She knew it would be impossible to do this without hurting him. Her teeth were sharp, but they weren’trazor-sharp. She would have to apply real pressure to break the skin the way she needed to, and there was no way for that to be painless. And while she didn’t need to savage him, shedidneed to draw blood.
She’d explained that to him. Declan had too, to make doubly sure everything here was aboveboard and would pass muster with the Overpack. Case understood that it was going to hurt, and it wasn’t like he didn’t have the imagination to visualize the pain before he really felt it. He was just ... facing it down without even a flinch.
She’d never met anyone like him before.
I’ll be so lucky if I get to have you as my mate, Lydia thought again, and she bit down.
He let out a low hiss of pain from between his teeth but stayed perfectly still. Lydia shifted back the second she could, staring with a sick unease at the blood welling up from Case’s arm. She couldn’t believe she’d done that to him.
“I’m sorry. I’m so sorry.”
Case breathed out and shook his head. “It’s okay. It’s not too bad, I promise.”
Lydia didn’t necessarily think he was lying to her, but she could see for herselfexactlyhow bad it was, so she thought they might have very different standards.
“Will you let me disinfect it and bandage you up?”
“That won’t hurt the chances of it taking, will it?”
She couldn’t believe he was thinking about that right now. He was bleeding on her bedroom rug after letting her wolf chomp down on him, and he was worried that getting his open wound sterilized would jeopardize her plan. Did he ever put himself first?
She hated to realize that she couldn’t afford to put him first right now either. Her grandmother had drilled that lesson into her head: the pack always came first. If risking an infection would significantly up the chances of him becoming a werewolf, that was a risk they would have to take.
But—thank God—she’d never heard of any cautionary tales about leaving shifter bites untreated. She was happy to reassure Case on that front. She bustled off to the bathroom and came back with a first aid kit.
“All wolves keep these around,” Lydia said. “You never know when they’re going to come in handy. I don’t want you to get the wrong idea—Reeve-related problems aside, we don’t usually solve things by brawling. But when the pups in the pack are still getting used to shifting, they can be a little rough-and-tumble.”
“I can only imagine the trouble I would have gotten into if I’d been a werewolf kid.”
There was another barely audible hiss of pain as Lydia disinfected the bite, but Case showed no other signs of discomfort as she wrapped his arm up with gauze. She wondered how much of that was him being tough as nails and how much of it was him not wanting to make her feel bad. Both were probably true, but she found herself hoping that it slanted a little more towards the second option.
Case looked down at the stretch of white gauze. It stood out brightly against his outdoorsy tan.
“When will I—know?”
Lydia had done her research on that front. “If it’s going to work, the wound should start healing in about an hour. Shifters have accelerated healing.”
He glanced at the clock. “So we can unwind the bandage at three and ... check? And we’ll know?”
Lydia nodded. “Sorry. I know that’s going to be a nerve-wracking sixty minutes.”
“For both of us,” Case said, and he reached out and took her hand, lacing their fingers together. His usual sureness faltered for a moment. “Is this ... okay?”
“Very okay,” she said quickly.
It’d been a long time since she had held hands with anyone. It had never exactly fit in with any of her awkward one-night stands. Every so often, she’d met someone she had wished she could get to know a little better, but how could she ever be with someone she’d have to hide her whole life from?
For the first time, she was glad that none of those encounters had ever turned into a relationship. If they had, she might not have met Case. She certainly wouldn’t have come up with this plan if she’d already been seeing someone else.
“Can I say something weird?” Lydia said suddenly.
Case’s grin—sillier and more surprised than his smile—threatened to turn her insides to jelly.
“I think to the outside observer, most of what we’ve said to each other so far is probably pretty weird, so sure, lay it on me.”
“Good point.” She tightened her fingers around his. “I like you. A lot. If all of this falls through—if you don’t become a shifter, if I can’t find anyone else to help me stop Reeve, if I have to break up the pack—would you like to have dinner with me?”
She knew how absurd it sounded. Just a few minutes ago, she’d told herself all the reasons that didn’t make any sense. If it didn’t work, he would be sick, and she would be scrambling for options.
