Page 161 of Fangs
“All…of the crew?”
“Nope. The whole hold.”
My lips parted in shock as I stared at him. I tried to imagine hearing over a hundred people’s thoughts at once and felt nauseous.
“Started happenin’ early this morning. So far, I’ve managed to kinda force ’em back, but—” His voice cut off again as he winced.
“What if I…try to help? Maybe my powers can help?” I asked, fidgeting anxiously.
“Can’t always rely on your powers,” he said through gritted teeth. “Gotta figure this out.”
I sat beside him, feeling helpless as I watched sweat bead on his forehead, his muscles tense, and his jaw clench. It felt like a long time before he let out a shaky breath and opened his eyes. They still looked pained.
“Better?” I asked, my eyes wide with worry.
“A little, yeah,” he mumbled. “Quieter, at least.”
I forced myself to go silent and wait, resisting the urge to examine him as my fingers twitched. After a few more minutes, he pulled a handkerchief out of his pocket and wiped his brow.
“What the fuck is happening to me?” he muttered.
Maybe the relief from seeing the pain fade from his face made me lightheaded, but the teasing words tumbled from my lips. “Well, you see, when a boy becomes a man, there’s this thing called puberty?—"
His head snapped up to look at me, and the expression on his face was so full of stunned disbelief that I started laughing, unable to finish my sentence. His dimples appeared as he grinned.
“You’re funny,” he said, and there was an odd note in his voice. “How’d I not know that?”
My laugh faded. “Nothin’ felt funny for a long time.”
I watched his throat bob as he swallowed. “Until Trey?”
When would his name stop hurting? “Until all of you.”
He smiled, but it looked sad. “Makes sense,” he said in a low, rough voice.
I focused on him, trying to keep from falling apart at the thought of Trey. He was breathing a little fast, and his face looked clammy. I desperately wanted to take his pulse, but I wasn’t sure?—
He held his wrist out to me like an offering. I glanced up at his face to see his brow slightly furrowed as he studied me. “You’re worried about me.”
It wasn’t a question, but at the same time, it was. I took his wrist, my eyes narrowing into a glare as I pressed my fingers against his artery. “Quit lookin’ so surprised that I care about what happens to you,” I parroted back the words he’d said to me in Nemo’s spare room.
He huffed a laugh, a smirk curling across his lips as he repeated my words back to me, “I will when you quit glarin’ at me.”
I tried to keep glaring, but my smile ruined it. His heart rate was elevated but not dangerously so.
“Am I gonna live?” he deadpanned.
“Unfortunately.” I released his wrist, warmth creeping into my chest at his chuckle.
“You feelin’ ready to go back?” he asked. “I wanted to show you somethin’ before we left.”
As we neared the clinic, I stared in confusion at the chaos outside. My whole crew was there chatting with Wolf’s crew. Griz and Sam were holding rakes and standing beside giant piles of dead brush by the empty patch next to the clinic. Wolf and Raven were taking measurements, and Kai wrote down the numbers they shouted.
“What is happening?” I asked, glancing up at Mac.
“Well, I know Trey was planning on fixing up the garden for you this spring, and it just so happened Nemo found some polycarbonate sheets Madame had dumped in one of the storage rooms. So, I thought I’d look into building a little greenhouse to go with the garden. We got some more polycarbonate on our last trip and—uh, you okay?”
I’d stopped halfway up the hill, biting my cheek hard as I willed my expression to stay steady. “You’re buildin’ me a greenhouse?” I managed to ask.
