The pups are restless and often stray outside. We’ll get another one.”
“You’d better,” Rex growled through gritted teeth. He kicked the huddled youth into unconsciousness, then turned on the rest of the pathetic group shuffling uneasily nearby. “What are you still doing here? Don’t you have product to move out on the streets?”
“Yes, Rex,” they replied in unison before fleeing.
Alone in the dank darkness, Rex raged at the injustice and bad fortune that had left him with nothing but a handful of decent soldiers and a pack of worthless rogues to carry out his orders while Sylvan Mir played at being Alpha. Her Pack was promised to him. Promised.
Now that she had been appointed Special Councilor, the other Alphas were afraid to move against her. As if her negotiations with the humans really mattered. Weres should never negotiate with humans or any other species. Weres should take what they wanted—and he would. Starting with the Adirondack Timberwolf Pack.
Chapter Four
How is she?” Niki slid onto the bench next to Sylvan in the rear of the heavily reinforced Rover. They’d removed the seats and bolted benches along each sidewall to make transporting Weres in pelt form easier. Lara, the youngest of the centuri at just twenty-three, drove while Max rode shotgun. Andrew and the two boys sat on the floor, while Sylvan held Misha.
“She’s weak, but there’s no sign the toxin is spreading.” Sylvan skimmed her hand over Misha’s cheek. “No indication of cellular breakdown.”
“You’re sure it was argyria poisoning?”
“Yes.” Sylvan’s voice was still rough with fury. “I’ve got the proof in my pocket.”
Niki sucked in a breath. “What is it?”
“A knife blade, coated in silver. It must have struck bone and broken off when they stabbed her. I dug it out from under her shoulder blade. Another three inches and it would have been in her heart.” And the beautiful young Were would have been dead before Sylvan could have reached her. Sylvan snarled her rage.
“You shouldn’t be carrying it,” Niki said, looking panicked. “Let me.” Sylvan swiveled her head and narrowed her eyes. “And risk you getting cut?”
“Alpha—” Niki’s tone was agonized.
“Niki,” Sylvan chided, cupping Niki’s jaw in her palm. She leaned closer and kissed Niki’s forehead. “Stop worrying. I’m in no danger.”
“You’re not impervious to the poison. Damn it, Sylvan, you’re not immortal.”
Sylvan grinned. “Trying to scare me?”
Niki rolled her eyes. “As if I could.” Her expression suddenly grew serious. “What if Misha develops the fever?”
“She’ll fight it. We’ll help her.” Sylvan breathed out a sigh. “She’s young and strong. The anaphylaxis stopped as soon as I got the silver out. She should heal the injury rapidly as long as the dose of toxin isn’t too high.” She tightened her arms around the young Were who slept so innocently in her arms. “If the paralytic had spread much further, she might have been permanently damaged.”
“Her shoulder.” Niki shuddered. “If the muscles are destroyed, she won’t be able to run.”
For a wolf there was nothing worse than being chained, being unable to run, unable to hunt, unable to breathe free under the moon.
“Misha will be fine.” Sylvan rubbed her cheek against the top of Misha’s head, then wrapped an arm around Niki’s shoulders and pulled her close. Niki laid her cheek on Sylvan’s chest and threaded her arm around Sylvan’s waist. The boys crowded closer, one wrapping his arm around her calf, the other laying his head on her thigh. Andrew braced his back against her other leg.
“Rest, my wolves,” Sylvan murmured, tilting her head against the window and closing her eyes. “Everyone is safe.” She didn’t sleep as the Rover turned off the highway onto an overgrown, unmarked trail that led deep into the forest to the Compound. Instead, she mentally replayed the scene in the ER. She dealt with humans on a daily basis and unlike many of her Pack, she didn’t think that humans were weaker or less honorable than Weres just because they lived by a far more ambiguous moral code. Still, she couldn’t afford to trust them—she couldn’t put her Pack, or any Praetern species, at risk by confiding in a potential enemy. But she had allowed Drake McKennan to witness more of their vulnerability than any human ever had, believing instinctively that Drake would hold their secrets. This human female had slipped through her defenses, and that made her very dangerous indeed.
Chapter Five
Drake found Sophia in a small conference room tucked into an alcove in the ER. The Were medic sat alone, filling out charts.
Ever since Sylvan and her Weres had left, the ER staff had been giving Sophia a wide berth, and some had been casting curious glances in Drake’s direction. She’d even heard a few disgruntled comments about those kind going somewhere else for emergency treatment. Tonight, for some reason, the thinly veiled prejudice bothered her more than usual.
She kept seeing the pain and terror in Misha’s eyes.
Drake poured herself a cup of coffee and when Sophia glanced up from the charts, pointed to the pot. “Want some?”
“No thanks.”
“You know, I don’t think I’ve ever seen you drink coffee.” Drake sat down across from the blonde at the small round table that bore the stains of many leaky paper cups and spilled take-out food containers. “I didn’t think it was possible to be in medicine and survive without coffee.”
“Most human drugs, even caffeine and alcohol, don’t really have much effect on us,” Sophia said softly, appearing curiously shy. “Something about our metabolism just counteracts them.”
“I guess that can be good or bad, huh?” Sophia smiled, and Drake was struck by the subtle similarity in her appearance to Sylvan and Niki. Like the other two Were females, the muscles in her bare arms below the short sleeves of her scrub shirt were subtly enhanced, the sweeping arch of her cheekbones bolder than that of most women, her eyes slightly up-tilted. And the edges of her deep blue irises flickered with gold. That was as far as the likeness went, however. Both Sylvan and Niki exuded an air of confidence that might have been construed as arrogant if it hadn’t seemed to be such an innate part of their personalities. Sylvan was several octaves higher on the aggression scale than even Niki. Sophia, while outgoing and friendly, lacked that aggression—for want of a better description. One feature they all shared, however: they were each extraordinarily beautiful.
“Is your baseline temperature higher too?” Drake grimaced at the burnt aftertaste of her coffee and set the mug aside.
“Almost two full degrees. How did you know?”
“Misha’s temperature was shooting through the roof. A lot more than that two-degree difference could account for.” Sophia looked away uncomfortably.
“She didn’t seem to be febrile when the boys brought her in. Is it okay to call them boys?”
“Boys works fine. We also call them pups,” Sophia said softly, “or young.”
“Pups seems about right.” Drake laughed and Sophia grinned.
“She was on the verge of Were fever, wasn’t she?” Drake asked.
“I didn’t examine her. I couldn’t say.” Drake knew she was being evasive. “If human medics knew more about Were physiology, we could take care of these emergencies when one of your medics wasn’t around.”
“We’re not all that different. Organs in the same place, more or less. Same skeletal structure when we’re in skin form—” Sophia sighed.