Chapter Seventeen
Promise Elliot, healing wolf and all-around badass babe, paced in the alpha’s house along with her sister, Rio, and her mom, Reika.
She’d been at the house for several hours. Alpha Jason had called in pack members who were skilled at healing in case they were needed to aid the wolves.
Promise, like her mom and sister, had the ability to heal. They were called apexes, and the healing ability was hereditary. They could heal most any injury, from cuts and abrasions to broken bones with the venom emitted from their gums. She could lick the venom across a simple wound or coat her fangs and claws with it and use them to spread the venom throughout an injured part of the body.
She’d once healed a male’s leg that had gotten broken during a car accident, and a young female who’d been badly cut by the hooves of a deer she’d chased.
Only the females in her family line were healers, and it was a boon to a pack to have just one healer, let alone three.
Micah leaped onto the porch and opened the sliding back door. “Bram’s coming. Thea’s badly hurt.”
He hurried past them to his mate, Zoey, and hugged her close.
“You’re naked,” Zoey said with a chuckle. “I don’t want anyone seeing your cute butt.”
He gave her a kiss and laughed. “No one’s looking at my butt except you.”
“I can’t help it.”
“Right, right. Because it’s cute.”
Promise smiled at the exchange. Wolves were pretty casual about nudity, but she’d noticed over the years that non-wolves weren’t so casual, especially humans, who seemed to hold nudity as something to keep under wraps and not something to treat as part of life.
Not that Promise was the sort of female to go strutting around in her altogether, of course. But on the full moons, she didn’t care about stripping in front of others and never really paid much attention to anyone.
If she was mated, she might care, though.
Assuming her mate had a cute butt.
“Who wants to shift?” Reika asked.
“I will,” Promise said. “If she needs a full shift’s worth of healing.”
“She will,” Micah said as he donned a pair of jeans that Cadence had brought for him. “Her wings are broken.”
“Shit,” Promise said.
Reika nodded and followed Promise into the family room so she could shift in privacy. “I’ll help you inspect her injury.”
“Thanks, Mom.”
Reika stripped and folded her clothes on the chair next to the fireplace.
She called for her wolf and shifted, changing smoothly from her petite five foot three with curves to a wolf with fur so black it had a blue hue to it. Sitting on her haunches, she waited for Bram to bring his mate into the house.
She’d met her for the first time today, when she’d been hanging out with Cades while they waited to see if her nest would show up. Some shifter groups had really shitty old ideas about male and female roles, and judging from what she’d learned about Thea, her alpha was an asshole of the highest order.
Promise was damn thankful Jason wasn’t the sort of male to try to force females to mate males they didn’t love.
Or her dad, Bo, either.
Hell, Bo would fight Jason tooth and nail to keep Promise and Rio safe and free to make their own decisions. She didn’t know what males found so threatening about independent females, but it seemed to send them into a tizzy.
Bram rushed into the room carrying an unconscious Thea.
She’d been knocked around quite a bit more than just her injured wings, but the venom would heal everything as it worked through her system.
“Where should I put her?”
“On the couch on her stomach,” Reika said gently. “I need scissors.”
Rio hurried into the kitchen and came back with shears.
Reika carefully cut through Thea’s tank top and bra and set the fabric to the side to expose the root of the wings. Promise put her paws on the couch and lifted herself up to get a better look as Reika leaned over and inspected them.
They’d been broken almost at the point they emerged from her back and were broken in several places. It was clear that there had been one original break to both wings, and then they’d been broken even more during whatever fighting had happened in the woods.
Reika leaned back.
“Bite as close to the base as you can, just don’t break anything else. You’ll have to be careful with the pressure, the bones are already weak. If you can get a claw into her neck with some venom, it will spread faster.”
Promise nodded and sat back. She clenched her teeth together. The venom flowed from her gums and coated her tongue and teeth. She lifted a paw and licked one of her claws, coating it with the glossy venom.
She looked at Bram and then her mom, who nodded at the unspoken words.
“Bram, you need to step back.”
“What? Why?” he demanded.
Cades appeared and put her hand on his shoulder. “They’re going to heal her, honey.”
“Yeah, I know. Why do I have to move?”
“Because it’s going to hurt her and you can’t interfere,” Reika said.
Micah joined them, putting his hand on Bram’s other shoulder. “Take a step back with me, man. Let them heal her.”
Bram huffed but complied, stepping clear of the couch and giving Promise room.
Looking at Thea’s neck, she made a gesture with her nose and her mom moved Thea’s hair off to one side, exposing the side of her neck.
Sorry, Thea. This is going to hurt like a sonofabitch.
Sinking the claw into Thea’s neck, she wiggled it a bit to spread the venom around and waited until Thea started to struggle, even though she was still unconscious. The venom felt like fire as it healed, as if the insides of the veins had been filled with lava and fire ants.
After pulling her claw free, she leaned over, clenched her jaws together to get as much venom onto her teeth as possible, and then she opened her mouth. Fixing her jaws around the base of the wings, she bit down until she felt her teeth break through the skin and sink into the thin muscles. She stopped and stayed like that, her head tilted against Thea’s back and her teeth buried in her wings, as the venom leeched from her teeth.
Thea began to moan and writhe under Promise as the venom started to work, but she didn’t ease her grip on her wings. She kept her teeth embedded into her wings until she was sure enough venom had entered her system. While the procedure could be done again, most people wouldn’t choose to willingly go through with it after having done it once before.
It was simply far too painful.
She eased her grip on her wings and sank back from the couch.
Thea’s eyes were closed but her brow was furrowed and she was moving slightly on the couch, her hands clenched into the pillow.
Reika put her hand on Promise’s head. “You did good, baby girl.”
“Can you fucking let me go?” Bram demanded.
Promise looked up and saw that Micah and Gideon were holding Bram away from Thea while she’d been working.
“Is it okay? I think he’s going to take a swing at us,” Gideon said.
“Yeah, it’s fine,” Reika said.
She swiftly told Bram that he needed to ensure Thea stayed in her human form for at least two hours while the venom healed. “She can shift into her eagle after two hours, but if she does it before that, the venom will disappear, and the healing won’t be complete.”
Bram crashed to his knees on the couch next to Thea and put a hand on her shoulder. “I’ll make sure she stays human. What time is it even?”
“Three thirty,” Cades said.
Bram looked at Promise. “Thanks. Thanks for healing my mate.”
Promise nodded and left the room, following her mom and sister.
“Do we need to stick around?” Rio asked Cades. “Is it safe?”
Gideon came into the kitchen. “It’s safe now. The birds who survived the battle are gone. Dad gave them ten minutes to vacate or face his wrath.”
“Good,” Cades said with a sharp nod. “Fuckers.”
Promise chuckled and it came out of her mouth in a wolfy sort of way, more a snigger than anything.
Cades smiled at Promise. “Thank you so much for your help. We’re so thankful for you and your family.”
“I’m going to wait for your dad, but you two head on home,” Reika said.
“Ugh, I’m going to have to vacuum the car after your furry butt’s along for the ride,” Rio said.
Promise barked softly at her mom to say goodbye and followed her sister out into the cold night. Rio opened the car door and Promise hopped into the passenger seat, arranging herself against the door once it was closed.
Rio started the car and backed away from the house. As she pulled onto the street, she said, “I don’t think they’ll be too happy to hear we’re planning to take off soon, huh?”
Promise murmured in agreement.
The pack didn’t need three healers, not to mention the pack doctor, Doc, plus Crimson, Kash, and Jenna who could heal with fae spells.
Besides, Promise was ready to find her mate, and she was sure he wasn’t in Allen. Rio was also feeling the need to head out and find a new pack, and they weren’t the only ones. Linus and Karly’s kids were intending to take off for different pastures in the future as well.
But first, Promise and Rio were going to see where the wind blew them.
Somewhere damn warmer in the winter.
She hoped.