Solace for Silver: Wolves of Solara Book 3 Read online

  Solace for Silver

  Wolves of Solara Book 3

  Charlie Tran

  Copyright © 2018 by Charlie Tran

  All rights reserved.

  No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems, without written permission from the author, except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.

  This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, brands, media, and incidents are either the product of the author’s imagination or used fictiously.

  Created with Vellum

  Contents

  1. Silver

  2. Lucas

  3. Silver

  4. Lucas

  5. Silver

  6. Lucas

  7. Silver

  8. Lucas

  9. Silver

  10. Lucas

  11. Silver

  12. Silver

  13. Lucas

  14. Silver

  15. Silver

  16. Lucas

  17. Lucas

  18. Silver

  Mailing List

  1

  Silver

  My forehead pressed against the tinted window in the back of the cab, the window's glass cool against my burning skin. I was so hot, not only from the heat that the taxi driver was blasting throughout the vehicle to keep us both warm, but from Jude's snide comments. I couldn't believe he would make such stupid jokes about Lucas and me, especially since he knew what had happened between us. Although, as far as he knew, it hadn't occurred again since he had last walked in on us hooking up.

  I was chewing on my bottom lip, watching the rest of the world pass by in a blur as we grew closer to the hospital in downtown Solara. I could have walked., It wasn't that far away from Jude's condo, but it was freezing. I had stormed out of the high rise without a thought to the weather outside, and now I’d had to spend the last few dollars Jude had given me for a ride.

  Suddenly, the taxi came to a stop, causing me to jerk forward and off the window. On the opposite side of the car, I saw the entrance to the main area of the hospital where I'd been many times to see Alfie and when waiting for Forest when he had been admitted for his emergency cesarean.

  “All right, we're here,” the wolf driving grunted, reaching to the center of his dashboard to tap his claw against the meter that tracked the miles he had driven. “That'll be ten dollars, twenty-one cents.”

  “Here,” I said, reaching into my pocket to pull out eleven bucks. I slapped the bills into his extended hand and made my way out of the vehicle. Nodding to his mumbled thanks, I was barely able to get the door shut before he took off to find his next call that early evening.

  “Shit, it's cold.” I rubbed my hands against my shoulders, each breath pouring out a thick white billowing cloud into the air. I didn't wait long, hustling inside to the waiting room ahead of me. The doors slid open as soon as I stepped on the mat out front, and I was welcomed into the somewhat cold waiting room. It was massive, unlike the emergency waiting area. To the right was a gift shop with flowers placed all around the windows, balloons, and more hanging inside. To the left, an arrow pointed toward the hospital's cafeteria and cafe. A hot coffee sounded good right now, but I had somewhere to be, somewhere that was solace for me now.

  As I passed the small round tables of orderly workers, they gave me waves, and cheerful smiles adorned their wrinkled faces.

  “Hey there, Silver. Up to see your friend again?”

  I nodded, waving at them as I walked on by toward the elevators, “Sure am. Have a good shift.”

  They nodded in response, returning to the phone calls they were answering and tapping at their computer keyboards. I could hear their fingers blazing across the keys as I entered the nearby elevator, its doors already open as a few others were getting out. I breezed past them, entering all by my lonesome self, the doors remaining parted in case anyone else should join me inside.

  After several seconds, they began to slide closed, and I tapped the button in the corner that would take me to the ninth floor where the ICU was located.

  I wished I could have brought some flowers with me to place inside Alfie's room, but they weren't allowed up there. I stared at the mirrored walls as I waited for the slow-moving elevator to take me up. In the back of my mind, Jude's words were still picking at me, no matter how much I tried to push them out.

  Damn Jude. He was such an ass of an Alpha sometimes, but he had been taking care of Lucas and me for a while. Even when we had worked part-time beforehand, Jude was always our savior. I couldn't remember exactly what he did for a living, just that it involved trading stocks, something that I'd never be able to understand.

  A dinging sound brought me out of my wandering thoughts, the elevator doors sliding open for me to exit. I had walked this way so many times, it wasn't that hard to find my way into the ICU. It was a zig-zag path that led me through another waiting room, past more desks where no one was sitting, and beyond the vending machines and water fountains. Before pressing the button to buzz me into the closed unit, I tried the handle first. Thankfully, it was still unlocked for the day. Inside were tons of nurses sitting around at their desks or walking in and out of rooms, carrying on their never-ending duties.

  Some threw me curious looks as I entered, but otherwise, they didn't pay any attention to me. Most of them knew who I was, so my presence wasn't as questioned as it had been the first few times I’d visited. I had come in to see my pack mate. He was in the seventh room at the end of the first hallway to the right, close to the fire exit stairs. As I reached for the handle, the door suddenly swung open.

  “Shit! You scared me.” I laughed, seeing Dr. Clark’s familiar face as he exited the room. He smiled, pushing his glasses up the bridge of his nose.

  “Hi there, Silver. I'm sorry for frightening you.” He nodded politely, leaving the door open as he walked away toward another room. I reached out to grab at the sleeve of his white coat. “Any change?” I asked, desperation apparent in my voice. “He still doing all right? Better? Worse?” I hurled my questions at him quickly, knowing that he was a busy man.

  The smile on his face waned slightly, and his expression turned tight-lipped and forced as he placed his hands into his pockets.

  “As far as I can tell, he seems to be remaining stable. He's not getting any worse, but...”

  “I see. Thanks, Dr. Clark,” I said, turning away and entering the room, gently shutting the door behind me. I didn’t need to hear any more. I knew what he was telling me was that things weren’t getting any better. The lights were a bit dimmed, but it wouldn't matter to Alfie if they were bright on or not. I looked him over. He was lying motionless with tubes entering every part of his body, practically swarming him with how many there were covering his limbs underneath the thick blanket atop his body.

  “Hey there, Alfie,” I said softly as though my voice would disturb his sleep. I made my way to his side, looking down at him. It looked like he was sleeping peacefully rather than comatose. I placed the backs of my knuckles against his cheek, lightly touching his face before moving my fingers through his hair, brushing it away from the sides of his face.

  It never got any easier seeing him like this, always hoping and wishing that he would wake up while I was here. That he would just sit up like nothing had happened and start cracking jokes all the time like he used to do.

  “You'll never guess what happened.” I kept talking as I moved to the other side of the room, grabbing one of the wooden chairs to the side and dragging it closer to the side of his bed. I sat down on it, and grabbed for his hand, squeezing it in my palms wit
h a smile.

  “Remember how I told you that Forest had a baby? Well, they're staying with us now. We're one big pack together. I can't wait for you to see Willow. He's so cute, but he is always hungry, and he cries a lot. Sometimes he smells as bad as you do.” I laughed, holding back the building urge to scream.

  The first few times I saw him like this, I cried. I would have tried to shake him awake if it weren't for Lucas holding me back. But lately, all I wanted to do was shout at him to wake the fuck up and stop playing around.

  But I swallowed my fury, giving his hand an even tighter squeeze as I kept talking.

  “I wish we could all live together, you too, and be happy again, like how things were before Club Mega. We could even be roommates! I'm sick of sleeping in a room with Lucas anyway. All he does his snore and fart all night. Actually, I think maybe you two should share a room instead. You guys are so alike.” I chuckled.

  “Those Brotherhood guys are still bothering us, too. I wasn't at the party, you know since I was here talking your ear off as usual. Sorry. But they told me it was nuts. If you were there, I bet you would have torn those assholes apart. You're like Jude, always there to protect the pack when we need you. I can't wait for the Grey Brotherhood to all drop dead, you know? Maybe when they're behind bars you'll feel safe enough to wake up. Won't you?”

  I stared at his peaceful face, waiting and wishing that he would say something back to me, knowing that my wishes would go unfulfilled.

  “I wonder if you can even hear me. If you could, I bet you wish I would shut up already. I'm always blabbering about my problems. Or maybe you like it? Should I be asking about how you're feeling if you can hear me?”

  I continued to stare, chewing on my bottom lip and watching the machines he was hooked up to as they breathed for him and monitored his vital signs, his chest rising and lowering steadily with an unnatural movement.

  “I wish you would just wake up, already.” I frowned, gritting my teeth, that urge to scream building up inside of me again.

  “Why won't you just wake up?” I asked him, as though he was just going to awaken and answer my question. As if he had been fooling around all this time, pretending not to hear me. But it wasn't going to happen. And, as much as I didn't want to admit it, it might never happen. I might never hear my friend's voice again. Never have him rescue me when Lucas had me in a headlock. Never have him sit and listen to me blabber on and on about my problems like I was doing right now.

  He'd always tell me to suck it up and give me a hug or a light jab to the shoulder when I'd bitch about Lucas' teasing.

  A tear began to slide down my cheek, and I flinched, releasing Alfie's hand to brush it away.

  “Fuck, I'm such a baby. I think I'm worse than Forest,” I joked, but I couldn't laugh as more tears began to pour down my face.

  “Please, Alfie. Please wake up. I can't stand this anymore.” The tears began to fill my eyes even more. I hadn't cried in a while, and it was embarrassing to act so childish about this, but I couldn't help it.

  “Please.” I whispered, begging him again, my voice cracking. I sat, waiting. Wishing. Silence was the only thing he offered in return.

  2

  Lucas

  I slammed the taxi door behind me, grunting at the brief pain in my shoulder that pierced through my arm. I can't believe that I had actually gotten shot, but damn was I grateful that it hadn't pierced through anything important like a major artery or whatever. Jude said it was a clean shot, in and out, and that I should be thankful for that. He had patched me up on his own, even sewing the front and back holes shut with whatever was in his first aid kit.

  Although his sewing job was pretty shoddy, I was glad I wasn't going to need a hospital to do it for me. I hated hospitals and the sickness you could smell as soon as you went inside. I was also kinda cheap, so Silver had told me, and I didn't want to pay hundreds of dollars for someone to do something that my Alpha could do for free.

  The scarring was going to be pretty ugly, but it should heal up within a week. Thank the Gods I wasn't a human who'd need a month or more to get over such trauma. I shook in the cold, buttoning up my jacket to cover my bare torso as I entered the waiting room. My head jerked left and right, looking around to see who was there.

  After everything that had happened tonight, I was still pretty on edge, but I had to find Silver and tell him what had happened. I needed to make sure that he was doing okay. There were security guards sitting at the round table to the side instead of the old wolves who usually were there in the daytime. One of them looked me over and crooked a finger beckoning me to come closer.

  “You, what are you here for?” he asked casually, leaning back in his rolling chair. I rolled my eyes, walking closer toward him and leaning with my elbows across the top of the desk as I stared at him with an unamused look.

  “I'm here to go up to the ICU.”

  “Who are you visiting?” he questioned. The other security guard glanced at me from over his shoulder with a look that matched my own, though a bit more irritated. Assholes.

  “Alfie. I haven't been here in a while, but I've visited a couple of times before.”

  “You know that the ICU's visiting hours are ending soon. You won’t have more than five minutes to visit by the time you get up there.”

  “And?” I made a face before smiling cheesily, showing my slightly extended fangs, though in a non-threatening way.

  He didn't say anything more, though I did catch him glancing at my shoulder. He must have smelled the blood there, but at least he didn't persist, instead turning back to the computer desk. I pushed off of the top of the desk, heading straight toward the elevators. I pressed the up button, tapping my foot with my arms crossed as I waited impatiently for it to arrive.

  After finally making it to the ninth floor, I bee-lined straight toward Alfie's room. I could see the lights were dimmed through the part of the room that was visible through the glass, the rest covered by a thick white curtain. There were a few nurses around, but they didn't say much to me as I walked in or even throw me a look. They seemed to be more involved in their own work than in my presence, which I didn't mind either way. I didn't need more people trying to pester me while I was looking for Silver.

  Without knocking on the door to Alfie's room, I gently swung it open so as to not surprise anyone who might be inside. There he was, laying his head down on the bed next to Alfie's hips while holding onto his hands.

  I let out a sigh of relief, thankful that he had been here all night and had yet to leave. After taking out our revenge on Declan and that fucktard Detective Evan, I was glad to see Silver looking so peaceful and blissfully unaware of what had happened tonight. To be honest, Declan's threat about attacking one of our pack mates brought out a bit of fear within me. Jason thought he was bluffing about Forest-or even George. I thought it could possibly be Silver. Glad that the old man was talking out of his ass. I approached Silver quietly, pressing a hand against the top of his silvery white hair, playing with a few of the split ends between my fingers.

  “Wake up, Silver,” I whispered, scratching at his scalp to stir him out of his slumber. He snorted a bit, drool dripping from the corner of his mouth. He must have been pretty tired to be sleeping so heavily. I almost felt bad about waking him up, but I needed to.

  “Babe,” I said, placing a hand to his shoulder to gently shake him from his sound sleep His eyes fluttered open at the bit of movement, and he smacked his lips as he sat up slightly, his lids half closed as he gazed up towards me.

  “Mm... Lucas?” he mumbled. I bent over to place a kiss against his temple. Without the rest of the pack around, I was free to actually show affection. We'd been keeping our relationship a secret for so long. The only one who knew about it was Alfie, although recently I'd been suspecting that Jude was starting to catch on. Especially with our constant lovers’ quarrels. Everyone had been noticing those extreme mood swings of Silver’s. They'd been even worse these past two weeks.


  “You've been here all day?” I asked as Silver stretched his arms over his head with a deep yawn. He rubbed the sleep out of his eyes, “Yeah. What have you been... hey. What's that smell?”

  Almost instantly his eyes were wide, and he was suddenly wide awake as he sniffed out toward me, grabbing onto my arm. I pulled it back instinctually from the pain that shot through it and cradled it against me.

  “Your arm! What happened? You're bleeding!” he shouted, rising to his feet and placing his hands against my covered bicep. I shrugged, tilting my head to the side and staring down at him. It was cute to see him so concerned.

  “Worried about me, huh?”

  “Of course, I am.” He pouted, rubbing his fingers up and down on my arm to soothe me.

  “Everything is fine,” I reassured him, placing a hand to his head again to ruffle up his hair some more.

  “Just tell me.” He stamped his foot, and I couldn't hold back my smile.

  “We went and found Declan, that's all.”

  “And he hurt you? What did he do? I'll fight him.” It was adorable how determined he was to protect me, despite not being anywhere near capable to protect himself from me when I'd pull him into a headlock and grind my knuckles into his scalp.

  “Don't worry, Jason took him out. And that fuckin' Detective Evan was there with him. They'd been working together the whole time.”

  “A-are you serious? I can't believe it.” He stared straight into my eyes to determine whether I was lying.

  “I'm serious. But he's dead now-both of them. There's nothing else to worry about.”