by DD Prince
***
It’s later. I’m aware suddenly that it’s only me, my mother, and Ivy here. I sit up and rub my eyes.
“Her fever is down a bit, Tyson,” my mother says. “I’ve sent everyone home. We’ll just keep an eye. If it spikes again, we’ll have her airlifted to a city hospital.”
“No!”
“Yes. If we can’t control it, they’ll have more tools at their disposal.”
“Fuck.”
She reads the machine she’s pointed at Ivy’s forehead. “Her temperature is down a bit, so it’s possible it’s getting better. I’ve sent her bloodwork with a rush.”
“Is it my child that’s hurting her? Did I get her preg –”
“She’s in heat so it’s possible that she is, too soon to tell, but I don’t think it’s that causing the fever. I don’t think it’s that at all, sweetie. She’s meant to be yours; fate wouldn’t be that cruel.” She wraps an arm around my shoulder.
“Wouldn’t it?” I ask.
She flinches.
We both know how fate has treated us thus far.
My forehead drops to Ivy’s bed. Cat rubs my back rhythmically and it’s soothing.
What is it, though?
I smell Mason Quinn.
I smell someone else. Ivy’s sister.
They burst into the room.
My eyes meet hers.
Fuck, she looks like my Ivy. Dark hair but similar eyes. Similar face. Rounder face. Curvier. A little taller. I give my head a shake at the uncanny resemblance.
She runs to the bedside. “What’s wrong with her? What the fuck did you do?” She glares at me and then the little vixen slaps me across the cheek.
Mason hooks an arm around her waist and hauls her back.
He says soft words into her ear and purrs for her and her eyes change before they drift closed. Her posture relaxes.
He kisses her throat. He’s marked her there.
She jerks in reaction at that and lets out a whimper.
He spins her so that she’s got her face buried in his throat. He holds her and caresses the back of her head.
His eyes move to mine and we lock gazes.
“Is Ivy okay?” He asks me.
I swallow.
My mother speaks before I get the chance. “Her fever is finally coming down a little. We’re hopeful. If it spikes again, we’ll have to evac her to St. Jude. Amelia? I’m Catrina Savage. Can I ask you some questions about Ivy’s medical history?”
Amelia pulls away from Mason, moves to her sister, then leans over and kisses her head.
“Her face is so pale. She’s so hot. What is it? I’m a nurse, so talk to me.” Amelia looks at the bag that feeds medicine into Ivy’s arm and then lifts the temperature-taking tool and points it at Ivy’s head before reading the screen.
“It came on suddenly,” Cat says. “She’s weak, high fever, and vomiting, unable to keep even water down. I’m rotating ibuprofen and acetaminophen to try to tackle the fever. Tell me about any allergies, major illnesses. She was here when she got bit by a snake and said there was nothing, but are you aware of anything she might have forgotten to mention? Any allergic reactions, anything like that?”
“No, nothing I can think of. I’ll call my mother and ask her. Do you have a phone I can use? Somebody took mine. She shoots an angry glare at Mason who is looking at Ivy.
I don’t feel threatened by his eyes on her.
I look at Amelia Brennan. Now, Quinn, I guess. I know who my mate is so I feel nothing for her, but by her scent I can guess that perhaps I’d have been confused by it if I smelled it first, before mating.
“Man, I gotta say,” Mason has moved in closer, “I don’t blame you. I woulda done the same.” He holds his hand out for me to shake. “I know that now. I’d have done the exact same.”
I take his hand. I feel the same connection that I feel when shaking hands with Riley, Grey, Jason, Joel, Lincoln.
I get it. I get why they protected him, why they wanted to stop me from doing something I wouldn’t be able to undo.
“Though, I mean, I couldn’t do that cool half-shift thing, but other than that… yeah, I get it. I’m sorry for the trouble it caused, though, Tyson.”
“Thank you for that. I get it. I don’t feel anything for your woman, but that’s probably because I already found mine. I can see, can guess how confusing it must have been.”
“It’s all instinct,” Mason says. “All of it. Your reaction. Mine. I’m glad it makes sense now. Can’t tell you how crazy it was drivin’ me. Weird though, I’ve known couples with siblings. Your mother and father, their siblings were mated and there was nothing like this.”
“Atticus is beta,” my mother says. “Not alpha. And there wasn’t witchcraft at play… that we know of. But we had that whole other issue with Cornelius. Sometimes shifter relationships are… complex.”
“Point taken,” Mason says.
“Things good with you and her?” I ask.
Amelia is pacing the waiting room with her hand on her neck, talking on the phone.
She stops in her tracks, pulling her hand away from her neck and I watch him as he watches her and a slow smile spreads across his face.
Her shoulders tremble and she says something else into the phone before her eyes meet his, narrow, and then she sticks her tongue out at him before pulling it back in and spinning to turn her back to him.
His shoulders shake with laughter.
“She’s in denial about it, but it’s better than good. Man, it’s everything.”
***
Three Hours Later
I’m on the cot with Ivy, my arms around her, my body temperature as high as I can get it because she’s trembling. Hard. She’s got a severe case of the chills and this is good because her temperature is down to normal but it’s also bad because she’s in a lot of discomfort.
Her teeth chatter. Her body trembles. Cat keeps rotating blankets through a dryer and piling them on us as I hold Ivy close under the quilt and three other blankets. Cat told me that this quilt I brought from my bed is the one that my grandmother made when I was a baby. Not only did Cornelius take me, but he took me in it.
“I never thought I’d see it again,” she said.
“I’ve never used it until Ivy,” I admitted. “I pulled it from the back of the cabinet and draped it over her when I mated her the first night. I’d never used it. Don’t even remember it around over the years.”
She smiled. “I’m glad it’s still around. Grandma Carolyn will be happy if we show it to her. Though, it’ll remind her of the sons she lost. She lost them both, your dad and Cornelius. It’s been a source of deep pain for her.”
I squeeze my mother’s hand.
Her face brightens. “I look forward to making one for your first child.”
I hear the door and catch the aroma of someone else in Ivy’s family.
Ivy’s mother. I know it as soon as I see her. Blonde hair, blue eyes. My mother’s age or a bit younger. Panic in her eyes as she rushes to Amelia in the waiting room and embraces her. Riley and Linc are behind her. They’ve obviously escorted her to the clinic from the four corners of the village.
Her eyes meet mine as she hurries into the room I’m in. “What’s happening?”
I brace, thinking I’m about to get trouble from her, too, but her eyes are simply filled with concern.
“I’m trying to raise her body temperature. She’s got severe chills.”
My mother speaks up. “I’m Catrina Savage, this is Tyson. Ivy’s temperature is back to normal but her fever medication will wear off soon so that’ll be telling.”
“I’m Kathleen Brennan. What can I do?”
“All we can do is wait.”
“Shouldn’t we get her to a hospital?”
“If her fever spikes within the next hour, yes. If not, we keep watching closely. Her temperature has been normal for two hours.” A phone rings. “Excuse me,” my mother says as she leaves the room with the phone to h
er ear.
“I think we should get her to a hospital right now,” Ivy’s sister says.
“Let’s give it a bit and see,” Kathleen suggests.
“Even though her temperature is down, we don’t know why it spiked. We don’t know why this is happening. We need a hospital, you people!”
“Ames?” Ivy calls. “Ames?” Her teeth chatter and she burrows closer to me. I stroke her hair.
“Ivy, oh god. Hi Ivy. How do you feel? Amelia asks.
“You’re being dramatic,” Ivy says and then she shivers.
Her eyes flutter open. “Hi,” she says, looking up at me, her chin planted in the center of my chest.
“Hi,” I repeat, hoarsely. “Are you feeling okay?”
Her teeth chatter again, and she burrows some more.
“Amelia, are you here or am I hallucinating?” she asks.
“I’m here. Mom’s here, too.”
“Mom?” Ivy calls out.
“I’m here, baby girl.” Kathleen leans over her daughter and kisses the apple of her cheek.
“Amie, did… did… you get claimed by a werewolf too?” Ivy asks.
Mason straightens up in the chair he’s sitting in over in the waiting room. My eyes meet his and his brow quirks up as he listens.
“Looks like it,” Amelia grumbles.
“Has he done that knot thing?” Ivy’s teeth chatter. “Did he make a neck clit on you?” She laughs and trembles some more.
“She’s delirious,” Kathleen remarks. “Ivy?”
“Yeah, Ives, he did,” Amelia says as if she’s admitting something terrible.
Mason smirks.
“A neck clit?” Kathleen whispers.
I can’t help it; I smirk too.
Ivy giggles and burrows into me some more.
I catch Amelia smirk, but she tries to hide it.
Her eyes meet mine and I feel the barest twitch of my mouth and as Amelia tries to look away, I can’t help the chuckle that escapes my lips.
My mother bursts into the room.
“Ivy, are you still taking that birth control pill every day? It just dawned on me while I was on the phone with the doctor in Scotland.”
Ivy lifts her chin up and nods. “Yeah.”
My mother breathes out a sigh. “And we have our culprit. I think. When did you last take it?”
“What’s this?” I ask.
My mother lifts an index finger and continues talking to Ivy.
“Ivy?” she prompts.
“When I wake up every morning. What time is it?”
“It’s almost seven in the morning. We’ll see what happens over the next few hours. Let’s take your temperature.”
I’m confused.
I know my mother reads this from my eyes as she points her device at Ivy’s forehead.
“Still up a little,” she says, “but definitely better. How are your chills, Ivy?”
“I’m still c-cold.”
I realize I’ve stopped focusing on giving her warmth, so I raise my body temperature again for her and wrap my arms tighter around her. I stare at my mother.
“Let’s let Ivy rest for a bit, everyone. I think it’s safe to be optimistic here that we’ve found the culprit. We’ll wait a few hours. Once she’s about thirty-six hours from her last pill, I’ll do more bloodwork and send the results to my contact. Her hormone levels are totally out of whack here. You should all get some rest.”
“I’m not leaving,” Amelia announces. “Not until then.”
Mason’s jaw tenses and he folds his arms across his chest and tries to get more comfortable on the couch in the waiting room.
“I could use a couple hours,” Kathleen says. “I feel like Ivy’s in great hands.”
“Mom?” Amelia says with a gasp.
“Aunt Nelle went to a lot of trouble to put all this together, apparently, and something tells me it’s all gonna be okay,” Kathleen tells her daughter.
“I have a guest room. Come on up and you can get some rest,” my mother tells Ivy’s mother. “Amelia?”
“Yeah, I’ll go lay down with Mom,” she says and follows.
Mason rolls his eyes. “Crash on your couch, Cat?”
“Absolutely, honey.”
“Nice to meet you, Tyson,” Kathleen says. “And you, Mason.” She leans over and kisses Ivy’s forehead.
“Love you, Mom,” Ivy whispers.
“Love you, Ivy.”
Kathleen moves over to Amelia and kisses her forehead, too.
Amelia doesn’t look settled. Or pleased. She looks like she’s still concerned about her sister. And she’s not happy about this situation.
Mason puts his arm around her. She pushes his arm off.
“Mason, can you show them upstairs? I’ll be right there.”
My mother looks at me.
“What is this pill she’s been taking?” I fucking knew pills were bad. Knew it.
“It’s something a lot of mainstream women take to prevent getting pregnant. It’s hormones that prevent heat, in essence. But you’re an extremely alpha male and you’ve mated her and triggered a hormone surge in her, plus the moon is definitely pushing a super-heat cycle for all the fertile and mated females. And the pill seems to have counteracted with what’s become a massive cocktail of hormones to make her ill. That’s what I think, anyway. We’ll know for sure by this afternoon if everything levels out if this was the culprit. It’s a safe bet that it was. Rest. We’ll see where we’re at in a few hours. If her body gets hot again, call me.” Cat puts a phone beside me. “Hit this button.” She points to one that says “intercom”.
I grunt in reply and she leaves.
“Fucking pills,” I growl.
Ivy looks up at me.
“Why are you taking those stupid things?”
She blinks. “I’ve been taking them since I was eighteen. I…”
“They hurt you!”
“Um, they’ve never hurt me before, whatever affect you had on me hurt me because of them. They’ve never been a problem before.”
A growl comes from me. “You’re mated. You don’t try to stop nature from taking its course.”
She rolls her eyes. “Neither of us knew, obviously, and if I’m now allergic to birth control pills, you’ll just have to use a condom. I have to turn over. My shoulder is falling asleep.” She turns her back to me and then shivers some more.
“I will not fucking use a condom,” I tell her. “I had women thrust them at me when I fucked them before, and there’s no way a condom is being put on my cock with you. Never.”
I’m falling off the small cot onto the floor. I land with a grunt.
She pushed me.
I blink rapidly in shock.
“Did you just push me out of bed?”
“Did you just talk about fucking some other woman?”
I stare a beat and then I bark out a laugh.
She’s not smiling with her mouth or her eyes.
“Looks like I’m not the only one in this marriage with a jealous streak.” I climb back in and wrap my arms around her and bury my nose in her neck. I laugh. She’s still stiff.
“Sorry, baby,” I tell her. “No more talk of fucking anybody. Except you.”
She’s still stiff.
I purr for her.
She shivers and kisses my forearm. “Okay.”
“No more pills,” I tell her.
“Obviously,” she whispers.
“I want babies,” I tell her.
“So do I,” she whispers.
I chuckle. And then I drift off to sleep feeling complete. I have a pack with six brothers, family; I have Ivy. She has my family and her mother and sister are being brought into the fold. And very soon, we’ll have a bigger family, because I intend on getting her pregnant as soon as possible.
55
Ivy
So, birth control pills and heat cycles when you’re mated to a super shifter do not blend. Good to know.
Cat didn’t know this, fe
els terrible about it because she told me she meant to talk to me about my birth control after the snake bite, not because she thought it’d be dangerous, because she thought Tyson would lose his mind when he found out. Alpha shifters apparently don’t take well to their ‘mates’ attempting to block their heat cycles.
Apparently, there are drugs that will do it and they’re not looked upon favorably by alphas, particularly super alphas who have a lot more male hormones than the average male.
She wanted to talk to me about it but got caught up in everything.
And now, she’s gaining information from contacts at the university in Scotland to help ensure there are no surprises with pregnancies for either me or my sister, since we’re not shifters. Apparently there have been no human / council alpha matings for two generations in this pack so she wants to get up to speed on things to avoid unhappy surprises.
I’m anxious to get some alone time with Amelia. Not only to find out what she thinks, but to try to give her reassurance, too. I know this stuff is crazy, that it’s wild and wacky that this stuff exists. And if Mason is anything like Tyson, she’s in for a rude alpha awakening. And my sister is an alpha female, if that’s really such a thing in the non-shifter world, so I’m sure my new potential brother-in-law will have his hands full.
Once the 36-hour mark passed and we knew I was out of the woods, knew that the birth control pill was definitely the culprit, Mason whisked her away back to his lake house. Against her wishes. Literally. She stomped her feet and demanded he fuck off and he carried her out of there over his shoulder.
My mom missed that, thankfully, and when she emerged shortly after that from taking her shower upstairs at Cat’s, Cat simply said, “Mason and Amelia had to go. I’m sure she’ll call you later.”
Mom seemed fine.
Weirdly.
And then she kissed me goodbye, told me she was going home and putting her house up for sale. She was moving to Drowsy Hollow to be closer to us.
“There’s an apartment for rent above the dry cleaners in that town. I passed it on my way here and I’m going to call about seeing it on my way home.”
“What are we going to tell Leo and Dad?”
“We’ll tell your brother you moved. You fell in love. So did Amie. I’m moving to be closer to you girls. He’s busy anyway, at school. When he’s finished, he can either move to Drowsy Hollow with me. Or not. It’s time for me to live my life, too. I’ve spent too many years in your father’s shadow. It’s my time in the sun, I think.” She smiles brightly. “I don’t know what Nelle has in store for me, but she told me in her letter that my happy was coming. I’m feeling like this is all good, all right.”
