What the hell is happening to me? When I open my eyes again, the man is looking down at me, confusion on his face.
I take several steps back.
Natalia turns her head to look at me, but I don’t meet her gaze. A weight presses on my chest and a spike of adrenaline hits me. Fight or flight kicks in and I for one am all for flight.
Calm down. Nothing is going to happen to you.
I know that. My mind knows that. But my heart is pounding out of my chest because three dominant males I don’t know are standing in front of me. The wolf who rescued me takes a step in my direction, his dark brown eyes flashing silver, and my muscles lock up.
My head snaps back to look him in the eyes for only a second before my wolf’s instincts have me jerking away. Dominance pours from his veins.
“Miss?” His voice is strong. Deep. And I don’t miss the flicker of worry in his gaze. He takes a measured step closer and my chest heaves. He’s approaching me like I’m some rabid animal. I need … I need …
Natalia takes two steps to her left and suddenly she’s blocking him from my view. She says something but I don’t hear it. I can’t hear anything over the roaring in my ears.
He’s not going to attack you. I tell myself again and again like a mantra that will somehow make this all better. I try to think of something else. Anything else. But then my mind latches onto Rafael and how mad he must be with me right now. How disappointed all of them are. I promised I’d be there. They’d wanted me to be there. And then I wasn’t.
Natalia tugs on my sleeve and I glance up, she guides me around the shifters, but I don’t miss their pity as she ushers me outside the exit doors.
When we’re outside I slowly start locking myself down. I hobble on my lone crutch, careful to keep my steps measured so I don’t jostle my injuries further. I block out the pain, willing my body to go numb. I’m a wolf. I’ll heal. And eventually, it’ll be like none of this ever happened.
27 Isabella
I wake with a start. My chest heaves and my eyes pop open. Daylight filters in through my bedroom curtains, letting me know it’s morning. Or maybe afternoon. It doesn’t matter.
I stare up at the ceiling, willing myself to go back to sleep. I don’t want to be awake. It hurts too much. Everything hurts.
There’s a knock at my door.
I ignore it.
Another knock.
I cringe as I try and push myself into a seated position. Whatever Ricardo’s mage did to me at the Pack’s safehouse to dull the pain has definitely worn off, and no amount of normal over-the-ecounter painkillers is making a dent.
“Isa,” Natalia slips inside and pads over to me. My bed dips under her weight as she sits on the corner. I stiffen when she reaches out and touches my leg. “Isa, you need to eat something. Why don’t you come downstairs? Your father ordered breakfast. It’ll be good for you to get out of bed.”
“That’s okay. I’m not very hungry.” The pain makes me nauseous and the very idea of food is enough to make my stomach sour.
Her smile is tight but she nods. “Some friends of yours from school stopped by.”
They have? A part of me wants to know who. I want to know if it was Rafael. If he’s still angry with me? He hasn’t messaged me since that night, and I miss him but … I don’t want him to see me like this. If I thought his reaction after Sabrina attacked me was bad, I can only imagine how he’d react to seeing me like this. No. Rafe definitely cannot see me in this condition. Better to avoid him until I’ve recovered.
Brian hired human doctors to look at me. Why, I still don’t know. There’s nothing they can do to fix me and seeing the confusion on their faces at my lack of regeneration was annoying. I could have explained things, but it wasn’t my job to educate them and life-long lessons about keeping shifter secrets secret is too heavily ingrained in me.
Natalia gave Brian a full report when I got back home, at least what she knew to the best of her abilities. He didn’t know I could hear him, but he asked her if there was a chance of me being human now. If the silver poisoning killed enough of the virus to make me normal.
He’d sounded hopeful. It was like a stab to the gut so when the doctors took vials of blood to test, I knew without asking what they were after. I also knew he wouldn’t get what he hoped for. I didn’t know how long it would take for the Lyc-V in my system to replenish completely but I knew it would. You couldn’t unmake a shifter.
“Who was it?” I ask, curiosity burning through me.
She shifts her weight. “A few boys. Two Latino boys and a black guy. They said they were your friends?”
I nod.
“What did you tell them?”
“That you weren’t seeing visitors right now.”
I release a breath. Better that than telling them I’m recovering. “Anything else?”
She’s quiet for a moment and I hold my breath. “I didn’t tell them what happened. I know you said you didn’t want anyone to know but … one of the boys got angry when I refused to let him in. He started shouting. I might have yelled at him.” She cringes. “I might have also told him you didn’t want to see anyone. Even him.” She grips my uninjured leg in apology. “He didn’t seem happy. I’m sorry, sweetheart. I just didn’t know how else to make him leave.”
“It’s okay. I’ll smooth things over when I’m better.” I hope.
She
