“Aaron did everything he could.”
“He did. He’s skilled, and he cares deeply. But no one knows a wolf as his mate does. Through no fault of Aaron’s, without you here to know how to restore strength to the alpha…I would have died.”
More tears fell onto his shirt. He rumbled from deep in his chest. After a little while, April said, “Fate knew what was coming. It’s no accident you told me about your childhood a few days ago, the first time you ever talked about it. If you hadn’t, I wouldn’t have known how to reach your wolf. I wasn’t only talking to that part of you, Malachi. I was talking to the little boy too.”
The low growl now held contemplation.
“You believe me?”
“I can’t argue with the result.” His hand cupped the back of her head, and his thumb stroked her hair. “Thank you.”
Seventeen
April’sfraughtscentsettledseveral minutes before she stirred and sat up. “You should sleep.”
He shouldn’t. The very suggestion chafed. He needed to stay awake, to guard his pack, to watch out for them. His legs shifted on the bed as the rest of his body surged with the need to get up and go to them. But the exhaustion clutched his bones with heavy hands. He hadn’t known his body could be so depleted and…weak.
“First you should drink some more.” April stood and picked up the tumbler from the nightstand. “I’ll be right back, okay?”
Malachi nodded.
The moment his mate left the room, his restlessness grew. He had responsibilities. He couldn’t lie here and be served and tended when he wasn’t even injured anymore. He pushed up from the pillows, sat on the edge of the bed, and eased himself to his feet. Halfway across the room, he was sweating with effort and pain. He put a hand out to the wall for support.
So weak. Unacceptable. Twenty-three days like this was twenty-two too long.
“Let go of the leash again.”
Trevor had no idea what he was asking.
“You wagged your tail at me.”
He should have felt the encroachment of any human looking on his wolf form. Lore forbade it in the strictest terms. Yet the sight of April had brought a flood of joy even as his life continued to wane. He couldn’t explain that, but he didn’t have to. He wouldn’t change again outside the paddock. Not ever again.
His inner wolf snarled and shook itself in defiance, and pain flared. He clenched his teeth.Submit.When the strain lifted, he pushed away from the wall. He breathed slowly, deeply, as he shuffled a few more steps, minimizing the limp as much as he could. Do not be weak. Do. Not.
April halted in the doorway, tumbler in one hand. “What do you think you’re doing?”
“I’m all right,” he said through gritted teeth. He had to be all right. He had to be strong.
“Malachi, please.” She came to him and set her free hand on his arm. “Please lie down.”
As if brought on by her touch, a wave of exhaustion crashed over him. He fought it, but his head felt strange, his vision tilting. Was this what humans calledlightheaded?
“Malachi?”
“Responsibility,” he managed. “To my pack.”
But his body sagged toward the floor. He caught himself, shuffled to the bed, and sat on the edge.
“Aaron.” April’s scent spiked with worry, and her voice held a fragile tension Malachi hated to cause. “Will you come here please?”
His beta arrived in a few seconds, eyes somber and brows furrowed, scent cloaked in frustration and worry. Aaron set two fingers against Malachi’s wrist. After a moment he sighed.
“I’m going to repeat myself until you hear me,” Aaron said. “Catastrophic blood loss, Mal. Your body needs time and rest. I know it’s unnerving for you, but you can’t muscle your way through this.”
“I hear you,” Malachi rasped.
“I’ll believe it when I see it.”
