“Your wolf surged? What do you mean?”
“Yeah. I dunno, Dad it was odd. You know my wolf and I have been losing connection over the last few months, and then suddenly, it was like he’d been hit with a lightning bolt or something because he was just… there. I don’t ever remember him being that strong, even before I got sick.”
Sam stepped around the curtain, making Aaron realize he hadn’t even noticed that he was in the larger clinic bay and that the privacy curtain was drawn.
“How’s your wolf feeling now?” he asked as he jotted down notes on a tablet.
Aaron reached for his wolf and found him relaxed and alert. It was strange. He hadn’t felt his wolf in this way for a long time. “Um, he feels okay. Maybe not as apathetic as he has been.”
“Hmm, hmm. And you, how do you feel?”
“I feel okay?”
“You don’t seem sure about that.” Sam gave him a half grin. “Tell me what you’re feeling.”
Aaron did a top to toe inventory. “Bit of a headache, but nothing like I’ve been experiencing; body aching, but more like after a good workout, not the agonizing pain I’ve been in.”
“Good. That’s all good, Aaron,” Sam said.
A low moan echoed in the room, and Sam quickly turned away.
“Who’s that?” Aaron asked his mother.
“That’s Mr. Cavendish. Marshall. He passed out when you did and has yet to come round.”
“Sam? What’s wrong with him?” Aaron called out as a need to protect surged through him. The heart rate monitor sped up, and Sam poked his head around the curtain.
“Settle, Aaron. He’s fine. He’s just coming round.”
“Open the curtain. I need to see him.” Aaron pushed himself upright, and only his father’s firm hand on his shoulder stopped him from climbing off the bed.
“Son, stay there. Sam needs to help our guest.”
“Mom….” Aaron pleaded.
“Your father is right,” Anna said, but something in his face had her standing and pulling the curtain back.
“Dammit, Anna,” Sam cursed. “Marshall deserves his privacy.”
“Then why isn’t he in another room?” Aaron asked as he ran his eyes over the man in the other bed. He looked gaunt and pale; his dark brown hair mussed.
“Because every time we tried to separate you, your heart monitors went off the charts, and Marshall seized again,” Sam growled as he checked over Marshall.
“What?” Aaron didn’t understand what Sam was telling him. “Seized? I thought you said we’d both passed out.”
“You passed out. Marshall had a seizure,” Sam said as he watched his other patient.
“Where’s his friend?” Aaron asked, realizing that the blond man that had been holding onto Marshall wasn’t in the room. At the thought of how the other man had held onto Marshall, Aaron’s wolf gave a low growl, making Aaron jerk in surprise.
“Son, what’s wrong?” Vaughn asked.
“My… my wolf just growled. He hasn’t done that in months.”
“Actually, you growled just before everything happened in the family room,” Anna said.
“I did?”
“Yes, you did. I was about to admonish you for growling at our guests, but then you were both collapsing, and poor Marshall was seizing.”