Small Town Love

Chapter 12

Being vulnerable is the only way to allow your heart to feel true pleasure.

Bob Marley

"If you want to beat me up, I would appreciate it if you can wait for a few days," Luke said softly when he could hear Ollie step in the living room.

He was sitting next to Daphne's head, not touching her. He didn't deserve to touch her.

Not if he had already managed to hurt her like this, to treat her like this.

He had forced the transformation onto her, regardless of what his father had said. Maybe she would have survived without his bite...now she needed to deal with it. Now she would become a wolf just like him.

And the worst part was that a small part of him was pleased by that. He had sired her when would always be a werewolf that would be created through his saliva even when she would refuse him as her mate.

Her scent had shifted slightly already. Still sweetness and warmth but now also the undercurrent that made it clear that she was, in fact, a werewolf.

And the change was taking slowly but surely. She was feverish, sweat clinging to her face, her hands clenched in the bedding.

Ollie's snort pulled him out of his thoughts as he sat down opposite him.

"I am not going to beat you up. It wouldn't really make an impact if we both know that you would win if you actually put your mind to it," Ollie told him with a long-suffering sigh.

Luke could just chuckle drily at that. "I am sorry," he apologised, growing serious again.

"I know," Ollie gave back. "Thank you. You saved her life, Luke," Ollie told him and he wanted to protest.

"You did. It was your bites that stopped the bleeding in the end," Matthew gave back gently as he walked over to them, kneeling next to Daphne.

Luke watched how he touched her forehead and then checked her wounds with the knowledgeable hands of a doctor.

A shiver run through Daphne when she whimpered softly.

"She's running a fever but she will be fine," Matthew explained softly. "Just let her sleep for the night. Ollie, will you put on a fire, please?" He asked of his son as he took the blanket from the back of the couch and put it over Daphne that continued to shake.

"I am going to get down our mattress in a bit...I think we'll all feel better if we are close to her," Matthew continued.

Grace came in the room as well then, sitting next to Daphne,

"Did Dad..." she asked Luke hesitantly but he just nodded. He knew exactly what Grace was asking about without her spelling it out.

"He's said he would take care of it," Luke answered.

He kept sitting there, unmoving, even when Grace and Ollie let him alone after a little while. He tended to the fire, keeping it burning, hoping that maybe the heat would help her.

The shivers that ran through her didn't subside, her teeth starting to chatter as well. The sounds were horrid to him, together with the rattle in her lungs with every breath she took.

By now it wasn't the fear of her dying anymore. She would be fine. Somehow.

The change was taking and a werewolf would be able to survive what happened to her easily. It would never have happened to her in the first place if she had been a werewolf. Even as tiny as she was, Daphne would have been able to kick the living daylights out of Kyle if she had the strength of a werewolf.