MINE TO POSSESS

“Stop it.” He cupped her face with one hand. “You’re hyperventilating. Calm down.”


After three more dangerously shallow breaths, she seemed to focus on him and nodded. He watched as she tried to bring herself under control, felt her fear when air continued to elude her. Her hand raised to her neck and her eyes pleaded with him. “C-c-can’t,” she somehow managed to say and he realized this wasn’t a psychological issue.

“Is something blocking your airway?” he asked, terrified but knowing he had to keep his reactions under control. Tally needed him to think.

She shook her head, then lifted both her hands and closed them together, palm to palm, those remarkable eyes of hers furiously focused. The thin ring of amber seemed to glow molten gold in the morning light.

“It feels like your airway’s closing up?”

At her nod, he lifted his hand from her cheek and rose to a sitting position. Then, putting his hands under her shoulders, he helped her up, too. She sat leaning against the wall below the window, eyes locked to his, one hand fluttering at her throat.

“Is that better?”

She shook her head, reaching for him with her other hand. He held it, his mind racing. He had emergency medical supplies in a first aid kit Tamsyn kept updated. He also had some medical training—enough to patch up himself or another packmate until they could get to their healer. But what Talin was now experiencing was nothing close to a bleeding gash or broken arm.

“I’ll be back, baby.” Breaking her hold with that promise, he ran to grab the medical kit from under the sink, then snatched up his cell phone from where he’d dumped it on the breakfast table. Punching in Tamsyn’s number as he arrived back at Tally’s side, he saw that her breathing had worsened. Her skin was starting to lose color.

“Hold on, Tally.” He stroked his fingers down her throat. “You hold on for me.” An order, not a request.

Fighting to keep her eyes open, she closed her hand over his wrist as he waited for someone to answer the call. He knew it would be answered—as their healer, Tamsyn was never out of contact.

“Clay, what is it?” Her voice came on the line, all business.

“Something’s wrong with Talin. She can’t breathe. It’s like her throat’s closed up.”

“Any blockages?”

“She says no.”

“Has she got any major allergies?”

“No, nothing,” he said on the heels of her question, knowing that from childhood.

“Ask her—it’s something she could have developed.”

“Baby, major allergies?”

Another shake of her head, this one slow, heavy. Faint traces of blue edged her lips.

“Nothing,” he repeated, before a memory flickered awake. “But she used to have a small pollen allergy. Used to make her sneeze.”

“How’s her heartbeat?”

He pressed his fingers to the pulse in her neck, his control growing ragged with each erratic beat. “Too damn slow.”

“Turn the phone toward her so I can see her face.”

Clay did as ordered, then brought the phone back to his ear. “Tammy?”

“Do you have the kit?” Her tone was calm, assured.

“Yes.” He opened it.

“There’s a small preloaded pressure injector on the top left-hand side of the lid.”

He saw it at once. Sliding it out of the built-in slot, he flicked off the cap. “Where?” He didn’t ask what it was, what it might do. There wasn’t time.

“Wait. Make sure it’s the right one. Has it got ‘epinephrine’ on the side?”

He saw Talin’s eyelids flutter down. Her hand dropped off his wrist. The leopard scrabbled inside his mind, trying to get out, get to her. “Yes!”

“Do it. On her thigh. Clay—I have to warn you, this is a wild guess. It could be the absolute wrong thing, could hurt her.”

“There’s no choice. We don’t do anything, she’ll die.” Using his claws to tear a hole in her sweatpants, he pressed the injector to her skin and pressed the button. The transparent tube cleared of the medicine in a flash. For three of the longest seconds of his life, nothing happened. Then Talin jerked and her eyes flashed open. Another second and her hand reached blindly in his direction.

He gripped it, held on tight. “Breathe, baby. Please, Tally, breathe. Breathe.”

Fingers clenching around his, she sucked in a deep breath. Then another.

“Is it working?” Tamsyn asked.

“Yeah,” he whispered, a fucking fist around his heart. “Yeah.”

“I’m coming over to check on her. Keep her warm, give her fluids.”