Page 38 of Wild Wolf

I glanced at Desmond. “Do you need me to rescue you from your family?”

“No, no. I’m fine. Elliot’s just mad because he can’t handle close calls of his favorite people well. He just got a recent reminder about that incident because someone blurted it out in a moment of anguish.”

Nicolina’s face turned red, and she hid her face against Richard’s chest.

Richard’s laughter rumbled. “You’re something else, Nicolina. It’s not like you shot me on purpose. And Elliot shouldn’t be talking about silver bullets anyway, since his mate shot herself with one on purpose.”

Elliot spat curses. “And she suggests it as a viable idea every damned time!”

“She knows it drives you to the brink of madness. That’s why she does it. You should be happy she no longer freaks out when anyone reminds her that she’s mated to you.” Snickering, Richard shook his head. “That it took her until six months into her first pregnancy to finally get around to admitting she was, in actuality, mated will never fail to make me laugh. At least she figured out to just blame you for the second one.”

“The second one was a legitimate unexpected bonus.” Elliot shrugged. “I’m just a man, and if my wife wants attention before work in the morning, I’m going to pay attention to her. It just happens she wanted more attention than I anticipated. And once people started calling because we were late, I decided I would rather stay home with the wife and give her more attention. And the kids that weren’t in school were with you. I’m going to try to prevent number three from showing up unexpectedly. However much I love the unexpected additions, Vicky would appreciate a season or two without aching ankles. I’ve been put on notice; I need to keep my prowess to myself this winter. I’m going to give her roses and a card, and the card will tell her I’ll keep my prowess to myself if she keeps her teeth to herself, and if she bites, she only has herself to blame at that point.”

“Is this something I should be concerned about?”

Nicolina shook her head. “Mated couples nip each other. Fenerec men are infertile unless us women instigate with our teeth. So, if you don’t want any kids, just dodge your woman’s bites and don’t stay in bed with her for eight or so hours. You’ll figure it out once you mate. But your fertility is essentially her decision. If she doesn’t give you at least one nip, you’re not going to be having children. So, for us, kids are usually easily avoided, unless you’re His Eminence over there. His common sense dribbles out of his ears whenever Vicky walks into the room. They’re going to end up holding the record for most kids. We’ll have to see how nippy Amber’s wolf is, but I expect Amber will do a good job of making certain her partner consents to being nipped. I recommend you flat-out tell her to nip you if you’re interested, as otherwise, she’ll respect your space.”

“That’s good to know.” I filed that away for the future, assuming I could convince Amber to go on a date sometime in the future. I had zero idea how to go about that, but I would start with making a batch of brownies and go from there. “Where is everyone going to sleep, anyway? I don’t have nearly enough blankets. Or pillows.”

“We have our clothes. They make decent pillows,” Nicolina replied. “And some of us can shift if we decide we’re not comfortable. Don’t worry, Declan. Amber won’t even mind if you crawl into bed with her. She’s used to it. We’re needy, and we often wander to visit our favorite people and sleep in piles. The only time Richard minds this is when I’m dense and he had other things in mind, but he usually manages to reel me in if he has ideas that don’t involve anyone else.”

Richard bowed his head. “I hate how true this is.”

Nicolina laughed. “Sorry, Richard.”

What strange people. Despite her assurances, I did what I could to make everyone comfortable, and then I shifted and joined those taking turns watching over Amber through the night.

Chapter Nine

I marveled that anyone managed to get any sleep, as every hour or so, Amber woke gagging and hacking. After the first time, I shifted back to human so I could hold her hair out of the way as needed. I took on the brunt of the other duties, too, as everyone else had passed out from exhaustion. I berated myself for assuming they’d be in any shape to handle much of anything after such a long trip to get to me.

Sometime during the night, the illusion of Amber’s youth broke, and it amazed me that her magic could trick me into believing nothing was amiss with the woman.

I’d seen corpses in better health.

Had I seen the truth earlier, I would have counted her life in hours or days rather than months.

“Sorry,” she whispered.

I smiled, and because I’d seen everyone else do similar, I brushed my lips to her temple, ignoring the white of her hair and the way her skin hung off her bones with little else holding her together. “There’s nothing for you to be sorry about. You need to focus on healing and getting that crap out of you. Being sick doesn’t degrade you in any fashion. It’ll be a while before you’re healthy again, but that’s fine. You’ll get there.”

“Cancer sucks. I haven’t been this bad for long. A few weeks. It happened fast. Almost overnight.”

I nodded. “Are you going to be able to trick Nicolina? Because if Nicolina sees you like this, she’s going to panic, and I don’t think telling her you’re getting better is going to help.”

“That didn’t take long for you to figure out. I’ll be able to restore the illusion in a while. I just need a breather.” Amber groaned and shuddered. “I’ve seen people go through ritual sickness more times than I can count, but nobody warned me how bad it tastes.”

“There’s soup for you on the stove, and there are no rules in my cabin about not eating while soaking in the tub. The hot water heater should be good for another round.”

“I became a fish, not a wolf. A dog fish? A wolf fish?” Amber sighed, mustered enough energy to crawl in the general direction of the tub, and eyed it. “My pride demands I do this without help, but I don’t think I can.”

My wolf whined his concern in my head, and I lifted her up and eased her into the tub. Without the illusion fooling me, she weighed even less than I thought she should, which alarmed me worse than her gaunt appearance. I stoppered the tub and started the water, making sure to keep it warm without being too hot.

She needed warmth, but her body couldn’t handle trying to cool her off if she overheated.

“I’ll bring some soup and rabbit. You need the meat to heal. Do you want something to drink?”

“Just water, please.”