She blinked. “I’m not an—I mean, I…” She frowned. “Am I?”
He grinned. “Oh yeah.”
“Huh. Go figure.” Then she wrapped her arms around him and dropped a kiss on his nose. “Want to hear what I like about you?” she asked.
More than he wanted his next breath.
“The guys I know are all really smart, but give them a hangnail and they fall apart. Brilliant in their own field of study, but anything outside of their expertise, and they’re a mess. They’re so threatened whenever they don’t know the answer, but you just roll with it. You let others have the answers if you don’t, and you pitch in without ego when you do. It’s wonderful.”
He lowered his forehead to hers. “I have an ego.”
“But it doesn’t get in the way.” She wrinkled her nose. “And by the way, I’m talking about myself, too. If I don’t solve this Flu, I’m going to fall apart. Fair warning.”
He smiled. “I know. Don’t worry. I’ll be there to pick you up.”
She pulled back. “You’re supposed to say that I will figure out it. That you have faith in me, and I’ll get a promotion because of my brilliance. All the normal boyfriend bullshit.”
He shrugged. “This is a shifter poison. Even if you do figure it out, you won’t be able to tell. At least not the normal people.” He tried to put an apology in his tone, but she had to know the truth. Even if she got a magic formula that solved all their problems, she wouldn’t be able to share it with anyone but the shifter community. That would be very hard for her. For anyone in her position.
Her mouth opened in shock and stayed that way for at least three breaths. He could see her mind working the angles, trying for a solution that would satisfy everybody. “But this is important research. It’s a medical problem. People are dying!”
He nodded. He knew. “Tell the shifters. We’ll tell our kind.”
“But it’s not just your kind who are dying. And what about Brittany? She didn’t even know she was part shifter. What about all those hybrids out there?”
“We have people in every part of the world. We’ll get the information out to those who need it.”
She shook her head. “That’s bullshit, and you know it. Brittany’s one in a hundred. That means for every Brittany, there are ninety-nine people who start to become hybrids but don’t make it. Their higher cortex dies, and they turn aggressive and angry.”
He winced. He hadn’t realized stable hybrids were that rare.
“If I find a solution, we can’t keep this secret.”
He didn’t argue with her. They weren’t going to agree. Sure, it would be wonderful if they could spread the information to the World Health Organization or whatever national and international scientific body needed to know, but that’s not how the shifter world worked. It sucked, but it was a fact.
She swallowed and looked away. “See? That’s what I like about you, even when I hate it.”
He frowned. “Come again?”
“You respect me enough to tell me what you see as the truth. And you let me disagree with you.” She leaned forward. “And for the record, I do disagree. If I figure out a cure, I’m publicizing it. I’ll try to keep the magic out of it.” She rolled her eyes. “I’ll have to if I want anyone to read it, but I’m giving it to whomever will take it.”
He took a deep breath. “We’ll find a compromise. When you figure this out—and for the record, I do think you will solve it—then we’ll work out a solution together.”
She tilted her head. “You believe that? Really?”
He wasn’t sure what she referred to. Did he believe she would solve the medical problem? If anyone could, it would be her. Did he think they’d reach a compromise? He hoped so. He really did.
She snorted. “I also like that you don’t lie to me. You think this is going to be a problem.”
He shrugged. “I think that this is a future fight. Right now, we need all your energy on solving the problem.”
She nodded her head. “Agreed.” She brought her hands up to his shoulders and used her thumb to tease the hair at the base of his neck. “You talked about seeing the Randolphs in the hospital room. About the love they shared.”
He nodded, the memory still having the power to make his gut clench in yearning.
“I remember the moment a little differently. I saw the happy family pulling together…”
“Yes—”
