“Let’s try this again. How are you feeling, Tad?”
Nothing was working right and his brain felt like it was iced up. “Good grief, what’s wrong with me?”
Shaun’s voice grew quiet with an annoying “I’m being patient” undertone. “You’ve been sick, Tad. You caught the flu from the guy you flew around—”
Fuck that. “Yeah, you told me.” Tad held a hand out to Shaun to get a pull upright. Shaun hid his arms behind him and Tad cursed. He rolled to his belly and gave a painful push onto his knees.
“Not that I don’t want to help but listening to you scream in pain every time someone touches you lost its appeal after the first dozen times.” Shaun sat on the chair next to the bed.
Tad crawled back onto the mattress and covered himself. The pressure of the quilt on his skin hurt less than the cold seeping into his bones. His mind cleared a little, enough to grow concerned. “Am I going crazy?”
Shaun shook his head. “Sorry if I seem a little short but I’ve explained what’s wrong five times already. I’m not sure you’re going to remember whatever I say so it’s difficult to get excited about sharing this again. But in the hopes six is the charm, here goes. It’s Thursday. You were—”
“What?” Tad exclaimed. “Missy and I did the set-up on Monday before we got stuck in the cabin.”
Shaun raised a brow. “Well done. First time you’ve been able to remember that without prompting. You remember anything else you did with Missy?” Tad swore and Shaun pumped his arm into the air. “All right, it seems we are getting somewhere. I know it drives your poor little human sensitivities wild, but I’m going to speak plain wolf for a bit. You began FirstMate with her and for some stupid, idiotic reason you stopped. You can’t stop a trigger in mid-pull, Tad. All you’ve managed to do is get the bullet in motion and you’ve hit a time warp. Until you finish what you started, neither you nor Missy will be able to touch another person without pain. That’s number one. Number two is none of us knew Missy is an Omega wolf and—”
“A what?” The pain in his body faded slightly as he remembered being in the cabin with Missy. How he’d almost decided to trap her forever.
“Omega. Instead of dealing with the authority and leadership of the pack like the Alpha and Beta, she helps set the emotional track. She knows what needs to happen by instinct. Packs without an Omega often have wolves go feral or head into the illegal side of things. You don’t even know they are there if they do their job right.”
Tad scrubbed his hand over his face. “Is Missy okay? Where is she?”
Shaun held up a hand. “In a minute. First I need to tell you something else.”
“Damn it, Shaun, you’ve already told me I’m not only an ass for fooling around with Missy, I’m also responsible for messing up the pack. What other bomb do you feel the need to drop?”
His friend leaned forward in his chair, eyes serious, lips pressed together. “You haven’t messed up our pack. Missy is visiting and I haven’t been able to convince her to tell me where she’s from.”
Tad shook his head in confusion. “She told me.”
“Well, she must have trusted you more than you realized. Keil couldn’t even get it out of her and that tells me she’s either damn strong or damn scared about something. I also never called you an ass for fooling around with Missy but for stopping. Big difference, bucko. I need to ask you something. If Missy wasn’t a wolf would you have liked to make love with her?”
What was Shaun up to? “Of course. You know I’ve liked her since high school and I didn’t know she was a wolf. I had even decided that—”
Shaun held up his hand and jumped in. “Right. Let me get this straight. You would go out with Missy, even sleep with her as a human. What if she fell in love with you? Do you think you could have fallen in love with her?”
Tad didn’t understand where this was going. “Yes.”
“Then you won’t be upset to find out she didn’t care if FirstMate triggered a false mate because she’s always been a little in love with you and she figured it was far better to love you even if you didn’t return her feelings.” Shaun dropped his voice, shaking his head slightly. “She’s hurting bad right now, Tad. She’s in physical pain because of the damn trigger thing, but emotional pain too because you managed to turn her down.”
“Because I didn’t want to hurt her!”
Shaun pulled a face. “Well nice going on that one, Einstein. She saved your butt and she needs you. Now you can get all human shy and shit on your own time, but if you’re any kind of man you’re going to go and make things right with her whether she’s your mate or not.”
A crash carried from the kitchen into the bedroom followed by loud cursing. Shaun leapt to his feet and stomped to the door. “Bloody idiot, TJ, you burning the house down or making coffee?” He looked back at Tad. “Well?”
He was glad his head wasn’t physically spinning anymore because it was doing triple lutz trying to keep up with this conversation. “Well what?”
“Do I go get Missy or do you stay an asshole?”
He’s got to be kidding. Tad gestured to the bed and his shaky body. “You want me to seduce the woman when I’ve been sick in bed for three days?”
Shaun laugh was harsh and loud in the quiet room. “You were over the flu the first day. The rest of it is a side effect from your own stupidity. As soon as I bring Missy in here you’ll feel much better. Trust me.”
Did Missy really need him that much? If Tad were thinking more clearly in the first place, he wouldn’t have caused this trouble. It came down to doing the right thing.
Tad stared out the window. So much of the past couple of years for him had revolved around the pack and learning about being a wolf. He’d become so distracted by his need to become triggered, he’d left all his human goals behind. That had been a mistake.
He thought about the way Missy had grinned at him the first day they’d met so many years ago. The way her eyes lit with mischief when she’d teased him. The sound of her laughter. The touch of her hand. He caught himself smiling as he remembered how she made him feel about himself, like he was capable and trustworthy.
Holy crap, he was in love with her.
Tad took a deep breath as he realized he not only knew the right thing to do but that he wanted to do it. Longed for it. Even though Missy was getting a false-mate sign, he would make sure she never felt unloved. Really, it was no different than what his life plan had been before he’d found out he had wolf genes—meet a girl, fall in love, get married.
He turned back to face Shaun. “Where is she?”
“She’s in Shaun’s bed,” TJ said as he stuck his head into the room and anger streaked through Tad. Shaun caught a glimpse of it and shoved TJ into the wall.
“Smooth move, slick. Tad, it’s okay. I’ve been sleeping on your couch and one of the girls from the pack has been taking care of Missy. I haven’t touched her.”
TJ chuckled. “Yeah, no one touches her because it’s freaky to hear the noises she makes.”
“TJ!”
Tad made up his mind. “Shaun, I need to ask a big favour. Can I use your apartment for…well, until we don’t need it anymore? I’ll go over there. That way no one will have to touch Missy.”
Shaun let out a big breath. “Good decision, Tad. See, this is why I’m your friend. Can I help you?”
Tad reached to pull on his jeans then changed his mind. He wasn’t planning on being dressed for too long anyway. He gingerly slipped on the huge robe Robyn had given him for Christmas with Pilots Do It on the Fly embroidered on the back, and headed for the bathroom. “Give me a couple minutes to clean up. I can walk but you’re going to have to drive. If I got pulled over I wouldn’t know how to explain to the RCMP why I’m dressed like this in February.”
“Doesn’t anyone want a drink?” TJ asked as he held up the steaming pot of dark liquid.
Tad sniffed the air. “TJ, where did you get the coffee grounds?”