AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“That’s it, Trace, just wake up long enough to take your medicine. You got me into that tent when I was worse off than you, now it’s my turn to help. And more…we got to Triple L pack lands just like we planned. Like our alpha wanted. Cerine is our friend, and she’s our mate, so if you will just wake up, you’ll get to meet her.”
Oh… “I’m not—that’s it. I think I see one eye…yes. Atta boy, Trace. You’re doing it. We’ll have you well in no time.” I’d learned a long time ago that the patient’s confidence in the healer made a huge difference in their results. If he thought, if they thought, I knew what I was doing, that I had the path to good health laid out for them, they might just make it. “Now, open your mouth and I’ll spoon some of this yummy tea in.”
“Now you’re just lying to him.” Finton chuckled, the happiest I’d heard him sound since I found them. “It’s not yummy, but it is potent. I already feel clearer-headed. And I think a little bit less achy.”
“Listen to your mate, Trace.” His mate Finton. Because no matter what he or my wolf said, I wasn’t ready to horn in on what was obviously a solid and loving relationship. Especially for two men so traumatized by recent events. “That’s it.” I used the spoon to part his lips a little and let the tea drip inside. Some stayed, and on the third spoonful, I saw his throat move in a swallow. “I think it’s working. You’re a champ, Trace. Keep it up and you and your mate will be able to…” To what? Go somewhere? Stay here?
“He’s really taking it?” Finton peppered his mate’s dark, matted locks with kisses. “Of course, he is. Trace has always been the strongest of all of our pack—”
I didn’t have to ask what made him stop short. He’d realized there were only two members of their pack left. Or were there?
“So,” I said, wrenching myself from the hypnosis of his sad, beautiful gaze, “you’re positive nobody else survived. It was 100 percent fatal?”
“Everyone we found was dead. Nobody was sick or clinging to life or anything.”
“And you are sure you had a full head count? Every pack member accounted for?” Most of the packs I knew had between a hundred and two hundred shifters. Some were bigger, but they were closer to the cities and didn’t really pay attention to us rural folks.
“I don’t know for sure. We buried a lot, but there were already some underground, so it’s possible there were others not present.”
Maybe some of his pack members did live…
He shifted his mate in his arms. “I think this might be a little better. Can you try another spoonful?” Trace’s eyes were still mostly closed, but when I brought the spoon to his lips, he parted them willingly for the first time. “There you go, Mate. Keep going.”
I wasn’t getting a heck of a lot into him, maybe a quarter of a cup so far, but I didn’t want to discourage either of them. “That’s right. You two make a great team.” Setting the cup and spoon by the bed, I went to the kitchen area, refilled the other mug, and brought it back. “You need to keep sipping at this, too, all right, Finton?”
“Yes.” He accepted the cup and drank a little before setting it down. “It doesn’t get any better, does it?”
“No, but if you drink it, you will.” We went back to feeding his mate the tea, and after what felt like forever but was probably a half hour or so, I’d managed to get nearly the whole cup into him and, with reminders, a second into Finton. I stood up and stretched, my back having kinked from sitting in the same position. “Now, I’m going to warm some soup for us. It’s just chicken broth with a few veggies so if you take it slow, your stomach might tolerate it.”
“And Trace?”
He’d gagged a few times while I spooned the tea into him, and I didn’t want to push our luck. “We should probably let the tea settle before we try anything else. But if you’re feeling daring, I can make some delicious dry toast with your soup?”
“You hear that, Mate? Keep getting better and soon you, too, can enjoy some dry toast. It’s a dream, my love, but I think it’s attainable.”
A giggle spilled from my lips before I could hold it back. “You two must be a real comedy act when you’re both conscious.”
“You have no idea. Being mated to us is going to rock your world, right, Trace?” He kissed his mate’s head again. “It’s going to be epic.”
