But it’s my mess, and I’m not about to drag Ash into it.
I try again to call him, pulling up our message thread when he doesn’t answer. I text him. Hopefully he’ll read it before he gets here.
9
LYNX
I waituntil we get outside and steer Corey to the patio out the back. We’re secluded enough here that I don’t have to lower my voice. There’s no one around who I’m worried about overhearing. “Tell me.”
Corey sighs and runs a hand over his short hair, like he’s choosing his words carefully.
I growl, impatient. I want to know what the fuck that was in there.
He winces when he meets my eyes, and I do my best to dial back my alpha side already restless under my skin. That’s not what he needs right now. “Whatever it is,” I say, gripping his shoulder, “we’ll deal with it.”
“I fucked up.” He curses softly, kicking at a stray leaf. “The blood—myblood...”
“It healed him, didn’t it?” I suspected. Hoped to fuck I was wrong though.
“Yeah.” He walks over to the railing and leans on it. “It probably took longer to kick in than it would for one of us because his own blood diluted it. I’m so fucking sorry. I didn’t think...” His laugh is short and bitter. “I guess I didn’t think full stop.”
“He would’ve died otherwise.”
Corey nods. “He would.” He turns to look at me. “But maybe that would’ve been better than the mess I’ve put us in.”
“Maybe.” I refuse to examine my feelings where Morgan’s concerned. They’re... complicated. One of those unfortunate fucking times when alpha and president are not in agreement. “But like I said, we’ll deal with it. No point blaming anyone. It’s done.”
He sighs again but relaxes enough for us to work out what to do now.
“How bad is it?”
“All traces of his concussion are gone. The wounds on his thighs looked almost fully healed from what I could see. The ones on his stomach were deeper so they’ll take a little longer, but those stitches need to come out.” He pushes off the railing and looks at me. “Today, ideally.”
“Fuck’s sake.” How are we going to spin this?
“He feels better, healed,” Corey adds, like I hadn’t realised that for myself. “Not sure he believed that bollocks about numbing pain relief either.” His smile is wry as he adds, “Wouldn’t surprise me if he ignores everything I said up there and either has a look for himself or tries to get out of bed.”
Before I can answer, Callum rounds the side of the house. He glances between us but doesn’t ask, so I presume he’s heard enough of our conversation to know what’s going on.
He stops in front of us. “We’ve got about five minutes before the friend gets here. What’s the plan?”
Shit. That’s what we’d gone to see Morgan about before being blindsided with his accelerated healing. “I was gonna move him to one of the rooms so it doesn’t look like we’ve got our own fucking hospital here, but the minute we get him up out of that bed, he’s going to know that something’s up with those wounds.”
“We could tell him.” Callum doesn’t even flinch when I snarl at him. “Or not.”
“I think he already knows about us.” Corey’s eyebrows rise when Callum and I spin to face him. “Maybe notus, but shifters. You know he remembers more about that night than he’s admitting to.”
Yeah, I did.
He’d been lying when we questioned him, I could smell it. But how much does he know? How much does he remember? More importantly, how much does he believe? Doesn’t matter if he saw it with his own eyes or not. Sometimes the mind doesn’t want to accept things even when the evidence is there.
“No. We’re not telling him the truth.” They both want to argue, but we don’t have time. Not now. “It’ll put the club, the wholepackat risk and I’m not willing to do that without consulting the others and putting it to a vote.” As alpha I could make that decision and the whole pack would have to abide by it, but we aren’t your typical pack any longer.
If we ever have been.
“This isn’t something we can ever take back?—”
“We can always kill him if he reacts badly.” Callum says it so matter-of-factly, and he’s right.
