Chapter 13
Elodie
Exhaustion had me dying to crawl into the nearest bed and sleep for a month. But the look on Bri’s face and the ominous way she’d asked to speak with me alone… Anxiety apparently trumped exhaustion.
In my weakened state, my racing heart beat was all the more obvious.
“Do you want us to stay or go?” Fiona asked quietly, giving me a side hug.
“Stay. If it’s bad news, I don’t want to be alone.” The whispered admission cost me, but she just hugged me harder.
Brielle cleared her throat. “There’s no easy way to say this given your position, so I’m just going to say it.” She exhaled, then met my eyes. “You’re going to go into heat. Soon. And given your current situation with your mission and the connection to Valens… I’m afraid that’s not going to leave you much time to decide.”
What she didn’t say was just as potent as what she did. Like, the fact that she-wolves didn’t usually go into heat unless they were hundreds of years old or in the presence of their fated mate.
I slouched further into Fiona’s hold, and felt Galyna’s arm come around me from the other side. Still supporting me, even after I’d kept things from her and been a shitty partner.
My eyes fell closed, and I sucked a deep breath in through my nose.Think, El, think.
“What’s the likelihood of riding out a heat with someone without progressing the bond?”
Brielle drummed her fingertips on her thigh, thinking. “Honestly? I don’t know. Bond progression isn’t an exact science, and every couple has their own timeline. Leigh and Gael didn’t get marks even after sleeping together and her getting pregnant.” She shrugged, but I could tell she was holding something back.
“But?”
“We thought at the time that my burgeoning powers might have influenced her into an early heat. Now that I’ve got the stone…” She flexed her fingertips, white light dancing along them in a blatant overflow of power. “I have no idea what might happen to those of you who are closest to me, beyond an increase in fertility.”
I nodded. It was a fair warning. She was obviously stronger, the stone impacting her at every level.
And if her hunch was right that I was going into heat, my days to make a decision were numbered.
“How long do I have?” I hated how desperate I sounded.
“I can’t give you an exact timeline. Less than a month for sure. But for now, you need to rest. Give your wolf time to recover.”
My wolf. The memory of trying to shift and being unable to reach her had me sending a panicked thought inward, but she was there, drowsy but fine.
Praise the Goddess. But there was something else I needed to know, and apparently urgently.
“And if I don’t want your powers to lead to a baby before I’m ready?”
She squeezed my hand. “I can give you a birth control shot that lasts six months, well after your heat has come and gone. If you’re still not ready before the next heat, you’ll need another.”
“Okay. I’d like that. There’s too much going on right now to bring another baby into it.”
“I’ll come see you tomorrow morning. Olivia should know where there’s a dose here,” she said, no judgment in her kind eyes.
“Tomorrow is probably good. I feel like I could sleep for a week,” I admitted.
“Consider it done. And go rest. Doctor’s orders.”
“Well, as the lead partner, consider yourself on leave until you’re cleared by one of the healers.” Galyna’s tone brooked no disagreement as she stood, offering me a hand up. “Let’s get you to that bed.”
Three days passed with agonizing slowness as I was laid up in bed. The most infuriating thing was that the flesh wound healed the first day, but my energy was nonexistent. The poison had come within seconds of stopping my heart until Oli intervened, and if it weren’t for her… Well, my time above the dirt would be over.
Just like that.
It wasn’t my first near-death experience by a long shot, but somehow, this one hit differently.
