33. Surprise

Through the joining, the link that opened up in their mind was like a door being flung wide open. They had been leaning into it, listening to each other through that barrier, and now that he had made the mark, his mind was a completely open book. His thoughts included. There was an immediate rush of concern for her. Thoughts of despair should his mistake kill her and beneath it, a deep satisfaction from his release. Her blood tasted sweet and sharp against his tongue, and he found it difficult to relinquish his grip on her shoulder.

Mikael did it slowly as he slipped his teeth from her flesh and licked them and his lips clean. Inside her, his shaft withered both from his orgasm and the pain he felt through her mind. He withdrew from her carefully, then was out of the bed in a flash to rush down to collect a basin of water. Gone and there again in less than fifteen seconds, he quickly covered her with blankets to keep her warm and used a clean cloth in the hot basin of water to dab the blood off her neck.

Emmalyn felt and heard his concern for her. Heard it… that was a new sensation for her. She felt everything with him tenfold from what she felt with her other mates. Her head was to the side, giving him access to the mark. She felt his lips and teeth, though she felt numb all over. Perhaps it was the pressure.

She could crack her eyes open and look at him, her breathing still shallow and her skin gone very pale. She felt him pull himself from her and her eyes followed him as he left and returned. Already, her extremities felt heavy and her muscles were sore. She felt hot, yet cold. Her teeth chattered from the chills, and her body shivered in reaction. Her eyes rolled back in her head again as the shivering that her body was doing took a more sinister turn. The gentle shaking of muscles to keep warm turned into the jarring and violent movements of a convulsion as his venom wracked her body.

As the venom ran further through her system, time seemed to become an unimportant thing. It came in flashes. Mikael was always there with her whether he was bathing her wound, speaking soothingly to her, or wetting her body with cold cloths to fight off her fever. But time jumped in spikes. Small leaps and bounds. Caleb and Farrel arrived, both nervous, though Farrel was downright frantic. None of them spoke out loud.

However, in Emmalyn’s head, it was a constant whirlwind of speech. Their conversation drifted back and forth. The three discussed the legend, her, the dangers, and the consequences of what happened. It lapsed into if they should get a nursemaid, a suggestion brought up by Caleb and shot down by both Elder and Alpha.

Time skipped forward again, and the speech in her mind relieved her. Concern over her was always present, though it seemed more subdued as her convulsions passed. They tossed the mention of gold around. More as a question, a curiosity, than anything.

Time seemed to ebb and flow all around her. She felt like she was part of it, and yet not. One moment, it was moving by as slow as a babbling brook, and then next it was as fast and furious as a raging rapid. One moment she was alone with one of them, buried under piles of blankets, and then her other mates were there, all worried about her. She wanted to speak, but she couldn’t find the strength or energy to form the words. Their voices, spoken and not, moved around her head. She could hear and feel them.

It was hard to tell when she was asleep and dreaming or when she was awake and watching. Everything was surreal to her. They seemed to talk and move in slow motion, and then the next, they would speed up. Her eyes tried to follow them, but she couldn’t. She wasn’t able to hold on to one conversation for very long, only bits and pieces of speech.

As time passed and her fever and chills subsided, she could still feel them there with her. Gone were the headaches and convulsions. She was still tired, but she knew she was getting better. Emmalyn wanted them to know it. She opened her eyes and reached out to them, though she still didn’t have the strength to speak aloud.

“I hope you’ve eaten something.”

In the wake of their mate’s first clear thought since her third marking, the mental voices of Farrel, Caleb, and Mikael filled her head in unison; their joined voices radiating power through her.

“Emmalyn!”

Farrel was already beside her. It was his shift to watch over her. He settled on the edge of the bed and leaned down to brush a kiss across her brow and both her cheeks.

“We’ve been worried.”

His thoughts slid to her over Caleb’s frantic emotions and Mikael’s urgency. The other two weren’t as near as they wanted. He reached away from her, collecting a wet cloth that was on the bedside table, and brought the cool moisture to her lips. Dabbing them gently, he set the cloth further in her mouth so she could drink from it. She pulled some of the water from the cloth, feeling incredibly thirsty, and hungry too. From the way her stomach yelled at her, she must have been out for days. She just wanted muscular arms around her to hold her and give her the safety and security she needed. When he spoke aloud, his voice was rough from disuse.

“We’ve been watching over you in turns. I fed yesterday morning.”

She managed a weak smile for Farrel. Her eyes closed slowly and opened just as lazily, a long blink. She tried to soothe everyone but was still so tired and weak. She crept closer to Farrel to curl up next to him.

“I’m alright, I promise.” She said to them, reaching out with her mind to calm them and give them the reassurance that she would make it through this fine. She turned her face up to Farrel and kissed his lips softly.

The hesitance in both her other mates filtered through their empathetic link, but her soothing did the trick. They both murmured their agreement, promised to see her soon, then phased from her mind as they both went into wolf.

Farrel’s lips grazed over hers; infinitely tender and delicate even while his inner thoughts wanted to claim her. To fuck her to make up for all the lost time and celebrate her recovery. Fucking her, unfortunately, wouldn’t help her recovery, so he pulled back to caress her cheek.

“Are you ready to eat yet? I can bring you broth, so it’s easier to keep down. You’ve been... sick. Not only from the bite.”

His eyes rolled downwards, peering at her stomach. They had all smelled it by the second morning. Another life inside her. Emmalyn’s brows knit together in confusion. Not just from the bite? Did she catch some other sickness? She worried as she looked up at him.

Farrel’s large, warm hand lightly settled against her still flat belly above the sheets wrapped around her. His fingers splayed and pressed down gently to make it clear what his meaning was even before he spoke. She put her tiny hand over his as he let it rest on her stomach.

“Mikael left a child in you. It lives still even though...” His words trailed off and the pain of his memory washed through him.

“I’m pregnant?” She asked, though it was more of a statement than a question.

Flashing her a quick grin, he dropped another soft kiss on her lips and laid the wet cloth in her hand before jumping to his feet. He hurried downstairs to put something together for her to eat.

Emmalyn closed her eyes for a moment and listened to her body. She knew her body better than anyone, and with her abilities, it would tell her things. And it was telling her, at that moment, that she was going to be a mother. She opened her eyes slowly, tears forming as she smiled.