Page 6

Chapter 6

W illa made it to Adler’s apartment building in record time, arriving just as the ambulance people had carried Emma out the front door. Mil was nibbling on a slice of toast, buttered and with strawberry jam. Without a doubt, she could follow the sounds from her grandma’s apartment and the hallway outside just as well as Adler could. They shared the werewolf hearing after all, not as acute maybe as that of a vampire, but still decent enough for the echoey stairwell outside.

The alpha walked into Adler’s place through his still open front door, exuding calm. When Adler would have wanted to present his mate to Willa ordinarily, he now stepped aside, cast his gaze to the kitchen floor, and let Willa take over. Hoped that she would, in fact.

“This sucks,” Willa said. “But we’re going to help you through it, Milea.”

The little wolf swallowed the tiny bite of toast she’d eaten, and her eyes filled with tears when she met the alpha’s gaze.

“What if Grandma—”

Willa pulled one of Adler’s kitchen chairs up to Mil until the two of them were sitting closely, as if they were sharing secrets.

“Let’s think about the now and not the if, okay? Look, you got your grandma help, and now she’s being taken to the hospital. That’s good. You did very good. I’m proud of you.”

Willa put her hand on Mil’s head, an alpha affirming a pack member. She looked at Adler.

Without missing a beat, he said, “You did great, kiddo.”

Willa seemed satisfied. Gordon joined them then, uncomfortable if the vampire’s subdued demeanor was any indication. He searched for Adler’s touch, or that’s how Adler saw it when his mate reached for him, the gesture almost shy.

Adler was anything but, and he put an arm around Gordon, unable to stop himself from showing his mate off. “Thank you for helping, sweetheart.”

Gordon looked up, a strand of blue hair brushing against his cheek. “I barely did anything.”

“Nonsense.” Willa turned in her chair, shifting her focus from Mil to them. “What can you tell us about her condition?”

Gordon was uncomfortable, Adler didn’t need the connection that came with their mate bite to know this. He looked at little Mil, and Adler could only imagine the similarities to the sister Gordon had lost, those similarities the vampire saw in the wolf child.

But Gordon did answer the alpha’s question. “The Forum Hospital is the best place for her to be now. They’re going to run diagnostics first—that will tell us a lot more. But she is going to have to be hospitalized for a while.”

Willa rubbed the bridge of her nose. “Of course. Gordon, would you keep Milea here company for a moment while I talk with my second?”

Gordon was taken aback, but then Adler put his hand on his mate’s back, sharing strength, and Gordon nodded. “Of course.”

Willa headed over to the living room where Adler kept the carved wolf she had done for him, a hunk of wood transformed into hair and fur and eyes sharp as the moon. From here, they had half a view of the kitchen still without needing to worry about Milea overhearing. Not true for Gordon of course who would have an easy time picking out what they were saying.

The alpha wants it that way, Adler thought.

Willa looked him over. “So obviously, I’d be taking custody, because we are not pulling The Forum’s Child Protective Unit into this.”

Adler nodded. “I can go and take Mil to pack a bag and—”

Willa clicked her tongue. “Oh, don’t be ridiculous, Adler. I am not dragging Milea off to my place. You’re much better suited to take temporary custody than I am. She knows you, she trusts you, and she likes your recently blue-haired, vampiric mate whom I just saw cutting off the crusts of a sandwich for a little wolf as if we weren’t born with teeth.” Across from them in the kitchen, Gordon flinched, but the hold on the knife he was using to remove said crusts never faltered, and he just kept going, talking softly to the pup. Willa smiled. “Not a sight I’d ever thought I’d see.”

Adler didn’t even know where to begin. “But—” We are newly mated, and my mate deserves my full attention and care, and we both have jobs, and Gordon is sensitive about the mate bond, and—

Willa stopped his objections before he could form them into words with a raised palm, such a little gesture yet firm from an alpha. “Legally, it’s just an issue of filling out a form, and it’s what’s best for Milea at the moment. I’m sure your mate will understand.”

“But—” Adler tried again.

“I am sure the two of you will cope. Again, I saw your sweet mate maltreat perfectly good bread just now.”

Adler’s jaw dropped. He needed to make the alpha understand that he was not suited for this, and Gordon—no matter what he’d done to sliced wheat products in the past ten minutes—was more used to a scalpel and black humor than to telling bedtime stories to a young wolf who’d just lost everything, not that Adler was in any way better caretaker material at all. Willa had to see that.

“But, Willa, I can’t!”

“I hear that’s the first thought every half-decent parent has,” she said, and Adler could feel the panic flooding in. “It will be temporary. You will be fine.”

“But really, I mean, I can’t!” She had to understand that , surely.

Willa sighed and petted his shoulder with lacking gentleness. “Are you okay telling Milea she’ll stay with you and Gordon for the time being, or do you need me for that?” Her tone of voice indicated that she would be displeased if he told her he needed his alpha to hold his hand, but in fact Adler wasn’t even sure how they’d gotten to this point in the conversation.

And not just that, not too long ago, Maxim had joked about how a vampire, such as Gordon, mated to a werewolf high in the ranks, such as Adler, would be expected to play nursemaid to the pups, and that was really not the case. Mostly. It couldn’t be now, not so soon after they had just become what they were.

After all, Adler was not fit to take care of a child. “Willa, I can’t.”

“My dear Adler, I hear you, but I suggest you wolf up, because can’t isn’t an option right now.” She lifted her chin, indicating the kitchen. “That young wolf in there needs you, and if we fall back on can’t , packs would soon stop existing, and we’d all break apart and lose ourselves in solitude.”

She’d just lectured him. Willa had just alpha-slam-lectured Adler, and Adler knew from experience that this was the time to drop his gaze—which he did—and do as he’d been told. Which he would do, but really, he shouldn’t be, because he wasn’t fit, and shouldn’t Gordon have a part in this conversation? But of course, if Gordon were a wolf, he’d not be asked either, and a part of Adler was happy to see Willa treated his mate like one of her own, except—

Adler bit his lip.

Willa groaned. “Obviously, I’ll keep an eye on the kid, but I have full confidence in you. There have been days in the past when that surprised me, Adler, but today isn’t one of those days. You can do this. Now, go over there, and tell Milea she’ll stay with you for a little while, just until her gran gets better.”

“Yes, alpha,” Adler said, eyes on the ground and stomach turning at the thought of Mil being alone and worried, of Mil finding the courage to knock on his door in her pajamas. After all, it had taken the little wolf till noon to come to Adler’s door, and she would have woken for school much earlier. Hours earlier.

Fear can stun you. It’s why the pack is there to run to you if you freeze.

Adler would protect the little wolf. He just hoped Gordon was okay with that.