Page 32 of Shifter's Homecoming

Reed shook her head. Only about half of this was making any sense to her. She was still stuck on the whole “traveling,” thing. A traveler lived another life…

But the men kept talking, their conversation becoming more animated, and even a little belligerent, until finally Graeme seemed to convince Trevor of what he was saying.

“There’s much you don’t know,” Graeme was saying. “Before Eventine was …. brought back, Trent thought Rhen was dead and the Citlali were delusional.” He turned to Reed. “Citlali are theshiftenleaders, and they are given the position at birth, when they are born with a starrenqua.”

Trevor couldn’t believe it. “Are you kidding me?” he said.

Graeme shook his head no.Not kidding.

“But now he… believes what?”

“Now that a femalewolfenso clearly brought forward from the past, is here with us again, he had to rethink all of that. It took me a long while to convince him that Rhen was very much alive, and the meadow did very much exist. He didn’t want to believe it. Yer brother has strong ideals and Rhen is not living up to them. He thinks the messages sent to the Citlali are pointless, maybe harmful. He thinks Rhen is messing up in the worst way, playing at games when she should be establishing plans and strategy, fucking with wolves when she should be fighting Khain. He always thought that Grey had to be imagining any sort of relations with Rhen, but once it was proved to him that Burtonfathered a childwith her, he had to admit that maybe Grey wasn’t imagining anything.”

Reed looked away, across the ever-lightening sky, like she would if they were at the dinner table during a holiday meal, and her boyfriend’s family was talking about some distant relative’s scandalous sex life. This wasn’t her business, right? She didn’t have to take sides.

Trevor brought her back to reality, speaking to them all as a group.

“Whatever. Let’s just get him back. Reed and Troy, you leave in…” he looked at his watch. “You leave in 51 minutes. Go pack. I’ll fill you in on the reservoir asap.”

He took Treena from Troy, then motioned to Graeme.

“Let’s walk and talk.”

The two men strolled into the forest with their heads together. Reed let herself be pulled the other way.

20 - Getting the Vaccine Again

Somehow, Trent made it back into the small room where his mate had sent him. An erection was no joke. He put on the too-short robe and moved it around until it covered him as much as possible. He leaned forward, elbow to knee, and stayed that way, waiting for his mate. Somewhere on the other side of the wall Rowan was flipping on lights and moving around. The rich-bitter scent of coffee reached him. He waited not-so-patiently, perched tightly on the edge of the bed.

She finally came in to his little area, a needle in hand. He was still hard. He silently called himself a dozen names, but it didn’t help. He imagined maggots eating his dinner, Troy scratching his butt. Nothing. He recited the alphabet backwards. Still hard.

Rowan did not notice. She was all business, still looking everywhere but at him. She held up the needle but did not look at him as she spoke. “You’ll get this in a moment. I’m 98% sure it will work and then you’re out of here. But just in case let me run a few tests.”

He nodded stiffly, ready to agree to anything she asked for, knowing there was no way the vaccine was going to work. He didn’t want to leave, but he couldn’t identify exactly what hedidwant in that moment. Her nearness was scrambling his thoughts, and her meadow-flower scent was enough to make him harder than ever. Oozing wounds be damned, his dick did not care.

She tested his reflexes, she looked in his ears and eyes, she did all the things he would expect a doctor to do, except wrap a cuff around his arm and take his blood pressure. She touched him lightly as she worked. The brush of her palm on his arm. The press of her fingers on his wrist. Each touch was pure pleasure to Trent’s nervous system. Each touch made his dick harden more. He could pound nails with that fucker. He could build entire houses with it.

He kept his eyes down and his mouth shut.

Then the needle came back out. She wiped the skin of his upper arm with something. She stuck the needle in his muscle. He held perfectly still. Finally his dick went down.

Then darkness swam in from the edges of his vision, and the floor rose up to meet his forehead.

***

When he came to, he was on the floor, laying mostly on his face still, and the light hurt his head. He kept his eyes mostly closed and rolled to his back, watching his mate through slits. She was bent over him and muttering under her breath, moving swiftly, doing several things at once. Her hair was mussed and hanging over her face and sweat sheened on her forehead.

“What happened?” he muttered.

“You passed out,” she said, and he heard fear in her voice. She had him hooked up to all sorts of machinery, and now there was another metal IV in his arm. She’d been busy. He hadn’t gone to the meadow. He hadn’t gone… anywhere. He’d just been… out— not conscious. The set of her expression told him that maybe he’d almost died.

“Hold still,” she said, strapping his elbow to a board, completely immobilizing it, moving with precision and familiarity.

“I don’t want an I.V.” he said, his hand on his forehead, his head still swimming. “I’m fine.”

“You’re not fine. Your heart rate has tripled, your pupils are completely blown, you’re sweating. You were unresponsive for,”—she glanced at a watch on her wrist— “…for 23 minutes.”

The funky feeling in his head wouldn’t let him argue. He only stared at the ceiling and tried not to die while she did her thing.

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