Chapter Seven
Once the pain eased, and he was able to sit up, he was embarrassed to find he was naked still, save for a towel bunched around his waist. It didn’t seem to bother Chris, the shifter more concerned with how he was feeling.
When he wanted to go and finish his shower, Chris insisted on accompanying him. Danny’s desire to get clean was greater than his embarrassment, which faded quickly once he was in the shower, the warm water washing away the terrors of the previous few days.
Afterward, he dried off and dressed, then sat on the bed while Heidi put another needle in his arm. He watched with fascination as she slid the small plastic tube over the needle and into the vein, taking out the needle and discarding it before wrapping his arm up carefully.
“I’m going to give you a low dose now,” she said. “It’ll help the residual pain and might stop things building up to as bad as they were those last two times.”
Danny had never felt pain like it and never wanted to again. While it had been getting steadily worse the previous few weeks, it had reached new heights of agony the past three days. That, alongside the emotional toll of what happened, meant he was more than glad for anything that would dull things for him.
Chris brought him outside of the room and down along the corridor. The place looked like a hotel but Danny had the sense that it wasn’t. It was something else. All the people he met smelled like wolves. Chris and Will were different, something more. That Alpha thing Chris had mentioned. There was something about Chris’ scent that he liked, he just couldn’t quite put his finger on it.
As they stepped out into a foyer of sorts, they met Will and beside him the shifter who’d given him the clothes, Jake. Will had an arm around Jake but Jake’s arms were full of a squirming, giggling toddler, who waved at Danny. Bewildered, Danny waved back. She was a wolf, too. He wasn’t sure whether he was getting better at telling or whether it was just easy given his proximity to them.
Will turned, giving Jake a hug and a kiss before pressing a kiss to the toddler’s forehead while she gurgled and smiled up at him. He went on ahead of them, Danny and Chris following more slowly.
“The baby…” he started to ask, pausing when he realized he wasn’t really sure what he was asking.
“That’s Rhea. She’s Jake and Will’s.”
Oh. “They adopted her?”
Chris gave him a sideways glance, his expression unreadable. “No. She’s Jake and Will’s. Jake is an Omega. I suppose, from a human perspective, you’d say Jake is her mother.”
He slowed to a stop and Chris turned back to him. “Her mother? Do you mean he… gave birth to her?”
“Exactly. He’s an Omega. Both they, and female wolves, can bear children.”
Numbly, he followed Chris along to a car, getting into the passenger seat as Chris held the door open. He almost asked the question but bit his tongue before he could open his mouth. He wasn’t sure he was ready for the answer. All his life, he’d known he was different. But Cindy had brushed off the lycanthropy as something insignificant. Like getting chicken pox as a baby. He was all better now.
He’d assumed it was a human thing. That he had no interest in girls. Or most boys, for that matter. He’d been ashamed when he realized he wasn’t like most others. Had hidden his interest in the lead singer of Red Riding, unable to explain how his voice, his appearance, spoke to him in a way no other musician had or could. Had refused to acknowledge the way his heart had raced those few times he’d come face-to-face with human shifters, knowing that it wasn’t from fear but something else. And those feelings he’d buried deep, as deep as he could; the envy he’d feel on seeing a pregnant woman, how much he wanted to feel what that was like, how he’d dreamed of carrying his own children. The motion of the car lulled him to sleep as he wondered.
Heidi had put another tube into Danny’s arm before they left, leaving Chris with syringes, a supply of morphine, and strict instructions on dosage.
“When you get to the hospital, they’ll be able to replace the line with a fresh one. Make sure they do, that one will tissue over in a matter of hours.”
She’d given Danny another dose before they left, though the pain had already started to ebb. Chris helped Danny dress, then got him down to the car and into the passenger seat.
“Where are we going?” Danny asked, a little drowsy from the pain relief.
“To see an old friend,” was all Chris told him.
Will took another car and drove on ahead, while Mitch’s brothers, both on motorcycles, stayed with Chris’ car. They reached the boundary to the city, and the bikes didn’t follow, keeping their promise to see them out of the city and no further. No police waited on the other side, their plan to keep the move quiet was successful. But just in case, a mile out, he pulled up next to Will, and they swapped cars. That way, Mitch could be honest about when and where and what they were driving without putting Chris and Danny at risk.
“Be careful, Chris. Once they believe you’re on the run with him, it isn’t just him they’ll be happy to shoot at with impunity.”
“I know. I only hope we get some answers at the end of this.”
“Me, too. Keep in touch.”
Will got into Chris’ car and did a U-turn, heading back towards Eden. Chris got into Will’s car, checking briefly on Danny who’d fallen asleep again, before getting back on the road. They’d reach the hospital around eight am. He hoped Doctor Hollis was an early bird.
About an hour into their journey, Danny began to toss and turn, murmuring under his breath. Chris pulled over, deciding against waking him, but reaching over to put his seatbelt on and secure him in the seat. As soon as his hand brushed the Omega, Danny startled awake, eyes flashing with fear as he scrambled back against the door.
“Easy, Danny,” he called quietly, holding his hands up slowly, palms out. “I’m not going to hurt you. Shifters aren’t monsters, remember? We’re just people.”
Shakily, still eyeing Chris with suspicion, he slid back into his seat and let Chris tug the seatbelt over his body to secure him. “You were moving around a lot in your sleep. I’d rather you didn’t fall off your seat.”
“Thanks,” Danny whispered, rubbing absentmindedly at his left wrist.
“Is it hurting you?” Chris asked, nodding towards the joint as Danny twisted it back and forth.
Danny nodded.
“Do you mind if I take a look?” Chris asked, holding out a hand. There was a long moment before Danny set his hand in Chris’. He did the same as before, running light fingers over the joint. The worst point of pain and tenderness was just like the spot on his back, it kept changing beneath his fingers, hard like bone, then soft and spongy. He held Danny’s wrist in both his hands and used his thumbs to push firmly across the skin, watching as whatever it was that happened under the surface gradually slowed and stopped.
Checking his watch, he reached for the small bag Heidi had given him. “I’m going to give you another dose of morphine, now. Just a small one, okay?”
Danny nodded, holding out his right arm as Chris pulled out the syringe and bottle and carefully measured out the small dose. He connected the syringe and pushed the medication through, following it with saline exactly as Heidi had instructed. Already, it was tough to get the medication through the tube. By the time they reached the hospital, he suspected it wouldn’t be working.
Letting go of Danny, he tidied the equipment away before putting his hands back on the wheel and the car back into drive. They still had a bit of a journey ahead of them.
“How did you do that?” Danny asked, flexing his wrist. “It feels a lot better, even before the morphine.”
“I’m not sure I did anything,” he replied, glancing over at Danny. “I think it would have stopped by itself. Massage might help stop the tendons and muscles spasming as much.”
They continued in silence for a while. The sun was coming up over the horizon, light filtered through the countryside around them.
“Who is it? Your old friend you said we were going to see? And why would they help me?”
“They’re not my old friend, they’re yours. We’re going to see Doctor Hollis.”
Danny was silent for a moment. “I haven’t been there for a few years. Why are you taking me to him?”
“He knows what’s been done to you, what treatment you were given. I’m hoping he’ll be able to help us prove that you didn’t kill your family. And maybe he can help with the pain you’re experiencing.”
“Cindy wanted to bring me back to see him. I told her I wanted to wait and see if it got better. Maybe if I had gone back…”
“You don’t know that that would have changed anything, Danny. What happened wasn’t your fault, especially since you didn’t know about what you are and what that means. You didn’t know why there were other shifters interested in you and how to handle that.”
“Ignorance isn’t an excuse,” he replied. Chris had heard that phrase often enough and used it more than once himself. But he didn’t believe it applied in this case.
“It is when you’ve been deliberately kept in the dark, which is what I think has happened here. Someone knew you weren’t free of lycanthropy, and you were never told, never warned about the potential dangers until it was too late.”
“But what does it matter now? Even if we prove it wasn’t me, I can’t ever go back, can I? I can’t live in that house, work in the book store. They’d never allow it.”
“No, you’re right. Your life there is over. But you can start a new life. Life as a shifter isn’t as bad as you might be imagining. There are lots of positives about it. Strength, faster healing, close families and Packs.” He left out the having babies part. Where would he even start with that?
“I’m sure Mitch, the Alpha of Eden city, would allow you to stay once the legal stuff is out of the way.”
“But what would I do there? The only thing I know how to do is work in a book store. I haven’t been to college, I don’t have other skills.”
“Don’t worry about that now. We’ll work something out.”
“But where would I live? How would I live?”
“The place you were staying has rooms for people just arrived to the city. You could stay there. They’d help you learn new skills, maybe take a course or two.”
“Why would they take me in? What’s in it for them?”
“It’s what they do. They help shifters who are in danger, or vulnerable, teach them to stand on their own two feet.”
He could explain the Omega part of it later when Danny had had some time to get used to the idea of being a shifter.