Max was one of those men who had a gentleness about him. He made you want to protect him as soon as you got to know him even a little. Yet here he was telling me that they would help me with this thing I was going to go through. The aftermath of it. Because theyknewI would make it.
They’d offered to be the first people I’d feed from after. That would stabilize me quicker, because werewolf blood was slightly more potent, and there were two of them. They were also much less breakable in case I turned… wilder. I didn’t want to put anyone else in jeopardy, because there was no way to know how I would be once I woke up again. There was no universe in which I would have done this at the pack house, where the three human members of the pack were. I wasn’t going to put anyone that breakable in danger.
I started to cough again, feeling as if my lungs were squeezing even tighter than they had been just hours before. Maybe it was the promise of getting away from this… this thing ravaging my body that made it so, so much worse toward the end.
With some support from Rian and Max, I got the coughing to calm down. They distracted me while my body did its thing, and then, as I felt the tingling in my arms and pain in my torso, Rian cleared his throat behind me.
“I think it’s time.”
I nodded but reached my hand again to stop Ben from leaving. I looked into his eyes, hoping to convey that I wanted nothing but the best for him and Max, and for him to keep an eye on his brother.
He nodded his wolfy head and then nudged Max again to get him moving.
“See you in—” I wheezed and coughed before being able to continue. “Well, whenever I wake up.”
IfI woke up.
They left the room and as Max closed the door behind them, I heard the clicking of Ben’s claws that told me he was going to pace. Then there was a thud and slight rattle as Max sat down with his back to the door on the other side.
“They’re loyal to you,” Rian whispered.
I didn’t know what to do with that, so I sighed and settled on my back again. “I’m as ready as I’m going to be.”
He cupped my face and pressed a platonic kiss on my lips. Then he looked at me, sadness in his gaze.
“I’m so, so sorry we need to do this,” he murmured.
I tilted my head, giving him room, and he leaned closer.
“I love you,” I told him in a whisper before I felt his fangs pierce my skin.
He made a sound of discontent at the same exact time I made one of pleasure. The biting was pleasurable to the one being bitten, but he’d told me that my blood would likely taste bad for him now, given how sick I had become.
I’d fed a vampire before, Rian too a couple of times when we first met a handful of years ago, so this part was familiar.
The way my heart started to rabbit as soon as he didn’t stop after the normal minute or so. It was as if my psyche realized I was in actual danger. The lizard brain, as it was called, knew that a predator was about to kill me.
I closed my eyes and tried to breathe through it. Then suddenly, my body seized and I was gone.
Later, I remembered snippets. Like the taste of something in my mouth—Rian’s blood he was feeding me. An anxious, very loud whine—Ben behind the door, loud as if he was right next to me as my body adjusted to my new senses. Murmured words of love and affection and promises of never leaving me behind—Rian as he tried to keep both of us calm.
Then I drew a breath. A deep one. I could smelleverything. Rian. The wolves. Another wolf, Holden, because it was his bed I was in, but how did I know on such an instinctual level that it was a wolf I was smelling?
I could feel my heart beat sluggishly, as if the restarting had damaged something, instead of healing every ailment in my body.
I drew another breath. And another, and—I could breathe normally!
My eyes flew open, and only a hand on my chest kept me from throwing myself off the bed.
“Easy, Luca. You’re okay.” Rian. Except his voice was a bit more melodic now? I turned my head to look at him, and he smiled at me.
“There you are,” he murmured.
A gasp and a whine from behind the door. The wolves.
I swallowed, tasting… blood? Suddenly all I could hear were the two heartbeats in the hallway. I felt something cut my lower lip. My… my fangs?
Everything was a lot, suddenly. Sounds, smells, even the way my favorite butter soft henley felt on my skin. I started to panic, except my heart didn’t beat any faster. The pressure was there, though. This, I recognized.
