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Her grumbling was ignored as we made our way down the path to Tiana’s house.
The woman's porch was littered with children of all ages, and she was sitting among them with Anthony propped up in her lap. He seemed fine, squealing and babbling at something one of the older kids was doing, and when he spotted us approaching, his beaming smile was turned toward us.
“Hey, guys,” I called out. The kids gave me strange looks, but they all greeted me as well, waving and then returning to their games.
“Hey, you two.” Tiana smiled, looking a little brighter at the sight of my mate. “What brings you over?”
If I’d been in a different state of mind, I might have been offended that she seemed more interested in talking to my mate than me. “We just wanted to check on Anthony,” I grunted out.
Aria crouched, wiggling her fingers at the baby, and Tiana explained that he’d been his normal happy self, with no symptoms to speak of. When Aria then cooed at him, trying to earn another beaming grin, she was met with a distrustful one instead.
I chuckled at the pout that formed when she stood back up. “No dilated pupils or anything crazy,” she said.
Tiana looked relieved that he’d passed Aria’s assessment, pressing a kiss to her baby's head.
Aria smiled. “It looks like he’s one of the good ones! Congratulations.”
“Were there many… bad ones?” the other woman asked hesitantly, looking exhausted at the idea.
I debated if she really needed to know the gory details, then decided that someone would eventually tell her if we didn’t. She might as well get the truth before the rumor mill got hold of it.
“Unfortunately,” I responded, pursing my lips. “I know theories started spreading around pretty quickly, but we don’t know why they reacted poorly to the shot yet. Most wolves seem fine, though.”
She nodded grimly, looking down at her son.
We spent another few minutes chatting before we headed off again, waving away her gratitude.
Another group of fallen-blood wolves were asking for the vaccine when we made it to the clinic to update Dr. Vasille on Anthony’s progress. Despite her huffing and puffing, she dosed them without argument; thankfully, none of them had an immediate adverse reaction and were able to head home after a few minutes.
“We need to be careful,” Vasille said tiredly, shaking her head as she scribbled something down on her notepad. “If they have a late reaction to it, people could get hurt.”
“Auren has people patrolling so that there's no conflict like that,” Aria tried to reassure the old vampire, only to get a scathing look that had my wolf perking up with a snarl.
“I doubt you’ll manage to catch them all at the rate we’re distributing it.”
With that, she went back to shuffling around the clinic, grumbling about sample sizes.
Aria gave me a look that begged me to leave with her and not take the shift, but I shook my head when she suggested as much telepathically. I’d already taken up the job of guarding the clinic during this test round, playing Dr. Vasille’s medical assistant despite her crabby attitude lately.
“You have a good mate,” the old bat said once Aria gave me a kiss and left us to our business. “Make sure you take care of her.”
After patting my arm, she immediately started listing off a handful of errands she needed me to get done for her.
So, I got to work.
14
FAMILY FIRST
ARIA
Istretched forwards, touching my toes and trying my best to enjoy the quiet of the world without giving in to the noise in my brain.
Things had been hectic ever since I’d started posting my story and gained traction online. More and more reports of the Free Kingdom's descent into brutality were coming in, and I couldn’t help but feel responsible for it. Of course, there was no telling that Tarragon or Blossom had even read my story, but the deeper I delved into the things I’d learned while in their care, the more things seemed to ramp up in intensity.
Sariel had even been appalled by some of it, glaring at the news stories and shaking his head.
The consensus was that they wouldn't turn their sights on us until they’d fully handled the Upper Council, but it didn't stop the gaping hole in my gut at the thought that they might.
