9. Caleb
I started sprinting the second Emily collapsed. It took all of my willpower and control not to burst out of my skin into animal form—my wolf was so desperate to protect her, to make sure she was all right. If she were about to start her first shift in front of an entire audience... well, it’d be devastating.
I could just see the headlines already: “Wild animal attacks suburban party, no survivors left.”
No. I wouldn’t let that happen.
I hadn’t exactly gotten off on the right foot with the soon-to-be shifter. That didn’t mean I was about to let her destroy everything in what could possibly be one of the scariest moments of her life.
“Stand back!” I urged as soon as my feet were on the ground after bolting the fence.
I shouldn’t have even been there, and I knew it was a huge invasion of Emily’s privacy. Still, after that fuckwad of a shifter came out of nowhere and tried to pick her up, I was incredibly paranoid about her safety. I told myself I would just swing by, see if I could smell any shifters who were there and could walk her through her first shift, then go about my merry way.
Then she collapsed in front of me.
“Who the hell are you?”
I ignored that voice as I rushed to Emily’s side. She was seizing, and I could feel the heat radiating from her. What on earth could be happening? She’d been fine the day before, and while first shifts could be incredibly difficult, I never heard of them causing seizures.
I needed to get her away from all the prying human eyes.
“Someone call 911!”
“Ambulance! We need an ambulance!”
“Oh my God! Is she okay?!”
“Emily, sweetie?! What’s happening?!”
If she was going through her first shift, I knew the cacophony around her would wreak havoc on her senses. We didn’t want to draw more attention by having an ambulance come by, either. Shifting in the middle of an emergency room wouldn’t be much better than in the middle of her fancy party.
“I’m a doctor,” I lied through my teeth, scooping her up as I said it with all the authority I could muster in my alpha voice. While humans were not as susceptible to it in the same way shifters were, many could still sense the inherent air of authority to me. I had to hope that the majority of the crowd around us could, otherwise things were going to get awkward fast. I didn’t want to kidnap Emily in broad daylight, but I would in order to make sure the feeding frenzy of a first shift didn’t claim the life of anyone she loved.
It was a ballsy move, that was for sure: just charging into a party I wasn’t invited to, dressed as I was and claiming to be a doctor. But it was amazing what worked when people were in a panic.
“A-a doctor? I don’t think I’ve seen you before,” an older woman said. Perhaps Emily’s mother? If the girl in my arms was indeed Kaia, then she was adopted, and I wouldn’t be able to track the family resemblance via scent.
“I used to tutor at her college,” I lied yet again. Oh, well, I’d said much worse things for worse reasons. “We need to get her inside, get her some water, and let her breathe.”
“Who the hell do you think you are?” There was a vague familiarity to the snap of the question, and I craned my neck to see the same gentleman who’d been with Emily the first night I’d spotted her. Ah. This was likely the boyfriend.
I supposed I couldn’t blame him for being flustered, even angry. His girlfriend had collapsed, and I’d come out of nowhere and picked her up. The likelihood of me actually being a doctor was astronomical, so he was right to be suspicious.
“Who I am doesn’t matter,” I said. “What matters is Emily. Now I think we can both agree that she needs to get to safety.” I glanced pointedly at the crowd squeezing in around us. Nosey, nosey. “Somewhere with a little space.”
His expression lightened at that, no doubt slightly soothed by the fact that I at least knew who she was. I wasn’t willing to waste any more time convincing anyone else of my charade. Emily needed help, and she needed it now.
Besides, if it really was her first shift and she was having an incredibly volatile reaction to it, the faster I got her inside, the less likely that she’d expose our kind to her family and friends.
If it were any other circumstance, I might have snooped around her house. It wasn’t the lavish mansion I’d first visited when tracking down the car, but it was still nicer than any house I’d ever lived in. It spoke of never having to worry about a roof over one’s head, or where your next meal came from.
But instead of being jealous, I was... happy for her. I liked that she hadn’t known struggle, hadn’t known the same pain as me. She doubtless had her own trials and tribulations growing up as an adopted kid and a shifter who didn’t know what she was, but at least poverty hadn’t been tacked on.
“Does your daughter have any serious allergies, a history of epilepsy, or a TBI?” I asked the older woman.
“TBI?” she questioned, chaperoning me inside and confirming my hunch that she was likely Emily’s mother and, judging by her scent, human.
“Traumatic brain injury,” the boyfriend said, still sounding plenty sour.
“No! Nothing like that. She has a history of disordered eating, but she’s been managing well for a long time. And an allergy to peanuts, but we cooked everything at the party, so everyone close to her knows she can’t have them.”
Disordered eating? That was a shame. Shifter culture had its faults, but one thing I appreciated was how, compared to humans, we weren’t as obsessed with everybody looking the same. I hated to think of Ka— Emily —having starved herself or getting sick to fit into a mold never meant for her.
Once Emily hit her first shift, she would need to eat a lot to maintain her weight. In fact, most alphas would want her to gain to help with having pups. It was a natural instinct to provide enough for their mate so they’d get a little soft around the middle.
“Where can I put her down?” I asked. “Somewhere more private?”
“Here, in the study. We have a reading nook with a couch that will keep her out of the living room.”
“Perfect.”
Although Emily had ceased seizing in my arms, she was shaking, clammy, and completely out of it. Shifter immune systems were incredibly strong, so even though she hadn’t gone through her first transformation, it wasn’t any human illness affecting her.
But then what shifter ailment could she have? I highly doubted that anyone had poisoned her with wolfsbane, and even if that was the case, she wasn’t vomiting black.
“What do you think is wrong? Do you think someone possibly snuck her peanuts?” an older gentleman asked, likely her father. Concern was etched into his features. I’d wondered if her parents were unscrupulous traffickers who’d stolen an innocent shifter baby, but both of their reactions told me that was unlikely. They were genuinely scared and worried for their daughter—I could see it just as much as I could smell it.
“I’m not sure,” I said, laying Emily down as gently as I could. Even in her current state, I was struck by her sheer presence, like she was calling out to something deep within I thought I’d lost ages ago.
I pushed that distracting tug away, narrowing my eyes to scan her from head to toe, slowing down my heart to focus on what I was seeing and smelling. Adrenaline. Cortisol. Sweat. That same beckoning allure underneath, but only barely there, mostly obscured by the extreme reaction of her body.
I needed to move fast. It wasn’t wolfsbane, yet it seemed similar to poisoning. But if it wasn’t that herb, then…
Finally, I saw it. I homed in on her bracelet and knelt beside her once more.
Silver.
“Do you have Benadryl or some other antihistamine here? An EpiPen?”
“Oh, we have an EpiPen,” Emily’s mother said. “I’m allergic to bees. Why?”
“I’ve seen this before. Your daughter is suffering from anaphylactic shock.”
“She what?! But she’s not allergic to anything but peanuts!”
I grabbed a couple of tissues from the box next to the couch and carefully removed the bangle from Emily’s wrist. As soon as I shifted it, I could see her red, angry, and blistered flesh from where it’d been sitting. “Allergies can be developed at any point in life.” Especially when becoming an entirely different species , but I didn’t add that part. “If I had to guess, your daughter has developed an extreme silver allergy. It might even be to all heavy metals.”
“Oh my God,” the woman cried. “That can just happen? ”
“Silver allergy?” the boyfriend said, sounding somewhere between horrified and skeptical. “So all of this is from the bracelet I gave her?”
“It’s rare, but this isn’t the first time I’ve seen it,” I answered honestly. The first time was when I found a young man delirious in the middle of the woods after his first shift, covered in blood, foaming at the mouth, and one of his fingers borderline necrotic. I’d ended up cutting that finger in order to remove the silver class ring that’d become embedded in his flesh. He’d recovered and regrown it eventually, but he’d had a rough time in Zach’s care.
“I’ll get the EpiPen, you stay with her,” the father said to his wife, rushing out of the room.
I stayed by Emily’s side, exuding what I hoped were calming pheromones. Thankfully, now that the ring was no longer there, she’d recover fairly quickly. Not as fast as a full shifter, but then her reaction to the silver would’ve been so much worse if she’d already gone through her first transformation.
“It’s going to be okay,” I soothed, letting some of my alpha rumble go into my chest.
“Do you really need to hold her hand like that?”
I looked over my shoulder to glare at the boyfriend. Why was he still here?
Stupid question. I knew why he was standing there with that sour expression on his face, and he was completely justified. I still didn’t like him. In fact, I was sure I wanted to rip his head off. I wouldn’t, out of respect for Emily, but the temptation was most certainly there.
Maybe it was just his face—and true, I was jealous—but something about the guy set me off in the worst way. He felt dangerous, but not in the way of a fellow alpha or even another predator. More like... a patch of poison ivy or stinging nettle: painful, itchy, obnoxious, and best to be avoided, but not an actual threat.
“If you have a problem with my bedside manner, you’re more than welcome to step out,” I said.
He sputtered and opened his mouth like he was going to argue, and I was so done with it, I decided to go for a crushing blow. “Look, I know your panties are in a knot because your gift made your girlfriend sick, but you couldn’t have known. So please just stand back and let me make sure that she’s all right.”
I could tell from both his face and his scent that he wanted to beat me up. It would’ve been comical for him to even try, but he kept himself contained.
Pity.
“I’ve got the pen!” the father called, rushing back in. I nodded to him to administer it while keeping a close eye on Emily’s face.
If she were a full shifter, she wouldn’t need it. But she still hadn’t taken on her full wolf form, so I figured she could use some human medicine. Besides, even if she didn’t, her accelerated shifter metabolism would break it down before it could harm her.
I wasn’t a doctor, but I was her guardian. Or rather, I’d been Kaia’s guardian all those years ago. An alpha entrusted with protecting a younger member of the pack.
But where did that leave me with Emily? I was certain she was the very girl I’d been sworn to protect, but at the same time, she wasn’t Kaia at all. She was her own person, with her own family, her own identity, her own life outside of any pack whatsoever.
So where did that leave me?
I didn’t know, and I didn’t get an answer before Emily’s eyes fluttered and her whole body relaxed. Her mother let out a gasp, but I shook my head.
“No, that was a good thing,” I said. “She’s asleep now.”
“Should we call an ambulance? Now that she’s stable?”
I took a deep breath to see if her wolf was close to the surface, but no, it was just as far away as it’d been the last day—at least as far as I could tell. Since she was still mostly human, it wasn’t a bad idea to have doctors check her out.
“Yes, that’s a good idea,” I agreed, looking to the fuming boyfriend. He should stop worrying about me and pay more attention to his girlfriend. The man reminded me far too much of beta wolves, puffing up their chests and fighting for territory they didn’t have the ability to protect. “Could you clean out any lingering guests?” I asked him. “It’ll make it easier for the paramedics when they arrive.”
The boyfriend stared for a moment before saying, “Y-yeah, I can do that.”
He looked relieved that he had something to do, which worked out for me—I was relieved to have him out of my hair. I wasn’t being particularly fair to him, but I didn’t care. I was already having such complicated feelings about the soon-to-be shifter resting beside me. In one way, she was a stranger, and I knew barely anything about her. What I did know had been gleaned from a background check by a fellow shady friend she’d no doubt be horrified to find out about.
But also, she was Kaia . Somehow, some way, she had to be her . The scent was identical, and the guardian bond I’d once shared with her was growing stronger and stronger with each passing day, not to mention my natural alpha inclination to help out pack members in need. Because if she truly was Kaia, she was most certainly my pack.
“Hello, yes, my daughter has had a medical emergency. We had to give her an EpiPen.”
I glanced over my shoulder to see the father pacing back and forth on his phone while his wife rushed out of the room, saying something about water when Emily awoke. With them distracted, I was faced with one singular, complicated question.
What now?
I’d stopped by Emily’s main address not because I’d been meaning to see her, but because I’d wanted to check out her support system and see if there were any shifters who’d have her back. If I managed to pick up the scent of someone in the know, I could warn them that Emily was nearing her change and needed help. The interference of the random alpha who’d interrupted my last talk with her confirmed that her pheromones were strong.
But it was increasingly clear to me that there wasn’t a single shifter or paranormally affiliated person in her life. Especially if they were giving her silver gifts. Everyone outside the human spectrum knew that was a huge no-no for tons of us, not just wolves.
So, did I just leave her alone? Abandon her again?
That’d be far too cruel. I got the impression that Emily had a loving family. I didn’t want her first experiences as a full-on wolf to be tearing them apart limb from limb, not understanding what she was doing until she shifted back into her human form.
No, that would mean I’d have failed her even more than I already had. I couldn’t just leave her.
Now what?
Obviously, she knew I was here. Her eyes had connected with mine, and I’d seen the absolutely infuriated expression on her face. Perhaps it was naive not to expect such vitriol to cross her pretty features. I knew I’d fucked up, but this was even worse than I’d anticipated.
I could put the ball in her court and be considerate for the first time since I’d accidentally stumbled upon her. Glancing back at her father to make sure he was occupied, I took a Sharpie sitting on the nearby desk and rolled up the sleeve of Emily’s pretty dress. I tried to write both quickly and neatly—not exactly easy for me. Thankfully, I managed to get my number down and roll her sleeve back into place. Hopefully, the hospital would just give her a once-over and not notice the marker, but if they did, oh well. I’d just have to roll with it.
“They’re on their way,” the father told me just as I was putting the marker back.
“Excellent,” I said with a solemn nod. I was also acutely aware that I needed to get out of there before the real medical professionals showed up. I had enough shit on my record without getting in trouble for impersonating a doctor. Besides, I wanted them to believe that their daughter had spontaneously developed a severe metal allergy. If they found out I was a fake doctor, then they would doubt my diagnosis, leaving Emily with a real chance she could get sick all over again.
“I’ve got her a blanket and a pillow—oh, and some orange juice!”
That was the boyfriend returning once again. He must not have done a particularly good job of wrangling the crowd because there was no way he was back so soon. Whatever. Nothing I had to worry about now that I was going to dip out.
“Well, since the professionals are on their way, I hope you don’t mind if I use your facilities?” I asked.
“Oh, of course. Go right out of here and go down the hall. It’s the last door on the left.”
I nodded and strode to the exit, but before I could, the mother stepped into my path and extended her hand.
“Thank you so much,” she said, her voice cracking slightly. I wasn’t the one who’d made Emily sick, and I’d actually helped her get better, but I felt like I was somehow in the wrong. I supposed the lies made me feel guilty. Funny how I was so used to having to do that in my old life, having a conscience about it was still relatively new.
God, I was the worst guardian ever.
“I just did what I had to,” I said as honestly as I could, because that was the truth. “Anybody would have.”
“I don’t think that’s true.”
Then, out of nowhere, the woman was hugging me. With my advanced reflexes, I could’ve dodged her without even batting an eye, but I didn’t. I let an older woman wrap her arms around me and hug me tight like I was some lost sheep from her flock. I let her stay that way for several seconds, too.
Fucking weird.
“Anything you ever need, please let us know. My family owes you a debt.”
“You don’t owe me anything,” I said quickly, finally untangling myself from her. “The paramedics will be here soon to check Emily over. I’ll be right back.”
There we were, right back to lying again. Oh, well. Some things never changed.
Except the idea of leaving Emily made my stomach twist. It was like now that my body had found Emily again, my soul didn’t want to let her go. Complications upon complications. I didn’t need any of this impossible situation, yet I couldn’t find a way to extricate myself from it.
To be honest, I didn’t want to. I wanted to get closer to Emily. Which was ridiculous, because it was becoming more and more apparent that we were from different worlds.
“Oh, yes, of course,” her mother said. “Do what you need to do.”
With that, she stepped out of my way, and I made my escape. But as I beat a hasty retreat in the opposite direction of the corralled guests in the garden, I noticed several expensive arts, decoration, and tech supplies just sitting around that’d have helped reduce my debt. Not too long ago, I would have lifted something while everyone was distracted. I was a different man now, or at least I liked to think I was, so I strode out onto the street without anything else in my pockets.
Change was hard, but it wasn’t impossible.