(Caroline's POV)
"No! I've been practicing! How did you beat me again?" Nick whined. I laughed and shrugged. We were at the Porter house waiting on dinner. I'd already made my portions and had them set out on the table. To pass the time, I decided to whoop the guys at videogames. They never stood a chance. It was a few days after Keegan marked me. Four days to be exact. It was also Thanksgiving. We'd decided to have dinner at the Porter's house since they had more room and Danny had never met them before. He was coming over for dinner a little later with Preston. The bite mark was starting to heal and the skin around the bite was finally green. It'd left a nasty bruise at first. And being as it was Thanksgiving break; there was no school or volleyball practice to worry about. I just had to keep Danny from finding out; which was surprising easy.
I played Gregg on Fifa next. Looks like he'd been practicing too, but he just wasn't as good as me. It started to feel hot. I shed my light sweater, leaving me in my tank top. I'd had a hot flash before two days ago. I was hoping this would pass like the last one. By the time I finished playing, Gregg won. I was sweating bullets and feeling a little out of it. The room was tilting.
"Are you okay?" Gregg asked as he turned to look at me as he was sitting on the floor and I was sitting on the couch. Keegan was down visiting with his dad. My heart hammered as I panted. I leaned over and groaned. It was too hot.
"What happened?" I heard Keegan's voice. I was too weak to even look at him.
"I don't know. We were playing and she just... I don't know," Gregg tried to explain. I leaned over so I was lying on my side with my feet curled up. I felt Keegan's hand on my forehead as he pushed my very damp hair out of my face.
"Caroline... Caroline, open your eyes please," he whispered. I did as he asked. I opened my eyes into slits. I couldn't remember anything beyond Gregg winning and me getting very hot. It was still hot in here. I took a deep breath and sat up as Keegan handed me a bottle of water. I drank it gratefully, almost finishing the entire thing. I sighed and handed it back to him. I still felt hot, but it was a little better.
"I'm fine," I tried to assure them. They were all looking at me worried. There was a moment of silence before the doorbell broke through it.
"I'll get it," Trevor muttered.
"Wow, nice place," I heard my brother's voice. I smiled and looked towards the door. I stood and started making my way over to him. Before I got to him though, black dots swam in my vision. I saw everything go sideways before I completely blacked out.
~
(Keegan's POV)
Something was wrong. Something was very wrong and I knew it, but Caroline dismissed it like she always does when she's trying to hide something from me. Danny arriving took everyone's attention off of Caroline for a moment, including Caroline's. She was looking a little pale but she smiled and stood to greet him. She mumbled his name before she started falling. I quickly caught her before she hit the ground. I scooped her up in my arms bridal style and looked worriedly over her pale, sweating body. Her brother looked between us confused.
"What happened?" he asked confused. My frantic eyes met his.
"I don't know," I answered truthfully. I could feel the guys shuffling restlessly and uncomfortably behind me as they didn't know what to do. Hell, I didn't know what to do. I never knew what to do when Caroline got hurt; I always freaked out instead. I was a poor excuse for a boyfriend. Hell, I was a poor excuse for an Alpha. "Mom!" I yelled. She came out all smiles when she saw Danny. She held out a hand to him.
"Hi, I'm Lena; Keegan's mother," she introduced herself warmly, not feeling the tension in the air or seeing Caroline's limp body in my arms.
"Danny," he said grimly, shaking her hand with his free one. His other arm was holding Preston. His eyes flickered over to me and my mom finally turned around.
"My heavens! Keegan, why are you just standing there?!" she yelled at me.
"I don't know what to do!" I yelled back frantically. I was getting more and more anxious and time passed. My mom sighed and rolled her eyes, muttering something about my brain switching off before she looked at me again.
"Get her to the infirmary downstairs," she instructed. "Tell Dr. Thomas what happened. He's the one on duty right now," she said.
"A hospital... downstairs?" Danny asked. That was exactly what Caroline said when she found out. My worried eyes flickered down to her and she muttered something and rested her head against my shoulder, clutching to my shirt like Preston would have. I turned and started walking towards the kitchen.
"You can come with us," I threw over my shoulder. I heard the shuffling of Danny's feet behind me as I pulled the door open and walked down the stairs. Dr. Thomas met us in the hallway in front of a room. He motioned us inside. I walked in quickly and set her down on the hospital bed.
"Ninny?" Preston said softly, looking at her. He looked like he was about to cry. Hell, I was about to cry. Caroline stirred a bit on the bed. I pushed her damp hair out of her face. Danny sat in one of the visiting chairs as he looked around amazed. At this point, I didn't care if everything was exposed to him. I just wanted Caroline to be okay. Dr. Thomas came back and set her up on an IV of fluids. He put a cold towel on her head and checked her vitals, hooking her up to a monitor. The machine came to life as it started beeping to match her heartbeats. Dr. Thomas pushed lightly on her stomach. She yelled out in pain as he pushed on her side where I marked her. My eyes widened as he lifted her shirt lightly, exposing the bandage. He undid the bandage to reveal a very purple area. Her dark veins were visible on her pale skin. The teeth marks were raised slightly. Dr. Thomas sighed before replacing the bandage.
"Mr. Porter, could I speak with you alone for a moment?" he asked knowingly. My eyes flickered to Danny, who was staring at his sister. When he realized that we were looking at him, he stood quickly.
"I'll be upstairs," he muttered before he hurried off. Dr. Thomas waited until we heard the door at the top of the stairs close before he looked back to me.
"You marked her? Are you crazy? She's human!" he hissed at me. I sighed and hunched over a little bit.
"She's my mate and I love her," I said desperately.
"You poisoned her," he countered quietly. My eyes went to her sleeping form.
"Can you fix it?" I asked. He sighed before he nodded.
"Her human blood is too weak to accept your marking. If left untreated, it could kill her. I figure, we can give her a little of your blood; maybe a pint or so in a blood transfusion. Your blood could ease the process, heal up that scar and counteract the poisoning. It may or may not work. We've never encountered anything like this before," he guessed. I nodded quickly.
"Anything, just... save her, please," I begged. Dr. Thomas looked over my face before he sighed.
"I need to get her blood type first and see if you are a match," he said. After running the proper tests, I was a match. Dr. Thomas got a pint of my blood and switched out the bag of fluids with the bag of my blood. "Now just give it a little time. She probably won't wake up for a few hours," he informed me.
"Please... you can't tell anyone," I begged him. He hesitated before he nodded grimly. I could tell he thought it was a bad idea, but he agreed anyway. I thanked him and sighed before I went to see my dad again. He looked at me worried.
"Is Caroline okay?" he asked. I hesitated.
"She will be," I answered softly. As I stood there, a comfortable silence fell over the room. I enjoyed it while it lasted.
"You marked her," my dad practically whispered. "And it poisoned her?" he continued. I could tell he was curious. No one of our kind had ever mated with a human before so everything about my relationship with Caroline was new. There wasn't a handbook for these things like there is for the latter. I sighed and shook my head.
"I just... I just want to be with her dad. She's quickly become my world," I admitted. "I don't know what I would do if..." I trailed off, not even wanting to finish that sentence. My throat choked up and I swallowed roughly.
"I know son. She's quickly wrapped all of us around her dainty fingers," my dad said with a small smile. We were both silent as we hear her start to stir. "Go to her," my dad said softly. I nodded once before I rushed back to her room. I held her free hand in mine just as she let out a deep breath and turned her head to the other side.
"Keegan," she muttered. I smiled lovingly at her. I loved it when she said my name in her sleep. I peeled the bandage away and looked at my bite mark. Caroline and I had taken the second step to mating. The council couldn't know about this. If they knew I went against them, there's no telling what they would do to me or Caroline. They weren't above or past doing things the old fashioned way. The thought sent a shiver down my spine. I wouldn't let that happen. No one could know until our mating process was complete. I knew what I had to do now. I had to turn Caroline. It hadn't been done for centuries because of how dangerous the whole thing was, but every one that survived it turned out a pure white wolf. There weren't any more white wolves in existence. They signified a newly born wolf, pure in all their ways. The reason a lot of people didn't survive the change, according to history, was because their heart had to be pure going into it. If there was any deceit in their intentions for changing, the process would only kill them. Others died because they weren't strong enough to survive the change. Eventually, we started giving birth to wolves instead of making them. We didn't have a population problem or anything; it was just that too many people were dying because of it.
Waiting for Caroline to wake up brought the most grueling hours I'd ever lived through. My leg bounced nervously. Finally, she stirred and groaned as her eyes blinked open I let out a breath of relief and stood to kiss her head.
"Oh God, Caroline," I breathed in relief as I held her gently. She looked at me confused.
"What happened?" she asked hoarsely. My face fell and I dropped my eyes to her white bed sheets.
"I-I... your mark... my mark poisoned you," I practically whispered. Her hand reached up and touched my cheek.
"Don't do that... don't regret anything," she said hoarsely. I poured her a glass of water and handed it to her. She drank it gratefully.
"I'm so sorry," I whispered. She shook her head and set her glass down.
"Keegan, I feel fine. I just want to go home," she said. He looked towards the hallway before he nodded.
"I'll get you out without anyone even realizing you're gone," I smirked trying to lighten the mood. Once her transfusion was complete, Dr. Thomas suggested that we finish the mating process before my blood wears out of her system just in case we run into any other hiccups. I sighed and rubbed my hands along the front of my jeans.
It was now or never.
~