The Exiled
Page 19
He made a helpless sound and bit her bottom lip. Hazel gasped and bit him back, which earned her another growl as his hand slipped to her outer thigh.
“No, no, no, no, no,” Noah mumbled, breaking the kiss. He pulled back, his pupils blown wide as he panted, shaking with suppressed emotion. “Not like this.”
“What?” she asked groggily. Her gaze strayed past his head and the world wavered, stars dancing across her vision. Nausea slammed into her, and Hazel’s stomach lurched. Not nerves after all. Something was wrong. “I’m going to be sick.”
His mouth popped open and he leaned back just before she rolled onto her side and threw up the contents of her belly. Noah pulled her hair back as she continued to heave, snot and tears running down her face.
“You’re okay,” he hummed, rubbing circles on her back. “Let it all out.”
Hazel moaned and flinched away from his hand, her skin feeling like it was about to split. She rolled onto her hands and knees and tried to crawl away from him, her eyes frantically searching the farm. She couldn’t make out one detail. Everything was blurry, and her skin hurt. What was happening? It was like a switch had been flipped. Was her body finally rebelling against all the abuse she put it through in the past weeks?
“I can’t see,” she panted. “And I’m so hot.”
“What?”
Noah touched her left bicep, and she jerked away from him.
“Don’t touch me,” she whimpered, rolling onto her back. “It hurts.” She closed her eyes, the wet soil cooling her heated skin.
“Look at me.”
Hazel forced her eyes open as he placed his huge palm across her forehead.
“I don’t feel so good.” Her head throbbed at the statement.
He pressed his hand over her cheek and then over her pulse. “How long have you been feeling sick?”
“Not sick, just numb.” So numb. And tired.
Her eyelids began to close, and Noah pinched the inside of her wrist. “Did you get hurt? Did something bite you?”
“No bites. Not sick, just sad.”
He grabbed her chin between his thumb and forefinger and forced her to meet his worried gaze. “How long?”
“Days.”
“Wicked hell,” he cursed, carefully pulling her into his arms.
She tried not to whine like a baby, she really did. Hazel’s head lolled and her eyelids fluttered closed.
“Don’t you go to sleep. Do you hear me?”
“Just a little sleep.”
He jiggled her, but it wasn’t any use. The darkness claimed her.
Twenty-Four
Noah
“What’s wrong with her?” Noah demanded, his heart pounding in his chest and his pulse roaring in his ears.
“What did you do?” his grandmother demanded as she ran her palms over Hazel’s forehead.
“Nothing.”
“Now that, I don’t believe. You smell of sex.”
“I would never, never break the vows of mating before the ceremony.” He glared at the old woman. How could she even ask such a thing? “You know that.”
“Did you bite her?”
“No. She was distressed and sobbing,” he said gutturally. The sting of her grief was bitter in his mouth. “It was awful, abuelita. Her grief was so acute, I can still taste it.”
His grandmother lifted up Hazel’s shirt and examined her abdomen. “Was she bitten?”
“Hazel said no.”
She tsked. “Something isn’t right.”
She walked to the end of the bed and pulled off Hazel’s boots, followed by both socks. Noah froze when he spotted a gash along the side of her foot.
“Is this just a regular infection?” he asked.
His grandmother lifted Hazel’s foot and probed the wound, then inhaled. Noah’s stomach bottomed out when her lips thinned. Please let it not be…
“She’s infected.”
Infected.
He knew her chances of survival were slim. His throat worked. “What—what can we do?” he rasped.
“Bring water and ask your mama for her fever tincture. I don’t have time to make one. Also, bring the kitsune.”
“Will she make it?” he asked, his voice cracking.
“I don’t know, mi hijo.”
Noah leapt into action, and, at the last second, he turned around and strode to the bed. He brushed her sweaty hair from her plain face and whispered in her ear.
“You don’t get to kiss me and then leave me like that. You will survive, and you will be my mate.” He smiled, even though was terrified. “You’ll fight me, and I’ll love every moment of it.”
He pressed a kiss to her feverish forehead and stormed out of the house.
Hazel had to make it.
They didn’t have another option.
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Frost
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