Chapter
One
If Cole died,everything was fucked.
"What the fuck’s happening to him?" Nico Tillsey barked out the question, but he feared his voice was too shaky with panic to keep anyone in the pack focused. His fucking hands were shaking, and he was tempted to shove them into the pockets of his stupid jeans before anyone noticed.
Fresh blood was spattered across the stomach of Cole's checkered red and white shirt, making the pattern solid red about halfway down. His already pale skin was beginning to look pure white and sweat beaded his brow like it was a hundred degrees in the room. His dark hair looked even darker against his clammy forehead, and Nico didn’t like how pale his alpha’s lips were looking, almost blue.
And now he was convulsing.
Fuck.
Javi and Reece were both wearing sweaters that were offensively homey, given the situation and the bright ceiling light belied the intensity of the moment. Heat wasn't the issue.
Cole’s room looked just as it had when he’d left, a book left on his bedside table along with an empty coffee mug he probably meant to return to the kitchen.
"When did this start?" Nico demanded as his fellow betas held the alpha down on his bed. Hugh had thought to put down two dark blue beach towels first, which would hopefully save any mess and hide any stains.
Nico didn't give a singular fuck about the mess right now, though.
"I don't know!" Javi's eyes were wide, and he balled up his fists. Those eyes shone a little too yellow, a little too inhuman, and his wolf was peeking through. “How did this happen?” Javi was normally the calmest of them all, always quick with a joke and full of energy that sometimes had him bouncing off the walls. Today he looked like a caged animal ready to lash out at his jailers.
That was another thing they didn't need.
Nico wasn't a doctor, but he could manage a bit of first aid. His wolf couldn't do shit. Paws and bandages didn't mix.
"It was the fucking Iron Runners, man," Reece spat. "They fuckingshothim with something. Shot him! Like some fucking humans! And he's not healing." Reece was a large man and a larger wolf, but right now his shoulders were hunched forward as if he could somehow lend his strength to Cole andwillhim to get better. A vein pulsed in his temple.
"Silver?" Hugh asked. He'd grabbed a first aid kit from somewhere, and paper tore as he opened the antiseptic wipe with his teeth. Hugh pushed up the sleeves of his sweater and revealed the faded tattoo he had on his forearm. Tonight, it was covered in speckles of Cole’s blood.
"It doesn't smell like it." That was Javi. "Maybe there's silver powder. But I've never seen any shit like this before." Nico took a deep breath and tried to work out the scent for himself. Javi wasright. Whatever it was, it waswrong.Acrid and chemical and almost like fucking magic.
Hugh jerked up Cole's shirt and swiped the wipe over the wound. It looked so small considering just how damaged Cole was. Cole moaned weakly and tried to curl in on himself. For all the pain it was causing him, the wound wasn’t big. Nico expected a swipe of a wolf’s claws, even if Reece had mentioned something like a gun. The wound on Cole’s abdomen was only two inches wide and surrounded by an ugly purple bruise.
Was that a good sign? Bad? He had no fucking clue.
They'd all been hurt before. That was just part of being a werewolf. But Nico couldn't remember a time it hadlasted. He stared at the seeping blood on Cole's abdomen like it might offer answers.
Was it healing? Was that dark shit around the edges blood or something worse? Was his skin turning pitch black? No, that had to be a trick of the light.
"We need a healer. Where's Mark?" The pack house was strangely quiet tonight. Javi and Reece had managed to get Cole inside without being spotted, which was unusual in a residence that had more in common with an apartment building than a house.
"He's working with the healer from the Alejandro’s pack on that training thing. Something about physiology or metabolism or?—"
"He's not here," Hugh interrupted Reece. "And he's gone for a week. Melanie is visiting her mom but is supposed to be back soon."
Melanie was Mark's apprentice. His incredibly new apprentice. She was eighteen and eager, but she'd only been learning for a month or two and wasn't prepared to handle whatever was wrong with Cole. Nico didn't need to be a healer himself to know that.
The other betas kept looking at him like he had the answers, and he wanted to scream at someone else to make a decision. His jaw clenched and he could feel the strain of a headache already threatening at his temples. He ran his fingers through his short brown hair and resisted the urge to tug on it, as if that might calm him down.
Why are you hanging this on me, Cole?
Why do you think I can handle this?
Saying any of that out loud would make this ten times worse.
"What about a human doctor?" He didn't recognize his own voice as he asked it; his voice came out almost strangled.
