AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Travis finally came to about three minutes later, sitting up a little too quickly and almost head-butting one of the nurses.
“Whoa, take it easy,” the nurse said, placing a gloved hand on his chest. “You’re alright, just fainted for a few minutes. Don’t stand up yet. Let your blood pressure normalize a bit.”
Another nurse brought Travis a cup of orange juice and a small pack of crackers.
“Oh, hell, yeah,” he said with a grin, looking up at us. “If you pass out, you get free snacks, man.”
I laughed and shook my head. “You have access to all the free snacks in the world at headquarters.”
“Yeah, but these taste better. I had to earn them,” he said before chugging his orange juice.
“Well, we’ll just have to start making you pass out as compensation for the headquarters snacks,” Cole said.
“Ugh, you sound like Lana,” Travis said as he put a cracker in his mouth.
A small chorus of laughter sounded in the room, breaking the tension that had built up while Travis was unconscious. Cole walked over to him and helped him stand up finally, walking him over to a chair to sit with the others.
Once he finished eating the cracker, Travis looked over at Ashton and beamed. “Alright, man, you’re up. Think you can handle it?”
I’d been so focused on Travis that I’d completely forgotten about Ashton being up next. When I looked over at the hard-headed shifter, his face was pale and drawn. But just as soon as Travis’s patronizing challenge landed, his expression shifted to one of irritation.
It was sweet, in a way. Travis must have seen Ashton’s nervous expression and known that he would have bristled at the challenge. He was helping Ashton get his blood boiling for the challenge ahead. A sort of unspoken if I can do it, so can you.
Ashton stood, stripping off his oversized hoodie and rolling his shoulders. “Don’t worry about me,” he said. “I was built for this bullshit. Better built for it than you.”
“Yeah, show me what you’re made of,” Travis egged him on, smiling as he ate another cracker.
I smiled over at Cole, heaving out a sigh of relief. He wrapped his arm around me and brought me close to him, kissing my brow. “They’ll be best friends before we know it,” he said.
“Or they’ll be at each other’s throats for the rest of their lives,” I said.
“Same thing, right?”
The day carried on after that, each successful injection making the others feel a little more confident about their turns in the chair. Ashton’s injection went much smoother than Travis’s, something the doctor attributed to Ashton’s inborn shifter genetics.
Similarly, the other shifters seemed to have smoother injections, though some saw no real changes in their condition and worried that the therapy wasn’t going to work for them. We did our best to keep everyone’s hopes up, to remind them that this was going to be a process and to trust that process. But as everything started to wrap up, the mood was a bit subdued, even a little somber or defeated.
As everyone started to file out, Travis approached us and clapped hands with Cole.
“You guys need some privacy for Marley’s first dose?” he asked. “Let me get the troops back home and work on morale so you can focus on being there for your wife, alright?”
“Maybe I ought to say something before you guys head out?” Cole suggested.
“I can handle it,” Travis said, echoing his earlier promise when the day had only just started. “Come on, man. I can tell you’re anxious. I can tell neither of you are all ‘here.’ It’s been a rough day, so let your team take care of you. Let us keep everyone afloat while you’re keeping yourselves afloat, alright?”
Cole looked down at me as if to make sure I was on board with that plan. I gave him a little shrug. “Honestly, it would be nice to just get to focus on you and me for now,” I said. “We don’t know how this first dose is going to go. We’re both scared. We both want to be fully present for it.”
Cole nodded, leaning forward to kiss my forehead before looking back at Travis. “Thank you. We’ll see you when we get back home. Just give me a call if anything happens.”
“Will do, but I don’t think we’ll need to bother you,” Travis said before opening his arms to me.
I walked into his hug, and he squeezed me tight, giving me a few friendly pats on the back. “You’re going to be just fine, Marley,” he said, backing up to smile down at me. “If I can do this, you can, too. Hell, I’m sure you’ll run circles around me.”
I smiled at Travis and shook my head. “It’s not a competition,” I said, surprised by the slight warble in my voice.
“I know,” he said, his brows lifting with gentle concern. “I just mean to say, you’re gonna be alright. I know it’s scary, but you’ve got Cole and the team. You’re going to kick ass, even if you don't.”
I took in a deep breath and nodded. “Thank you, Trav,” I said.
