Total pages in book: 154
Estimated words: 148955 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 745(@200wpm)___ 596(@250wpm)___ 497(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 148955 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 745(@200wpm)___ 596(@250wpm)___ 497(@300wpm)
“She’s in heat so it’s possible that she is, too soon to tell, but I don’t think it’s that causing the fever. I don’t think it’s that at all, sweetie. She’s meant to be yours; fate wouldn’t be that cruel.” She wraps an arm around my shoulder.
“Wouldn’t it?” I ask.
She flinches.
We both know how fate has treated us thus far.
My forehead drops to Ivy’s bed. Cat rubs my back rhythmically and it’s soothing.
What is it, though?
I smell Mason Quinn.
I smell someone else. Ivy’s sister.
They burst into the room.
My eyes meet hers.
Fuck, she looks like my Ivy. Dark hair but similar eyes. Similar face. Rounder face. Curvier. A little taller. I give my head a shake at the uncanny resemblance.
She runs to the bedside. “What’s wrong with her? What the fuck did you do?” She glares at me and then the little vixen slaps me across the cheek.
Mason hooks an arm around her waist and hauls her back.
He says soft words into her ear and purrs for her and her eyes change before they drift closed. Her posture relaxes.
He kisses her throat. He’s marked her there.
She jerks in reaction at that and lets out a whimper.
He spins her so that she’s got her face buried in his throat. He holds her and caresses the back of her head.
His eyes move to mine and we lock gazes.
“Is Ivy okay?” He asks me.
I swallow.
My mother speaks before I get the chance. “Her fever is finally coming down a little. We’re hopeful. If it spikes again, we’ll have to evac her to St. Jude. Amelia? I’m Catrina Savage. Can I ask you some questions about Ivy’s medical history?”
Amelia pulls away from Mason, moves to her sister, then leans over and kisses her head.
“Her face is so pale. She’s so hot. What is it? I’m a nurse, so talk to me.” Amelia looks at the bag that feeds medicine into Ivy’s arm and then lifts the temperature-taking tool and points it at Ivy’s head before reading the screen.
“It came on suddenly,” Cat says. “She’s weak, high fever, and vomiting, unable to keep even water down. I’m rotating ibuprofen and acetaminophen to try to tackle the fever. Tell me about any allergies, major illnesses. She was here when she got bit by a snake and said there was nothing, but are you aware of anything she might have forgotten to mention? Any allergic reactions, anything like that?”
“No, nothing I can think of. I’ll call my mother and ask her. Do you have a phone I can use? Somebody took mine. She shoots an angry glare at Mason who is looking at Ivy.
I don’t feel threatened by his eyes on her.
I look at Amelia Brennan. Now, Quinn, I guess. I know who my mate is so I feel nothing for her, but by her scent I can guess that perhaps I’d have been confused by it if I smelled it first, before mating.
“Man, I gotta say,” Mason has moved in closer, “I don’t blame you. I woulda done the same.” He holds his hand out for me to shake. “I know that now. I’d have done the exact same.”
I take his hand. I feel the same connection that I feel when shaking hands with Riley, Grey, Jason, Joel, Lincoln.
I get it. I get why they protected him, why they wanted to stop me from doing something I wouldn’t be able to undo.
“Though, I mean, I couldn’t do that cool half-shift thing, but other than that… yeah, I get it. I’m sorry for the trouble it caused, though, Tyson.”
“Thank you for that. I get it. I don’t feel anything for your woman, but that’s probably because I already found mine. I can see, can guess how confusing it must have been.”
“It’s all instinct,” Mason says. “All of it. Your reaction. Mine. I’m glad it makes sense now. Can’t tell you how crazy it was drivin’ me. Weird though, I’ve known couples with siblings. Your mother and father, their siblings were mated and there was nothing like this.”
“Atticus is beta,” my mother says. “Not alpha. And there wasn’t witchcraft at play… that we know of. But we had that whole other issue with Cornelius. Sometimes shifter relationships are… complex.”
“Point taken,” Mason says.
“Things good with you and her?” I ask.
Amelia is pacing the waiting room with her hand on her neck, talking on the phone.
She stops in her tracks, pulling her hand away from her neck and I watch him as he watches her and a slow smile spreads across his face.
Her shoulders tremble and she says something else into the phone before her eyes meet his, narrow, and then she sticks her tongue out at him before pulling it back in and spinning to turn her back to him.
His shoulders shake with laughter.
“She’s in denial about it, but it’s better than good. Man, it’s everything.”