Page 52 of Mate

The girl was small. He’d have put her around three, but the Humans said she was older than that. At the time he knew little of children and nothing of Humans, and so he believed them.

She clung to him, her little arms skeletal around his neck. Her scent had a strident, chemical note, as though she had been given something that would keep her docile. “It’s what they did with the other kids, too,” the social worker told him grimly.

The child was asleep in his arms, and as he handed her over, he wondered, Is all of this a mistake? But when the Human took her, he noticed that his hands had stained the girl’s shirt a bright green.

A FTER A LIFETIME SPENT DISSECTING HIS PARENTS’ DECISIONS , Koen was bound not to replicate their mistakes. I blame the fever and the drugs for not having realized it earlier, but it all starts making sense when several large wolves jump into the room.

Through the windows.

The closed windows.

I count four, then everything turns into pandemonium. Rainfalls of shattered glass. Toppled furniture. Screams and growls and the bone-snapping sounds of the shift. It happens so quickly, when a strong arm loops around my waist, my first reaction is to strike back.

Then I realize who I just hit, and gasp. “Sorry!”

“Fucking sharp elbows,” Koen mutters. Jess and another of the guards who brought him in are lying at his feet. The third is outside, being chased by a rust-colored wolf. Jorma.

“Where did Irene go?” he asks the only cult Were who hasn’t shifted. “Don’t make me repeat myself. Where the fuck did— ”

“I don’t know! I don’t know!”

Koen mutters something about a waste of space and tucks me behind him. “Saul! Here!” A brown wolf quickly defeats his gray opponent, then turns to us. He leaps over Jess’s unconscious body and positions himself next to me, snarling at no one in particular. “Do not leave her side.”

“What— Koen?” I grip his wrist. “Where are you going?”

“To find Irene.”

No , I nearly protest. But why? “If you find Human members, please don’t— ”

“Serena.” His forehead briefly touches me. “We do not hurt Humans if we can help it.” Our eyes meet for a split second. I nod. Koen does, too. I feel him take my hand and slip something in it— the pink knife.

A second later, his glossy black fur is in the thick of the fight. He snaps his jaw around the idiot who tries to stop him, then chases Irene’s scent. I don’t take my eyes off him until I hear a sob behind me.

I race to the living room, finding Nele and her family huddled together in a corner with two Human boys. When I rush to kneel in front of her, they all scream in sheer terror.

“It’s just me. Nele, we were together earlier.

Alone. I wouldn’t hurt you, would I?” I make a show of putting the knife down.

Lift my hands. “It’s okay. They’re not here for you.

Saul, can you please look less like you’re craving steak?

Thanks.” It breaks my heart, the way Nele glances up at me, eyes brimming with tears and panic.

Was it like this for me, too? In that closet?

Did Fiona push me in there and tell me that it was going to be okay?

“Nele, you and your family will be okay, I swear.” Some of the tension leaves her body. “Just stay out of the Weres’ way.”

“They’re going to kill us,” her mother says. “They are here to— ”

“They only came here to take me back.”

“How can you believe that? You heard what he said— they killed your mother.”

I clench my teeth. “Am I not your prophet’s daughter, too?” Their eyes widen, and I continue, “Trust me.” That seems to do it. They look slightly less like they expect to have their livers chomped on.

“What about Irene?” Nele asks, weakly.

“She’s gone.” Saving her own ass.

“Are they going to . . . to hurt her?”

“I don’t know.” Saul makes a barking noise. “Maybe.”

“But she’s your only family.”

I snort. “You saw that tall guy out there?”

She nods.

“He’s more my family than— ”

“Serena!” Amanda runs inside the room, naked, covered in blood and other unidentifiable fluids that should never be found outside a body.

“Are you okay?” I frantically inspect her limbs.

“Yes.” She grins. Saul bumps her hip with his muzzle, looking just as worried. “Come on, you guys. This shit ain’t mine. Serena, are you okay?”

“Is the fight out there— ” The cabin has gone quiet. “Are they . . . ?”

“Yup. And the others went after Irene and another Were who escaped. Serena, we were so fucking worried about you. Shit, you’re bleeding. But it’s just a graze. Let me make sure you didn’t break anything.” She gently presses against my jawbone— and instantly pulls back.

“Serena.”

“What?”

Her hand touches my forehead. I’m seized by the sudden temptation to break her wrist. “Did they give you something? You’re burning up.”

“I’m okay.”

“You’re not okay.”

“I am. Just, could you . . . not touch me?”

“What?” She examines my face. I do feel like I’m boiling.

“My skin. Could you please not— ”

“What the fuck?”

Touch me.

“Serena? Serena!”

And that, as they say, is that.

WHEN I OPEN MY EYES AGAIN, IT’S DARK. THE MIDLEVEL HEADACHE that has been my loyal golden retriever companion is finally gone. In its stead, a dragon-worthy migraine pummels at my temples, clear proof that I’m dead and my corpse was sold to med students for skull-trepanning practice.

And yet.

If I were waking up in any other angle of the observable universe, I’d be rolling off the bed and lurching toward the toilet, ready to vomit my stomach lining.

But whoever brought me here had the good foresight to deposit me in the only place where I’m not constantly surrounded by hostile, belly-churning stimuli.

Koen’s room.

The scent of him has a morphine-like effect on me. I bury my face in the pillow, take several deep, lung-filling breaths, and use the bathroom. On my way to the living room, I make a pit stop on the bed, inhale a few more times, and walk down the hallway feeling like new.

I expect— no, I want to find Koen alone . Instead, I count six more people, maxing out every sittable surface: his three closest seconds, Sem and Layla, and Karolina.

I stand in the doorway, and a crystal-clear thought seeps through the atoms that make my being: How dare they be here?

It’s rapidly followed by: I’m going to kill them.

What? No. I’m not. I take a preventative step back.

Hold on to the wall and remind myself that I do not want any of these people to be dead.

In fact, I’m invested in them staying alive.

But my instinct tells me that they should go away, stop invading my space, spreading their scents, their too loud voices, and their bodies in our—

This must be some new Heat bullshit. I firmly shove it back where it came from and interrupt the ongoing conversations to ask, “Did you find Irene?”

Seven pairs of eyes rocket to me. Six pairs of legs stand and come fuss around me, asking how I’m doing, telling me that I was out for hours, attempting to feel my temperature.

My father was directly responsible for the deaths of their friends and family, and yet here they are.

Clearly not wishing ill on me. The thought forms a lump in my throat.

I ignore it and focus on Koen, who’s unimpressed with me. He sits on a chair someone brought in from the porch, legs spread wide, elbow folded atop the back, and orders the others in his most dispassionate tone, “Get the fuck away from her.”

A bunch of Oh, right. My bad . Amanda points me at the spot she vacated on the couch.

“I forgot about the whole, um, hypersensitivity thing.” I take a seat, and they all gawk at me as though I may have forgotten how to perform the complex enterprise of bending my knees.

It’s offensive, how wonderstruck they are when my butt touches the cushion.

Except for Koen, who just exudes a mildly irritated aura.

“You guys, I’m fine.”

“Still, I’d like to look you over,” Layla says. “I brought my equipment.”

Thank God it’s injection time. I cannot wait to be rid of these Heat symptoms. “Yes. But first— ”

“No, we did not find Irene,” Koen interrupts me.

“We were able to track her scent for a few miles, but the rain erased her trail. There were eight other Weres in the cabin. Four are dead. Jess is injured and has not regained consciousness yet. Another Were escaped, and we captured the remaining ones, who have been questioned but don’t appear to be sharers.

We’ve interviewed everyone who has had prolonged contact with Jess, as well as the family who raised her, and they’re all shocked by her ties to the cult.

The six Humans are now in Northwest territory and under surveillance, because ”— he continues, noticing my frown— “Irene left. We’re not sure whether they are self-sufficient or, even worse, whether Irene will decide that they know too much and have them killed.

We have contacted the Human authorities.

In the meantime, they are not our captives, but our guests.

They are terrified but unharmed. This is the gist of it, but if you’d like to know more, there is the report”— he glances at Jorma, who appears pleased with himself— “that I was asked to turn in.”

“It’s not all of them. The cult, I mean. They weren’t all in that cabin. They told me that there are— ”

“Over fifty of them, yes. We are devoting considerable manpower to tracking the others. Anything else you’d like to know before you allow Layla to make sure that you’re not fucking dying?” The last few words are strained. I really don’t want to make him snap, but.

“Could you— is anyone going to be checking on them? The Humans, I mean.”

“Me,” Amanda says.

“When you go, could you give Nele a way to contact me?”

“Who?”

“The youngest Human girl. Long auburn hair, freckles? If she needs anything . . .”

Amanda glances at Koen, who nods. “I will,” she says.

“Thanks, Amanda, I really appreciate it. Are you okay, by the way? Was anything— ”

“Serena,” Koen grunts. “I swear to fucking— ”