“I hadn’t even considered the possibility that he might not be.”That would’ve been a mess.Well, messier than this already was.
Yet, while Marcus was still out and resting, there was absolutely nothing we could do about it.We just had to face whatever came at us when it did.
We all heard it when Marcus stirred awake again.We’d all been listening for it, after all.
Ell went into the room first.I followed, but remained at the door.Dom was still there, keeping watch, his body snug against Marcus’s.
“Hello again.”Ell was using his doctor voice.He sat on the chair he’d put by the head of the bed, gave Marcus a moment to get his bearings, then put his hand against Marcus’s forehead.“You poor thing.”He pulled the thermometer from his bag to check Marcus’s temperature again.
I came closer to peek over his shoulder.103.We had a hurt, sick human mate to take care of.Well, it never just rained, always had to come pouring down.
Marcus eyed Dom, and Dom gave him his friendliest puppy eyes.He was a younger sibling, and according to his mom, he had perfected that look.
“What did you give me?”Marcus’s voice was raspy.It made me want to cuddle him close, but it was way too soon for that, and he was still suspicious; I could see it in the way his eyes were darting from one of us to the other, in the way his expression was closed off.The fear in his scent was impossible to miss.
“Paracetamol and water.”Ell smiled.“But maybe some tea with honey is in order, and then some soup once you feel up to that.”
Dom whined quietly.He probably wanted to shift, climb under the covers with Marcus, and hold him close.That was exactly what I wanted to do, but we had things to discuss before that was even close to being an option.
“Marcus,” I said, and our mate looked at me.He had blue eyes; not like Ell’s, but much lighter, silver almost.Moonstone eyes.“There are things we need to talk about.”
Marcus shivered, and Ell touched our mate’s shoulder.“It’ll be fine.”
It sounded as if Ell was saying that as much to us as to Marcus.
I’d never told anyone about our kind—never had to—so I had no idea what the best way was to broach the subject.
I lowered my head but maintained eye contact.“I’ll be blunt, but rest assured, we can talk everything through in detail later, after you’ve had a bit of time to adjust.”I took a steadying breath, half hoping that Ell or Dom would jump in, but of course they didn’t.So I said, “The three of us are werewolves, and you, Marcus, are our mate.”
7
Werewolves?
So this was bad.This was really fucking bad.They didn’t relate to reality right.A group delusion.Shared psychosis.Yeah, that was what this was.
And had Lincoln said mate?That was worse.They wanted me to… Ugh.R-rated group delusion.Not that they weren’t hot, but I needed sane people around me.Especially now, after the breakup.Their delusion explained the massive dog though.
“Sure,” I said, forcing myself to remain as calm as I could.Feeling like shit didn’t help with that.“Sure, sure.”My throat was on fire, and I really wanted that tea with honey.I had to get out of here first though.There was no time for tea.“How about we talk about all that later.”I moved the covers off my legs.Ugh.Oversized flannel all the way down.Double ugh.They’d put that on me while I was out.“I should go,” I said.“Now.”
The dog growled and jumped off the bed even as Ellis pushed me back down.“You’re not going anywhere.You need to rest, Marcus.”
Elsewhere.I needed to restelsewhere.
The damn dog put its front paws up on the bed and kind of howl-barked at me.I looked into its copper eyes…and the thing just sort of morphed upward and out until it was a person.
The redhead.The naked redhead.
Had been a dog.The redhead had been a dog, had been?—
“What the fuck?”
It had perhaps taken two seconds all told, nothing like the drawn-out, painful transformations you saw in horror movies.
I was pointing.At the redhead.Who had been a dog.He looked at me in a smug way.And he was naked.Damn.
I looked at Ellis.“What was in those pills?Because the way I’m hurting, it can’t have been paracetamol.What kind of drugs did you slip me?”Okay, even with the sore throat, I sounded panicked.I needed to keep calm.
Ellis opened his mouth to say something, but before he could, the redhead spoke.“We didn’t give you any fucking drugs.What do you even think is going on here?Do you think we dragged your shapely ass back home because we enjoy breaking the werewolf truth to humans?You werehurt.You were out in the woods, and you werebleeding.”
