They could be animals. Bloodsucking, vicious monsters who’d turn on you just to get their next drink. He trailed his fingertips over the half dozen bite marks that littered her body, all in various stages of healing. Whoever had done this hadn’t done it while lovemaking, ensuring the holes were sealed clean. Rather, it looked as if they’d bitten and retreated, as if they’d been inflicted to purposefully cause pain, debilitation.
He knew that feeding clubs existed. Some humans and shifters got off on pain. Others enjoyed the intoxicating rush of a vampire-induced orgasm. But even in those kinds of places, there were rules about sealing up wounds and they most certainly kept strict dress codes. No, something about this whole situation was off. Logan wasn’t sure what the hell was going on but he planned on meeting with Kade as soon as possible. This shit needed to stop but now. If there were more like her out there, they’d all be fucked.
Logan laid Wynter on the bed so he could prepare the bath. He needed to get her cleaned up and most importantly bring her fever down. It didn’t seem right that she wasn’t waking up with all the commotion he was making. Even though it had been a while since he’d tended to a sick human, he knew that her lack of consciousness could be a serious issue. But his acute hearing told him that her breathing and heartbeat were both normal. For a brief second, he thought that he should throw her in the car and take her to the ER. Under normal circumstances he may have given it further merit, but this situation reeked of supernatural. She had the answers to his questions, and he was determined to get them. As soon as Dana got there, he’d seek her advice about taking her to a hospital.
He glanced over to her threadbare underwear and bra and considered the best way to go about giving a frightened human woman a bath. He laughed in irritation. What could possibly go wrong? As much as Logan loved being naked, and with a woman even more so, he decided that he’d better don a pair of boxer briefs. The last thing he needed was her freaking out, waking up slippery and barely dressed with a naked man she’d only just met. He planned to get her in the tub with him and hold her up so she didn’t slip under the water. He figured ten minutes would be enough time to bring down her fever, at least until Dana got there. He’d let her decide what to do next. Being wolf, he didn’t keep even an Advil in his house.
Logan picked her up and moved into the bathroom. He stepped into the lukewarm water and lowered them both in so that she laid on him. Her back against his chest, he took the bar of soap in his hands and twisted it into a washcloth.
“Okay, baby. Here we go.” He spoke softly to her as if she heard him. She shuddered but never woke, so he kept going. “Just goin’ to clean you up a bit. Look at what they did to you. Don’t worry; you’ll be healed in a few days. What I’d like to know is how you got mixed up with vampires?”
Logan found that he was unable to stop talking to her as he carefully cleaned her arms and face. Even if she didn’t hear him, it was possible she’d wake at any second. He wanted her to know that someone cared, that she was safe with him. Logan gently washed her, avoiding touching her breasts. But he couldn’t resist slipping his hands around her waist, feeling the smoothness of her belly. Fully submerged, he threw the washcloth aside and simply held her. Pressing his cheek to hers, he could feel her body temperature was lowering.
“That’s a girl. You’re going to feel better soon. Then, we’re going to get to know each other,” he whispered.
In the quiet of the night, he focused on listening to her heartbeat. His own heart squeezed in response, hoping that the woman he held would heal soon. He thought about the fucking vision. It was possible that he’d averted her death. He’d saved her from a clawed vampire. Maybe that was the end of it. But a nagging suspicion lingered; something told him that this was just the beginning of trouble.
Logan pushed out of the tub, reaching for a towel and gently dried the woman. Her skin puckered in response to the cool air, yet she still made no show of awaking. As Logan rounded toward his bed, Dimitri, Fiona and Dana ran into his room. He caught the smirk on Dimitri’s face as his eyes dropped to his Alpha’s dripping briefs.
“What?” Logan asked.
“And they say chivalry is dead? Nice briefs, sexy beast,” Dimitri teased with a raised eyebrow.
“Fuck you, D,” Logan shot over at Dimitri. Without missing a beat, he addressed Dana. “Hey, can you come check her out? I had her in a cool bath but she’s still not conscious.”
Dana came around the bed and set her medical bag on the night stand. “A human, huh? How long has she been like this?”
“Yeah. I can’t be sure but I’d say she’s been out for at least forty-five minutes. A few hours ago she seemed fine. Well, awake anyway. When I touched her earlier, I could tell she was sick, warm.” Logan stripped and proceeded to towel off in front of everyone. Comfortable with nudity, the others barely noticed.
Dana continued the brief exam and checked her vitals. “This isn’t good,” she commented, fingering over the feeding holes riddling Wynter’s body. “Who did this?”
“Don’t know. But when I find out I’m going to kill them…if I didn’t already. Dimitri told you ’bout the vamps at the bar?”
“Seems viral. Fever. Sleep deprivation. Stress.” Dana pointed to the dark circles under Wynter’s eyes and her short bitten nails. She lifted a hand to her nose and sniffed. A look of confusion washed over her. “You said she was human?”
“Yeah, why?”
“Well, this is very unusual. Tell me Alpha, what do you smell?”
Logan strode across the room and held his nose to the soft inner wrist presented to him. “She smells…smells.” He stopped and shook his head. His mouth gaped open as he tried to process what was happening. “No. No, that’s not possible. I’m telling you Dana, it’s not fucking possible.”
Unable to stop himself, he ran the tip of his tongue along her skin.
“No.” Logan still refused to believe it.
“Yes, Alpha. She’s wolf.”
“But I’m telling you that when I saw her in the alley earlier there was no possible way she was wolf. I think I know a human when I smell one. And even if by some miniscule chance the scent of the vampire blood masked her true nature, why didn’t she shift? I mean, look at all those bite marks. Some are at least a few days old. She could have shifted to heal them. And here’s the biggest problem I see with her being supposedly wolf; wolves don’t get sick. This woman is very sick. She’s got a fever, for Christ’s sake; the kind of thing you only see in humans. That just doesn’t happen to wolves. What the hell is going on here, Dana?” Logan had switched over to his low, dominant Alpha voice. All the wolves lowered their eyes.
Dana took a deep breath and carefully chose her words. “Alpha, I don’t know what’s going on here. You’re right on all counts. I mean, she scents wolf. But she’s sick and that never happens. Look here, at these marks on her neck.” She pointed to a series of marks the size of pinpricks that had scabbed over; under her hairline, they were barely visible.
“I don’t know what this is. It almost looks like a taser. Or maybe…no,” she stopped herself before saying something ludicrous.
“What, Dana?”
“It’s just that it kind of looks like an old polio scar. You know, from the seventies. Or maybe it could be caused by some kind of a multi-needle injection device,” she guessed with a shrug. “Whatever made it could be causing this fever. But then if that’s true, I’ve never seen anything like it. Wolves don’t get sick.”