They heard Colt outside of the room talking to Rosa. "I'm sure she's fine."
Rosa rushed into the room to check on her sister. "How is she?" She took hold of her hand and squeezed.
"The doctor said she's fine, but she might not be able to fight for a while, right, Doc?" Atreides didn't want her fighting any more battles for now.
"Yeah. I need to check on her again before I can declare her fit for fighting." The doc said, "I'll return if you need me in the meantime. Just let me know."
"Thanks, I will."
"I know we got all the rogue hunters, but would you mind if I stay here until Selena has recovered?" Rosa asked.
"Absolutely you can." He had planned to take care of her himself, but he wouldn't deny her sister's request to stay with them to watch Selena recuperate. If he needed to be away for clan business, he would leave some of his men with Rosa and Selena.
"Bernard said the other hunters saw a wolf chasing one of the rogue hunters and that's when the League hunters caught up with him," Rosa said.
"The wolf?" Selena said, stirring from her sleep.
"Ohmigod, Selena, how could you just run into the room and get shot up like that!" Rosa scolded her.
"I didn't realize they had guns until it was too late. Was it the wolf? Quail?" Selena asked, sounding drowsy.
"That's what Colt said. He saw him too when he was still in mist form and thought he was the same one that you had described. I wonder why he likes to show up as a wolf," Rosa said.
"Then he helped us at the last," Selena whispered.
Atreides kissed her forehead. "Sleep, Selena, we can talk about this later."
"Did we get all of them? Are Daniel and the two huntresses turned, and the other hunters all right?" she asked.
Atreides smiled at her. "They are all fine."
But Rosa was frowning.
"Who isn't fine?" Selena asked her sister.
"Daniel was shot, but he's going to be good. He wasn't hurt as badly as you. He was talking all the way to the car the other hunters carried him to. They figured they would meet a hunter ambulance on the way. It would be quicker that way."
"Okay, good."
"But naturally, he's worried about you." Rosa took a video of Selena. "Tell him something so he won't worry about you when he gets out of surgery."
"Hey, Daniel, thanks for coming to help us with this. Sorry you got shot too. Love you."
Then Rosa sent the video to their brother. "Now another for our parents. They are frantic, once they heard you were hit twice. And of course they wanted to know why I didn't protect you better, being the older sister."
Selena offered a sleepy smile.
"We should let you rest after this," Atreides said.
Selena said to her parents as Rosa recorded the video, "Love you, Mom and Dad. I'll be fine in no time. They gave me anesthesia so I'm a bit groggy, but I'll snap out of it soon."
Then Rosa sent the video to their parents. "They said they went to see Daniel at the hospital since I was with you."
"Tell them they can come to see Selena any time they want." Atreides wanted to make sure they understood that even though they hadn't had the official break-the-ice dinner with them, he wanted them to be part of his extended vampire family. He supposed it was time to tell his brother that he was mated and how that had all come about.
"We could do dinner with them tonight," Selena said.
"No way," Rosa said. "You need to rebuild your strength." Rosa got a call and smiled. "Uh, yes, she'll be fine. Okay, she just got out of surgery and is still a bit sleepy. All right, thanks. We're glad too." She handed the phone to Selena. "The president of the Council."
Chapter 20
"Well, you did it. You and the rest of your vampire and League hunter team," the president of the League Council said to Selena.
Selena hadn't expected the president to think of this as her team. They were just a bunch of vampires and hunters who had come together to fight the worst kind of evil. "Thank you. It was a joint effort on everyone's part."
"We heard about the other huntresses who had been turned and how they had helped to turn the tide against these men. We want them to join your special team. Since you're in charge of it, it's up to you if that will work for you. Just let them know if you want to 'hire' them and we'll make it happen. Full pay and allowances."
"Thank you.” She couldn't believe the League would set up a team that she would be in charge of, or that the women would even consider working with her. Not when they were happy to live on the fringe. But they had more in common with her than not, and she thought they might have changed their minds about living on the fringe once they were fighting the rogue hunters. Here, she'd thought she would have been a virtual outcast. She couldn't believe it.
She was glad Rosa was sitting beside her when she woke again, and she was now in Atreides’s bed. "Where is he?"
"Taking care of business. Mom and Dad want to see you tonight. He has invited them over for dinner, even if you can't eat with us. He couldn't wait to meet them, and they couldn't wait to check on you and see how you're doing."
"What about Daniel? How is he doing?"
"He's doing well. If you can believe it, three huntresses are at his bedside at the hospital, mooning over him."
Selena chuckled. She could just envision it, and then the huntresses being miffed with each other if he decided on one to date. But then she was thinking of how—when she had killed Cliff's brother—a rogue just as much, she wasn't treated in the same way at all. The vampires had to come to her aid. "Atreides, what are you doing?"
"I'm trying to locate the wolf vampire. I want to thank him for helping us eliminate the last rogue hunter and killing the two rogue vampires. Are you feeling better?"
"I am. Wait, two rogue vampires?”
“Yeah, he found the twin brother of the one who had turned you. His brother wanted to turn huntresses, like we suspected, to have them do his bidding. His brother thought the huntresses turned could be real trouble so he was following him this last time to end you before you could be turned. He got away before Quail could eliminate the vampire, but now he’s dead.”
“Oh, good. I’m so glad. I was afraid that would be our next mission. You had invited my parents for dinner, Rosa said." She was glad he had. The sooner they met him and accepted him in the family, the better it would be for all of them. And it would validate, with the other hunters, that what Selena had done was acceptable.
Atreides appeared in the room. "Yes. I want to meet them. I knew they wanted to see you. I figured it was the perfect opportunity to do all three."
"All right, well I'm coming to dinner." She wouldn't miss this for anything. And she did have the notion, if her parents were uncomfortable around Atreides, maybe she could make them feel better about him.
"If you are feeling all right. I don't want you to relapse and neither do your parents."
She loved how protective Atreides was of her. "I won't. I'll be fine." Though she felt like staying in the bed forever and never moving from it. Hopefully, she would heal enough by the time it was dinner, that she could get her lazy bones out of bed. "We did it. We eliminated the rogue hunters. How do your people feel about it?"