“Huh.He can’t be.Can he?I don’t scent him as a shifter.”
“Jericho, all the unicorns were slaughtered when the shifters realized their horns were the cure.Children included.Wemade them extinct.So, if he’s been hiding in plain sight, I can’t fault him for that.”
“I don’t care,” Jericho barked.Silence fell.He put his hands on his hips and shook his head.“I’m sorry.This has me on edge.How do I protect everyone from something I have no control over?”
Ledger laid a hand on his shoulder.“I get it.Let’s not jump to conclusions or despair, okay?We’ll see what Savannah and Niall say and go from there.”
Jericho nodded.“In the meantime, let me go chase that lead.”
****
Corbin had just leftwhen the air shifted and Asher looked up to see Jericho Savidge stride purposefully through his bar.A fierce look of determination hit with every stride.Not once had the alpha ever stepped foot in his domain, so this visit didn’t really give him the warm fuzzies.
“Can we talk?”Jericho asked politely, but with an edge of steel in his tone.
“Sure,” he said, confused.“We can go to my office.”
“I appreciate it.”
Asher looked over at his bartender and told him to hold down the fort, and then he escorted Jericho through the back and up the stairs, unlocking the door and letting the big wolf enter first.
“How can I help you?”
“A situation just developed that I think you might be able to hopefully help with.”
Asher had a feeling he wasn’t going to like what the man was about to say.“All right.”
Jericho ran a shaking hand through his hair, which only added to Asher’s uneasiness.
“So, one of my pack members just died from a virus Savannah calls the red death.”
Oh, shit, Asher thought as his heart started racing.Everything faded away because the only thing he could think of was a whole bunch of curse words.The last case of the red death was over seven hundred years ago.
“I’ve never heard of this virus until it killed Gladys Smyth,” Jericho continued.“Savannah said it’s very contagious.An airborne virus.”
Asher knew exactly where Jericho was heading with this.
“I find it very interesting that you have a bar named after the very thing that is the cure.”
“Let me get this straight,” he said.“If I get what you’re implying, you think I’m a unicorn because I named my bar that.”
Jericho waited, body tense and hands fisted.
“I can’t help you.”
“Can’t or won’t?”
He saw that Jericho did not believe him.“Can’t.”
For a moment, the wolf’s eyes turned a menacing gold.“You’re refusing to help people live.”
“I don’t know what else to tell you,” Asher said.“Ican’thelp you with a cure.”
Jericho took a menacing step closer.“Be very sure that’s what you want to tell me.”
“I’m sorry, Jericho.”Asher refused to back down, even though Jericho could probably bench press him.“I would help if I could, but I can’t.”
For a moment, Jericho’s wolf flashed over his face, as if he was about to shift.“If anything happens to my pack, I will personally make sure you’ll pay in blood.”
