by DD Prince
I shift back to wolf and pass the other man standing there, paying no attention but feeling his presence with a strangeness I can’t decipher as I resume my journey home.
I may have pissed on Cornelius’s bones in both forms, but it’s as if he pissed on me. Repeatedly. For my whole life.
***
I catch her scent on the breeze not fifty paces away and every hair on my coat rises. Why does she smell so close? She’s not okay. I pick up pace and follow the scent until I see her, in a trench beside the road, curled into a ball, rocking back and forth, and crying.
The path she took here was strange and erratic. One look at her and it hits me, the path she took through the grass rather than on the gravel road.
I shift to man form when I see the top of her golden head.
“Ivy!”
She twists to look over her shoulder at me and her eyes are filled with wet. Her cheeks are red and swollen and her chin trembles.
“It… it bit me.”
“What bit you?”
“The snake. Maybe both of them, I don’t know. There was a… tussle and they were all tangled up. They slithered away.” She gestures with her hand.
“Fuck.”
They were mating. She obviously happened upon a mating. This was the time of year for it and if she wandered through the trench along the road a long way, it’s not a surprise she happened upon that. She smells like me, but that clearly didn’t matter stepping into a mating between snakes.
Her tight jeans are bulging around her ankle and it’s obvious that she’s swelling where she was bit.
“I should’ve worn my Uggs.”
“Your what?”
“My purple boots.” She gestures to the canvas ankle shoes she has on. Her circulation is being cut off, so I grab the cuff of her jeans and rip upwards to give her leg some room. I see the bitemark just below her ankle, above the shoe. I pull her shoe off.
“Oh no! My Lucky jeans. Shit, Tyson…”
“Getting bit by a snake isn’t very lucky, Ivy,” I inform her.
Her brows furrow and then she shakes her head. “Not that kind of luck – never mind.” Her face goes panicked and she forces a swallow. “Am I gonna die?” she whispers, “because it feels like –”
“No!” I interrupt and then wrap my mouth around the wound and suck.
“What are you doing? That’s poison!” She tries to pull back, but I don’t allow it.
I hold her calf firmly and I suck and spit and suck and spit.
Her heart is beating very fast. Too fast.
I taste her blood belatedly and taste something vile within it. The venom.
I smell Riley Savage in the air. And the one he called Lincoln.
My attention snaps over my left shoulder.
They’re both shifting to man. “Tyson. What’s happened?” Riley demands.
“Back the fuck up!”
“What’s wrong? Let us help.”
“A snake bit me,” Ivy says, and I see she’s got her hands over her eyes.
I sift fingers through her silky hair.
“Ivy? Look at me. You won’t die. I won’t allow it. Understand?”
“I can’t look at you, Ty. They’re naked.”
“What kind of snake?” Riley asks, leaning over and looking at her ankle. “Stop, with the suction, it won’t work. She needs antivenom. Let’s take her to Aunt Cat. Don’t carry her prone, keep her head above her legs.”
“Aunt Cat?” Ivy asks, eyes still covered. “Who’s she?”
“She’s a healer. And Tyson’s mother,” Riley tells her.
“Come! Fast!” Lincoln demands, leaning in to look at Ivy’s ankle, too close; I growl at him.
He rears back and says, “Come! Cat’ll help! Hurry.”
I lift her up and we run.
I run for my life. For hers.
***
By the time I get to that village, Ivy’s skin feels hot and her body trembles in my arms.
They’ve beat me there as they shifted to wolves, but I’m not far behind, even as man and even with her in my arms because I run faster as man than I’ve ever run in my life. I feel her distress, I smell the sickness as that venom courses through her veins, and I feel her fear, knowing she’s running a fever and it’s climbing and climbing.
From there, things happen quickly. A man and the woman who I saw earlier come out the same door at the gas station, with a now-shifted to man, Riley who is talking on a phone.
“Come with us,” the woman calls.
“I need a healer. Now!”
She’s already looking at Ivy’s ankle, which is even more swollen.
“I’ll take you,” she says, then ushers me to a truck that’s parked at the back of the gas station.
Riley nods at me, communicating I should go with her.
I climb into the back seat, holding her in my arms and as the man with her starts the truck for her, Riley calls out. “I’ll meet you at the clinic. They’re getting ready for you.”
Ivy trembles in my arms despite her skin feeling hot to the touch. I grind my teeth together and hear a motorcycle start up. That’s Riley, behind us.
“This is Riley’s truck. He keeps a few sets of clothes in the back, Tyson, if you want them,” the man in the passenger seat says.
As if I care if I’m clothed. I care only about Ivy, in my arms, who no longer smells right, who smells like snake venom, like me, and only vaguely like she used to smell. She’s pale and trembling so hard with her ankle swollen to larger than my own ankle. I see purple marks forming on her calf. Those marks are from my fingers, from when I held her still and tried to suck the poison out. Fuck. I keep hurting her!
“Tyson? There are clothes –” he repeats.
I grunt to make him shut up.
“Ty?” she whimpers.
“Almost there, Only One. Almost there.” I press my lips to her forehead. Her burning hot forehead. Fuck.
I don’t know if we’re almost there. I don’t know if Cat will have medicine for Ivy and will be able to help her or not. I don’t know if these people mean me harm. I don’t think they do, but I spent my life with someone who I now know lied to me nearly every time he opened his fucking mouth.
I hate questioning my instinct. My instinct is what drives me. How do I proceed if I don’t know if I can trust it?
“Drive faster!” I demand.
The driver complies.
I shouldn’t have left her. I shouldn’t have gone. My scent warned any animal or shifter approaching the property and I assumed she’d cross the scent if she dared leave (which I’d hoped she wouldn’t) and it’d keep all from her, but I never counted on her wandering until she came upon mating venomous snakes who evidently bit before taking note of my warning scent. Perhaps my scent on her could’ve even been provocation.
My gut churns and acid bubbles up in my throat. We’re stopping at a grey concrete building beside a creek. Across the iron bridge over the creek is an entrance to an establishment with a small sign outside that reads Roxy’s. Several houses dot the creekside on both sides.
“We’re here,” the woman in the driver’s seat says and pushes the door open and then opens the back door. I slide out carefully cradling Ivy, whose ankle is even more swollen, whose skin is now verging on scorching hot.
I catch the scent of Cat before I’m done climbing out and she’s rushing toward the car with gloves on, two men flanking her with a cot between them. I step out with Ivy in my arms and head toward the door, ignoring the men with the cot. One gets too close, so I lunge and bare my teeth at him, resulting in his immediate submission. He cowers, showing me his throat.
“Follow me,” Cat says and leads us through a big room with several chairs and a desk. She crosses it into another room dominated by a bed with pendant lights overtop. Cabinets and countertops take up the perimeter of the room.
“Honey, I’m Catrina Savage. You can call me Cat if you like. What’s your name?” She’s leaned over my Ivy. “Set
her down, Tyson, but let me elevate the end. We don’t want her prone right now.”
Ivy’s eyelashes flutter and her mouth moves but no sounds come out.
“What’s her name, Tyson?”
“Ivy Adeline Savage.”
Her eyes are gentle. “Tell me everything you know about what happened.”
She puts an instrument to Ivy’s forehead, which beeps. She looks at it and sets it down.
“She happened upon snakes mating. She was bit. I attempted to remove the poison with my mouth. Riley Savage said you could help. Her ankle is swelling more and more by the minute, she’s been trembling, and her body grows hotter by the second.”
Ivy’s eyelashes flutter and she reaches for Cat’s hand.
“Hi,” Ivy says.
Cat squeezes it. “Hi Sweetie. We’re gonna take care of you. Don’t fret. Do you know what color the snake that bit you was?”
“Gray and brownish gr-gray,” she mumbles. “And brown. And shaky sounds, rattly.”
Her body trembles again and I want to lash out and make Cat do something.
“Do you have allergies?”
Ivy doesn’t answer. Her lips part, but she just winces.
“Any allergies, Tyson?”
“I don’t know. Snake bites? Do something.”
“Ivy?” She jiggles Ivy’s cheek with her hand.
Ivy groans and her eyelashes flutter some more.
“Do something!” I bark.
“I’m about to,” she says calmly.
She has a voice that I might find soothing if I wasn’t feeling like something had to happen immediately to save my woman.
I pace back and forth in the room. The couple that brought me are in the other room that we entered into and they sit there, with eyes on me. I hear a door open and more voices assault my ears. They all smell like shifters, every one of them, though one, a female, has only a mild shifter aroma, as if a halfling. I don’t linger on that thought; I thrust my hands through my hair and a low growl rises from down deep in my bowels until it breaks past my lips. She has to survive this. She has to.
If she doesn’t, I’ll join her wherever she’s going. I’ll rip my own heart out and join her.
“Fix her!” I shout.
Cat’s eyes dart to me. “I will, darling,” she says with strength in her voice that surprises me. “I’d tell you to sit down or take a walk while I do that, but I can tell you’re a stubborn alpha so instead you’ll pace and growl and boss me around. And that’s okay. But just do it from five feet back so you don’t get in my way.” She opens a cabinet, fetches a bottle and a bag, and fiddles with things on a tray beside Ivy. Just a moment later, she’s sticking a needle into Ivy’s hand. It’s attached to a clear hose and that hose is attached to a metal contraption that holds a bag.
It's a good thing the person caring for Ivy is who she is to me and that I know this because I now know I don’t like anybody touching my woman and seeing someone poke something sharp into her would otherwise send me into a haze of rage. I trust this woman. Everything inside me tells me she’s my mother and that she is trustworthy.
“Fix her,” I whisper, and her eyes hit mine.
“I will, son.”
Riley steps in with a bundle of fabric in his arm.
My eyes track his movements as he comes in and I step in front of Ivy, blocking her from him.
“Here. Clothing.” He sets the bundle on a counter dropping a pair of boots on the floor beside me. His gaze is filled with something. Knowing, maybe. Knowing not to bother me with words. Right now, what I need is to see her improve. He grabs the doorknob on his way out. I’ve already seen more people out there; the room is filled with at least a dozen and many sets of eyes are trained on me as the door closes.
“How long will it take?” I demand, seeing the liquid from the bag moving into the hose where it’ll deliver the medicine to my Ivy. I hope it works. I stare at it, demanding it to work.
“A few hours at least,” she says. “It was too late for a venom extraction kit, and it penetrated the muscle anyway, so we’re doing slow IV administration of the antivenom. I’m going to give her antibiotics as well.”
I get the jeans on and pull a white t-shirt over my head. I pull socks on, then note the boots are too tight on my feet, so I pull the socks back off, kick them aside, and resume pacing.
Later, after I’ve watched Cat come in and out and clean everything she used and check Ivy’s heart and pulse, a young shifter woman knocks on the door and opens it. She drops a pair of shoes and gives me a quick smile before she quickly backs away.
She’s dropped shoes similar to the shoes Ivy wore in the house with the rubber soles, though these don’t have a plug between the toes. Instead they have a black and white striped band across the top.
“Thank you, Leona,” Cat says.
The woman sits down, but the door remains open.
I slip my feet into them. They fit. Not more than a moment later, I’m kicking them off, not liking the noise they make or the way they clap my soles when I pace.
It’s shoes like these that leave men and women vulnerable to being bit by a snake.
And any sign of vulnerabilities increases the chance of others taking advantage. I loathe even the slightest notion of feeling vulnerable, never mind looking that way.
I’m not wired to show a vulnerability. A vulnerability would lead to opportunity from other predators. Vulnerability in prey did the equivalent of making me hard as a wolf. I’m the predator. And those around me are also predators. I won’t forget it.
I sit on a small sofa, resting my forearms on my thighs as I stare at Ivy.
Her eyes are on me. She’s awake. I jump up and go to her.
I see that the swelling has already decreased some. Color is returning in her face. She’s definitely improved. Relief nearly knocks me over.
My hand goes to her face and she stares at me with her large violet eyes. Her skin still feels warm though maybe slightly less warm.
“Will she survive?” I demand of Cat, eyes still on Ivy.
“Definitely,” Cat replies.
My eyes move back to my mate’s face.
“You left me,” I accuse.
Ivy swallows and looks away from me.
The silence feels like it has a noise to it. A noise I don’t like. My hand slides away from her face and I try to get a read on her expression.
She moistens her lips and looks to Cat. “Looks like mother nature didn’t want me to go, either. Um, Doctor?”
Cat’s head rises from her task at the counter, where she’s writing something down. She looks expectantly at her and Ivy startles. Ivy’s eyes bounce to me and back to Cat and then to me again and she gives her head a shake.
She sees the resemblance.
“Yes, dear?” Cat asks.
“Can I… use a phone?”
“Of course. You’re feeling a bit better?”
“Definitely. Not a hundred per cent, but way better than when Ty found me in that ditch. Thank you. Thank you so much. I’ll get better, for sure?”
“For sure. And my pleasure. We need to see where things are at when that bag is empty, but don’t worry, just rest. Be right back.”
Cat leaves.
“You look like her,” Ivy whispers.
“I know. She’s my mother.”
“Yeah,” Ivy breathes. “Thank you for pulling me out of that ditch.”
“You should not have been there,” I hiss.
She bites her lip. “But…”
Cat’s back and Ivy stops speaking. She’s passed a phone and she immediately punches on the keys. I watch from her bedside listening to the noises coming from the thing. I’m familiar with the gadgets but I’ve never used one. I don’t know who she’s calling.
“Becks? It’s Ivy. Yeah, hi. I have a little problem. You’re not gonna believe this. I got bit by a poisonous snake and… no, I lost my phone and haven’t had a chance to check my email either, what’s up?”
Ivy listens and her face goes shocked, concerned and then her eyes land on me and I see something I can’t measure.
Ivy’s eyes go wide and then she swallows. “Oh. Wow. That’s just… wild. No one got hurt, right?” She pauses, looking concerned and as relief spreads across her face, I feel it inside my belly. I’m growing more and more connected with her by the day, it seems.
She continues to talk. “Good. Good. Thank goodness. Well, yeah, I’m in a kind of rural clinic right now, hooked up to an IV and I have no idea what happens from here, so how about if I just call you in, say… two or three days and we talk then? I’ll shoot you an e-mail as soon as I’m connected again.”
She waits patiently as the person on the other end is obviously talking before wrapping up her call with a smile in her voice. “Yeah, no, it’s fine. The doctor says I’ll be good. No idea what kind but a rattler of some sort. Yeah… Oh, lonnnng story. We got separated and I had a car problem, phone problem too, but, oh… gotta go. The doc needs to, um, do something here. Okay then… will do. Thanks so much. Bye.”
She punches buttons on the phone and with her free hand she crosses her middle and pointer fingers and whispers, “Don’t answer, don’t answer, don’t answer…”
I frown as I notice her face has paled again.
She blows out a long breath and shifts her body a bit in the bed. I look at her ankle and it appears as if the swelling has receded some more. Progress, but my Ivy isn’t fully recovered yet.
“Hi Mom?” Ivy says cheerily, “It’s me. I’m still out of town. I got bit by a snake; can you believe it? I was, um, hiking and I …, I did say by a snake, but I’m fine. I’m gonna be good, but I lost my phone and I’m guessing I’m gonna be here in this, um hospital overnight, so I will call you soon. I’m totally fine. I had a problem with my car, but I’ll figure all that out and… yeah. I love you and I’ll talk to you later. Don’t worry, okay? Even if it takes me a few days to get back to you. Things are, um..” she looks at me. “Complicated for a few reasons, but I have the work thing covered, and I’m guessing you already know about that since you watch the news every night, so not a problem there for me to be off for a bit. I’ll call you as soon as I can.”
