Emma
When I opened my eyes again, the fire had burned out and the inside of the house was pitch black. Blinking at the darkness, I waited for my eyes to adjust, surprised when I found Luna still very naked and in the chair beside me. The wolves were asleep as well; their soft breaths making the night feel not nearly as empty as it was.
I shivered and roused myself from the chair. My movements were slow, careful not to wake Luna as I headed to the front window. Stepping around the wolves, I froze when Tucker shifted his weight, but he didn’t wake.
Looking back on my hidden stash of pills at the ward, I almost wished I’d brought them with us. I craved them, their blue and white coating with a happy dose of tranquilizer underneath. I hated how numb they’d made me feel, but at least I’d slept. Something whined outside, pulling my attention away from the sleeping wolves and my being so awake. It sounded as though someone was whistling, followed by a very distant crash.
Glancing over my shoulder, I was surprised when none of the wolves woke up. It was louder than thunder, and I could’ve sworn whatever it was shook the entire house. The sound came a second time, closer than before, and then I saw it—a tongue of lightning, green in color, moving from the ground into the sky.
Fear clawed at me, its skeletal fingers trailing down the middle of my back. The few clouds that hung overhead burst with color before burning out. I pressed my fingers against the windowsill and stared outside, jumping when the lightning struck again. From the green bursts of light, I could see the tree line, the vegetation darker than before—almost black. I immediately thought of the cranes back home, the wooded area where I'd found Tucker, and finally the tree he’d shown me during our first imprinting session.
The trees outside looked exactly the same. It’s here. The Earth’s rage had found its way to the guardians. My heart raced. I struggled to cry, to whisper a word, but nothing came out.
Facing the pack, I mouthed silent cries as my wolves, my beautiful family, fell into a dark hole in the floor.
Their howls pierced my mind. Fear—theirs and mine—shook me to the core. I stumbled to the stairs, clawing at the railing as the darkness pulled at me, sucking all the air from the room.
I gasped for breath, and the darkness in the room grew as green cracks snaked toward me. My heart stopped when a dark root sprouted from the floor, coiling around my ankle. This was how the Earth found its victims. Sing, Emma. I had to find my song, to sing and calm the Earth. My wolves were gone, my guardians. All of them, gone.
There was no sound, no breath, cold or warmth. And as the darkness grew, I fell into nothingness. My song was lost to the Earth.
* * * * *
Tucker
I woke in a hurry, a series of images blinking on and off in my mind. They were of Emma, of Luna holding her and warm skin. Hot, burning skin.
I rubbed the sleep from my eyes, realizing the fire had burned down to the last handful of embers, bathing the room in an eerie light. Someone whispered my name, forcing me from my half-asleep state. It was Luna, her voice cracking when she spoke.
"Tucker," she called again, more urgent than before. "Emma..."
A haze covered my eyes as I got to my feet, staring in Luna’s direction. Her face was pale, almost as white as her fur. I didn't remember getting up or walking, but in the next instant, I was standing beside her.
She bowed her head, eyes focused on a very feverish Emma, who stirred in her lap. Swallowing around the nausea in my throat, I shifted as soon as I was able, ignoring Luna’s naked form along with my own.
Emma’s lips moved, her voice barely audible. "...my perch...a ridge of white...watch the sky. It fills with light." She whimpered, then fell silent.
Luna tossed me a worried glance. "What is she saying?"
I watched Emma, my heart aching to wake her, but if these words were meant for us, if they were the words meant for Emma’s guardians, then we needed to hear them. I turned on my heels and headed for the front of the house, tiptoeing around the sleeping wolves. I may have kicked one or two in the process.
When one bit at me, I said, "Move!" A series of images accompanied the order, and the wolves instinctively got up, all eyes on Emma as she struggled against her nightmare. I dropped to my knees as soon as I reached Emma’s pile of notebooks, taking one from the top. After I found a pen and had the notebook open to a clean page, I joined the others.
Emma no longer spoke, but I wrote down the words from earlier anyway. Her face twisted in pain when I looked at her.
"We need to wake her," Luna said. "This isn’t normal, Tucker."
"Did that sound like lyrics to you?" I asked, ignoring the fear in her voice. I finished jotting down what appeared to be the verse from a song.
Luna’s eyes were empty. "So what if they were? She has a fever! She cannot stay like this."
Emma’s lips didn’t move, and they didn’t have to. The lyrics could wait. I tossed the notebook to the floor and took Emma’s lifeless body in my arms, her deadweight forcing Luna’s fear to bubble up to my chest. Beads of sweat covered Emma’s body, her skin fluttering beneath my touch. She was burning hot. Too hot to have been sitting in front of the fire, and too hot for any fever I’d ever seen.
"Emma." Her name came out in a garbled mess. "Emma, wake up."
I wanted to shake her, to thrust her from whatever hell she faced, but Luna’s wide eyes stopped me. I took a breath. My nerves shook, and I closed my eyes, shutting myself off from the others before opening them again. Nothing changed. If Emma was having another one of her nightmares, we were in it.
The other wolves backed away when I approached them, and when Luna got up to follow me, I didn’t stop her.
"Go in front of me and get the lights on," I ordered, stepping aside once we reached the bottom of the stairs so Luna could get by. I inclined my head to the other wolves, the entire pack staring at me from the hallway. "Stay down here. If we learn anything, one of us will come and get you."
The wolves cowered, bowing their heads long enough for me to see them before I thundered up the steps. By the time I reached the bedroom, Luna had turned on all of the lights, including the ones in the bathroom.
"We need to cool her down," Luna said as she started to draw a cold bath.
I glanced at Emma. She hadn’t moved since I'd taken her from Luna’s arms. I bowed my head and considered touching foreheads with her, to see into her dreams, but a touch on my shoulder stopped me.
"I need you upright," Luna explained. "Here, stand her up a moment."
I did as she asked, holding Emma up so the she-wolf could remove her nightgown. I frowned as I inspected Emma’s body, most of her skin flushed with fever. The only other time she’d seemed so discolored was after she’d taken a hot shower.
"I thought humans got pale when they had a fever."
Luna shrugged and stepped to the side so I could put Emma in the tub.
The water was lukewarm against my fingertips, and as I supported Emma’s head with one of my hands, I looked at Luna. "She doesn’t smell sick to me. Can you smell anything?"
Luna shook her head. "She felt feverish before dinner. I mentioned it to her, but she dismissed it. After she’d eaten, she seemed better. I figured it was because she hadn’t eaten all day."
"And you didn’t smell anything then, either?"
"No, which worries me. Even when we aren’t wolves, we should be able to sense something like this. If anything, all I picked up on was her hunger."
"But you said she felt warm."
"To the touch, but she was sitting in front of the fire. I didn’t think anything of it."
"Go and see if we have some ice downstairs. If not, we might have to send the pack out to find some along the ridgelines."
Luna nodded, dismissing herself from the room. I took a washcloth from the edge of the tub, submerging it in the water and squeezing it out before wiping the sweat from Emma’s forehead. She moaned, her body jolting anytime I pressed down on her skin.
We’d never had a sick child before, and there wasn’t a damned thermometer anywhere in the house. The pack had never needed it. Fevers were rare amongst the guardians, and even less likely for their children. With so many guardians watching over Emma, I couldn’t understand how she’d gotten sick. If anything, the fever should’ve touched the other members of the pack first.
We were her barrier, her shield. If it hadn’t touched us, it shouldn’t have been able to touch her at all.
My ears perked at the sound of heavy footsteps coming up the stairs. Luna appeared in the doorway seconds later, a bag of ice in each hand.
"Dump them in, but try to keep most of the ice around her body," I said, holding Emma steady in the still water.
Luna undid the ties and leaned over the edge of the tub, carefully placing the ice along the sides of Emma’s body. Goosebumps pricked under my fingers. A long, mournful wail escaped Emma’s lips as she thrashed in the water. I stared, horrified, and tried to hold her in place, my hands going numb from the ice cubes that hadn't melted yet.
When Emma stilled, Luna crouched beside me. "That’s good, isn’t it?" Her scent filled the air, a mix of fear as well as an attraction to our alpha. Any other time, I would’ve shifted to challenge her, but my scent was probably the same as hers. "Shivering means we can get the fever to break, doesn’t it?"
I hope so. "I don’t understand why she’s sick. She’s bonded with two of us, and the rest of the pack surrounds her. How can she get sick?"
"Because she let it happen. She hasn’t been sleeping, and she barely eats. It doesn’t matter how many of us are with her. If she doesn’t take care of her own body, then she’ll get sick regardless."
"It came on fast, though."
"Most illnesses do." She cocked her head. "When was the last time you were sick?"
I looked back as far as I could, but I’d never been sick, not for as long as I could remember. Certainly not as long as I’d been a guardian.
"The world is different now," Luna said, breaking the silence. "Maybe that's why she’s sick. There’s more in the air to infect her."
"No," I said, shaking my head. I glared at the she-wolf. "She was fine. Nothing was wrong with her until after you invited yourself back to the house."
"What are you talking about?" Luna snarled. "Why is this my fault?"
I spoke through my teeth. "After Zarrius died, she said we should go home. But then you had to open your big mouth and ask if she meant you as well."
"She’s the alpha, Tucker. What did you expect to happen? The pack always goes where the alpha does." Luna got up from the tub, pausing before stepping into the bedroom. "Besides, you were the one who told me to find her. You told me to protect the child. Those were your exact words. If it wasn’t for me, she would have never found you."
"She wouldn’t have become the pack’s alpha, either."
"What about the Earth, Tucker? Were you just going to leave her behind?"
"I would’ve made it back to the house."
"When?"
"Stop, both of you."
At first, I wasn’t sure what I’d heard. It was Emma’s voice, but I couldn’t tell if it was a memory or if it had actually happened. I checked the body inside the tub. Emma’s lips hadn’t moved, and her eyes were still shut. Luna was back beside the tub in an instant, her eyes searching mine.
"Emma?" Luna asked warily, looking at her.
"Please... don’t argue." Emma’s voice was so weak, I barely heard it.
"Oh, thank God," I breathed around the words. Emma was still warm against all the ice. "The fever isn't breaking."
"It will take some time," Luna said.
Emma shivered, her teeth chattering around her words. "Cold."
"I know, sweetie." Luna corrected herself a moment later. "We know, but we have to break the fever."
"Nightmare."
I frowned, squeezing one of Emma’s hands. "What nightmare?"
"Luna knows."
Emma’s body tensed beneath my touch, then went limp, shuddering in the now frigid water. I winced around the biting pain in my fingers, refusing to let her go or to remove her from the tub.
"What nightmare, Luna?" I asked.
"The Earth’s death," Luna said, pulling a towel off the rack. "Let’s get her out of the tub and under some warm blankets."
I tested my fingers, surprised when they still compressed against Emma’s skin. It took me a moment to get my bearings, but once I did, I lifted Emma out of the tub. Icy water rolled down my arms onto my naked body.
Once Emma was out of the water, Luna dried off as much of her as she could. The she-wolf averted her eyes, doing her best to remain submissive toward me.
As I watched her drying off Emma’s arms, I couldn’t help staring at Luna’s breasts, a little smaller than Emma’s. They shook as the she-wolf rubbed at Emma’s bare skin, and I looked away when Luna stared back at me.
"You can admire me later." She draped the towel over Emma. "We need to get her settled first."
I bowed my head, happy for the distraction. "You can tell the pack it’s safe to come up. We’ll need as many warm bodies around Emma as we can get."
Luna dipped her head, then she was gone.