Page 40 of Runaway Wolf
But he also balked at hurting their mate.
He’d given her death—a brief respite from the pain she was in. Then they carried her broken body inside, laid her on the bed… a sleeping princess who wouldn’t wake in the middle of a nightmare that would never go away.
And he watched over her. Day and night. Protected her body when she grew cold. Mopped her brow when she fevered, carried her wolf outside when she broke.
“How many times did she change today?”
Without turning his head to look away from the sleeping mate, he answered Penny. “Six times and it’s only four o’clock.”
Penny set her phone on the dresser near the wall. “I guess that’s better than the sixteen times she changed on the first day. Go get something to eat. Have a shower, take a nap. I’ll watch her.”
A vibration came from Caitlin’s phone on the nightstand. Penny went to flip it over, but he interrupted her.
“It’s your dad. He’s been calling for three days. She had him blocked, he’s calling from a new number.”
“Did you talk to him?”
“Yes.”
“He knows what’s happening?”
He sighed. “He knows.”
“Let me guess. He blamed you.”
“He did. He blamed the entire clan for allowing her to get injured, even though the Blackmoors have nothing to do with us.”
With a click, Penny answered Caitlin’s phone. “Father.”
“Penelope. Where is Caitlin?” he snapped.
“She isn’t conscious yet.”
“What? It’s been six… seven days, has it not?”
“It’s not a head-cold, Dad. She’s becoming a whole new species. Did you miss the part that some people don’t survive the change?”
Her father was silent on the other end of the phone for a moment. Isaac was never more glad for shifter hearing.
“If she’s that ill, maybe she needs to be in a hospital.”
“She’s no longer human. What do you think will happen to her in a hospital? Will they treat a human? Or a shifter? Because she’s neither. She’s in between and has no control.”
“This is your fault, Penelope! If you hadn’t talked her into staying with you—”
“This. Is. Your. Fault. Has it even sunk in yet that you could lose us both? Caitlin might not make it through this… and next spring, I might not make it either. You could lose both your daughters because of the senseless law you supported when you knew better. All to please those purist morons moving you up the ladder. But hey, I guess you’ll still have your job, right?”
“It’s just like you to point the finger elsewhere—”
“Well, Daddy. I guess the apple doesn’t fall far from the tree.” With a click, she disconnected the phone.
He would have congratulated her, but then Caitlin woke up.
“Isaac?” she asked, in a voice gruff with her wolf. Her heavy eyelids opened, the blue eyes of her wolf so light they glowed.
Like his.
“I’m here, baby.”
