Page 4 of Wolf's Providence

“I am, everywhere, it’s really irritating.”

I had managed to push it down to an irksome throb, but with him mentioning it, I felt it flare up again.

Doc moved forward. “Willow,” he started, sitting down on the edge of the bed, “there’s something we need to talk about.”

“Tell her I’m infectious,” I burst out. “I know, you need Lily gone, I get it. Thank you for letting her stay,” I said with a look at Cannon. “Tell her I caught something and need to be, I dunno, quarantined. Encourage her to go back home. Then we can move me to another hospital, anactualhospital, and it’ll be fine.”

Doc sighed, rubbing his hand over his jaw. “The infection thing may work,” he said to Cannon before his attention slipped back to me. “The transfer to another hospital won’t though.”

“Why?” I asked warily, looking between the two of them suspiciously. “What’s happened now?”

Cannon cleared his throat. “You were dying. Caleb wounded you badly,” he hesitated. “Fatally.”

Letting out a little huff of displeasure, I looked at the too-high window and the white covering of cloud beyond. “Obviously not fatally,” I mumbled grumpily. “I’m still here.”

“Exactly.” Cannon’s snappy answer held too much coldness to his tone, causing me to turn my attention back to him. “You were dying,” he said again. “And Caleb…well, Caleb made a choice.”

My heart rate picked up, and I felt my hands turn clammy. “What kind of choice?”

“He gave you his blood,” Doc spoke quietly, his eyes holding mine.

That made no sense. How was that possible? I’d been in that cabin for days; there was no blood transfusion equipment in it.

“His blood?” I asked them cautiously. “How? There were no needles or tubes or anything there.”

Doc nodded slowly. “I know, but he forced his blood into your system.”

“Forced it? How?”

“You were dying,” Cannon spoke gruffly. “He bit his wrist.” He looked to Doc, who nodded in confirmation. “And…” Cannon sat back. He looked as perplexed as I felt. “I don’t know what the fuck he was thinking.”

“Excuse me?”

Doc leaned forward. “I got there. I had turned back because I had a bad feeling about leaving you both on that mountain. I’m not a full shifter, as you know, so it took me longer than it would someone like Cannon or one of the others, but I wanted to try to talk to you, convince you to leave.” Rubbing his forehead, he looked at me, and I saw how weary he was. “But I was too late. Caleb had already hurt you?—”

“It was an accident.” They both gave me the same look they’d given me the first time I said it. “It was an accident,” I repeated firmly. “He didn’t mean it. It wasn’t him.”

“We can argue aboutthatanother time,” Cannon murmured.

“When I got there,” Doc carried on as if neither of us had interrupted him, “his wrist was at your mouth. I told him to stop.”

That made sense. I was human, he was not, he didn’t have healing properties, and this wasn’t make-believe. I held back my snort at my own musings. The fact that thiswasmy reality, well…another day for that as well, I guessed.

“You told me shifters heal when they shift,” I said quickly. “I’m human, I can’t, so where is this going?”

“I know, and you’re right,” Doc spoke carefully. “And that’s why this is so complicated. Shifter blood in a human’s body—especially in the way Caleb was trying—it shouldn’t work.”

“Shouldn’t?” I asked dubiously.

“But…I think it’s what saved you,” Doc added quietly.

TWO

Willow

My hands were shakingas I lifted the cover off my body, pushing it slowly down my body, revealing the thick white swathes of gauze that covered my wounds. “I saw my wounds,” I told them both, my voice no more than a whisper. “It made me almost vomit.” I looked up at Doc. “Remember?” When he nodded, I felt myself nod in response. Good, I hadn’t imagined that. “So…what are you saying?”

Standing, he gently helped me peel back the layer, the look in his eye telling me to look at my stomach. Bracing myself, I looked down, expecting the worst. I looked up at them in shock from the sight of my almost healed skin.

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