His Moon

XV | Blood

"No, he passed out," Kaia said, her tears starting to dry. It was a mixture of necessity--Kaia couldn't help Cole if she was sobbing and shaking--and something else. For some reason, having Cole here made all the difference. He did more than carry Kaleb for her. He could drive. He knew what to do. Kaia wasn't alone in this.

"Open the door," Cole ordered. Kaia ran ahead and popped the SUV's back door open. "What Pack is it?" Cole asked, grunting and readjusting Kaleb's body.

"Um, the Prowlers," Kaia said, fighting to steady her hands. She leaped into the back of the SUV and slammed the seats down with a little more force than was necessary to make space. She helped Cole put Kaleb in the body of the car, pulling her wolf up by his arms into the big empty space she'd created.

She was so focused that she barely heard Cole's reaction, a loud, "Dad shot the Alpha of Whispers!?" The Prowlers were more important than Kaia had thought, especially their Alpha if his special title was an indicator. "Jesus Christ, what the hell was he thinking? The other's won't--"

Cole slammed the door shut even as he continued to talk to himself. There was a moment of silence as Cole rounded the car. Kaia pulled Kaleb closer to her, letting him lean against her chest. She consoled herself by pressing her hand to Kaleb's chest; his heartbeat might as well have been a hummingbird's, but it meant that he was still alive and Kaia had never cherished anything in the world as deeply. "Kaleb, I promised not to leave you, remember?" Kaia whispered to him, stroking the side of his damp face, "You've got to do the same, ok? Or I'll--"

"Kaia, he's a wolf, so it'll take more than a bullet to kill him," Cole interrupted as he started the car, turning to back out of the driveway. He looked at her, his eyes serious as he angrily jerked his head to get some stray curls out of his eyes. Kaia had a feeling that Cole understood what was going on in her head, the depth of the fear that clutched her heart. "Wolves are stronger than humans."

As if on cue, Kaleb started seizing again. They tore down the road, breaking all sorts of road laws, no doubt. "No, it's more. It's--" Kaia fought to keep Kaleb still. She'd read that seizures cause all sorts of damage. Kaia could only watch, assuming that trying to hold him down might hurt him more. It was all she could do. 

"Shit, you're right," Cole said in realization, "Dad probably shot him with a wolfsbane bullet. That's probably why he asked to go to his Mansion." Cole uttered a string of curses and pressed harder on the accelerator. 

Kaia couldn't ask what that meant until Kaleb stopped seizing again and she could think. "What?"

"Wolfsbane," Cole explained, "Dad coats his bullets in the stuff. A Hunter thing, in case worse comes to worse."

"What does it mean?" Kaia asked. What does it mean for Kaleb? For us? Her breath stilled as she waited for an answer. She felt like someone was lifting her out of her body, pulling and tugging her soul to the point that she was stretched thin, about to snap out of her shell.

Cole took too long to answer, and she knew that it wasn't good news. Kaia wasn't an idiot. She could reason out the truth like smoothing a crease, everything becomes clear. Wolfsbane must have been like poison to lycanthrope. It was what was making Kaleb seize. The hatred was back full force now. It was her dad, her dad that had done this, had not only shot Kaleb but had poisoned him. "It's not good," Cole said, his voice quiet.

Wait. A realization sunk into Kaia's mind. If she had never insisted on seeing her dad, none of this would have happened. He wouldn't have had a chance to shoot Kaleb. Kaia felt guilt like a blow to her stomach. The first impact disintegrated into intense nausea. Kaia swallowed, burying her nose in Kaleb's hair and inhaling. The familiar smell gave her what comfort she could get, diminishing the eerie floating feeling that she had.