RANK

Chapter 27

One hour later...

Vince blinks and rubs his eyes clearing the double vision he momentarily had. He has been sitting in his study flipping through page after page of books he thought could lead him to a definitive answer. Nothing was coming back to a wolf ever having healing powers. Naturally, it didn't make sense for them to. They healed themselves.

He leaned back in his chair and decided to take a minute. Within that time, he narrows his eyes to the sofa where Nya was sitting. She rested her knuckles on her cheek, her elbow on the armrest, and her eyelids were fighting to stay open.

She appeared so delicate before him, but he knew she was anything but. While others were brave with the power to back it up, she was courageous all on her own. Which made her braver in his opinion. She was not physically endowed with strength, speed, or natural skill but it didn't stop her. Like when she stood before rabid Watson nearly shredding her to pieces.
She was resilient too, like when she climbed the wall designed for the higher-ranked. Anyone could see her arms shaking ready to give out at any second but she made her mind stronger than her arms and forced them to keep going.

"I don't know, Vin." His brother coming down the stairs from the top floor brings a large open book in his hands. He closes the book and drops it on the desk. "I can't find anything. Maybe her human bloodline are shamans. A lot of humans have healing abilities. Maybe it's as simple as that."

It was a possibility Vince thought but his mind wouldn't settle.

"She looks fine..." Bent glances at a now sleeping Nya. "Maybe we should just be grateful that she came into our lives because this was always Axel's plan whether he was going to use her or not."

He couldn't even think about being grateful when she could be infected.

"And this pack, we need you."

"They can't know how. We can't risk Axel finding out. She will be targeted."

"We won't let anything happen to her."

He releases a breath, rises from his chair, and nears Nya. "Keep looking." He lifts her limp body into his arms and cradles her on his chest. "I'll be right back."

He takes her to her bedroom and once she was laying on the bed, he begins an inspection. He examines all open skin. Her legs, arms, thighs, neck, face, even lifting her shirt a bit to see her flat stomach. No spider veins or signs of anything out of the ordinary. He hoped that he was being paranoid because he didn't want to live if it meant her losing her life. Selfish, he knew, when a whole pack depended on him, but for the first time, matters of his pack weren't a factor in how he was feeling. She mattered.

He drapes the blanket under her neck making her nice and snug, then kisses her on the forehead before going back to his office. He made sure to leave the door cracked so he could hear her.
Then he and Bent went back at it. They spent hours researching the internet and flipping through old books until... "Let's take a break." Vince hears Nya's movement upstairs as she gets off the bed.

Bent smirks from across the desk obviously hearing the same sounds. "I'll just be here." He keeps skimming pages.

He meets Nya at the bottom of the stairs. She was grinning ear to ear; her eyes as lively as he's ever seen. It was infectious, automatically putting him in a better mood. "Good morning." He greets her.