“Has he been getting fevers often?” My body heated up as I stood near him. I had no idea what was going on because this sort of reaction was unheard of.
The grandfather seemed surprised by my question. “Medicine won’t bring it down. Doctors say there’s nothing they can do, but we’re going back to the hospital because it’s one hundred and six. We’re desperate.”
I gasped as sweat rolled down my back. 106F. He shouldn’t be standing, he should be having a seizure or some shit. The grandfather looked at Jax hulking behind me.
“You friends of Gavin’s? I didn’t know he had friends of your kind.” He meant no harm by the wordsyour kind, but they stung nonetheless.
“We’re new friends.” I figured a half truth was best here.
Gavin’s head had been drooping the whole time but now he raised it and met my eyes, panting, out of breath. His caramel-skinned face was beet red, sweat rolled down his cheeks, and his eyes … the irises were yellow like a wolf and the part that should have been white was blood red.
I gasped and backed up into Jax, completely caught off guard by how ill Gavin looked. He seemed fine when I had seen him last night at the club.
Gavin’s hand reached for me. “Help me,” he rasped before collapsing into my outstretched arms. I nearly keeled over with his dead weight, so Jax scooped in to help.
Oh my God. This was bad. My wolf surged to the surface wanting to break free and when the grandmother stepped forward to help Gavin, I growled.
Her hand froze about a foot from Gavin and I tried to cough to cover the growl, but it was too late.
“I’m sorry, I can’t explain it but I think he’s one of us.” I knew my eyes were yellow and if Gavin’s grandparents had been caring for him the last few days, they would have seen his eyes go yellow, too.
The grandmother shared a look with the grandfather and nodded.
They were hiding something. “Tell me, it could save his life. Was he bitten?” Because suddenly that made perfect sense. Although, my father would be furious if a rogue wolf had bitten a human on his land. It hadn’t happened in twenty years and none of my pack members would do this.
The grandmother shook her head. “No, the hospital checked him for bites, but …”
Jax dropped Gavin in my lap and stood to his full height, muscles flexed. I had to resist the urge to smack him.
‘Seriously? They’re a hundred years old,’I scolded him.
He met my eyes quickly.‘I don’t care. They’re hiding something. I don’t trust liars.’
Jaxon took his role of being my protector very seriously and clearly thought that meant that every eighty-year-old man was a threat to my existence.
“Tell me, I want to help him,” I pleaded. My upper lip was beaded with sweat and I could feel Gavin’s body heat burning through my jeans. He was completely unconscious now, his heavily muscled body felt like a ton of bricks in my lap. I could see now that we were connected, Gavin and I. His heat, my heat, I could no longer deny this guy might be my mate. Holy Shit. This was not how I dreamed of meeting my mate, half dead in my lap smelling like half human half … something else.
The grandmother’s face looked pained at the sight of Gavin in this state.
“This morning when I went to check on him, his arms were … furry.” She seemed to be in disbelief.
The grandfather put an arm around her and met my gaze. He held it for longer than I thought he would be able to. My lips quirked into a tight smile. This man had just earned my respect. Staring a dominant werewolf in the eyes took major cojones.
“We adopted Gavin as an infant through Catholic Services. He was left on the orphanage door step. Could he be … wolf-born?” The grandfather’s voice seemed unsure.
I shook my head. “No, wolf-born begin shifting in the womb. You would have seen the signs as an infant.”
Jax interrupted my thoughts.‘Not Mom. She was wolf-born but was changed human as an infant before the first full moon.’
My heart picked up at my twin’s words. Jax was right! My mother had a complicated past but itwaspossible to be wolf-born and live life as a human. But for that you would need a very, very powerful witch and it was extremely rare. The spell didn’t just wear off either; he wouldn’t be showing signs. Suddenly, I knew where we needed to go.
“I need to take him to some of my friends I think can help him,” I told the elderly couple.
‘Jax, get him in the car. We need to take him to the witches.’
The grandfather turned to his wife. “Betty, go on back in the house and wait for me. I’ll call you with news.”
I suppressed a growl. “You can’t come, sir. These friends like their privacy.” The coven would straight up kill me if I outed their race to the humans.
