His Miracle Mate

Chapter 31

"Back to your post. I want someone to get Blake's mother right now."

"Right away." The guard hurried outside.

Blake's eyes cracked open, looking right at me. He opened his mouth, but only a pained gurgle managed to escape.

My chest tightened. I put my hand on his sweating forehead. He quieted down almost immediately and reached for my hand. Zyron knelt down next to us, giving me an indecipherable look.

"Ashley, please get the backyard ready. He's going to get even hotter, and we need more space for him to shift," Zyron said.

"On it," Ashley said. She and Haley went out the back door, and Zach left through the front door.

Ezra brushed his fingers across my cheeks and stood. "I'll be right back."

He followed Zach outside, leaving Zyron, Blake and me alone. Blake grunted, squeezing my hand.

"How long has he been like this?" Ezra's dad asked me.

"He was feeling hot for a little while before it got worse. I don't know. About ten minutes?" I said shakily and he nodded. "Why is he in pain? Ezra shifts without any pain, and it doesn't take this long."

"The first shift of a wolf is always like this. It could take hours. The temperature of the body rises and it's usually a very slow and very painful process," he said.

Guards walked through the front door to the backyard, carrying things like coolers and blankets.

"Blake's wolf has been gone for too long. Years," Zyron continued. "It's a miracle he even got him back in the first place. Shifting again for the first time in years might be as hard as his first shift ever."

I let out a shaky breath. Poor Blake. His face contorted in pain as he curled tighter around himself.

It's going to be okay, I whispered in my mind, hoping that somehow he would feel my reassurance.

"Everything is in place," Ashley said.

Zyron looked at me. "We have to get him to the backyard."

Reluctantly, I let go of Blake. Zyron scooped him up in one move and was in the backyard in a second. I joined them. The light spilling from the French doors illuminated the clearing behind the house . It was set up with blankets, a row of coolers next to them. The forest around was dark and quiet, the only sound Blake's gurgling growls.

Zyron put Blake down, and Ashley and Haley instantly started putting ice packs around him. His forehead glimmered with sweat under the silvery moonlight. I hovered, wanting to help but not knowing what to do. Blake cracked an eye open and held out his hand to me. I dropped on my knees and held his hand in both of mine, feeling better.

"Where is his mother?" Zyron asked.

"She's visiting her sister in another pack a few hours drive from here," Ashley replied. "She's on the road."

"Hot," he wheezed, tugging at his t-shirt. Zyron pulled it off of him, next were his pants, leaving Blake in a pair of boxer briefs. Maybe I should've felt embarrassed, but seeing Blake suffer was too heartbreaking for me to care about his nudity.

Ashley and Haley poured freezing water over him. I startled, thinking it was too much. But Blake's frown loosened and he sighed, and the water sizzled at it touched his skin. They replaced the ice packs, which were already melted, with fresh ones. Now all the coolers made sense.

"How is he?" Ezra asked, walking through the backdoor.

"Nothing yet. All we can do is wait," Zyron replied. Ezra sat beside me.