Page 82 of Feral

“What’s wrong?” Liam asked when he saw my face.

“I…I need to tell ya somethin’ and I need you to keep it between us.”

“Is it that yer matin’ to Daphne isn’t what it seems to be?”

I stopped short and gaped at him.

“Am I being that obvious?”

“I doubt anyone else picked up on it. So tell me, is she really here to investigate and ya just didn’t want Angus finding out?”

I nodded.

“And with the full moon comin’ up tomorrow…” I began.

Liam sighed.

“I see. Well, what can I do to help?”

I swallowed and paced in front of him.

“You remember that old shed, the one that the groundskeeper used for all his tools and such?”

Liam gave me a warry look.

“Yeah.”

“Well, I was thinking that ya could maybe lock me in there at night.”

“What? Are ya out of your bloody mind? You’ll go into a frenzy and rip anyone apart who comes near ya!”

“Not if I take some of those sedatives I know ya get from the witch in Dublin.”

Liam’s mouth snapped shut and he glared at me.

“That’s my business.”

“And mine, little brother.”

Liam had become pretty dependent on the pain medication that our clan witch gave him in the early days of his recovery. We’d had an intervention with him and he’d gotten off the drugs. But I knew that sometimes he couldn’t sleep, whether from nightmares or pain, and that he had a stash of sedatives to help with that. He didn’t abuse them like he did the others, but I kept a close watch on him all the same.

“I haven’t been overdoing it,” Liam said, his voice quiet. “It’s just…sometimes…”

“I know. I’m not judging ya, I’m sorry if it felt like it.”

Liam looked down at his hands, just as long and strong as any of ours and shook his head.

“Sometimes everyone still treats me like I’m so bloody fragile. I hate it, Fraser.”

“I know. It’s just…almost losing ya like that? It’s not something any of us can ever forget.”

He gave a mirthless chuckle.

“Believe me I, understand,” he took a sip of cold tea and grimaced. “But back to what ya want. Fraser, are ya sure the lass isn’t…ya know, into ya, even a little?”

I huffed out a sigh.

“She is, but Daphne has no idea what she’d be gettin’ into.”

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