“Nico, I don’t think it is.”
“I said, everything is fine.” My voice got louder, and I was one step away from being angry.
She seemed to get the hint. She grabbed her magazine and stood. “Okay. I had to tell you what I thought. I can’t do morethan that.” She walked to the door and opened it, then she turned to look back at me. “Be careful, Nico.”
Without another word, she walked out, closing the door behind her. I let out a heavy sigh and rubbed my face. That had been more stressful than it needed to be.
Maddy was still upstairs sleeping, so I went to check on her. I found her on her bed, not asleep, a hand to her forehead. I stepped over and sat on the bed, putting a hand on her thigh. “Are you okay?” I asked.
Maddy shook her head. “The voice.”
“Huh?”
“The voice in my head. It’s getting louder.”
She’d mentioned it before, but I wanted to make sure it was what I thought it was. It was probably like the link I had to my wolf. We shared and passed emotions and feelings back and forth to each other, not words, really. If it was something else I wanted to help her. “Can you describe it to me?”
Maddy shook her head. “It’s like this tickling at the back of my mind. A whispery voice that isn’t mine.” She huffed in irritation. “I keep calling it a voice, but it’s strong emotions that sort of push me in directions and mess up my head. It’s hard to concentrate.” She put a hand on either side of her head. “It’s like there’s pressure building in my head.”
That wasn’t anything I’d ever experienced before. Maybe it was her dormant wolf recognizing its mate. Wolves became very emotional and insistent when they found their fated mate. It might be acting out because it can’t be claimed like it wanted to be. They could even turn feral if the mating bond wasn’t enacted in a timely manner. Could a dormant wolf become feral? It made me more desperate to find out about Edemas’s descendants. I needed answers to help Maddy.
I slid in close to her and pulled her body into my arms. “We’ll figure all this out,” I whispered.
Maddy dug her fingers into my arm. “I’m scared, Nico.”
I tightened my embrace. “Don’t be afraid. I’m here and I’ve got you.”
We sat together for almost thirty minutes, enjoying the silence and darkness. Finally, I heard her breathing grow deep and heavy. I eased her off my lap and nestled her head onto a pillow. She was so exhausted that she didn’t even stir as I moved her. Leaving her to rest, I went to my home office and called Luis.
“I’m on the road, what do you need?”
“On the road?” I asked.
“Yeah, got a lead I need to run down.”
“Anything you need to tell me?”
“Not yet. Trying to figure all this stuff out about Maddy, too soon to say anything.”
“Speaking of, she’s not doing well. Her wolf is being…I don’t even know how to describe it. It’s like it’s trying to break through or something. It’s making her miserable. Headaches and voices. Honestly, if someone didn’t know what was happening, they’d think she had schizophrenia or something. I’m worried as hell about her.”
“Don’t worry. I’ll find you some answers. I’m not going to let you down.”
After getting off the phone with Luis, I called my dad. I needed all the advice I could get.
“Hey, boy. Your mom came home a little irritated after visiting.”
I rolled my eyes. “Dad, I feel bad about that, but I’ve got bigger things going on.”
He seemed to hear the worry in my voice and dropped it. “What’s wrong?”
It took a few minutes, but I explained what was going on with Maddy. By the time I was done, I was more worried than before I started talking.
Dad took a deep breath and sighed. “I have to be honest, I’ve never witnessed or even heard of a dormant wolf. You and I both know that half-breeds are pretty taboo, but they still happen quite a bit. Even they can shift, though. Her shifter blood is pretty diluted, but the bloodline she comes from may be part of the cause. Edemas and his entire line before him were the strongest and most powerful shifters to ever live. It would make sense that an…uh…anomaly like the Hollander line would maybe cause some weird things down the genetic trail.”
“Does that mean things will get better or worse?”
“I can’t even begin to guess. Edemas was the strongest of all his family, all the way back to the beginning. He was drunk with power, crazy with it. Son, I don’t want to scare you, but that bloodisin Maddy. Even if it is diluted, her wolf will be incredibly strong. Now that it’s been recognized by its mate, it’s probably fighting for dominance. It’s like a caged animal gnashing its teeth to be free. A caged dog will tear its mouth to bloody shreds trying to rip its way out of a prison. Who the hell knows what will happen whenever that creature is finally set loose.”
