I got up, showered again, and got ready to leave. I needed to eat, and I needed food for late dinner tonight. I didn’t look in the parking lot for a guard, but a black foreign car followed me from my lot to the grocery store, and out again from it, until I found myself on hospital grounds.
* * *
I was in the locker room when Gina came in, humming a happy tune. I confronted her. “You’re cheerful tonight.”
“And you’re not. It’s like we traded places.”
“I had a long night off.”
“Me too. But in a good way. I talked things out with Brandon. He doesn’t care if I don’t change.”
“For how long?”
“He says, for forever.”
“For real, forever?”
“For long enough.” She smiled at me. “I knew I didn’t screw up falling for him, Edie. I knew it.”
I found a smile somewhere deep inside me—probably pulled it out of another fucking dimension—to share with her. “I’m really glad for you, Gina.”
She hugged me tight and let me go. “Come on. Let’s have a great night.”
* * *
I walked out to the floor without her to see who we were getting stuck with tonight.
“Meaty—is there any other possible assignment?” Gina and I were with Winter. Again.
My charge nurse shifted behind the desk to give me a look. “Charles gets the daytimers, you two get the weres. It’s only for two more nights, Spence. Suck it up.”
I muttered, “Fine.”
I braced myself to go around the corner and see Lucas there—but he had to fight again tonight. Of course. I peeked around, and for once there were no visitors. None at all. I felt myself relax, and Gina joined me for report.
Everything we were doing now for Winter was entirely for show. Either the moon would heal him—right down to his cavities, apparently—or it wouldn’t. I checked orders with Gina and co-signed all the changes. We didn’t bother to use the rifle anymore, not even when she was near. The Domitor was turned off—if the moon was going to work, we didn’t want to prevent his change—but there was nothing frightening about him now. The bleed in his brain had taken care of that.
* * *
At three A.M. Gina was on break in the extra corral next door, and I was reading a book outside Winter’s room. Things were peaceful. I should have known it wouldn’t last.
“Incoming, Edie!” Meaty shouted from around the bend. I put my book down and tried to look official.
Lucas came around the bend, wearing his hoodie again, looking rough, smelling like sweat. He seemed bigger than he had last night, and he was breathing hard. When he saw me he stopped, his face hard to read. “I just want to talk to the old man.”
“Okay.” I pushed my desk out of the way and let him go inside. Technically, he should have put isolation gear on, and technically I shouldn’t have let him go in alone. I stood to hover near the door where I could see them both.
Lucas went over to Winter’s bedside, staring down at the king in repose. “No wonder my father hated you, Uncle. He knew he’d never feel like this.” He touched his own chest. “I can feel their hearts, beating inside me. This is what it feels like to lead a pack.” He moved his hand to Winter’s chest, and I took another step inside the door. “I can feel it coming—the moon has chosen me.”
“Lucas—”
He looked over to me, and the shadows in the room made his eyes glow copper, like an animal’s in the night. “Don’t worry. I won’t hurt him. He’s already as good as dead.”
He patted Winter’s chest again and came back toward the door. Instead of passing me, he grabbed my shoulders and spun me sideways to press me against the room’s wall, pinning me there. To call for help would be humiliating at best, injurious at worst. I remembered Charles’s story about weres saying they didn’t know their own strength afterward, and completely believed him.
I squeaked out, “How were the fights?” like a normal conversation with him would be possible now.
His face an inch away from mine, he said, “Easy.”
He kissed me like he owned me. My head was pressed against the wall behind me, and his tongue ran deep inside my mouth. He only pulled back to tease, his hot breath gentle on my lips, before kissing me again.
Half of me wanted to leap outside my skin and run away, or scream. The other half wanted everything else from him, here, now, forget propriety, forget the disgusting hospital floor.
He planted his hand against my mouth so I couldn’t scream, and licked up the side of my face. His other hand trailed down my body outside my thin cotton scrubs, stroking my breast, diving between my legs.