Chapter 5: Fever

Lucian POV

I carried her out of the elevator the second the doors opened onto the private floor. The hallway stretched ahead, all dark wood and low, golden sconces, the carpet thick enough to swallow the sound of my shoes. Theo held the suite door open, and I walked straight through.

"Clear the floor," I said. My voice came out colder than I intended. "No one comes up. No one."

The door shut behind us with a solid, final click. The suite was quiet except for the soft rush of the air system.

I laid her on the edge of the mattress. Her sweater was soaked through, her jeans were dark with rainwater, and her socks were soaked, black with mud, and torn at the toes.

The left side of her face was already swelling purple, and blood crusted her split lip. Under all of it was that scent, wild honey and warm rain, so strong it made my head swim.

Vaelric surged behind my ribs. Mine. Take. Claim.

No, I told him. Not like this.

She curled onto her side and made a small, broken sound. Her skin was burning. I could feel the fever pouring off her through my sleeve, and it was climbing, faster than any heat I had ever seen.

"Theo," I said without turning. "Get Dr. Evans on the line. Now."

Theo already had his phone to his ear. I heard him murmur, listen, and then go very silent.

"Sir, the bridge on Harbor Road is closed because of the storm. He is forty minutes out, at the very best." He lowered the phone and held out the speaker. "He wants to speak to you."

I took it. "Evans."

"Mr. Draeven, tell me what you can. Does she have any medical history? Is she on suppressants?"

"I don't know her name, let alone her history," I told the doctor. "She just collapsed in my lobby."

"I need more than general symptoms," the doctor's voice snapped back over the phone. "What's her scent doing? Give me concrete details—chemical markers, age, underlying notes—anything I can use before I get there."

I closed my eyes and let Vaelric rise to the surface, sharpening my senses. I bent over her and took a deep,deliberate breath, letting the wolf dissect the air rising from her burning skin.

Focus, I told him, tuning out the panic. Look past the fever.

"It's not a natural heat," I told the doctor, my eyes opening as Vaelric fed me the details. “But there is something under the heat. A bitter, chemical note that has been in her blood for years."

There was a short silence. "That fits a system that was held down for a long time and has just been shocked open. It happens rarely, and it is always violent." His voice tightened. "Listen to me carefully. Do not give her a suppressant. If you push one into a body that is already burning this hard, she could seize. Keep her cool, keep her talking, and keep her from hurting herself. I will be there as fast as the roads allow."

"And if the fever keeps rising?" I asked.

Another pause, a longer one. "Then a heat like that breaks one of two ways, sir. Time, or a compatible male. I would rather not say more over the phone."

I handed the phone back to Theo. "Bring ice, cold towels, a bowl, and bottled water. Leave them at the door and go."

For the next twenty minutes, I tried my best to help her. I put cold towels on her forehead and helped her sip some water. I talked to her in a calm voice about random things, but her fever just kept getting worse.

She shook and burned with heat. When I touched her cheek, she turned her face into my hand and grabbed my wrist tightly.

"Please," she whispered. "It hurts, make it stop."

"I'm trying," I said. "The doctor is coming, so just hold on."

I bent over her again and breathed in, and Vaelric lunged against my ribs so hard that I nearly flinched.

"Listen to me," I said, keeping my voice low. "How long have you been taking suppressants?"

Her eyes flickered. "What?"

"I can smell them. Years of them, by the strength of it." I held her gaze. "Who gave them to you?"

For a moment she only stared at me, and then her face crumpled.

"He told me they were vitamins," she whispered. "Every morning, he handed them to me, and he watched me swallow them. I only realized it tonight, in the street." Her fingers tightened on my wrist. "The man who did this to my face. He called them my Beta balance."

A cold, quiet rage rose in my chest, so sharp that Vaelric went calm.

"Then I doubt this is your first heat," I said, more gently. "A woman your age, a wolf, even a suppressed one. You must have had a few."

"I haven't." She laughed, a thin, broken sound. "I'm twenty-eight, and I have never had one. Not once. Everyone told me my wolf was too weak."

I winced.

I couldn't help it. Twenty-eight, and her first. A fever like this, a body that had been locked for years and had just been kicked open, no one to guide her through it, and the only wolf in the room, a man who could barely hold himself together. Damn it, I thought. This is hell. I was a High Lycan, the strongest wolf in three states, a man who had never lost control of anything in years, and I was barely holding myself here.

Every breath of her scent went through me like a lit match. My hands were shaking against her face. No matter how strong I was, this was difficult.

"Not fast enough," she said as her eyes opened again, and for the first time, they were clear, looking straight at me through the tears. "The doctor, I mean. I know what this is. I know it's the heat, and I know what happens if it doesn't break."

I froze. "Then you know I'm not going to take advantage of you."

"I know." A tear rolled down her face. "That is why I'm asking you."

Inside my head, my wolf stopped pacing.

"I don't want a stranger," she breathed. "I want you. Please, don't leave me alone."

"You don't even know me."

"I know you've been taking care of me," she swallowed. "And I'm asking you. Me, not the fever."

I should have stepped back and waited for the doctor. But I had watched her burn for twenty minutes, and I couldn't walk away.

"Listen to me," I said softly, holding her face in my hands. "If I stay, you can tell me to stop at any second, and I will. Say it back."

"Any moment," she whispered.

"And in the morning, you will remember what you asked."

"I will," she said, her fingers holding tightly to my shirt. "I will remember."

I gently brushed the wet hair from her cheek and leaned down. She made a soft sound, and the fever seemed to ease for a moment. Outside, the storm raged and the rain beat hard against the window, but deep inside my mind, my wolf finally went quiet.

When I opened my eyes, the rain was tapping softly against the windows.

The room was dim. Her fever was finally gone, and her skin felt cool. She was fast asleep, resting her cheek on my chest with her hair spread across my arm.

I lay very still for a long time. Inside my mind, my wolf was calm, but he was watching her closely. He had never stared at anyone like this before, and it made me nervous.

Slowly, I pulled my arm away so I wouldn't wake her. She rolled onto her side and shivered. I pulled the thick white blanket up over her shoulders and tucked her in. She sighed in her sleep, her hair sticking to the bruise on her cheek.

She was better, but she was still in a hotel bed with a stranger. By morning, she might not even remember how she got here. I knew that, but my wolf didn't care.

Stay. Guard. Ours, he told me.

No, I told him back.

I got dressed in the dark, putting on my pants, shirt, and jacket. My hands were shaking a little bit.

I left a clean white robe and a glass of water on a chair by the window, right where she would see them. Then, I stood by the bed and looked down at her one last time.

I turned away before I could change my mind, and quietly stepped out into the hallway.

Theo was waiting at the end of the hall. He looked like he wanted to ask a question, but when he saw my face, he didn't say a single word.

"Dr. Evans?" I said instead.

"He called some minutes ago, sir." Theo's voice was low and careful. "His car broke down at the barricade on Harbor Road. He has a tow coming, but with the bridge closed, it will be hours."

"Hours." I glanced back at the door. She was asleep, and the fever had broken. For tonight, at least, the worst was over. "Tell him to come the moment the road opens. I want her examined properly."

"Understood." Theo hesitated. "And the woman? Do you want me to find out who she is?"

"Find out who she is," I said quietly. "And find out who did that to her."