Monty doesn’t move to comfort me.He regards me without comment, one hand steady on Wolf’s blanket, the other free as if he’d offer it if I dared to take it.
I desperately need the warmth of human contact, but Monty’s hand isn’t the one I want to hold.
Before I can doubt myself, before shame can bite my heels, I move.Clumsy, graceless, but unstoppable, I climb onto the bed, slip beneath the blankets, and curl my body beside Wolf’s.
He’s ice-cold, his skin clammy and too pale.His chest rises shallowly, each breath strained, the muscles in his face tense even in sleep.
My hand hovers an inch from his cheek, trembling with the need to touch.Instead, I settle against the curve of his shoulder, my forehead close to his.Not touching.Just there.
“Breathe, Wolf,” I whisper.“You’re not alone.”
The sound of hurried footsteps cuts through the quiet, pounding downstairs, then up, closer, closer.The door bursts open.
Leo storms in, brash and golden, like a Norse sun god punching through frozen trees.Kody follows, cold and brooding, as if he were born in a blizzard and never thawed.And Frankie, still in her scrubs, hair pulled back, eyes wide with worry, trails close behind.
Monty greets them with his glacial stare and avalanche jawline vibrating with worry and relief.
They gather around Wolf, the dark heart of the north, taking in his pallid appearance.Taking up space.These people don’t just enter a room.They swallow it whole and all the air in it.
“We came as soon as we could,” Leo whispers, running a hand over Monty’s shoulders, absently massaging the stiffness there.
Monty immediately relaxes beneath the touch.“He had another episode.Severe.I don’t know what triggered it.”
Another episode.How often does this happen?
“Is he responsive at all?”Frankie wriggles in around them, her medical training taking over.“Pulse steady?His breathing is too shallow and—”
“He’s stable, darling.”Monty catches her wrist, his thumb making slow circles against her pulse point.
Kody’s gaze drags over me, then drops to Wolf’s arm.His worst scar.The chewed-up hole in his bicep looks like rot once lived there, eating him from the inside out.The skin is so mangled, puckered, and ruined, I wonder how close to death it brought him.
“I gave him that scar.”Kody glares at it.Then his stark eyes lift to mine.“Shot him with my crossbow—”
“Kody.That’s not…” Frankie shakes her head and looks at me.“Kody was protecting me.”
“Protecting you from Wolf?”
“It was…” She rubs her brow, letting her exhaustion show in that subtle gesture.“A dark, complicated time.We were stranded and starving.”
“And freezing to death.”Leo brushes a lock of hair behind her ear.
“Yeah.”She feathers her thumb over the arrow wound on Wolf’s arm.“We all did impossible, terrible things to survive.”
Kody flinches as if her words hit a nerve.His fingers flex at his side, drawing my attention to the stigmata-like scar on the back of his hand.It’s perfectly centered, round, the skin shiny and tight.Healed, but not old.Maybe a year?The edges are still pink and tender-looking, like something sharp punched clean through his hand.
I wonder how it happened and if there’s a matching hole on his palm.
“You were here, Dove?When Wolf had the panic attack?”Kody opens his palm, revealing a smooth exit wound, confirming my suspicion.“You were with him?”
“I—” My voice cracks.“I found him curled up in the shower.”
“We left him alone with Jag this morning.”Frankie angles her ear near Wolf’s chest, listening to him breathe.Then her eyes shift to mine.“Your stepbrother had a high fever, could barely lift his head.But could he have done something—?”
“Of course, he did,” I snap, harsher than I mean to.My throat burns as I push to a sitting position and lower my voice to a whisper.“Jag sent me a text.Said he didn’t touch Wolf, but Wolf touched him.Somethinghappened.”
“Oh.”Her features soften then dawn with realization.“Ohhh.”She lowers her gaze to Wolf.“He hasn’t been out in the world long.He’s still learning what he wants, what excites him…” She looks at Kody and Leo.“And what triggers him.”
I nod stiffly, but discomfort coils in my gut.This room feels too full, crowded with family, blood as thick as tar between them.I’m the outsider, sitting under Wolf’s blankets like a fraud, an intruder.
