“Kelsey,” he said.
“I’ll bring her,” Ezra said. “I’ll go get her and bring her here.”
“No,” Trevor said.
“She has to choose him,” Arlo said. “Only way it’ll help him.”
There was another reason though, and Trevor opened his eyes to say it. “She can’t see this. Can’t see me. Like this.”
“Arlo,” Malachi said, “will he recover the way he did before?”
“I wish I knew. He and his mate are…well, unique in my experience. I don’t know what to expect this time, if she doesn’t come home.”
“No,” Trevor said again. “Not like this.”
As he said it, two tears squeezed from his aching eyes and trickled down the sides of his face to the pillow. If only he could see her. Inhale her scent. Hear her voice. But his Kelsey must not see him like this. Trevor gripped the blanket in both fists as more tears fell, and the wolves came near and set their hands on his shoulders, his arm. Their strength seemed to ease him, if only a little. He hoped they would stay close.
Thoughts managed to gnaw at him despite his fuzzy head. He was wrong about…something. Wanting to ask for his mate? Wanting to keep her away? If one of those was right, then the other was wrong. He tried to figure it out, which was which, but instead he slept.
She had to be strong.
Kelsey spent most of the day stewing. Countless times she pulled up his texts, stared at the last one he’d sent her, willed another to appear. Countless times she typed a message, paragraphs of frustration and longing and uncertainty and loneliness. Countless times she backspaced it all and put her phone away.
But by evening she couldn’t hold onto stubbornness anymore. She wasn’t born with it, not the line-holding kind anyway, and she felt further from herself the longer she tried. She couldn’t stop thinking about chicken and stars soup. She texted Ezra.
Kelsey:Hey, I know I should text him myself, but I can’t right now. So can you please just let me know he’s fine? I’m sure he’s upset, but I mean physically fine. I just need to be sure. Thanks.
Ezra:I’m at his place. Can’t eat. Fever.
She stared for a long minute at her phone. The display went dark, and she kept staring. No. No, no, no. How dare he get sick again when she needed space to think, space to use her head for once instead of living only by her heart? She tapped the phone awake.
Kelsey:What’s his house number?
Ezra:955.
She explained the situation to Maggie, grabbed her purse, threw on her tennis shoes, and ran for her car.
When she walked in the door, she nearly panicked. Arlo was there too.
“He’s stable,” Arlo said when her breath caught in her throat. “I’m here because I know the most about fading. And because Ezra’s a little worked up right now.”
Then both Ezra and Arlo left her alone with her wolf, and she stayed by his side for a few hours. She sat next to the wolf-sized couch and watched over him, and not once did he indicate awareness of her presence. She set her hand on his head, and the heat of the fever made her heart squeeze. Most of the time, his eyes were shut. A few times they fluttered open, blue and unfocused. He didn’t speak.
But Kelsey did.
“I’m still mad at you. I get to be mad, you know. All you had to do was tell me the truth, and you wouldn’t be sick right now. And maybe we’re over, or maybe we’re not, but how am I supposed to figure it out when I have to sit here worrying? You’d better get well soon, you idiot. I’d think you did this on purpose except you don’t have a cunning bone in your body. Which doesn’t make me less mad, just for the record.”
At last, worn out, she stood up from the chair.
“I have to go back to Maggie’s. I still have plenty to say to you as soon as you’re well enough to know I’m here, so—” For the first time since she’d come, her voice broke. “Trevor, please. I need you to get well. Ezra does too, and all your pack. Please get well.”
He didn’t stir.
Ezra entered the room, his face scrunched up. “He didn’t want you to see him like this.”
“Of course he didn’t.”
“Not pride, Kels. I think it’s just old thinking, going back to when he was a pup.”
