Luc wobbled, and Brett caught him before he fell. The other wolf cursed then gave him a rueful look. “I need to be healed. I can’t be the voice of reason for you if I can’t stand on my own damn legs.”
Snorting, Brett lifted him into the bed. “What the hell makes you think you’re the voice of reason in this friendship?”
“Because every time I strike out, you sound like you again. You sound like the Alpha I’d bleed for, the wolf I’d follow into that fire.” Luc’s nostrils flared. “You really do like Colby.”
“Leave her out of this.” Command resonated through his words, and Luc bowed his head.
“All-righty, then.” He winced, then leaned into the pillows. “I don’t want my family to go. I don’t want them out there where we can’t protect them.”
As much as he wanted to offer, Luc had to say the words. He was too newly returned, too used to their friendship and frankly, so was Brett.
“Will you help me to help them?”
“Yes.” It wasn’t even a question for him. Grasping Luc’s shoulder, he met his gaze and trapped him. “You’re used to relying on yourself. You’re used to charging in…”
“Yeah, I think you could use some of that.”
“So do I, but not because you throw your weight around or challenge me for the pack.” He increased the pressure of his grip until the wince on Luc’s face grew more pained. “You’re here or you’re not. You swear to me, you follow me. You can make requests, you can ask me for help and you can even tell me how you feel but you do not give me orders. Are we clear?”
“Yes, Alpha.” His relief flooded him when Brett released his shoulder. “Will you let me help you by speaking frankly to you?”
“Do you know how to speak any other way?”
“No, not really.” They shared a rueful grin.
“Gillian,” Brett called, shaking his head at Luc. When she descended a few steps to check on them, she nodded with approval at Luc’s position on the bed. “How much longer till you can complete a speed heal?”
Instead of coming all the way down, she sat on the steps. “A speed heal will demand a lot from you, particularly because he’s so newly returned to the pack and I’m not actually a part of Hudson River.” The tether between him and Gillian had been reinforced during the debacle following Marco’s attack. With so many wolves down, she’d leaned on him and her own distant Alpha for power. They’d shared freely, but it left a tie to the wolf who belonged to Willow Bend. “Even if it didn’t demand so much, I’d be wary of it because it’s not needed. Speed healing can damage the body in other ways. Is it truly crucial that Luc be on his feet right now or can he afford to wait another few days? We’re making great progress.”
Luc growled, but it lacked any real heat. “I’m sick of being cooped up.”
“If I carry you upstairs and let you sit out in the sun, will you behave?” The offer included a glance at Gillian. Her faint nod approved the offer. Considering she was in charge of putting the wolf back together again, it was better to defer to her on this matter.
“Fuck yes.” The gratitude in the other man’s eyes humbled Brett. He’d be crawling the walls if he’d been caged by injury as long as Luc had been. “Think I can see Colby, too?”
Thwapping him the back of the head once, Brett said, “Keep it up, funny boy.”
Ten minutes later, he’d settled Luc out on the sun deck extending behind the house. The angle gave him a view of his place, but Luc wouldn’t be visible from the main windows. Face tilted to the sun, Luc sighed. “Okay, I can survive now.”
“You’re welcome.” Leaving him to enjoy the weather, he strode inside. Gillian sat in her kitchen with a cup of tea and a pot of stew slow cooking. She reached over and turned up the music without his asking.
“I talked to Emma,” she said in a low vocal which wouldn’t carry. “Then we did a conference call with all the healers we could get ahold of. The consensus is if she really is a wolf but not a wolf, she may be latent.”
Latent. “That’s a myth though.” Latents were the children of wolves, unable to turn or even aware of their beast, even if they gained some of the skills.
“So are people who turn into wolves, but we can both do that. Latents are like Omegas, damn rare. I couldn’t find any healer who has even dealt with one, but…based on what you described, it’s possible Colby is one.”
“What does it mean?” His knowledge in the area was sketchy.