Page 77 of Cursed Wolf

I was trying to decide if we should sneak off into the trees or wait until we got back to the lodge when I heard someone crying out.

“Hey! I need some help!”

I broke away from Tryn and whipped around to see Orson running toward us. His expression was unlike any I’d seen before, a hard mix of worry and fury.

“What’s wrong?” Tryn demanded.

“Is Shiloh okay?” I couldn’t imagine anyone except his mate making him this frantic.

“It’s not Shiloh, she’s fine.” Orson panted heavily. “It’s Nova, my sister.”

“Oh.” I hadn’t met his sister and didn’t know that he had one, but that wasn’t important right now. “Where is she? What happened?” I started speed walking alongside Orson in the direction he came from, ready to help in any way that I could. Tryn was right there with me.

“She came down from the mountain and just collapsed. I—I don’t know.”

“She left the feral pack?” Tryn asked.

“I don’t know, she must have.” Realizing he had to clue me in, Orson said, “My half-sister has lived with a feral pack of werewolves deep in the mountains. They’re really roughing it out there; no modern technology, medicine, or anything. Not even electricity or plumbing.”

“Okay. Did she look injured to you? Any blood or bruising on her that you could see?”

“No, I don’t think so.” He pointed to a figure lying on the ground a few feet ahead. “There she is. I was scared to move her, so I just ran for help.”

“You did the right thing,” Tryn assured him. “I’ll call Derric. She’ll be okay, Ors.”

While Tryn calmed his frantic packmate, I knelt on the ground and looked over my new patient. She had a fluttery pulse and was breathing shallowly, but at least she was alive. I couldn’t find any broken bones or other major injuries. Her skin lacked elasticity, which meant she was dehydrated. The more I checked her over, the more confident I became that she was simply dehydrated and exhausted.

“She’s going to be fine,” I announced as Derric and Ruse arrived. “She just needs rest and fluids. Let’s take her back to the lodge, and I can set up an IV for her.”

“Oh, thank the moon.” Orson sagged with relief. His icy blue eyes were, for once, filled with warmth. “Thank you, Emmaline. I’m so glad you’re here.”

“It’s no problem.” I looked at the four male werewolves standing around. “Who wants to carry her back?”

Orson and Ruse both stepped forward. When Orson let out a protective growl, Ruse shocked everyone by growling back.

“She’s my blood,” Orson snarled. “Back off.”

“Ruse,” Derric snapped. “Stand down. Let him carry her.”

Only that seemed to snap the VP out of it. Ruse shook his head, brow furrowing like he was confused. “Sorry, Alpha. I don’t know what got into me.”

Tryn’s eyes met mine as Orson scooped up his sister, and we exchanged the same high-eyebrowed look. As our group headed back to the lodge, my mate and I trailed behind.

“See anything interesting?” I asked when the others were out of earshot.

“Most definitely,” he answered with a knowing smirk.

“Something like a fate thread, perhaps?”

“Something like that.” He brought an arm around my shoulders, fingers stroking over his mating bite on my back. “It’ll be interesting to see how that plays out.”

My fingers laced with his resting on my shoulder. “I still think we’re the best pair fate ever brought together.”

He held my chin and turned my head to face him. “I couldn’t agree more, beautiful.” We kissed long and deep, just how we liked it. And then followed our packmates home.