Astrid quickly brushed away the tears and
stood up. The next moment she heard a soft knock on the door.
“Astrid, let me in, please.”
The door swung open. “You okay?” Jack said
with genuine concern in his voice and infinite tenderness in his
amber eyes.
Astrid nodded. Doing more than that would
certainly bring another wave of tears. She kept her eyes on the
floor.
Slowly, as if he was afraid that any sudden
movement could scare her, Jack reached for Astrid’s hand and gently
pulled her to his chest. Shivering, she rested her head against his
shoulder. The warm ripples spread across her tense body, relaxing
it instantly. She breathed in Jack’s scent, fresh and pleasant,
arousing and disturbing. She could hear his heartbeat, fast and
strong.
“I’m sorry, Jack,” she said quietly.
His lips moved to her ear, and he rocked her
gently, as if they were dancing. His deep, sensual voice gently
hummed in her ear.
A tiny sob broke out from Astrid’s chest.
“Oh, I love Leonard Cohen.
I’m Your Man
is one of my
favorite love songs ever. How did you know?”
“Because this is my favorite love song,
that’s how. Shhh, it’s all right. See, I too can sing.” Jack’s warm
fingers stroked her hair. “This will do for now. By the time I
finish singing you this song—part by part, mind you—everything will
be fine, and you’ll be in love with me. And not because you
swallowed a love potion, but because you want me. And if you’re not
ready, I’ll sing it again, until you give up and love me like
you’ve never loved before.”
“Oh, Jack, I’m so lost,” Astrid whispered.
Her hands moved up and encircled his neck. She rested her forehead
against his.
“What upsets you so much? You were fine
yesterday with me in your life. Even when we talked earlier today.
What’s changed so dramatically?” Jack said quietly.
Astrid closed her eyes and sighed. “It
suddenly seemed so unfair, to both of us. I wanted you to like me
for who I was, not because some uncontrollable, random power threw
me in your path. I knew it was going too fast, but I thought we’re
still in charge. I thought it was some sort of fast-acting
chemistry.”
Jack lifted her chin. “Hey, but I do like who
you are, and you like me, I know that. Why don’t we take it from
there and we’ll see where it can take us, as you said?” He took her
hand. “Come on, let’s go to the living room. Your bedroom’s
probably not the best place for these little talks about our hot
chemistry. And your floor squeaks.”
JACK TUCKED Astrid into the sofa and made her
hot chocolate. He took the opposite corner, staying close, but
leaving some space between them.
“I’m sorry, Jack,” she said again. “I can’t
explain why I was so upset with something that actually feels right
and good, and why I wanted to hurt you. And I was rude.” Jack’s
presence, his touch, even the hot chocolate he’d made for her
instantly made her feel better.
Jack gave her a lopsided smile. “Are you
apologizing for your lusty thoughts about screwing me or marrying
me and having my babies? I don’t remember asking you to marry me
and have little puppies. Not yet anyway, so don’t worry about it
now.”
Embarrassed, Astrid buried her face into her
hands. “Oh, God, Jack, I’m so sorry.”
“It’s okay, baby. I know you’re crazy about
me.”
She let out a deep breath and found his eyes.
“Jack, I like you a lot. I couldn’t care less about what you
are—blaidd, human, white, black... It doesn’t matter. And I’m fine
with being what I am. The problem is that my change is difficult,
painful and maybe dangerous. That part I don’t like. You’ll see
what I’m talking about soon. For you, this is a controllable
process, and you choose if you’re going to do it or when. You
change when you have an excess of energy, or if there is danger.
I’m literally sick for days.”
“It will change, baby, soon. May I come
closer? Please?”
Jack waited until she made a tiny nod, and
moved close to her. He took both her hands between his, turned her
palms upward and kissed them one at a time.
“Jack, please...” she whispered.
He placed her hand on the side of his face
and closed his eyes. “I hope the change will soon become easier for
you. This full moon, or maybe one or two more, that’s it, Astrid. I
promise.”
“You said you could help me. How?”
He smiled.
By screwing you
.
“Don’t you need to go to work?” he said.
“We’ll leave that part for some other time. Don’t force me this
time to explain it before I think you’re ready.”
A little alarm in her head went off. “You are
not trying to tell me another shocking revelation, are you? Like
that I have to have sex with the whole pack in order to stay sane.
I once read a novel—”
Jack laughed and tightened his grip around
her. “No, silly, relax. No need for such drastic measures.” He
kissed her temple. “I’d never let anyone else touch my mate or, god
forbid, have sex with her, unless you decide otherwise. See, you’re
not without choices, but you’ll soon realize how every option that
excludes me really sucks.”
Astrid mocked a deep sigh of relief. “Why
can’t you tell me more, then? Do I need to hunt? Tear somebody’s
throat and spill his guts?”
“You need to go to work and I need to talk to
Tristan and Liv, James and my mother. Hopefully, I’ll be able to
tell you more soon. Aren’t you going to be late?”
Astrid sighed and reluctantly left her seat.
“You’ll give me a ride, will you?”
“Try to stop me, Miss Spock. And I’ll pick
you up in the morning. Seven?”
“Eight.”
“Astrid, is Tristan working tonight?”
She shook her head. “It’s Friday evening, and
he’s the Hospital’s CEO. He and Liv might not even be here. Maybe
they took a weekend off. They’ve been on twenty-four/seven watch
since I dragged them here.”
“They’d have told us.”
Jack pulled out his phone and called the
Blakes, informing them he would come as soon as he took Astrid to
the hospital.
Astrid took a quick shower and hurried to
dress. Jack didn’t detect a simple, silent snap she’d made with her
fingers before she entered her room, but smiled when he saw the
clear, blue silhouette opening the dresser and wardrobe and putting
clothes on.
LIVIA OPENED the door a moment before I
pressed the bell. “Hi Jack,” she said and kissed my cheek. “How’s
Astrid?”
“Why don’t you ask how I am?” I said entering
the Blakes’ spacious living room. Tristan appeared from the kitchen
with a tray with three espressos on it. “Double, half teaspoon of
sugar,” he said and passed me a cup.
“I’ve told her about the bond,” I said and
sat down.
Livia covered her mouth to suppress a
giggle.
The corners of Tristan’s lips curved upward.
“Is she still in the country, or can we soon expect her phone call
from Nepal?”
“She feels fit to do her night shift, so
she’s fine. She kicked and screamed and scratched for a while, but
I’m actually impressed with how she took it.”
“Ha, didn’t I tell you you’d like her! How
did you take it, Jack?” Liv said, grinning.
“I’ve decided to take your husband’s advice
and forget about the bond and everything. I like her a lot, Liv.
And that’s all I’m going to say on this topic.”
Liv smiled. “I’ll let it be, Jack. For
now.”
I took a sip of strong, aromatic coffee and
smiled, thinking about my girl. “I think I know why she suffers
through the change, but you need to tell me everything you know.
How does it look? How long does it last?”
“Liv, you’ve seen more than I have,” Tristan
said. “Astrid doesn’t allow me to be with her in the same room when
she shifts. I usually stay outside until she’s done, both
ways.”
“At the beginning she’s quiet, then becomes
quite talkative,” Livia said. “Once she changes, all verbal
communication stops, of course. I can’t get into her wolf mind.
She’s in pain a few days before, and it intensifies as she
approaches the change. Her eyes change color—”
“From blue to amber,” I finished.
Livia’s eyebrows arched. “How do you
know?”
“I’m guessing, never mind. What else can you
tell me?”
“She has a high fever, body aches, chills,
shivering and shallow breathing. It’s similar to flu symptoms. It
stops when she takes wolf form, but then she’s exhausted. She
recovers relatively quickly once she shifts back into her human
form.”
“Have you seen the actual change?”
“I have, Tristan hasn’t. It’s fast, Jack.
Much faster than you do it.”
“I’m wondering if that causes the pain,”
Tristan said.
“Jack, she does it in the blink of an eye,”
Livia said. “One moment she’s Astrid, then something undefined, and
the next moment, she’s a wolf. A huge wolf. She’s breathtakingly
beautiful. You’ll see.”
I would see, I thought, in a few days. And I
would be with her, and do what Tristan and Liv couldn’t, no matter
how much they cared for her: I would change, too, and be with her,
and talk to her, and she wouldn’t feel alone anymore.
A distant sound of several emergency vehicles
heading toward the same point interrupted my thoughts. I glanced at
Tristan and Liv. They heard it, too.
“What do you think, Jack? Why is her change
so dramatic?” Tristan asked. “Can you help her?”
“Her spirits are still separate. Her wolf
part needs to be connected to her human part.”
“How did that happen?” Livia asked. “Aren’t
your spirits connected at the moment of birth?”
“That’s how it usually happens, yes,” I
said.
Both my parents were werewolves, and I was
born with my spirits united. Even children who had one human parent
wouldn’t have two separate spirits. Usually they’re already linked
by the time a child was born.
“There are exceptions,” Tristan said. “But
that’s never been a problem, as far as I know.”
“Rarely, a wolf spirit and human spirit are
separate,” I said. “But they connect either with the first
change...” Here I took a deep breath. “Or with the first sexual
intercourse with another werewolf. In Astrid’s case, they didn’t
connect with the first change, and she... ahem... hasn’t been in
contact with us, so...”
Livia clapped her hands in excitement. “Oh.
My. God. In other words, she needs a werewolf boyfriend. She’ll be
thrilled when she hears that! The good news is you two are heading
in that direction anyway. God, Jack, you’ve made my day!”
I redirected my eyes to Tristan. He at least
tried to keep a straight face. “You know what, Jack,” he said in
the tone of a trained professional, “it makes a perfect sense.”
His phone hummed. “It’s Astrid,” he said as
he glanced at the display. “What’s up, Princess?”
“I need you to come immediately.” I heard her
confident and calm voice.
“On my way,” Tristan said as he rose. “Talk
to me.”
“A family was in a car accident. Two girls,
ages five and seven, not badly injured. We did MRIs, no internal
injuries, no head injuries. The father’s in bad shape, but he’ll
make it. You’ll do him. The mother’s in critical condition. They’re
prepping her. I’ll start right away. She was a heartbeat from
death. I stabilized her, but I’m not sure. She’s suffered massive
internal injuries...” She continued in Latin medical terminology.
Then Liv closed the door behind her husband, and I couldn’t hear
Astrid’s voice anymore.
Liv let out a deep sigh and sat down across
from me. “Two of the best doctors will operate on them. If anybody
can save them, it’s Astrid and Tristan.”
“Why did she call Tristan? Why not somebody
who’s already there?”
“Because of the severity of the injuries. She
doesn’t trust anybody more than Tristan. And vice versa. Tristan
gave her that authority, to call whoever she thinks will be the
best.”
“They must be quite a team, then,” I
said.
“Oh, you bet. Did Astrid tell you how they
ended up working together?”
When Astrid was attacked last spring, Liv
explained, Arnaldur contacted her and Tristan for help. Astrid
chose to come to this town and start working as an ER doctor.
Tristan and Liv had decided that one of them needed to be close to
Astrid while she was at the hospital. There hadn’t been any other
open positions, however, so the always practical Tristan created
one. The previous CEO suddenly got a once-in-a-lifetime,
take-it-or-leave-it offer that took him to Chicago, and Tristan got
the brass plaque on the CEO’s door on the fourth floor.
“How do the other doctors take that? They’re
probably not crazy about the Duplant/Blake tandem.”
“You’d expect their professional pride to be
bruised, but they like them both. Especially Astrid. She spends
more time with the other doctors and staff. They respect Tristan
because he’s so capable and does so much for them. He’s flexible,
approachable and ready to help whenever he can. Your girlfriend...”
Liv looked at me and smiled, and I smiled back. It sounded just
right. “She’s adored, particularly among the nurses and other
hospital staff, and of course, her patients. The doctors, well,
they wisely don’t try to compete with her. And besides, everybody
knows she is the CEO’s protégé.”
“What about you? Why don’t you work with
them? Don’t you miss your job?”
“For the time being, I’m happy being a
part-time self-employed real-estate agent with a rich husband.” Liv
shrugged. “I’m a researcher, Jack, not a practitioner. I have my
laboratory here in the basement. This is all I need.”
“It’s been more than a year since you came
here. Don’t you miss your life?”
Liv shook her head. “This is our life now.
We’ll stay with Astrid as long as it takes. There’s another bond
that’s unbreakable: it’s called loyalty. And when we talk about
Arnaldur and Ella, and you and James—friendship. You didn’t
hesitate to help us when it was dangerous to take our side.”