I stroked Emily’s hair, trying to calm her. I had only seen the shifting bite one other time, and the boy cried for hours after.
Casey finally retracted his teeth and licked his bite. Immediately, Rush threw Casey by his shoulders, and his body hit the floor loudly. Stunned, he blinked and looking around before shifting back into his human form.
A mixture of an injured moan and a screech exploded from Emily. She fought to stand up against her aching limbs. I put my arm around her waist and moved her gently to the couch. Her temperature was quickly rising, and her skin began to take on a purplish hue. She couldn’t breathe because of the pain; it was too difficult for her to inhale and exhale amongst the agony.
I glanced up at Rush, who was lifting Casey off the ground by his collar.
“What the hell were you thinking?”
Casey blinked again, coming back from the brink of his shift. He looked to Emily on the couch and heaved up a shocked huff.
“Emily?” he called softly. “Emily!”
He began to struggle in Rush’s arms and threw a punch that made Rush drop him to the ground. Casey scrambled over to the couch before Rush could grab him again.
I bared my teeth to him, standing protectively in front of Emily.
“Luna,” Casey cried. “Please, she’s not breathing.”
I growled loudly and placed my hands on her chest. It took a lot of energy for me to draw a breath from her mouth. After the first breath, the next ones came easier, but they were accompanied by loud, heartbreaking screams.
I slumped next to her on the ground, worn out from the action. Casey reached over me and brought Emily into his arms, cautiously stroking her hair and cheeks.
“Please, Emily,” he begged. “I’m so sorry. I’m so sorry. I’m so sorry. I didn’t mean to, I didn’t know what I was doing.”
Rush came around the other side of the couch and picked me off the ground.
“What about Emily?” I asked as he moved me upstairs.
“She’s with her mate.”
“Yeah, a mate who forcibly turned her and yelled at her,” I fought. He shifted me so that he wouldn’t be hit by my flying hands.
“I mind-linked a doctor, he’ll be here in a few minutes. He will help Emily. For now, you need to rest. You used a lot of energy, and the little bump of ours is taking a lot from you as well.”
He was in a no-nonsense mood. Casey’s actions had pushed him into a protective state, where he was only worried about the baby and me. He brought snacks up to our room and fed them to me, cooing at how safe I was.
My mind was focused on Emily, listening closely to hear her whimpers. Rush was trying his hardest to make me forget about what happened, but the Luna inside me demanded Casey’s blood. Not only had he put my friend in danger, but he put the pack in danger. Harrison’s reaction to his daughter shifting could be catastrophic.
“Little wolf,” Rush grunted, grabbing my chin in his fingers. “Will you quit trying to eavesdrop and pay attention to me, I’m giving you my best moves here.”
“I’m sorry.” I ran my hand over my face, rubbing furiously beneath my eyes. “I didn’t even realize I was still doing it.”
“I know,” he said lightly, grabbing the hand closest to him and kissing it. “I just want you to be able to relax. The humans will be here soon, and that’ll be hard enough for us all.”
“You better not do anything stupid,” I warned.
“What do you mean?”
“I mean, don’t go running in front of any bullets or anything,” I looked sternly at him. “You better not make me raise this baby alone. I don’t know the first thing about babies!”
“And you think I do?” His eyes grew wide as he laughed.
“You’re the one who kept saying ‘oh let’s make a baby, Sloane,’” I mimicked.
He laughed loudly and threw his head back on the pillow. “Is that what I sound like?” I glared. “I just said I wanted to have a baby, not that I knew how to care for one.”
I looked down at my small bump and rubbed it affectionately. “I’m sorry, baby. You’re kind of screwed with us as your parents.”
“No, he’s not.” Rush sat back up.
“He?”
“Yes, he. I have a feeling about this,” he said smugly. “He has Alpha blood in him, he’ll be fine.”
“Bump will not be fine if we don’t know how to feed, bathe, or take care of them.”
“Bump?” he snickered.
“If you get to call the baby a ‘he’ then I can call the baby ‘bump.’”
“Agreed.” He snuggled down next to me and placed his hand on the side of my stomach. “Promise me you’ll try to sleep tonight?”
“I’ll try, I don’t know how well that will work, but I will try.”
It wasn’t easy for me to sleep, especially when I could hear Emily crying down the hallway. Both times I tried to go console her, Rush placed his arm around my waist and pulled me back down. Rush allowed me to sleep in later than I normally would since I didn’t fall asleep until three in the morning.
The next three days were anything but relaxing. Every pack member seemed on edge, waiting for the horns to sound the arrival of the humans.
Emily hardly came out of her room, and when she did, it was only to tell Casey to stop sitting outside of her bedroom door.
He was distracted, something he didn’t need to be before the arrival of Harrison and his army. On the day before Harrison’s arrival, I snuck into Emily’s room from the closet, a secret hallway Rush had pointed out to me.
She was lying on her bed, looking through her phone. Her body snapped up, and she looked at me, shocked.
“How did you get in here?”
“There’s a passageway.” I waved it off.
