Chapter 14
Julian De León
Ifound myself waking in the middle of the night, knowing that something was wrong.
Or at least off.
I got out of bed, having fallen asleep minutes after Ryder carried Effie into the house, her form relaxed and sated after falling asleep in the car. Well, that, and after him marking her. Coffin let out a dangerous rumble in my ear at that.
He was fucking pissed.
Not at her, of course, but at the fact that males kept marking her before we had the opportunity to do so.
I kept reminding him that we had, in fact, marked her, before anyone else.
Ours had been the first mark on her skin, but he hadn’t been with me yet, so in his mind it didn’t count.
Which was bullshit but also not worth the argument—mostly because I very much wanted to put my mating mark on Effie.
Despite the late hour, I didn’t resist the urge to go see her. I knew where she was sleeping, the six guest suites split between two levels of the house, and easily made my way down a flight of stairs to her bedroom.
Ryder stood in the doorway, looking more than slightly concerned.
He was still dressed from earlier, making me think that he hadn’t slept yet, but when I came to the door, I found he wasn’t the only one there.
Dakota sat on the edge of the bed, his hand running over Effie’s flushed face.
My gaze moved around the room, taking note that Caedmon was opening what appeared to be medicine in the attached bathroom, and Tore—
He appeared right next to Ryder as he went in with a glass of water.
“What the hell is going on?” I asked finally, breaking out of the sleepy haze and confusion of just having gotten up.
“No idea,” Ryder admitted. “I just came up here from my office.”
“She has a fever.” Dakota frowned, his brows pushed together in concern. “A high one. I was sleeping in here with her and woke up to find her super hot to the touch.”
“Julian, since she’s closest to being ‘bitten,’ although I’m not sure about that anymore…
Do we know if human medicine will work on her?
” Caedmon asked, looking perplexed. Where Ryder and I were concerned but not overreacting, Caedmon and Tore were damn near about to lose their shit.
I didn’t blame them, but I also had a feeling that neither of them had been sick—or around others who were sick—very often.
“Won’t hurt to try,” I said, crouching down and running the back of my hand over her searing head. I started to stand to find a thermometer, but Tore seemed on the same track because he appeared in front of me with one. I turned back and placed it against her forehead.
103.2
“Shit,” I exhaled sharply.
“I’ll call a shifter doctor,” Ryder said, turning from the room.
I had to give the guy credit, at least he was efficient.
Caedmon placed the medicine down and followed after him, clearly having something on his mind.
Dakota continued to stroke her hair as Tore went to the other side of the bed and tried to gently wake Effie up.
“Lil bit, I need you to wake up. Just to take some medicine.”
Effie made a discontented sound and pulled her pillow closer, then let out a happy sigh. Dakota ran a hand through his hair, looking stressed. “I’ve already tried to break through to her mentally, but nothing is working.”
Just then I felt Coffin tugging at the back of my consciousness, not being nearly demanding as normal but still trying to get my attention.
Before meeting Effie, I tried to communicate with Coffin as little as possible, feeling like if I did more than was necessary he would use it as a foothold to get more control.
Having another entity inside your head was fucking weird when you didn’t trust they wouldn’t take over. But I’d found recently that the more I listened to him, the more he was willing to work with me. So I offered him some attention, knowing he was probably worried about our mate.
“What?”
“Let me out. I can get inside of her head.”
“You can?” When the hell had that happened?
“She marked us, of course I can.” He said it as if it was common knowledge.
“You good?” Dakota asked. “Coffin bothering you?”
“Sort of. He’s telling me to let him out so he can get inside her head. I’m not sure I believe he can do that.”
Tore looked up with interest. “Has he ever lied to you before?”
“No,” I admitted, letting out a sigh. If Coffin thought he could get through to her, then I was going to let him out. I wanted to know what was going on in her head, exactly—
Coffin surged forward and threw me to the back of my consciousness.
This time, though, I didn’t fade into unconsciousness.
I was completely present, and I watched as he let out a low rumble at Dakota and Tore’s presence before turning his attention to Effie.
At first I really didn’t understand what he planned to do, but when his fingers brushed over our mark on her, I felt it.
The mark she left on us surged with power, and in a wave I was pulled into Effie’s mind, feeling disoriented and like I was watching a movie.
One that featured Effie standing in a dim room, shivering with a blanket wrapped around her.
The walls were hazy, and despite her clearly not feeling well, I didn’t feel anything off with her magic.
In fact, it felt vibrant and healthy…I think she just was sick.
That boggled me a bit, and as Coffin approached her in wolf form, she curled up against him.
What I didn’t expect was how Coffin planned to keep her entertained and present until she felt like waking up.
The room darkened further, and like a projector, images began to play out in front of us. I moved forward to watch them, Effie’s eyes growing more alert.
“What is this?” I asked it out loud, but I knew from Effie’s lack of reaction that only Coffin could hear me.
“Memories.” It was a simple word for anything but.
I watched as the sun rose over a spacious landscape of mountains with an ocean in the background, wolves waking from their slumber in the caves nearby.
I assumed it was from Coffin’s point of view, as he stepped out and was immediately surrounded by small pups, their parents watching nearby.
It was obvious, at least to me, that he was the alpha of this pack, which didn’t surprise me very much.
What surprised me was that he could talk.
“We need to go down to the village today,” he said to the others, his language not one I recognized but somehow understood in this dream. “The humans have decided on an agreement.”
“What type of wolf were you?” I asked.
“We were wolves with true magic, an offshoot of the original lykos. However, the agreement that happens next is the reason that bittens exist—at least from where I came from in the world.” His voice echoed, and I realized Effie could hear when she nodded, looking captivated.
Where he came from in the world. I drew upon the faint knowledge I had from my geography classes, deciding that the projected memory was taking place in South America somewhere; I wanted to say Peru.
I sat down and watched the agreement with the humans play out.
They wanted to know if a bite from the wolves would turn them into wolves as well, scenes of the wolves and humans experimenting flashing by.
Before long, Coffin had been watching a merger of the two communities as they used their resources to grow and become stronger, able to communicate in both human language and wolf.
“The next part isn’t nearly as peaceful,” Coffin warned, and before I could suggest not showing her, the scene exploded in chaos.
In the middle of the night, another group of humans attacked them, and Effie buried her head in Coffin’s fur as the children and adults were slaughtered, their powers meager defense against modern weapons.
Although in this case ‘modern’ consisted of swords and the like, making it clear that the town hadn’t been prepared for battle in any sense.
“Why are you showing her this?” Anger boiled beneath my skin.
I could practically hear Coffin’s wince. “I can’t leave out this part.”
“Skim!” I snarled.
“Fine, fine,” he grumbled, and then his voice grew louder, speaking to her. “Sorry, little wolf. That part is over, I promise.”
And it was. What followed next wasn’t particularly better though, and I began to realize that he was jumping around to avoid the violence.
But I didn’t miss the massacred cities in the background.
I didn’t miss the blood on his fur, even if what he was doing at the time seemed innocent enough.
He had been far more than just a normal killer.
“How old are you, Coffin?” Effie asked softly.
“Far older than the first memory, but that’s the first time I remember participating in a formal culture. Before that, I roamed on my own and went by a different name. I was worshiped as a god by many.”
A god? The wolf inside of me had been a god…that shouldn’t have surprised me, if we were being honest. His entitlement fit the part.
Effie nodded as he continued to play his memories, and I decided to test something.
Leaving him with our mate, I pulled back from the moment.
All the way back. When my eyes snapped open I let out a sigh of relief because I could feel Coffin’s approval, letting me know that he was still with our mate inside her head—connected through our magic.
Looking around, I realized we had moved next to her on the bed, her form tucked against us. No one else was in the room at the moment, but I could feel them close by.
Almost right on cue, Ryder walked in and looked at her with concern. “How’s she doing? They told me Coffin is with her? The doctor will be here in an hour at most.”
“Good,” I said softly. “There’s nothing wrong with her magic; she’s just legitimately sick.”
Ryder frowned but seemed to accept the notion, as he walked back out. Letting out a sigh, I sank into the bed and looked around, trying to see the place from Effie’s point of view.
I wasn’t positive how I’d lived before I met Effie and my memories were removed, but I suspected it wasn’t much better than how I’d lived with my pack.
I hadn’t minded our conditions all that much, though, because the atmosphere and culture had been community-based.
Even at Christmas, the pack had worked together to make sure each pup got a gift, so the ‘lack’ of extra never bothered me.
I had never lived a life like this though.
This level of opulence was beyond me, though I had to admit this place was far more comfortable than any of the others. I could tell Effie was more than a bit in love with it, and I started to wonder if maybe this was the place for us.
I’d never given thought to living internationally, but I could see it. It would also give us the opportunity to travel more, which I had a feeling she would enjoy.
The only thing I would worry about was the closeness to Caedmon’s father and even Ryder’s grandfather in comparison to Wisconsin.
It was just one more thing to consider. What I did know?
None of the houses in Wisconsin were ‘the one.’ None of them had this type of feel, and if this is what Effie wanted, it’s what we would give her.
I was lost in thought for some time before the bedroom door opened and Ryder walked in with a woman in her seventies, her eyes immediately taking stock of the room.
I wasn’t sure if Ryder had briefed her on our situation or if she was just that good, but she didn’t bat an eyelash about Tore and I both in bed with Effie.
Tore had joined us some time ago, along with Caedmon and Dakota, who sat talking quietly near the windows.
Dakota was probably calming Caedmon the fuck down.
“Hi there,” the woman said with a small smile. “I’m Dr. Hills. I heard we have a sick bitten wolf?”
“Yeah,” I admitted. “We don’t think it’s her magic; she seems to just be sick.” I sat up and moved just enough for the doctor to get to her, still sitting on the edge of the bed. Tore didn’t move—stubborn bastard.
She nodded in understanding. “Start of the school year, right? Ryder told me that you’re students at a university. If this is her first year, then it’s probably from exposure to all the germs there.”
That made way too much sense.
After taking her vitals, Dr. Hills took down a few notes and asked, “Do we know if she’s on any medicine?”
“None,” Dakota answered.
“Nothing?” She arched a brow. “Are you positive?”
I knew what she was asking. She probably figured we didn’t know or would have forgotten about it. “No, nothing.”
Not even birth control.
I shook my thoughts from that, not allowing myself to dwell on it. I knew exactly how I felt about that entire situation, and it probably wasn’t healthy, but I also didn’t feel guilty about it.
“I’m going to give her what I would consider the shifter version of Tylenol.
” Her lips quirked up as if she was amused at the thought.
“Her heart rate and everything else are relatively normal; I would just have her take this, and tell her to take it easy for the next few days. If I had to guess, this is the worst of it. She’s probably been feeling bad the past few days and didn’t fully realize it. ”
Considering she’d been unlocking new magic, I could completely believe that.
After getting what we needed from her car downstairs, Dr. Hills was off.
I checked in on Coffin, who seemed relatively content.
He was also half asleep, which was weird on its own, but I assumed that meant the movie was done.
I didn’t fully understand who was in charge right now—the lines felt blurred—but I could also feel him willingly sinking into the background since Effie was relaxed.
Maybe there was a chance we could learn to work together.
“What’s our plan for tomorrow?” I asked quietly after managing to wake Effie up just long enough to have her swallow the medicine.
Everyone gathered back in the room, Ryder having returned from seeing Dr. Hills off.
I had a feeling that all of us were going to be sleeping in here, so it didn’t surprise me that he held a stack of blankets.
“Mona mentioned that the pendant would lead Effie where she needs to go,” Caedmon reminded us.
“ I don’t think it’s said shit yet,” Dakota pointed out.
“Let’s wait till she wakes up and go from there,” Tore suggested.
“It wouldn’t hurt to stay a little longer,” Ryder said in thought before adding, “Effie loves London—she was asking about it all night.”
“If she wants to move to London…”
“We move to London,” Dakota finished for me.
Damn right we would. Anything to make our mate happy.