Travis looked like he was having the same difficulty, though his was much more visible, the front of his pants straining at the seams and the outline of his erection obvious. A fact that didn’t go unnoticed by the old woman or her young, pretty assistant. A sudden spike of possessiveness had Morgan’s fangs dropping, her lip lifting in a snarl before she could call the reaction back.
Instead of the show of aggressiveness she would have expected from a wolf shifter, she was met by a raised eyebrow from the healer and wise old eyes that were crinkled at the corners and filled with amusement. “I ain’t got no interest in your man, honey. Honestly, I’d appreciate it if you both got out of here and saw to the business of getting busy instead of hovering over me. Your friend’s not going to suddenly wake up just cos you willed it so.”
The healer turned back to Jamie but shot over her shoulder, “Besides, that young one pacing outside will surely let you know the moment there’s a change.”
“Young one?”
“The pretty boy with the beard,” the healer answered, not looking up from her work.
Morgan couldn’t help but wince. Chances were good that Kane heard that and the Born may be young compared to Morgan, but he was older than any shifter here. Not to mention he hated being called pretty and the last thing they needed was Kane getting pissed and stirring up trouble. It was bad enough that Morgan had already shown aggression when they needed the pack’s help. If Archer Langley decided they were more trouble than they were worth, the alpha wouldn’t think twice about running them off and leaving Jamie without the help she so badly needed.
“We’ll get out of your hair,” Morgan promised, taking Travis’s hand and heading for the door. Her desire had cooled, but she was still in desperate need of a distraction from her worries. Grabbing Kane as well when they passed him outside, she dragged him along with a curt, “Let’s go see if we can spot some alligators.”
“What if Jamie needs to be fed?” he protested, stumbling beside them, his eyes still trained on the cabin rather than watching where he was going.
“She’s sedated,” came loudly from the cabin. “Come back in an hour.”
Kane grumbled, but no longer protested being dragged away. “Gators?” he asked skeptically, only for his eyes to brighten as he asked Travis, “Do you think we can go out on one of those fan boat things?”
∞∞∞
Jamie came awake with a quiet groan two hours and fifteen minutes after Morgan, Travis, and Kane had returned from their trip out with Archer Langley on his boat. In that time, the healer had done all she could and Jamie had been moved to Travis’s cabin. Though Morgan had quietly assured her friend that she was safe, Jamie had still squirmed in a panic, attempting to lift her damaged hands to her bandaged eyes.
“Sh, now,” Kane soothed, coming forward with his wrist extended, blood welling from the fresh cut he’d made. “You need to drink.”
Jamie turned her head away, her voice barely a croak as she tried to speak, her mouth moving in an attempt to form words that emerged as an indecipherable garble. “Drink first,” Morgan firmly told the woman. “Then we’ll talk.”
Whether it was Morgan’s order, or the scent of Kane’s blood triggering her body’s need, Jamie acquiesced, latching onto Kane’s wrist with strong, greedy pulls. When she turned her face away once more, signaling she was done, Kane backed away a step, licking the remaining blood from his wrist.
Jamie’s voice was noticeably stronger yet still tinged with panic as she asked, “What’s wrong with my eyes?”
Morgan wasn’t sure how much the Turned vampire remembered of her ordeal, so she was careful as she said, “You were taken by Rodolfo and his men. They…” she trailed off, unsure how to word things before she settled on, “They punished you. But you’re on the mend now,” she quickly tacked on.
“For what I found,” Jamie said in a small voice. “I remember now.” And then more frantically, “It wasn’t Rodolfo’s order,” she gasped, attempting to sit up until Morgan pushed her gently back down.
Confused, Morgan prompted, “What wasn’t Rodolfo’s order? Your punishment?”
Jamie tried to shake her head and groaned from the pain, her voice breathless as she continued, “The order to exterminate the witches. It came straight from the Court of Elders and went toallthe territory holders.”
“What the fuck?” Was Kane’s bark of disbelief while Morgan just stared at Jamie in stunned amazement. “Why would they do that?” Kane continued, pacing around the room. “You saw what happened when Rodolfo’s men went up against Jourdain. He annihilated them and he’s only one man. It’ll be a slaughter.”
“What?” Jamie cut in. “What happened? Did Rodolfo attack Jourdain?”
Morgan’s mind was going a mile a minute trying to process everything she’d just learned and make sense of it, but she shook herself from her thoughts to fill Jamie in on what she had missed while she was in the ground before standing and pulling out her phone. “I need to make some calls,” she announced. This couldn’t wait.
Leaving the dark interior of the cabin, her eyes lit immediately on Travis who was standing with Archer Langley on the end of the dock, both deep in conversation as they planned the retrieval mission they’d be embarking on that night. Deciding she should fill them in first, as this would undoubtedly affect shifters as well, she tucked her phone back in her pants and headed to join them.
As soon as she was close enough, she announced without preamble, “The Court of Elders sent an order to all territory holding Born calling for the extermination of witches.”
Archer Langley’s answering growl was vicious, raising the hair on Morgan’s nape. “It’s a declaration of war.”
“A war they can’t win,” she replied.
“They?” was the glaring alpha’s return shot which had Travis stepping between them with a warning growl of his own, his eyes revealing his dragon as he stared down the alpha. Morgan appreciated the show of solidarity especially since she didn’t have time right now for a pissing contest with a belligerent wolf.
“My team and I are not in the business of killing innocents,” she returned with a sneer, insulted at the very implication. “And neither are others of my kind. I’m about to make the call now.”
“Can it be stopped?” Travis asked, engulfing her hand in the warm strength of his much larger one.
