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Thankfully, Atlan took over clinic-watching for me the next shift, and I was able to stop and check on Anthony personally during my patrol—obviously, I pretendednotto be invested, but Tiana always made her way over to update me anyway. Maisie even jogged over one day when Tiana was busy changing him to let me know that her brother was just fine, and if I was really that worried I could just come in instead of waiting outside every day.
It was cute, if a bit mortifying.
Auren let me know that he’d turned Tyler to mulch and had his remains dropped off a boat a few days later, all while I scrolled through some of the most recent news stories on my laptop.
More and more Resistance sympathizers were cropping up, but he’d been more focused on getting the ones who’d been imprisoned to safehouses than recruiting. Elias had been more than happy to take over on that front, giving inspiring speeches via streaming services at every opportunity, rallying the people to stand against injustice.
Where had that energy been for my execution? He’d laughed when I grumbled over it at dinner later, and I’d brushed off his millionth apology with a smirk.
Aria and I were leaving the cafeteria when the others mentioned heading up to the training fields to spar. I grimaced at them behind my mate’s back when she did a little happy wriggle, though I wiped it away when she turned to me.
“I just think you should practice more,” Aria fretted, arm looped through mine as she tried to heave me toward the training field. “You’ve been slacking! Kiran ratted you out, by the way. Why don’t you ever come train with the others anymore?”
I sighed. “Because fighting makes my skin crawl, lately. My wolf wants to take a bite out of people instead of letting me fist-fight them. It’s the worst.”
She giggled, then slapped a hand over her mouth to muffle it, looking chagrined. “You have to practice to get used to it. Otherwise, you’ll just start randomly shifting like I used to do every time a threat popped up.”
I chuckled when I remembered the first few times I’d had run-ins with her wolf, and she narrowed her eyes at me. Trying my best to look innocent didn’t seem to be working, so I settled for looking anywhere but directly at her.
She let out a huff that was more amused than frustrated, intercepting me with her arms crossed over her chest. “That better be nervous laughter because you know you need to practice controlling your wolf and not just you being an asshole.”
Gripping her hips, I stepped in front of her, leaning in to give her a few quick pecks. She melted eventually, her scowl morphing into a slow grin as she let me tease her into a real kiss.
“Of course, that's why I’m laughing, my precious pup.”
She rolled her eyes at my theatrics before looping her arms around my shoulders, swaying a bit, then forcing us into an impromptu dance in the street. A distant cooing some people did over how cute we were made warmth crawl up the back of my neck.
“Good, then,” she said. “I’d hate to have to make you sleep on the floor. It looks uncomfortable.”
I laughed, bumping my forehead to hers as she giggled. Another swift kiss had pleasure reverberating through our bond.
Once we’d finished our dance, the walk home was quiet—and I couldn’t remember the last time I had been so happy.
“Color me impressed,” Aria teased the next day. I rolled my eyes, flustered by her praise. “You’re really taking this stuff seriously.”
“Of course I am! Tiana shouldn’t have had to worry about Dr. Vasille being all stingy with the cure. Her son’s already suffering enough.”
My feelings about it all played along our bond swiftly, revealing a tangled web that she couldn’t hope to untwist for me, despite the desire to try. Instead, she laced her fingers with mine and gave me a smile when I squeezed her hand.
“If they want to test it, we need to let them,” I added, and she hummed her agreement.
Auren had eventually started stressing to people that we were in the beginning stages of verifying if the proposed cure worked, and that had dissuaded a few who were showing no symptoms of going mad. Hopefully, it would work long-term, and we could distribute it widely.
Kiran and Atlan coming forwards to test it surprised everyone, especially since it was right behind some of the ones who’d had severely adverse reactions. A handful had lost it as soon as they were injected and needed to be put down or contained; we’d tried to spare as many as we could, but wolves were vicious creatures.
The twins had explained that the call of madness had been with them for years, but their mixed blood must have kept them from succumbing entirely; they’d just been teetering on the edge, having small outbursts instead of rampages. It made a sick sort of sense, and there had been a long debate about how safe it was to risk the trial dose on them before Auren had insisted on giving it to them.
They’d both ended up fine, if a bit crabby about it.
Dinner had been a real celebration, though. Jack and Elias had talked Auren into breaking out what was left of the wine and alcohol stores, and a lot of people were feeling it the next day. Kiran had complained about not getting any, since Dr. Vasille wanted all her guinea pigs sober and clean, so the results were not muddled.
“Your brother’s losing his mind, by the way,” Aria suddenly informed me. “He’s told me two different people are his mate now.”
I barked out a laugh, then quieted when she glared at me incredulously, giving me a half-hearted shove. “Seriously, Sariel! It’s weird!”
“He’s probably just messing with you,” I crooned, trying not to laugh at the idea of my brother teasing her. He was painfully serious most of the time, but Aria was the one who gave him the space to act more his age. It was hilarious that she was beginning to feel the burden of that.
“He better not be.”
