll go with you.”

Gratitude swept through me, easing the ache in my heart like balm on a bad burn. Marc would have a much better chance of survival once we’d found him, with Dr. Carver there to care for him. “Thank you.” I spun around to head for the office, but my father spoke up softly before I’d gone three steps.

“It’s fine, Faythe. But be careful, all of you.”

“We will, Daddy! Thanks!”

I turned toward my room and the bag I’d already packed, and nearly jumped out of my skin when I found Kaci staring at me from the hallway outside her own door, her tail twitching with displeasure. She watched me silently, accusing me with her eyes of abandoning her again.

I sighed and motioned for her to follow me, but she only shook her head and ducked back into her own room, nosing her door shut. I scowled and started to go after her, but stopped when I recognized the pained grunts and rapid breathing that ushered in a Shift. She was Shifting on her own, and would come talk to me in a few minutes, when she’d regained the ability to complain with an articulation especially well honed in adolescents.

In my room, I double-checked my duffel to make sure I wasn’t missing anything, then threw in another pair of jeans and underwear, just in case. Moments later, Kaci shoved open my door, still buttoning her jeans beneath the hem of a tee she’d put on backward. “You’re leaving again!?”

“I have to find Marc, Kaci.” I zipped my bag and settled it over one shoulder. “You don’t want me to leave him out there all alone, do you?”

She shook her head slowly, but her angry expression conceded nothing. “Jace is going with you? What about Ethan? Is everyone leaving me?”

The accusation in her tone broke my heart, but the ignorance in her question seared my soul. No one had told her about Ethan. She needed to know, but I didn’t want to upset her right before I left. And if I didn’t tell her, she’d know soon that I’d lied to her by omission, and she’d never trust me again.

The sigh that slipped from me as I sank onto the bed seemed to empty not just my entire body, but the whole room, leaving nothing for me to breathe. I let my bag slide to the floor and patted a spot on the mattress next to me.

“What’s wrong?” Kaci watched me warily as she sat, and I could almost see the armor go up behind her expression.

How the hell was I supposed to tell her my brother had died defending her?

“Kaci…” I stopped, blinking to deny fresh tears. “Ethan got hurt in the woods this morning. Hurt very badly. My dad and I tried to help him, but there was nothing we could do.” I swallowed thickly, staring into the denial rapidly forming on her face. “He died, Kaci.”

“Ethan…?” She shook her head, curls bouncing around her shoulders, eyes wide and pain filled. “The toms who tried to take me killed him?” I nodded, and her head shook harder. “No. I just saw him. He told Jace to take me back to the house, and he had a really big stick. And he knows how to fight….”

“It’s okay to be upset. It’s even okay to be really, really pissed. We all are. This should never have happened.” My tears blurred my vision, then fell to scald my cheeks. As did hers.

“Why didn’t anyone tell me?”

My arm slid around her back, and I squeezed her tightly. “We didn’t want to upset you.”

“Where is he?”

I blinked at her for a moment, surprised by a question I hadn’t expected. “He’s, um, in the barn.” Where the temperature was low enough to preserve him until Dr. Carver could tend to him with his primary area of expertise. Because Ethan would be given a proper, if private, burial.

Kaci wiped moisture from her face with the tail of her shirt. “Can I see him?”

I shook my head slowly. Ethan’s was not a peaceful death, and she should not have to see it. “Not until the funeral on Saturday. We’ll all get to say goodbye to him then.”

“Except Marc.” She frowned, bothered by the sudden realization. “You have to find him. He should be here to say goodbye to Ethan.”

My chest seemed to constrict around my heart, and dull pain echoed throughout my body. Kaci had only briefly met Marc in Montana, before he was exiled, but she’d been with us long enough to understand the bond between enforcers, especially those who’d served together as long as ours had. They were closer than brothers, and the loss would affect all of us deeply, even the guys who weren’t related to Ethan by blood.