130. The return
130
THE RETURN
Nate
Judging by the look on Daire’s face, the apology didn’t go over well. Not that I could blame Ryder and Ivor for being pissed. All the stories I’d been told about Kellan had me wondering how Ryder had put up with his shit for so long. Thank Gods they didn’t mate.
Not that it was Daire’s fault he had a dream that was so vivid, he thought it was real life.
“That bad, huh?” I handed my mate an apple cinnamon muffin, one of four that Neil had brought downstairs, knowing how much Daire loved them. As we hadn’t gone out for brunch, Neil had done some baking instead and he told me he’d made far too many muffins for his family. It had me wishing I’d had a close school friend like Neil who I was still in contact with. And Neil being human made it all the more unique.
“More like weird.” He slumped into an armchair and I sat on his lap while he ate the muffin and dropped crumbs on his shirt.
“It was the Kellan thing, right? That must have upset Ryder and Ivor.'' With the stress of the stag shifter’s cancer, chemo and his frail appearance, the family didn’t need any added aggravation.
“Yes and no, but not in the way you think.”
That told me nothing so I waited. Daire would spill the details in his own time.
“It was the macaroons.”
I definitely wasn’t expecting that. Perhaps Ryder was allergic to egg white? Or maybe he didn’t like macaroons. That was a shame because I adored them .
My grizzly mate went on to explain how only Kellan was aware that Ryder loved those macaroons from that particular bakery. “It’s a coincidence, babe. We’ve bought them many times from that place based on a friend’s recommendation. And the bakery isn’t far from here.”
But Daire wasn’t having it. “It’s a sign.”
“Of what? That some of the Sunshine Manor family love macaroons?”
He shook his head. “No. It’s something to do with Kellan.”
I hoped he hadn’t said that to Ryder and Ivor. That would have upset them more than they already were. “Like what?”
“No idea.”
For the rest of the day, Daire didn’t do much except stare out the window and pace the apartment. Eventually he went for a jog, something he used to do with Ryder before the stag shifter got sick. I watched him tear along the sidewalk as he headed for the park. Maybe he’d feel better when he got back having released some of the stress he was bottling up. I was supposed to be editing footage for Micah but I couldn’t concentrate either.
“These are yummy,” I told my mate while nibbling on a muffin as he staggered through the door moaning, covered in sweat that was dripping over his chin. He pulled off his drenched tee and headed for the bathroom. On any other day, I would have joined him because my mate was one sexy beast. But not today.
A roar from the bathroom had me rushing in. “What is it?”
“Kellan!”
I wished he’d stop saying that name. Even Brax would be an improvement on that guy.
“Ryder needs a bone marrow donor.”
I didn’t like the way this conversation was headed and I doubted Ryder would either if my mate repeated it to him. “Mmmm.” As a result of the chemo, Ryder needed a bone marrow transplant. He was on a donor list but so far there’d been no matches.
“What if Kellan’s the one?”
“Please don’t say that to Ivor. He’ll either collapse or hit you.”
Daire stepped out of the shower and I turned it off. He dripped a trail of water into the living room and I raced after him with a towel. “No. Kellan might be Ryder’s bone marrow donor. Maybe that’s why I had the dream. Ivor or Ryder would have dismissed it as a nightmare if it’d happened to them.”
It seemed a bit too Twilight Zone to me and I couldn’t see how our friends would agree to contacting Ryder’s cheating ex. But as the stag shifter’s life was precarious, they might be willing to try. They’d run out of options.
“I’m going over to the manor to talk to them.”
No way could I let him go alone. “Daire, clothes or at least a towel would be a good idea.”
He took the towel and raced next door with me at his heels. Neil was sitting on the porch chatting to Ivor and Archer and when they caught sight of a dripping wet Daire wearing only a towel, Ivor got up and glared at my mate.
“No more stories, Daire. You’ve done enough today.” Ivor waggled his finger at my mate.
“It was a sign, Ivor.”
“Daire!” Ivor’s sharp voice had my mate skid to a halt on the path. “I don’t want to hear any woo woo ideas. You had a dream about him. End of story.”
“I think he’s the donor,” Daire blurted out.
Ivor put his hands over his ears, stamped his feet and yelled, “Stop talking.” Dyani cried from inside the apartment. Neil brought her onto the porch and gave her a muffin.
“Let me talk and then you can tell me to go away and never speak to you again.”
“Fine. One minute,” Ivor fumed.
My mate launched into a spiel about how it couldn’t hurt to get hold of Kellan and ask him to get tested. “If he’s not a match, that’s it. He’s out of your life. Again. And if he is…”
Archer put a hand on Ivor’s shoulder as Ryder hobbled out the door and sat down. “No way,” the stag shifter said, and I suspected he was using every bit of strength he could muster. “We’re not bringing Kellan back into our lives. No freaking way.”
The wolf shifter glanced over his shoulder at his mate. His hands were trembling as Archer gave him a hug. But Ivor’s voice didn’t wobble as he said to Ryder, “What if?—”
“No. I won’t do that to you,” Ryder insisted.
Ivor kneeled at his mate’s side. “You and our daughter are my world. I will do anything to make you better even if it means bringing him into our lives again.”
“Ivor.” Ryder cupped his mate's cheek and I squeezed Daire's hand. I almost looked away as the interaction between mates was so intimate, we shouldn't have been witness to it.
The wolf shifter took out his phone. “You still have his number?” Ryder asked. “I thought you deleted it.”
“I almost did and then thought I’d better keep it.”
“I should call him.”
Ivor shook his head. “No, it has to come from me.” He got up and went into 1A.
The only sound from inside the building for the next ten minutes was the low murmur of Ivor’s voice. Daire was freaking out, tugging at his hair and I had to drag him back as he attempted to race into 1A.
“He has to do this. Kellan won’t agree because you threaten him,” I said.
Archer shoved a whole muffin in his mouth while Neil took Dyani into the front garden. When Ivor appeared, the phone in his hand, his tear-streaked cheeks could only mean Kellan had refused .
“He agreed.”
“Don’t get your hopes up, babe,” Ryder stood on his thin, shaky legs.
“That’s all I have is hope. I can’t give it up.” Ivor picked up their daughter. “Thank you for being our friends but we need to be alone.”
“I’ll arrange dinner to be delivered. Thai okay?” I asked.
Ivor nodded. Daire and I were left with Neil and Archer. We gave one another hugs and went home.
“How long does it take to find out if someone’s a match?” Daire asked.
We looked it up and it appeared it would take two weeks. Poor Ivor and Ryder. More waiting. Waiting, testing and treatment was what they’d been doing for months.
“What if Kellan is a match and he doesn’t agree to be a donor?” Daire asked later that night as we lay in bed, neither of us able to sleep.
“One step at a time.” While I didn’t say anything more to him, if that happened, I’d beat Kellan up myself.
The next two weeks dragged on. While we didn’t want to upset Ivor or Ryder, the rest of us texted and whispered to one another. “Have they heard yet?”
How likely was it that the asshole who caused Ryder and Ivor so much misery would be a match? I worried that Daire’s dream had given us hope when we had no right to. But as Ivor has said, hope was all he had.
And in the end, it was Martin who gave us the news. Apparently he had been in 1A talking to Ivor about a client’s paperwork when the wolf shifter’s phone beeped. It beeped more than once and then it rang.
The first thing we heard was Martin out the front of the manor yelling, “He’s a match.”
Neil almost fell down the stairs as Daire and I tore out of our building. Archer poked his head out the window of his house on the other side of the manor. But it was Ivor who stumbled along the manor path, his body convulsing in sobs. He leaped into Daire’s arms and mumbled, “Thank you. He is, and he said yes.”