Our group hug broke up then, and Idecided that in the morning it was time for a house meeting. Everyone needed toknow about my vision and my time with Lina because I wasn’t going to be able tofigure this out alone. I needed the hive mind on this. But I was too exhaustedto get into it now.
“All right, I need to get some rest, andin the morning I want everyone to gather. I have a lot to tell you guys.” Fourpairs of skeptical eyes pinned on me, but I just sighed.
“I’m tired. Let’s get some sleep andrecharge. Tackle this mess tomorrow,” I pleaded. I hadn’t even had dinner and Ididn’t care. I hadn’t had lunch either for that matter and it was only about sevenp.m. but I was wiped out. I would eat a protein bar and just go to bed. Maybeit was the crazy teleporting with Nahuel or maybe it was watching my frienddie. I suddenly couldn’t stay awake any longer.
Nahuel who had been leaning silentlyagainst the wall, approached us with his arms wide.
“I think that’s a great idea. I will showyou to your rooms.”
He shocked us a bit by letting Jaxon andAvery room together. Mason was on the couch, and Gavin and I had been put up inHaseya’s old room. Gavin’s mom.
After Nahuel shut the door, Gavin juststood there looking around at the pink ruffled bedspread, tiger poster on thewall, dreamcatcher hanging on the headrest. I was snacking on my protein bar,unsure of what to say to my mate.
“I don’t want to be here,” Gavin finally said,kicking off his shoes and falling onto the bed, which was a contradictory actionto his statement.
His words hurt but not as much as when Ireached out with our bond and found him closed off. He had shut me out. Still.
Was he mad at me? Or was there somethinghe didn’t want me to see?
I pulled off my shoes, shoving the lastpiece of bar into my mouth, and crept into bed beside him, letting my handstroke his chest. “I’m sorry. It’s the only safe place for us right now.”
He was silent, his body rigid under mystroking hand, so I stopped. “You’re mad at me,” I said aloud and slowly pulledmy hand away. Gavin’s hand snaked up quickly and grabbed mine, resting it onhis warm chest. He tilted his head down and looked at me with the molten coppereyes of his wolf.My wolf.
“Never,” he said, and I felt that hiswords were true. Then with a quick kiss to my lips, he rolled over and fellasleep, leaving me to stare at his back and wonder what war was happeninginside of my mate. He had gone from hot this morning to cold as ice and therewasn’t a damn thing I could do about it. Besides, I had bigger things to worryabout right now, but I wouldn’t completely let this go. I needed Gavin to be onmy team 100% or I wouldn’t be able to do anything that was expected of me.
After texting my dad that we were allsafe, I stared at the ceiling for an hour unable to turn my mind off. So muchfor going to bed early. I should have been going off to college, going toPixels bar on Friday nights and just being a regular twenty-year-old. The lastthing I thought of before I finally drifted off to sleep was the vision of thedead wolf drained of his blood. One life gone to save another.
Chapter Four
AFTER SHOWERING AND changing my clothes,I came out to see that only Jaxon was up. His fingers were flying over thekeyboard and I knew my brother enough to know he was doing some serioushacking. It was about six a.m. and I wondered just how much sleep my brotherhad gotten. None of us were morning people but times had changed and sleepseemed low on the priority list. Just give me chocolate and coffee and I couldsurvive anything.
“Whatcha doin?” I asked as I brewedcoffee. Thank God Nahuel had coffee or we might have some serious problemshere.
Jaxon barely looked my way but hisfingers slowed a little. “Trying to find the douchebag from the video. Take himoffline. But dammit he’s good.”
I shook my head. “How many views does thevideo have?”
Jaxon sighed. “Ninety-five million.”
I tried and failed not to choke on my ownspit. “Forget it, Jaxon, it’s too out there. Everyone has seen it. Let’s focusour efforts elsewhere.”
“Like where?” Gavin’s rough voice camefrom the hallway behind me and I spun around to check out my mate. He lookedlike hell, a darkness clouding his eyes, lips turned in a frown.Shit.
‘What’s going on with you?’I tried our bond. Nothing. His eyessoftened the slightest bit but he didn’t answer. Just what I needed on top ofmy entire race going extinct. Mate problems.
“For starters, we need a house meeting.Get everyone up, please,” I stated. Giving Gavin my back, I poured myself somecoffee, then after a moment’s pause poured his too. We might be having issues,but I wouldn’t withhold coffee from my worst enemy, let alone my mate.
Twenty minutes later I was looking intothe eyes of all of my half-awake friends and family. I decided to tell themeverything. The vision, the anchor, everything. Taking a deep breath, I let itall out but as much as I tried not to, I broke down when I spoke about how Linadied in my arms passing her light to me.
“So, you’re an anchor now?” The way Jaxonwas looking at me right now made him look just like my father. Caramel skin,chiseled jaw, and furrowed brow.
I sighed. “I know. It’s confusing. Justfor a like two years until her cousin Rayla can go through her vision quest andcome of age. Then I transfer it to her. I’m just borrowing it for now.”
Since I had told my friends of my visionand what happened with Lina, they were all looking at me like I was crazy.MaybeI was.
Avery had been quiet the entire time.“Av, talk to me. Is there any way that four different wolves of the same bloodtype could donate a pint each? Not that I want us to become donors but … worstcase,” I asked her. She was my analytical one. I needed her input.
She sighed. “Yeah sure, but do you knowhow many sick humans there are in relation to wolves? There aren’t enough ofus. And the humans would have to wait because each wolf could only donate onepint a month. That means it would take four wolves to cure one human and onlyonce a month. Otherwise we get sick and can’t regenerate.”
