My dragon rumbled his discontent and scales erupted on my arms. I always had good control over my beast. It was rare hegave me a hard time, and partially shifting like this… The only other time it had ever happened was when I’d been injured.
Once my tea was ready, I sat down in the sitting room, sipping the warm liquid. Why I thought it might magically calm me down, I wasn’t sure. It didn’t work. Instead, I found myself pacing like a wild animal in captivity.
I jumped when my phone rang, the time stamp telling me that I’d been awake and pacing for over two hours. How could that even be? Eryx’s number flashed on the caller ID. Of all my friends to phone me in the middle of the night, he would be the last I expected.
“Hello,” I said, controlling my voice the best I could.
“Emmen, I’m sorry to wake you up.”
“It’s no problem. I was awake.” Not that I wanted to be.
“Good. I’ve got, well… I’ve got a weird request.”
“Is everything all right?” It was the middle of the night. Of course it wasn’t, but I fell right into polite platitudes anyway.
“Yeah, no, not really.” He let out a long breath. “Not at all, actually.”
Fuck. What had happened? Were we under attack? No. That was crazy. Dragons hadn’t gone to war in centuries. But also, that would explain tonight.
“My son Rhythe was in an accident. As far as we can figure out, he didn’t realize where he was going and flew straight into the side of Stonewash Mountain.”
I shivered at that. It wasn’t a large mountain, but it had a very rocky cliff face. Flying into it at any speed would cause serious damage.
“Is he all right?”
“He will be… maybe. The doctor doesn't like how slowly he’s healing and, well… he keeps asking for you, Emmen.”
“What? Me?” As far as I knew I’d never met Rhythe. I had seen his twin Pip from afar but rarely interacted with him. I only knew of them because of Valen’s relationship to them. Why would he call for me of all people?
My dragon roared to the surface, demanding that I go to this person. Though I had never met Rhythe, nothing sounded more right than going to his side.
“Where is he? I’ll be right there.”
“Is there something you’re not telling me, Emmen? Have you met Rhythe before?”
“No,” I said. “Not that I recall, but if I can help, I need to be there.”
“All right. It’s just—he’s acting quite strange. Almost like…”
“Almost like what?” I asked.
“Never mind. Just—Rhythe’s at the hospital.” The fact that an injured dragon was healing at a hospital and not at his own home was alarming. We were incredibly hard to seriously injure.
“I’ll be right there. I’m on my way.” I didn’t even question whether or not I would fly there. I simply stepped outside and shifted to my dragon form, letting my cell phone fall to the ground.
When I arrived at the hospital, I had no way to communicate with Eryx to figure out where Rhythe was, nor did I have clothes. The nurse at the front station yelped when she saw me. Thankfully, this was a predominantly shifter hospital and she was a wolf shifter herself.
“You all can’t just barge in here without clothes. You have to bring clothes with you.” She tossed an extra pair of scrubs at me, and I slipped them on. “No one wants to see that.”
“Right. Sorry.” What other response was there? “Can you tell me where Rhythe is?”
“Oh, that poor dear. He has a long road to recovery.” Her formerly cheerful face took on a look of sadness, and she clutched a hand to her chest.
I stiffened at that. A long road to recovery for a shifter was serious. Just how bad were his injuries?
“He’s on the third floor, the west wing. The trauma unit.”
This was a hospital that catered primarily to shifters. I knew the trauma unit didn’t actually get a lot of traffic. The occasional human that was mated to a shifter might come in. But even human mates had enhanced healing abilities. They could heal more quickly than your average human.
