Pleading his case

“Let’s go inside and check on the injured,” she told him, starting towards the entrance. “There was wolf poison in the smoke. Everybody could be affected.” Before they could get inside the hall, Thomas’s voice reached them, groaning Eleanor’s name. Eleanor stopped and looked towards him. The smoke had dissipated, and she could see him lying on the floor a few paces away. Thomas had expected Eleanor to check on him because they had been together when the explosion happened. But when she recovered, she only cared about Henry. Henry, who hadn’t been near the blast site. She had completely ignored him, even if he had shielded her from the worst of the explosion. And now, she wanted to go and help others inside the hall while he lay on the floor with a back on his injury. He had thought the injury would heal quickly as usual, but it still hurt as much as it did right after the explosion happened. “Help me,” he called, looking at her. “I’m not healing.” She stopped and looked at him, then turned to Henry. “Go inside first, I’ll check his wound.” Instead of going inside, Henry stepped between them. “He is an Alpha, he’ll be okay. He just wants an excuse to be alone with you.” “Why don’t you take a look for yourself?” Thomas snapped, pushing himself to a sitting position. He propped his shoulder against the wall with his back facing them. “Does that look like it’s healing to you?” Eleanor looked at the wound. It wouldn’t kill him, but he was right. It should be healing already. But it was just as raw and bloody as it must have been right after impact. She put her hand on Henry’s arm and pulled him away. Now, she was even more curious about Jonathan and his motive. Did his attack have anything to do with Thomas’s wound not healing? Perhaps he had carried out such an attack before? “Do you know a man by the name Jonathan Turner?” she asked him. Henry’s eyebrows pulled together as recognition flashed across his face. For a second, she thought he would say yes. But maybe she had imagined the look on his face because a second later, he shook his head and said, “No. Why?” “He is the man who accused Sophia falsely,” she told him. “I remembered his name. I saw him after the blast. He was down the hallway, just watching and doing nothing to help. I went after him but he disappeared right after. I think he could be responsible for this attack.” Henry’s frown deepened. “Sounds like it.” “He could also be the one responsible for the attack on your pack,” Eleanor added. “What does he want? First your pack, and then meddling with my pack’s affairs, and then this. Is he targeting everyone? What is he going to do next after this?” “I don’t think we can work that out right now,” Henry said. “But if he’s really the same man in all three cases, we need to do something. This could be something bigger than we think. For now, though, let’s see how the others are faring.” She nodded. He was right. It would take a lot of investigative work to unearth Jonathan’s origin and his involvement in the attacks. Since Henry didn’t know him, it meant his identity was well hidden. “I have to look at Thomas’s wound and make sure it’s not serious,” she told him. “I’ll join you inside later.” “Someone else can take a look at him,” Henry said. “I don’t want you anywhere near him.” “If anything happens to him, Blackstorm will suffer, and I can’t have that,” she told him. “We can’t lose our Alpha when there’s a mysterious attacker running around like this. Don’t worry, he can’t do anything to me.” Henry clenched his jaw. He didn’t like it, but she was right. It was Thomas she had divorced, not the pack. She was still responsible for Blackstorm and soon, she’d be solely in charge of almost half of the pack members. Before that was settled, it was best to keep the pack as stable as possible. He couldn’t meddle in her decisions regarding that, so no matter how much he knew Thomas was just whining so she could give him her attention, he’d let it be. Besides, Eleanor was right. He couldn’t do anything to her. Henry would conveniently forget all about Blackstorm’s stability if the man so much as put a hand on her. “Fine,” he said, wrapping his arm around her. “Do what you have to.” He kissed her on the forehead and then released her. After Henry went back into the hall, Eleanor got to her knees and inspected Thomas’s wound. His jacket and shirt were ruined. It looked as if a blast of heat had seared right through the garments and onto his skin. There were also small pieces of glass embedded in the bloody flesh. She started pulling them out carefully, one by one. “Thank you,” Thomas said as she continued pulling out the pieces. “At least you still care about whether I die or not.” “Don’t flatter yourself,” she told him. “I’m doing this for our pack.” He turned his head, trying to have a good look at her face. “You are right. It’s our pack, Eleanor. Me and you. We promised to do this together, to make Blackstorm the best of the best. It’s not too late to take back what you’ve done.” Eleanor bit her wrist and dripped her blood on the wound, but there was little improvement. “I thought you’d know better than anyone that I’m not so shifty with my decisions.” “You are right. I know you better than anyone. I also love you more than anyone. If you would just forget my mistakes, we could start afresh.” Aware of eyes on her, Eleanor turned and found Henry watching them. He was tending to an injured werewolf near the entrance, and the look he was giving Thomas suggested he wanted to come back and rip his throat out. “I told you he just wanted an excuse to plead his case,” he told her through their mindlink. Eleanor sighed. “It’s not going to get him anywhere. Focus on your patient, Henry.” He growled in displeasure but turned his attention back to the injuries he was treating. Shortly after, he moved farther away to tend to another werewolf. Eleanor could finally focus on Thomas’s back without worrying Henry would come out of nowhere and give him an even worse wound.