Heartbeats

            I ran out of the underground shelter and called for Changmin, Kangin, Eunhyuk, and Donghae.  I never bothered stopping to wait for them, I just kept running.  Eunhyuk was fastest to catch up to me and began following me down paths leading away from the den and towards the orchards.  “Ryeowook and his niece went berry picking today outside of town, near the orchards, southwest of the den.  If they managed to stay hidden from the attackers, they could be anywhere in the vicinity.  It’s even possible he would have fled the area with her.”

            “I’m going to change.  I can cover more ground and sniff him out better that way,” Eunhyuk said, stopping to strip off his clothes.  I kept running, but he quickly outran me once he changed into wolf form and started howling for Donghae to join him as he headed into the woods.  A minute later, Donghae rushed past me in wolf form as well, quickly catching up to his best friend.  Kangin eventually caught up to me when I stopped near the orchards. 

            “What?” he asked, looking around.  He held out a dagger with blood on it.  Clearly the woods weren’t clear of lingering attackers yet.

            “I hear crying,” I said, holding up my hand to silence him.  Sure enough, I heard quiet sobbing and went in search of the source.  The orchard was vast, as it had to feed a large group of people, but I eventually found a little girl, dirty and balled up among the trees.  I walked over to her slowly, trying not to startle her.  “Amber?”

            She looked up from crying into her knees, eyes wide and watery.  I recognized her the moment she looked at me.  I’d danced with her before at one of the dinner’s hosted by their pack.  Ryeowook refused to let me dance with his siblings, but little Amber was an exception he willingly allowed.

            “Do you remember me?  I’m Kyuhyun.  I’m Uncle Wook’s friend.”

            Amber nodded. 

            “It isn’t safe for you to stay here alone.  Will you come with us?  We will bring you to your Uncle Siwon.”

            She stood up and rushed over to me, wrapping her arms around me and crying some more. 

            I crouched down to her level.  “Did something happen to you?”

            She nodded and my stomach felt queasy at the thought of what might have happened to her and Ryeowook.  She was still very close to the den.  Alpha soldiers could sometimes pick up the scent of an omega from that distance.

            “Can you tell me what happened?” 

            “A bad man with a sword found us,” she said, still crying.

            “What did he do?” I asked.  I didn’t want to know the answer, but I had to know.

            “Uncle Wook told me to run.  We both ran in different directions,” she said. 

            Of course, the attacker would go after the pregnant omega, especially if he thought Ryeowook might be from the den.  A little beta girl was of no consequence.  She couldn’t reproduce and would probably outrun the soldier.  But what were the odds that Ryeowook outran them?  He was not very far along in his pregnancy and was fairly athletic, but that didn’t mean the attacker was alone either.

            I hugged Amber and picked her up into my arms as I stood up.  From what I could tell, she was the only older child who’d survived the attack.  Siwon would be relieved to find that his eldest niece was still alive.

            “Do you want me to take her back to Siwon for you?” Kangin offered.

            Amber tightened her arms around my neck and whined.

            “I don’t think she’s going to let me out of her sight until she sees her uncle,” I told him.  She’d already been through enough trauma.  I wasn’t about to hand her off to a stranger, even if Kangin would take good care of her.  “Amber, where did you see Uncle Wook last?”

            Before she could answer me, I heard two howls in the distance.  Eunhyuk and Donghae had found Ryeowook, but their howling sounded a little panicked and urgent.  Kangin and I headed that direction as fast as we could, but our progress was slowed by the eight-year-old I had clinging to me and the rough terrain we found ourselves walking over.  We were not on a path as we followed Donghae’s periodic howling.  Eunhyuk must have changed forms already and I wondered about that.  Was that a good sign or a bad sign?

            We ended up going up a steep incline to get to them and I had to pass Amber up to Kangin for a moment, which frightened her a little, but she calmed down the moment I climbed up and picked her up again.  At that point, I wondered if I shouldn’t have brought her to Siwon first.  My curiosity to see if Ryeowook was okay had overridden my reasoning.  If he was dead, Amber would be even more upset.  So, when we came up to the others, I approached cautiously.

            Changmin had beat us to them—not a surprise, given we had a child with us—and held up a hand.  “Leave the girl there,” he warned.

            I felt my eyes water, knowing that wasn’t a good sign.  “Can you stay with Kangin a moment, Amber?  I will be right where you can see me,” I promised, my voice cracking a little despite trying to sound confident.  I pointed to where the others were crouched. 

            She nodded and I passed her over to Kangin, who nodded to me encouragingly.

            As I approached, there were three bodies on the ground.  I recognized two of them as Ryeowook, who was covered in blood, and his youngest alpha brother, who had a stab wound to his stomach, also a bloody mess.  The other was an attacker.  I instantly began to tear up.

            “It’s not Ryeowook’s blood.  He’s alive,” Changmin quickly told me.  “His brother landed on him and bled all over him.”

            I knelt down beside Ryeowook, whose head was being supported by Eunhyuk.  There was a gash on his head and another nasty one on his arm, either from a blade or from running through the forest fast and hitting something hard.  Eunhyuk handed him over to me and I cradled him in my arms, bending down to kiss his cheek.  I was so relieved to see him.  Nothing could have made me happier in that moment.

            “Is he going to be okay?”

            “I don’t know yet.  I think he must have hit his head on the rock.  He’s out cold,” Changmin said, pointing to what was actually a small boulder.  “There must have been a fight between these two.  Both gave each other mortal wounds, but the younger one here probably took a little while to die from his.  Most of the blood on Ryeowook is from his wound.”

            “That’s Ryeowook’s youngest brother,” I told them.  “He must have come to Ryeowook’s defense.  He wasn’t originally with them.  Amber said the attacker found them in the forest and chased after Ryeowook while she got away.”

            “He traded his life for Ryeowook’s and the pups,” Changmin informed me.  “Even if I’d have made it here before he died, I wouldn’t have been able to save him.”

            Changmin moved back over to where I was sitting with Ryeowook.  “Are the pups okay?”

            “I won’t know that without some equipment.  If he starts bleeding, we’ll know he’s miscarrying.  Otherwise, I don’t have an ultrasound machine handy,” he pointed out, getting a little snarky with me.  “I will need to clean his wounds once we get back into town so they don’t get infected though.  His arm might need stitches.  Hopefully he’ll come to in a little while, otherwise, we might have to figure out how we’re going to get nutrients in him.  He can go longer without food than the pups can.”

            “But you think he’ll wake up?” I questioned.

            Changmin shook his head.  “I just don’t have an answer for you, Kyu.  I hoped he would wake up when Eunhyuk and I started calling out his name.  He could come to in a few minutes, he could be in a coma for days, or he may not wake up at all.  It’s too early to tell.  I don’t have the proper equipment with me to give him a brain scan and