Bo had barely made it through the door with Lauren right at her back when Trick began yelling orders to the doctor.
“She’s burning up! Laruen get some ice we need to put her in a cold bath, try to even her out a bit.”
Seeing she wasn’t needed for this, too many hands could be just as dangerous as not enough at times, she rounded on Lachlan. She would get her explanation.
“What did you mean you won’t explain anything to me! You know what’s wrong with Kenzi and you had better start talking.”
Dyson who had been pacing ever since he’d been pushed out of the way in favor of Lauren seemed to perk up at her words.
“You know what’s happening to Kenzi?” For some reason Dyson managed to get an answer while she was ignored to the point that Lachlan actually turned his back on her. It was like he had a vendetta against her or something.
“Yes, Trick was nice enough to explain, or should I say he was nice enough to shove a book in my hands before running out the door as fast as his little legs would carry him. When our dear brave Kenzi went to the Norn she came into contact with the blood of an Omega wolf. Since Dyson already understands I think I’ll go see if there’s anything left for me to help with.” As he pushed passed them she turned her confused gaze on Dyson.
“Alright, What am I missing?” She had asked for an explanation and instead she’d been given riddles. Word play was not the kind of play she was into.
“When the blood of an Omega touches the skin of a human that human becomes an Omega wolf.” He almost sounded dazed as he spoke, like he’d been hit on the head with the words instead of just listening to Lachlan yammer on.
“What? Why?” That didn’t make any sense, other than vampires the rule of Fae seemed to be you either were one from birth or you weren’t one at all. How could Kenzi just become some kind of Fae, and wolf Fae at that?
“Back in the old days it was a form of retribution. The only way to get Omega blood on you was by killing one. If you took the life of an Omega then you became one to replace it. The Omegas were wiped out over a thousand years ago and I never thought it was possible to store their blood. I was wrong it seems.”
She watched Dyson pace away from her but couldn’t be bothered to call him back, her head was too full of so many questions. If there weren’t any other Omega wolves what did that mean for Kenzi? If killing an Omega made you an Omega how did they get wiped out at all? Was whoever or whatever it was going to come after Kenzi now that she was becoming this mythical wolf thing? What did all of this mean for Kenzi, and more importantly what did all of this mean for her and Kenzi?
Dyson could barely function with his head so full of noise. Kenzi was becoming a wolf. Kenzi was becoming an Omega wolf. In the lore of the packs the omega was seen as special as a miracle sent to bless the pack and help to guide their path. They were strong but kind, their will their own never subjected to the orders of the alpha. To even meet an omega was meant to herald wondrous times on the horizon, but now all he could think of was how he wished they had remained myth.
As he watched Kenzi fight for every breath, as she convulsed and screamed in his arms, as her muscles locked and her back bowed all he wanted more than anything was to take her pain away and make it all as it used to be. Before the Norn, before all this confusion set into his mind. Now he knew it would never be the same again, she would be forever altered by one stupid, simple, human choice made out of love and kindness.
A long low hiss had him turning towards the others to see Kenzi being lowered into the water and he had to fight his every instinct to stop them, stop this. Take away her hurt and turn her back into the fun loving human she had always been before she met them. Before she met him.
He stood in the doorway of his spacious bathroom and stared at Kenzi. Trick and Lauren had put her in his tub and filled it with ice water, she should have been freezing, but even from this distance he could tell she was burning up. Glancing at Trick he knew what the problem was, she was human. Not so much in her body anymore, but her mind was very human. She needed to let her wolf merge with her human side, but didn’t know how. If she fought it too long or too hard she would kill herself. Yanking off his jacket he bent down to unlace his boots. She needed help. She needed him.
Once he was down to nothing but skin, she would need to truly feel him, he carefully eased her forward before slipping into the icy water behind her. Cradling her shivering body to his he tried talking to her, if she was going to survive this she was going to need to let go. To trust him, and he wasn’t sure that she did, not enough anyway, at every complication she turned towards others for help, never once coming to him. Hopefully she would follow him now, or they might just lose her to the abyss within.
Lachlan saw Dyson start to undress and had to fight not to smile. If Dyson didn’t wolf up and admit his feelings soon he was going to lose the bet he made with Trick, as informal as it was. He’d bet that Dyson would admit his love to Kenzi, while Trick believed that the little human would find her courage long before the wolf and be the first to voice her feelings for him. Their love for one another was painfully obvious, but never more so than when Dyson got into that freezing water with Kenzi cradled to his chest.
Watching him cradle the thrashing girl to him and hold her while whispering soothing nonsense into her ears peppered in with assurances of her strength and the belief in better tomorrows was both nauseating and inspiring in its own way. Glancing towards the door he saw the storm brewing in the eyes of his least favorite succubus and smiled.
Some would think him petty for holding a grudge against the unaligned Fae, but the very fact of her existence in her un-anchored state made him want to grind his teeth in frustration. She needed to choose a side and perhaps now that her beloved Kenzi would soon be made to choose a side of her own the girl would finally hop off that fence she loved so much and declare herself.
Only time would tell.
Bo tried to tell herself that Dyson was just being Dyson. Helping people came naturally for him, but she couldn’t hold on to that. Watching him hold her, whisper to her, stroke her hair, it was beyond obvious that he loved her. She had come here so full of anger and now she was just tired, she wanted to curl up and close her eyes to sleep for years.
“So what are you two together now?” The startled look on his face just dragged her further down into her own pit of despair, he’d forgotten she was even in the room, he had never forgotten her before.
“Bo I think you should go.”
“What?” She couldn’t believe Trick was kicking her out. He was her grandfather, shouldn’t he be on her side. She had every right to be upset. Didn’t she? She didn’t want to leave Kenzi, she didn’t want to leave Dyson, and more to the point she didn’t want to leave Kenzi and Dyson together. Lauren might have been wrong before about Kenzi leaving her for another Fae, but she didn’t think she would stay wrong for much longer. Not if she left.
“This transformation will be hard enough on Kenzi, and without the influence of Dyson’s wolf she may not make it. He can’t be distracted.” Oh well that sounded practical. She was a big distraction for Dyson. Turning away she walked out secure in the knowledge that she hadn’t really seen what she thought. Dyson and Kenzi would never do that to her, they loved her. Dyson and Kenzi were just really good friends that was all, there was nothing to worry about, once everything was better she would apologize to Kenzi for jumping to conclusions, they would share a pint of ice cream and everything would be as it was before.
Dyson held Kenzi for hours as the war within her raged. As her perfectly painted nails flashed to claws and back again leaving blood caked across her skin. As each deep shuddering breath revealed cute little fangs instead of pearly white teeth. As every third wheeze for air turned into a low growl of pain.
He told her that it would all be alright all she had to do was relax. Let go. That he wouldn’t let anything bad happen to her. All the while he prayed that he wasn’t lying to her, that everything truly would be fine once she completed her first embrace of her wolf. The truth was he wasn’t sure, while being a wolf was something innate to him, he wasn’t sure how the transition from human to animal would really work for her. He hoped he would be able to help her bridge the gap he knew was widening by the second, but he just wasn’t sure.
Finally he watched her beautiful ice blue eyes flash glowing with molten swirling silver before she fell into an exhausted sleep. It was over. She was Omega.
He watched everyone slowly leave as he got a now warm and dry Kenzi tucked into bed. Lauren was following after the Ash apologizing over and over for running to Bo with Light Fae business. He studiously ignored her pleas for forgiveness, he wasn’t even sure why she hadn’t left with Bo though it might be that the Ash wasn’t the only one upset with her about what her little act of tattling had caused. Trick trudged out grumbling about a bet and still being in the game. He paid them no attention at all; every ounce of his focus was on Kenzi. The girl he nearly lost. The girl he loved. There he admitted it, he’d fought long and hard to deny it, but he knew it was true. Now he could only hope he didn’t lose her to regrets, or resentment. He was to blame for what she had become, and one day she would realize it too. Realize that what she had done for him wasn’t worth the price she paid.
“Dyson?” The sound of her voice made his heart stop. She sounded raspy, her throat still sore from hours of screaming and struggling to find control where there was no control to be found.
“Yeah Kenzi?” He knew she should be sleeping but he also knew what it was to have too many questions swirling around in your brain to be able to just drop off and sleep no matter how tired your body was.
“What am I gonna do now?”
“Well, you’re gonna stay here with me and I’m gonna teach you all about being a wolf. The rest we’ll deal with when it becomes a problem. Deal?” He held his breath for her answer.
“Deal.” With that she fell back into a restful sleep. Leaning down he kissed her forehead before curling up next to her in the dark.
“I love you Kenzi.” With that sleep reached up to overtake him.
Kasey1939 