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“Have you been bitten during spars?”
“No,” he said. “Not to sound arrogant, but I’m incredibly good at defense. And fighting in general. It’s how my alpha status wasn’t immediately challenged.”
Alpha. He’d never told me outright that he was the official alpha. Only that he was acting in his brother’s stead. I didn’t know exactly how, but I’d felt it—sensed it—in the last few days. “So, where did you get this bite?”
It was the fear and grief in his scent that stood out to me. He’d known someone with Lobofebris. He’d seen it firsthand. “Sylvan? How close were you to this person who had Lobofebris?” I asked him.
The silence was thick with tension as his thoughts ran amok. He ran his fingers through his hair, and after a few more tense moments, he said, “It was my brother.”
My jaw dropped. “Shit. So that’s why you kept up this appearance of being a beta. You were protecting your pack from investigation.”
He sighed and nodded. “Things were rough in his last few days. I had to physically restrain him, and I suppose that’s when this happened. I’d gotten a lot of horrible wounds from his claws, but I never noticed the bite marks, because everything else was so much worse. The priority was stopping the bleeding, then stitching my skin back together. And then … I never developed any symptoms.” His gaze was fixed on me. I could practically see his thoughts racing. “That was too long ago for it to set in now. You don’t think—”
“You’re immune,” I said, at the same time he declared the very same.
Wide-eyed, we stared at each other in the darkness. “How?” he asked after a while. “I didn’t know that was possible.”
“Neither did I.” My fingers traced the scar again, and he twitched with a sharp gasp. I furrowed my brow at him, and he gave the sweetest sheepish grin.
“That tickles,” he explained.
I looked away, unable to hide my smile before my thoughts made their way back to the situation at hand. “As soon as I get back to my workshop, I’m going to run some tests on your blood and check for antibodies. If that’s the case, you may be exactly what’s needed for the cure.”
There should’ve been a eureka moment. We should’ve cheered and high-fived, but neither of us seemed to know what to make of it. No smiles. No frowns. Just stunned silence. Then Sylvan lay back down among the pillows and blankets and tugged me back beside him so my head rested in the crook of his neck. We lay there just existing in the nest.
I wasn’t prepared for the inexplicable sadness that set in. Now that my mind was clear again, there were so many things I needed to see to. The drafts—gods, I hope I could salvage the processes. An explanation for my sudden absence. Whatever was going on with these alleged lycan attacks. And now, the possibility of Sylvan’s antibodies being the key to the cure.
Most of all: we were from two different worlds.
“I suppose things can go back to normal tomorrow,” I said.
“You don’t have to think about that right now. Give it another day.”
I shook my head against his chest. “I need to head back before suspicions arise. And I want to get started on testing your blood to see if it indeed shows immunity. Because if that’s the case, I may have to go back to the drawing board on the amount of—”
“Aura.” One hand slipped beneath the covers to give my ass a hard squeeze. My inner walls clenched with pleasure as if I hadn’t spent the past four days in the throes of heated bliss. Sylvan chuckled softly. “Right now,” he said, “I just want to enjoy these moments with you before everything goes back to normal. Can we just let this moment be? Please, wolfsbane.”
The final plea had me wrapping an arm around him, allowing my body to relax. “Alright,” I said. “But—”
“No buts. You should get some rest. Tomorrow will be recovery, then after that you can get home. We’ll talk after a good night’s sleep. Deal?” I rolled my eyes and he said, “I heard that.”
A soft laugh fell from my lips. “Sylvan?”
“Hmm?” His breathing was slowing, sleep imminent.
“Thank you.”
38
THAT’S THAT
AURA
The blasted sun on my skin pulled me out of a heavy sleep. I couldn’t remember when I’d last slept that well, but to my dismay, it wasn’t just the intimate area between my thighs that was sore in the morning; my bones ached as well. It was a familiar ache I hoped wouldn’t return. I’d wanted Sylvan to be right, wanted the Heat to explain the worsening Lobofebris symptoms, but now, coming out on the other end of a full Heat cycle, I was starting to think those symptoms may have actually slowed down the disease progression.
For days, I’d only been feeling the sweats, cramps, and of course the insatiable sexual appetite. But there hadn’t been the intense nausea, the dizzying pain, or the fits of rage that never failed to terrify me. With that rage, I’d had to battle bloodlust, which hadn’t been the case for days.
Something that smelled faintly of warm florals crept into the room. I pushed myself onto my elbows to find Magdalena’s back to me while she rinsed something in the kitchen basin, but she glanced over her shoulder, and a bright smile lit her face. “Good morning, sunshine,” she said.
