Forty-One

                                    

                                          
Red
"How'd it go earlier?"
            Red looked up, craning his neck as Adrian Blackstone's voice sounded behind him.   Wrinkles appeared around the former Alpha's brown eyes as the edges of his lips quirked up.  "Good.  It was really good."
            An understatement, really.  It was still hard to put into words what had transpired between him and Blake these past few hours.  The truths that had emerged.  
            She loved him.
            Red still didn't know what that meant.  Had no idea if she was planning on staying with him if they survived this whole ordeal but Blake was here.  She was with him and she loved him.  It was enough for now.  It had quieted the roaring in his ears, the fury and fear in his veins.  He was relieved for that most of all.  Finally, Red felt as if he were able to think straight.  To really focus on the task at hand.
            "Your Mate...She sure is something."  Adrian sat down on the porch steps next to Red and leaned back on his hands.  
They watched the forest beyond, the trees swaying in the wind.  Listened to the rustling of leaves.  Dusk was just beginning to fall, the sky starting to darken and pepper with stars.  Only a matter of time before the black of night was here completely.
"Yeah," Red agreed with half a smile, thinking of only a few hours earlier in his office.  Holding her, feeling her strong and steady heart beat in time with his.  "Something is probably the best word to describe Blake."
"Is she sleeping?" Adrian asked.  
Red nodded.  "We had a chat and then I took her to the clinic.  Amanda says she's got a mild concussion but she should be fine.  Blake is refusing to sit out of the coming conflict but I managed to convince her to get some sleep since she was practically dead on her feet.  She was up for almost twenty-four hours.  She'll likely be out of it for a while."
Probably a good thing, too.  She had looked so tired earlier that Red had nearly resorted to carrying her from the clinic to the house.  He would have had he not known that she would steadfastly refuse his help, especially as members of the pack had begun to congregate to catch a glimpse of her.  To see if it was true that the human had returned.
The rumors had already spread with Lucy and Monroe dispersing the most essential of information.  Blake could be trusted.  She was here to help.  She had brought the Alpha's daughter and all of their missing packmates home.
Some were understandably still leery but given the threat they were under, and the assurances from Phillip and Juliet that Blake had helped them, most seemed to be listening to the judgement of their Alphas.  
"Is she holding up okay?"
Red thought of Blake, fast asleep upstairs.  The way she'd curled up in one of his old sweatshirts on his bed, the dark curtain of her hair fanned out on the pillow.  Eyes closed and breathing even with a look of peace on her face.  Something inside of him had quieted at the sight of her, wrapped in his clothes, lying with her head on his pillow.
"As well as she can," Red said.  "Blake feels a lot of guilt over what's happened.  She saw Juliet getting her bandages changed earlier at the clinic and I think it was all she could do not to break down.  It will probably be a while before she stops punishing herself.  Right now, she has a task to focus on but once this is all over, it will be hard on her."
Adrian exhaled slowly.  "Did she tell you much about what happened in Idaho?"
"A little but not all of the details.  What I know lines up with what Juliet told us.  Blake confronted Malachi and fought with him to give Annalise and Juliet time to run.  She got hurt in the fight, blacked out and woke up in a cell sometime later.  They killed Chandra in front of her and then she said that there were humans, friends of hers, that helped her and Phillip escape."