Page 122 of A Wolf's Heart

Kage growled, running his hand through his hair and turning his head away from me. He looked pained, but he eventually glanced back at me. “Fine.” He waved his hand down thedirection we were headed and, with a smile, I began walking with him once more. “But it did heal you.”

“Barely. After hearing what you all had to say about eating a heart, I expected something more to happen,” I admitted. “I was still dying.”

“Don’t sayIanddyingin the same sentence again. It leaves a foul taste in my mouth,” Weylin grumbled.

“Markus’s heart healed you more than I expected,” Rainor said. “For such a weak wolf, that is. It was very apparent he was below you in the ranks.”

We turned into one of the open doors. I recognized this room—it was the waiting room we had been in, waiting to hear anything about Max's condition. I reached out, gripping Kage’s elbow once more and closing my eyes, so I wouldn’t have to see. The memory of losing Max would forever be ingrained in this room.

I was led through another doorway, and upon opening my eyes, I could see it was set up like a hospital emergency room. Dozens of beds lining the walls, curtains in between. In the middle was a station with computers and monitors. A few workers—I guessed them to be nurses and doctors—were working, running around, staring at computer screens and consulting with one another.

Dr. Thatcher looked up from a file in her hand. “Lila, you’re awake. I was supposed to be informed. There are some tests I need to schedule with you.”

“I, um, like what?” I asked as she walked up to us.

“Like…” She glanced at the three males surrounding me. “It’s confidential.”

“Can it wait?” I asked. “They are showing me something, and then I kind of want to go home for a bit, recuperate a little.”

Dr. Thatcher nodded. “I suppose it can wait. No more than two days, though, and I want you to call me should anything occur. Any pain at all.”

I agreed and we continued on our way, out of the emergency room and into another room. This one was set up much the same, except instead of curtains separating the beds, there were glass walls, creating rooms around each possible patient.

My eyes went right to him, and my heart dropped. “You sons of bitches,” I snapped, running forward and pressing my hands against the glass. “How do I get in? Open the door.”

Max’s head perked up from the bed he was curled on. My god. How? Why? Why would they do this? He looked better than I had imagined, and a sob broke free. His ears perked up and his head tilted the side, the way it always did when he was trying to figure out what I was saying or what was going on with me.

“Max!” I called, and he jumped off the bed, tail wagging excitedly, his barks shaking the glass. “Open the door!”

“We will, but, Lila, there’s something you need to know,” Rainor said.

“There are a lot of things I need to know! Like who the fuck’s ashes you gave me and why you never told me he was still alive.” I spun on Rainor, pointing my finger at him. “I challenge you.” then I pointed to Kage. “I challenge you,” A smirk appeared on his face at that, then I turned to Weylin. “Did you know?” I asked.

“Yes,” he said, shamefully.

“Well, then, I fucking challenge you too.” I was trying to take deep breaths to control myself, my body shaking with the need to shift and throw hands. My wolf was pretty muchwell, this sucks, but I got your back, girl.

“Lila, calm down and just listen,” Rainor almost pleaded, but not quite. “We needed time to monitor him and work with him.We couldn’t bring him out into the public and, at the time, we didn’t know how much of a risk he would be to you.”

“To me?” I laughed. “I trained Max since he was a puppy. There is nothing—”

“Mommy!” I turned back to the quarantined glass room, only, instead of Max, there stood a full-grown man, completely naked, his arms flexing as he moved them up and down, pointing at his chest. “Mommy! It’s me.” He grinned from ear to ear, his teeth perfectly white and straight, perfectly…human. He began jumping with his excitement, his semi-erect penis flopping up and down. “It’s me, Max!”

“What did you do to him?” I spun around, turning my back to him.

A nurse came walking over, opening the door. “Max, clothes,” she said to him. “Remember what we were working on? When we change states, we put clothes on.”

“Oh, yes.”

Rainor was the one to step into my line of sight. “We don’t know what happened. The staff was working on his injuries when they began healing themselves. Shortly after, he shifted into a human form.”

“Max wasn’t a shifter,” I said. “I’ve known him his whole life. He wasn’t a shifter.”

“Oh, we know,” Weylin said. “They just trained him how to use the toilet.”

“And eat with at least his hands. The cutlery is still a work in progress,” Kage added.

The door opened and human Max came running out, now fully dressed in a pair of sweats and a shirt. “You’re here! It’s been so long.” He began twirling in circles before collapsing onto the ground, sitting on his butt and staring up at me. “What should we do?”

---