Page 26 of Blade's Battle
“Not until your shifter arrived. That’s why Liam doesn’t want you near him. He says your shifter is a danger to everyone, especially you.”
A strained laugh escaped Anna. “Blade’s already saved me, several times. I’m in no danger from him. Quite the opposite.”
“He’s going feral. Maybe you don’t understand what that means.”
Feral. She still couldn’t believe what Liam had said, except Blade hadn’t denied it. That revelation had felt like a punch in her stomach—the type Drake’s goons had delivered, not the playful type that the kids in Kurt’s pack gave along with all their hugs and kisses. After learning about feral shifters, she had studied as much as she could get her hands on to understand how and why a shifter went feral.
Those few males she had interviewed in Kurt’s pack had all blood-bonded shifters to permanently calm their wolves, but that was long before she had met them. She had never had a chance to analyze their biochemistry before the blood-bonding. As for the symptoms she had cataloged, those were all from second-hand statements, not first-hand observations. The symptoms varied from shifter to shifter. Either Blade was early in the process or he was good at hiding the signs because nothing about him seemed off.
Locks of blonde curls fell to the floor. Anna shook her head, enjoying how her hair swayed andmovedagain. “I can’t wait to show—”
“Your shifter?” Rosa asked with a smile. “Maybe if you head down there and ask the guards, they’ll let you in. Use one of those smiles you flash the scout.”
Anna looked at all the hair on the floor.
“I’ll clean up,” Rosa said as she headed into the hallway. She returned a moment later with a broom and dustpan. “Go see your shifter. Or take a walk and try to relax. You’re allowed to come and go as you please.”
“Thank you,” Anna said as she hugged Rosa.
Anna eased her bandaged feet into the pair of backless shoes that Rosa had brought with the clothing. Though the shoes were two sizes too big, they felt heavenly after having no footwear, or even socks, for all those weeks. Her feet would finally have a chance to heal. No more having to rely on Blade carrying her either. Then again, she liked when her shifter carried her.
Hershifter. No, that wasn’t right, even though Rosa kept calling him that. Anna couldn’t think of Blade as hers. Kurt was hers. And she was Kurt’s, as their vows had said.
Till death do you part.Kurt had added words from the human wedding ceremony into the shifter blood-bonding ritual. He’d never denied or avoided her culture, but simply combined it with his own. He’d always been so accepting and giving like that. Now he was gone.
Anna left Rosa’s house without anyone stopping her, though a male shifter followed her at a discreet distance. She had the freedom to move about the compound until she neared an immense lodge on the outskirts. Her shadow, a tall shifter with grey eyes and a scruffy beard, stopped her.
“You can’t go there, Miss. That’s our makeshift hospital. Where we’re quarantining anyone infected with the virus.”
“The virus? It’s here? When did it strike?”
“Two weeks ago. We’ve already lost nine shifters.”
“Out of how many sick?”
“Ten at the time. There are another eight inside now. New cases.”
“That’s a ninety percent fail rate. Doesn’t sound like the cure’s working at all.”
“Cure?” Her guard grabbed her by the arm and practically dragged her back to the center of the compound, where he sent one of the kids to find Liam.
Within minutes Liam was standing there, asking her everything she knew about the cure. The second he heard Drake had a cure, he was simultaneously cursing under his breath and shouting orders at a group of shifters to take a message to Drake.
“Are you sure about the cure? Damien gave us a vaccine, but it’s not working,” Liam said, his ice-blue eyes staring at her.
“I’m sure. The cure had an eighty percent success rate, but I don’t know more than that.” She hadn’t meant to give away information that tied her to Drake, and now they were sending shifters to him, to retrieve the cure. On the other hand, she couldn’t sit back and let more shifters die by withholding information about the cure, even if it put her at risk. She needed to leave before Liam’s shifters got back from Drake’s.
“I want to see Blade, Alpha. Please.” Though she tried to mask it, her voice was shaking.
“He’s going feral.”
“So you said.”
Liam’s eyes narrowed. “You doubt me?”
“I don’t know you. Blade has shown no signs of going feral to me.”
“You’re human. You wouldn’t see the signs, not until it’s too late.”
