Greykin Valley

| 4 | Debrief

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| Jackson |

Jackson held Damon's hand, trying his best to stay composed. But the Alpha's blood covered most of the floor, and there was no way to tell whether they were close to Silverlake or still in the middle of the forest.

"Damon?" he asked shakily as he watched Damon's eyes close. "You have to stay awake."

The Alpha grunted weakly in response.

"Can't we do anything?" Jackson pleaded, looking at Bly.

She shook her head. "The best we can do is hold him on his side like this until we get back to the Venaticus. They're going to need to have everything ready for surgery."

"Can you get that Lucian guy again?" Tokala asked, holding the radio out to Jackson. "Tell him what's going on."

Jackson nodded as he took the radio. He held it to his face and pressed the button on the side. "Uh...hello? Heir Lucian?"

There was no reply.

"Hello?!"

"Yeah, I'm here. What is it?" Heir Lucian replied.

"Uh...i-it's Damon. When we crashed, something impaled his back. Our Theta says he's gonna need surgery. Can you—"

"We've got a med team standing by already. Can you tell me more about his injury so the team can be better prepared?"

Jackson looked at Bly.

She took the radio from him. "From what I can see, there's a dagger through his lumbar region. He can't move and he's losing a lot of blood. If he's not in surgery in the next few minutes, he might bleed out," she explained quickly, shaking her head.

Her words struck Jackson with horror. A few minutes? Were they going to make it? He couldn't lose Damon—not now. Not because of this. Not because he'd dragged him and his pack out here on some stupid mission to find his friend.

"All right, we've got a neurologist on site. You're just a few moments out, so I'll see you all for debriefing soon," Lucian said as Bly handed the radio back to Jackson.

But Jackson didn't say anything else to him. He put the radio down and moved his free hand over his other one, which he was still holding onto Damon's hand with. "It's gonna be okay," he told the Alpha quietly. "We're almost there."

It would be okay, right? Damon was strong—he was an Alpha. He had to hold on. He had to make it. It was only a few more moments.

The van began descending; it felt a lot like an elevator moving to a lower floor, and when they landed, the van shook a little, and something clanged on the roof.

Several voices broke through the sound of the helicopter blades. Tokala and Wesley moved over to the back doors to push them open, but just as they reached them, the doors opened from the outside, and several soldiers peered in at everyone.

"There!" a woman in a white coat called, pointing at Damon. "Get him on the stretcher."

Two men hurried into the van; they ushered everyone away from Damon, and then they carefully picked the Alpha up and placed him on the stretcher.

"I wanna go with him!" Jackson insisted.

But that was when Sebastien appeared. He stood in front of the doors and set his eyes on Jackson. "You're coming with me." He looked down at Wilson, who was still unconscious. "Get him into an interrogation room."