"Good morning," I announced my entrance into the kitchen.

Evander froze for a second before turning around and leaning himself against the countertop with his muscular hands folded across his chest.

Cue the butterflies.

"It's two in the evening," he smirked. I rolled my eyes and walked further into the kitchen, looking around for food since I was starving. "Where is everyone?" I asked since the house was awfully quiet since I woke up a half hour ago. I only decided to brush my teeth and come downstairs since I was hungry.

"Work, I addressed the pack this morning," Evander mumbled, seeming too distracted so I turn slightly to see his eyes on my ass. "Eyes up here, buddy," I playfully scoffed. His eyes ran up my body as I fully turned around to face him.

"All mine," he whispered before taking a few steps so he was in front of me, our chests nearly touching and Evander wasted no time placing his hands around my waist. "What did you talk to them about?" I asked, trying not to blush.

"Uh the video," he answered, pulling my waist closer to him. "And what did they say?" I asked cautiously, feeling a little bit scared of his pack's reaction. "They told that I owe it to them to find my mate," he whispered, a hand on my cheek with his eyes looking deep into mine.

My lips parted to speak while my heart continued to do backflips when the door opened, grabbing both of our attentions. Brandon and Jayden burst through the door with sweat dripping down their foreheads with shock and panic radiating off their bodies. "We found Everest!" Brandon screamed, his eyes darted to Evander.

His body goes stiff," you did? How?" He asked, turning full alpha mode and I sighed, pulling away from him. "It's hard to explain but it's chaos at the hospital, she needs you, Rieka," Brandon quickly blurted out. I snapped my eyes to him consumed with curiosity.

"Why would a she-wolf need me?" I asked but then I remembered him saying something about the hospital. She must be hurt. My eyes widened and I quickly shut the fridge," take me to her."

"Not like that," Evander growled, looking down at my shorts and a black tank top. "I wear a coat Ev, I'll be fine," I assure him before following Brandon and Jayden into the car.

My eyes frantically looked around the hospital open room until they landed on William. His eyes found mine and he rushed to me. "I need a hospital bed!" I shout through the hospital, looking at the wounded girl in his arms. "Thank the goddess, I need you to help her, I don't know- I-I -please just save her. I need her to be okay," William panics as the doctors came rolling in with a portable bed on wheels.

What the hell was William doing here?

"She is going to be okay," I tried to assure him but the more I look at her twisted ankles and arms, I found it hard for me to believe. She was barely breathing. He set her almost body down on the hospital bed.

"Save her, Rieka, please," William whimpered.

"I will, I promise," I assure him but I knew he was still uneasy about this whole thing. Four doctors helped me to get her into a hospital room with William trailing behind her. A growl ripped through his chest when a male doctor was fixing her arms properly. "Rieka only," he tells them all.

"I'll take it from here, thank you," I tell the four of them before they disappeared and I worked on her body, finding out what the hell happened.

This was all so confusing.

Looking at her, I had no idea where to even begin. An annoyed sigh left my lips before I grabbed one of the disposable syringes that I used to get some of her blood to put it through testing.

"What are you doing?" William asked, his hands in fists to stop them from shaking. "I need to test her blood for any toxins," I tell him.

"I'll be right back okay?"

"Don't leave her," he growls. "It's only a walk down the hallway," I tell him before leaving. A doctor was already leaning on the wall outside of the room and pushed himself off the wall when he saw me coming out.

"Do you need help? I'm her brother's best friend," He quickly spoke. I smile at him," yes. Can you test this blood?" I hand him the syringe. He quickly accepted it," I'll be back in ten minutes."

I walked back into the room, William was still pacing around the room. I got to work with removing some of the dirt and dried up blood on her face. "Her lips are busted, her jaw had a small gash and she has a black swollen eye but it should be healed by tonight," I tell William.

The door busted open again and the familiar blondie who said he knew Everest stood at the door with William already glaring at him. "Thank you," I say, taking the file from him and he wasted no time in leaving.

"I need to filter out her blood, she has so many toxins in her, some of them I never even came across beside my study books," I tell William, reading over her blood analysis. He frantically looked at her busted body but nodded anyway.

"Just...save her," he begged.

I got to work with getting the needle into her veins as I ran more tests.

Ten more minutes later I came up with another verdict. "She is suffering from severe dehydration," I tell William again as I wrote it down on her file that was resting on the table beside her.

After inspecting her arms, I bite my lip hesitantly trying to finalize the conclusion before hesitantly looking up at William. His eyes were rooted in the girl, with so much worry and fright radiating off of him. I've never seen William like this. "She has silver burns," I concluded to him.

His eyes snapped to mine for a quick second before they look at the girl with soft eyes. I remembered her name being Everest. Everest Salone to be exact since it was written on her file. The picture that comes with it was her wearing a light blue cropped top and a mini skirt, showing off all of her curves and perfect skin.

She was beautiful alright, even covered in bruises.

Turning back to her, I moved onto her bones.

"A broken ankle, multiple times so it's going to take a week to heal, a broken elbow, three fractured ribs, four broken ribs, one broken wrist, bruised hips, her neck seemed to show signs of strangulation and choking, her wrists and ankles are blistered with ropes that I'm assuming were soaked in wolfsbane, and a couple broke fingers. I think they were hammered," I concluded sadly. I've never come across something so terrible.

"Wow, that's uh...that's a lot," William murmured, still wrapping his head around everything I just said.

"Can you tell me how she got like this?" He slowly asked, drawing her eyes to me. I sighed, not wanting to admit the obvious. She was definitely held captive by someone. I craved some water but I felt guilty to drink water when there was a patient suffering from dehydration in front of me.

"I think she was held captive but I can't tell for sure, that's just my opinion," I tell William, getting back to work on Everest.

I poured water into a bowl, mixing it with other cleaning supplies for her wounds. I knew she was going to need stitches for that gash on the back of her head if we wanted it to heal quickly but I held back on telling William that.

"What are you doing with that?" He asked, noticing me as I soaked the cotton in the cleaning mixture.

The door burst open to reveal Evander. His eyes frantically roam around the room before settling on me. He walked to me briskly, ignoring William's protest. I was about to say something but my body felt weak, my legs felt wobbly.

"Are you-" His words were cut off by my body failing and I felt so dizzy that I fall, not feeling my legs for a quick second. Evander wrapped his arms around my body and pulled me to his chest. "Are you okay? Of course, you're not. What's wrong?" He ranted, scoffing at himself.

I pull away, the black dots disappearing and I felt like I gained back control of my body. "I haven't eaten or drank anything in some hours, I'm fine," I brushed him off. Though it was more than twenty-four hours and I knew I was being unhealthy but Everest needed me.

"Hey, no," Evander grabbed my wrist and pulled me back to him, engulfing me in his comfort. "Brandon is bringing you something to eat," his hands brushed the hair away from my eye. I shut my eyes and a comforting sigh left my lips as he pressed his lips to my forehead.

"She said she is fine, let her go help Everest," William huffed, definitely ruining our moment. "How do you expect her to help her patient if she isn't fine herself?" Evander defended.

"I'm fine," I pull away again.

"Evander, I would like to request my leave by next week," William announced, taking us both by surprise. Next week? That's too soon. "What? You can't leave, you haven't found your mate yet," Evander objected. William stared at him like he had gone insane.

"So who the bloody hell do you think Everest is?" He growled out.

•••

Well, if it wasn't already obvious.