My heart soars and I shift back to man and wrap my arms around her, too.
I stand, lifting her. She wraps her legs around my waist and I take her back inside.
I take her to the bed and lay down and hold her, burying my face into her neck, inhaling the scent of my Ivy. She’s mine.
All mine.
She forgives me? Does she?
“Why did you stop me?”
“Don’t go,” she whispers and then her lips find mine. “Please don’t go.”
“I won’t. Never.” I kiss her with everything I have.
“I love you,” I say.
She nods. “I love you, Tyson.”
My wolf wants to leap into the air, feels like it can leap over the sun.
“I’ve never said that to any guy before, Ty,” she tells me.
“Good,” I say, breathing her in. “I love that.”
I turn her to her back and caress her face. “I can’t promise I won’t ever fuck up again. I wish I could make that promise. I don’t know social rules very well. I don’t have control over that monster in me. But I’ll do my very best to always put you first. To try to teach it to put you first. But, if I screw up again…”
“Shh. Make love to me.” She pulls my head forward to kiss me.
“Because you forgive me or because you’re in heat?”
“Because… fuck me,” she orders.
I smile.
“Okay, little boss,” I whisper, and I peel her pants down to her ankles and then throw her ankles over my shoulders. The pants are still attached to her and serve as an excellent handle. I find my way inside her. She feels like heaven. She feels like mine.
***
I’m drifting off to sleep, playing with the rope of hair at the back of her head. Her sweet voice rouses me.
“Ty?”
“Yes?”
“Everything in me is telling me it’s you. For me. I’ve always had a bad habit of ignoring my instincts. I’m not gonna do that this time. That’s why I stopped you from going.”
I squeeze her. “Good.”
53
Ivy
I wake up and have the oddest, queasiest sensation. I think I’m going to puke.
Please don’t tell me I’m pregnant.
Please don’t tell me that his super alpha sperm made me drop an egg despite my birth control pills.
Oh God. Will our babies be puppies? Will they be born as people or wolves? I feel so hot and gross.
I roll off Ty and stagger toward the bathroom. I grip the doorframe for support and hear him call my name.
“I feel so sick,” I tell him, but then abruptly ralph all over the floor by the doorway. And then my legs give out.
Tyson catches me.
54
Tyson
“Her skin is burning hot. Burning. I don’t know why? She threw up. She’s very sick. What do I do?”
“Bring her here, Tyson. Get her here as fast as you can to my clinic.”
I wrap her in the quilt from my bed, though I don’t know if that’s a good idea, because she’s so hot yet she told me she was cold, so I did what I could only think to do. Wrap her in a blanket. I drive like a maniac with her slumped against me, skin hot, face pale.
I don’t know what the fuck is wrong with her.
She forgave me and then got sick.
Why?
Why?
***
The clinic is crawling with people who are here to lend support, but I don’t need that. I just want to know Ivy is going to be fine.
I yelled at my mother and I felt bad. She couldn’t make Ivy’s temperature go down. I didn’t mean to yell, but I’m terrified that she’s going to die. I know by Catrina Savage’s face that Ivy’s temperature should not be so high.
Riley, Grey, Joel, Jase, and Linc have all been here, all of them putting their hand on my shoulder or my back, all of them looking deep into my eyes and showing me that they feel my pain.
They don’t. Maybe Riley does. The rest of them don’t.
They haven’t feared loss like this. And I hope they never fucking do.
Cat has put her body on ice, given her many medications to take the fever down, wiped her body down with another liquid, and set up a needle with fluids for Ivy since she threw up three more times since we got here.
***
It’s later. I’m aware suddenly that it’s only me, my mother, and Ivy here. I sit up and rub my eyes.
“Her fever is down a bit, Tyson,” my mother says. “I’ve sent everyone home. We’ll just keep an eye. If it spikes again, we’ll have her airlifted to a city hospital.”
“No!”
“Yes. If we can’t control it, they’ll have more tools at their disposal.”
“Fuck.”
She reads the machine she’s pointed at Ivy’s forehead. “Her temperature is down a bit, so it’s possible it’s getting better. I’ve sent her bloodwork with a rush.”
“Is it my child that’s hurting her? Did I get her preg –”