Page 127 of As The Shifter World Turns

I stuck my hand in the mug and pulled out a folded piece of paper.

At least this way I didn’t need to torture myself with a second set of interviews.

Micah

“Take a nap, mate.” I reached for Elune and he shook his head. “You have to sleep. It's been days. She needs her daddy to be well rested.”

He looked up at me, his eyes sunken in. It wasn’t the first time we had this conversation since the day we’d brought Elune home. And I understood why he was so stubborn. I was as worried as he was about our sweet baby girl. But I actively tried to follow Martin’s advice and sleep when she did. True his advice was about newborns not people being sick, but still it sounded right.

Not that it was easy to do. I was running on fumes, too.

“But what if she needs me? You are an amazing dad, but you don’t have what she needs.” He was referring to his milk supply. And he was right, I didn’t, but I had the ability to feed her a bottle like a boss and to wake him up if needed.

I couldn’t help the nagging in my brain that this wasn’t just teething like the nurse said and that it was more. Being a unicorn not born of a unicorn—that made her special. It was also the only thing holding me back from racing her to the hospital like most newish parents seemed to based on my scouring Q&A for fevers in babies on the internet. Human doctors might be able to tell she was unique and in theory, not possible.

Part of me wanted to go downstairs and ask his parents for advice. They have been there and done that with teething babies. They might know the difference. If I did, Archer would want to know how his father was doing and the answer was, not well.

I felt bad, part of me wishing Archer’s parents hadn’t moved in yet. They weren’t able to deal with his alpha father’s failing health and I knew they added a whole new level of worry onto Archer’s already full shoulders.

“I have an idea. You lay down. I’ll sit in the rocking chair in our room with Elune and rock her sweetly, give her teething toys, and make sure she has a dry bum. You sleep.”

I piqued his interest. He wasn’t immediately declining the offer. Good. Poor sweet mate.

“And if she’s hungry or needs comfort feeding, I’ll wake you up. Immediately. Promise,” he pleaded as he held her out to me. “I know you say all kids run fevers and the nurse said they all do and Martin said its normal, but… I was looking at the parent’s groups on social media?—”

I cut him off right there. Those things were toxic. “The same places that said that if your child is born with vision problems they need to use some weird herb that you can only get via a sketch website? The same places that said brushing your kids teeth will lower their IQs? The same places that said if a fall breaks the skin and you don’t go to the emergency room you are abusive?”

He nodded after each one. That group was toxic and ran the gamut from medicine is evil to your kid needs to spend a week getting tested for everything because they aren’t reading at three. A complete cesspool. I’m sure some were great… he just didn’t happen to end up in those.

I took my sweet girl into my arms and held her close. She was my world.

“I think we need to move up the study… the one at the university.” Just saying the words took all of my strength. Bringing her was going to be another, but Archer had been right. It was the right thing to do and waiting would not change anything and only increase our worry.

“If she was a human baby or…” I didn’t want to say normal. “We’d have taken her to be seen, told we were over anxious parents, and sent home with instructions to let it ride. Instead, I’m here running worst case scenarios through my head and don’t tell me you aren’t. Because if you weren’t you’d have slept some.”

“You’re right, mate.” He got up and kissed her head and then my cheek. “Will you make the call?”

49

A SURPRISE

Ivor

“Ivor, are you all right? You’ve been in there a while?” Daire banged on the door.

“I’m fine. Be out in a minute.” I was anything but fine and I’d been leaning over the toilet throwing up for twenty minutes. My mouth felt like the bottom of a birdcage and my belly ached from heaving.

After rinsing with mouthwash and throwing water on my face, I opened the door to find Daire leaning against the wall. “Please tell me this isn't a hangover because of what happened with you and Ryder?”

“No, it’s a stomach bug.”

“You need to call your boss and say you’re not coming in today. He’d probably take one look at you and send you home anyway.”

“I’m fine.” I closed the bathroom door again and turned on the shower. “I love that you’re worried about me but I haven’t had this job long enough to take a day off.”

“Please tell me they have paid sick leave and wouldn’t dock your pay for missing a day.”

“No.” I climbed in the shower and let the water wash over me, not having the energy to do much else. “I’m still on probation and need to prove myself.”

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