Page 91 of Protected Promise

I knocked again feeling a little anxious and a lot impatient.

The door swung open and Terrence opened the door. His hair was thinner than I remembered from the last time I saw him and snowy white in stark contrast against his brown skin.

“Landon! Come on in, my boy, and tell me what is happening.”

My heart sank. I knew he was getting older, but we had just spoken the night before.

“Terrence, we talked about this. I need a liquid dissected.”

He grinned and laughed. “I know that, my boy. I meant what is going on with you. I have not seen you for quite some time, but I can sense that you are very anxious. Perhaps I should get things started and then we can catch up while we wait.”

I sighed in relief. “I would be most grateful for that.”

I handed him the container and he observed it closely, rolling it around in the jar. Next, he removed the lid and sniffed it. The wrinkles on his face deepened and his easy-going expression faded into obvious concern.

“Where did you get this?” he asked.

“My, uh, wife,” I wasn’t exactly sure what to call Kaitlyn for him to understand fully how much she meant to me. “She was injured and someone passing through offered help in the form of this drink.”

His face softened. “You took a mate?”

I was shocked by his use of mate. I had always suspected he knew more than he should. I just didn’t know how to brooch the subject without giving things away if he didn’t already know.

“Yes, I did,” I confessed.

“She makes you happy?”

“Very.”

“And you love her?”

“I do.”

“And she loves you?”

I grinned. “Yes, she does.”

“That’s good, good. I can see your happiness.”

“You made a face when you smelled this liquid. Why?” I asked.

“Make yourself comfortable and I’ll run a few quick tests. I’ll only be a minute.”

“But you think there’s something wrong, don’t you?”

“Patience, my boy, patience.”

He took it back to another room. I stayed and chose a seat on the couch after a bit of pacing. I had a bad feeling about it. I hadn’t really listened as Clover rattled off the ingredient list, but if Kaitlyn was right and she’d said hemlock, then I knew I couldn’t just ignore it. That would mean she had made a direct threat to my mate.

The worst part was I knew Kaitlyn was right. If it wasn’t hemlock, then it was something, because her symptoms were already showing signs of improvement this morning after only two missed drinks. I suspected Clover had noticed too. She’d seemed edgier than usual when she came to see Kaitlyn.

I had wanted to keep her miraculous recovery under wraps, but Abby had stopped in to check on her first thing this morning and was blown away by her improvements. Before I could even think to stop her, she had left and told everyone. By the time I made it down to the kitchen for breakfast, the whole Pack was abuzz with the good news of Kaitlyn’s recovery progress.

I hadn’t even yet begun to imagine what I was going to do about the situation. I had never faced such a thing before. Times like this, I wish my father were still alive to counsel me.

As I thought about it, Kyle Westin popped into my head.

I listened down the hall and could hear Terrence busily working so I took out my phone and dialed Kyle’s number.