Chapter Fifteen
Chris rang Will, needing someone to talk to, someone who would understand. He could hear Jake and Rhea in the background.
“It’s bath time,” Will explained, as shouts and laughter filtered through. “How’s Danny?”
“Dying, apparently. He has two years left.”
“Ouch. Does he know?”
“He knows now. He didn’t before.”
“Poor kid.”
“There might be a way to save him. But I don’t think it’s a path he’ll willingly accept.”
“Why’s that? What is it?”
“Stop all treatment and try to become a full-blown shifter.”
“Would that even work? I thought what Doctor Hollis had done to him would prevent that?”
“I thought so too, but Danny’s body seems to have reversed some of the changes Doctor Hollis thought were permanent, so I think it’s a possibility.”
“But you don’t think Danny will choose that option?”
“He’s been taught all his life that it’s an infection, that shifters are monsters. Hell, one slaughtered his family only days ago. He hasn’t even had time to grieve. And his aunt wanted him free of the disease, went to such efforts to ensure that.”
“Are you sure of that?”
“What do you mean?”
“Are you sure that’s why she went to all that effort?”
“Why else?”
“Would she have been allowed to take Danny home if she didn’t agree to treat him?”
It was a good questions. A really good questions.
“No, I don’t think so. At the time, social services wouldn’t place minor shifters with foster families.”
“Right. So maybe it wasn’t so much about curing him as about giving him a home. Maybe treating him was what she had to do to make that happen. Do you know who’d know the answer to that?”
“Of course. Great-aunt Marcia.”
“Call her, tell her what the stakes are, and ask her to talk to Danny. She and his aunt Cindy were close, I’m sure she’ll know what drove the decision to seek treatment for him.”
“You’re right, Will. I’m not going to convince Danny to go against his family’s wishes but maybe if he had a better idea what those wishes were, he’d see things differently.
Danny’s night was filled with pained dreams. Each time he woke, something hurt, his back especially. Nothing he did seemed to soothe it, no position he lay in, no twist or turn. It was building and building, and he knew he’d end up a screaming mess curled up in a ball.
“Chris?” he called softly.
“Yeah?” the shifter asked, sitting up and rubbing at his eyes. “Are you okay?”
“My back. It’s bad.” His voice hitched as he spoke, and he roughly wiped the tears from his eyes.
“I’ll send Lee for the nurse, okay?” Chris slipped out of the room and he heard voices talking quietly in the corridor. The Alpha was back moments later, coming to stand by his bed.
“Can I see?”
Danny rolled over onto his side, his back to Chris. The Alpha undid the tie on his gown and ran fingers down along his spine until he found the point that was hurting. His hand on Danny’s shoulder stilled him as Danny instinctively jerked away.
“Steady now, just let me see if I can ease this a little, help you get back to sleep.”
His hands fisted the bed sheets as Chris pressed harder. The pain flared briefly then eased, and he sank against the bed, taking shaky breaths.
“Better?”
“Yes. How come that helps?”
“I don’t know. My mom used to do it when I was a kid going through my first few changes. It helped me so I figured it might help you.”
“You had pain like that?” It was strange to hear about Chris talking about his mother and his shifting. It sounded oddly normal.
“Not as bad, but I was scared of it and like kids do when they’re scared of something, they try to avoid it. So I tried not to change. Only the longer I waited, the more it hurt. Once I got over my fear, I barely noticed the pain. It only lasts for a second.”
“This feels like it’s lasting for an eternity.” He turned around and propped himself up on his elbow.
“Your mom is a shifter, too, right?”
“That’s right. And my dad. And my brother and sister.”
“How far back in your family does it go?”
“Pretty far. As best we can figure out, our ancestors came from Europe, Germany mainly, and they were shifters generations before they landed on these shores.”
“Is it different, being born a shifter and being bitten?”
“The end result is the same if that’s what you’re asking. But I guess it’s a lot harder being something else before and then being something new. Not all new wolves take to it that well. Most don’t make it past the first year.”
Danny squirmed around, trying to get comfortable.
“How do they die?”
“Fights, mostly, like your dad. They’re volatile with the change so newly upon them but they don’t have the experience other shifters have in managing their strength and power. Some Packs are better than others in taking them in and training them, giving them some structure and support. With that in place, a lot more of them make it.”
“Would I be the same, if I changed?”
Chris went still next to him, his voice faltering as he answered.
“No, not… not the same.”
“Because I was born a wolf?”
“Kind of. It’s maybe a little more complex than that.”
The nurse arrived, interrupting their conversation much to Danny’s annoyance. He got the sense there was something Chris was close to saying, something important. But once the medication was flowing through his veins, Chris seemed to think sleep was the priority over talking.
He helped Danny lie back down and pulled the blankets up to cover him. Danny drifted off as Chris’ fingers carded gently through his hair.
He slept until morning, waking alone but with a clearer head than he’d had in days. The nurse brought him some breakfast, and he ate slowly as he thought through his choices.
Doctor Hollis wanted him to keep trying and had promised to continue working on finding a cure for this new condition. Chris seemed just as adamant that there wasn’t one, that Doctor Hollis’ treatment had both caused his illness and was worsening it.
Danny clung to the hope of his family. Of what Cindy had wanted for him. She had raised him, given him everything. Without her, he’d have lived his life out here, in this hospital, or somewhere worse. He had to keep fighting to be the person she wanted him to be.
After breakfast, Chris came in and handed him a phone. “Your great-aunt Marcia is expecting your call.”
He all but threw the phone back at Chris. “No, I can’t. I got her only family killed. She won’t want to talk to me.”
“She knows what happened, Danny, and she doesn’t blame you. You’re her family too. Talk to her, hear her out. Please.”
With reluctance, he took the phone and pressed call on the number Chris had dialed.
“Hello?”
“Aunt Marcia?”
“Daniel? Oh, Daniel. I’m so relieved to hear your voice. Those officers came by, the Sheriff from the County. They said they were going to kill you. I told them they were wrong about you. That you’d never hurt your family.”
“I didn’t, Aunt Marcia, I didn’t. There was a shifter, he was watching me. But I didn’t realize. I didn’t know what he was going to do.”
“Of course, how could you? Officer Chris told me all about it, promised me he’d keep you safe. Are you safe?”
“I’m not in danger right now. We have to go back to court tomorrow. But I’m in another sort of danger. I’m sick. It has to do with the treatment I had when I was a boy. For the lycanthropy infection.”
“I remember, I used to watch Michael and Holly when Cindy took you to the hospital. She hated having to take you there. You never wanted to go. The doctor and nurses were nice enough, but they were never clear on just what they were doing. It was all hush-hush and experimental.”
“I thought Cindy wanted me to be cured?”
“She wanted you well and healthy, and Doctor Hollis promised you would be. But, of course, she didn’t have a choice. Child services would only let her take you home because she promised you’d undergo treatment. Even then, they came close to taking you away from her more than once.”
There was a pause, Marcia’s voice heavy with emotion.
“One time you had a bad reaction to whatever medication they were trialing you on and she didn’t want to return you for the next dose. Two child protection workers turned up at the door with police officers and took you back to the hospital. By the time they’d sorted everything out, she was just so happy to get you back that she stopped fighting it.”
“Then it wasn’t about me being cured, being normal?”
“Cindy wanted you happy, and she wanted you to have a home. After what happened to your parents, she saw how destructive living with lycanthropy was. You’d have grown up in a facility. She’d only have been allowed to see you a few times a year, through a window, if at all. You were all that was left of her brother, she couldn’t allow that to happen.”
“I don’t know what to do, Marcia. Doctor Hollis says he’ll keep searching for a treatment but he’s been looking for years. What would Cindy want me to do?”
“If Cindy were here, she’d insist that the choice was yours. But I know she’d want you to choose the path that saw you healthy and happy.”
“Even if it means living as a shifter?”
“It’s not the stigma it was back then. Betsy’s nephew is a shifter. And he has two children. She never shuts up about them. People are more accepting now and less afraid. Maybe not everywhere, but Dale County has always been behind the times.”
“So you… you’d still see me if I became a werewolf?”
“You’re family, Danny. Nothing will change that.”