I concentrated on cleaning Hansel while Mina and Andrew paced behind , phones in hand, calling different nas and reaching out to contacts, but every response seed to be a dead end.
By the end of the call session, Mina was practically hyperventilating. She had tears rolling down her cheek nonstop and had occasionally shouted and cursed out in Gaelic on so of the calls she’d been on.
For so reason, I couldn’t understand the urgency of the situation. It wasn’t that Hansel was getting any better, but he didn’t look like he was going to die anyti, as Doctor Morgan had said.
Suddenly, Doctor Morgan turned to them, pointing at and said. "Let her go."
Both Andrew and Mina stopped what they were doing to turn and look at before turning to stare at the doctor, as if he’d just suggested sending a toddler. Even I was shocked, pausing mid-wipe across Hansel’s burning shoulder.
"What?" Mina screeched. "Are you insane?"
"Mina!" Andrew cautioned, but at this point, Mina wasn’t trying to hide her feelings.
"She almost killed him last ti, and you want to leave him to her rcy again? Isn’t she supposed to be in jail? Gosh! Sotis I don’t understand you n."
"Mina," Doctor Morgan said calmly. "I know you’re worried about Hansel, and we all are, but Naya is our only option. We need to get him to the pack house within the hour, or his chances of survival will drop significantly. You don’t have ti to keep making calls, hoping soone will magically beco available."
A sob broke out of Mina as she flung the iPad she was holding in her hand, stomping her feet hard. "I hate this! I hate this so much. I hate that I can never be with him when he needs most, and now this half-twit of a human would take my place beside him."
I won’t lie, I didn’t even feel angry at the insult.
Andrew sighed, shaking his head. "Adam would not like this. You know how he feels about outsiders."
"We don’t have the luxury of pleasing Adam," the doctor said, rolling his eyes. "Would you rather have Hansel die because you were too concerned about protocol?"
That shut everyone up. The room beca quiet for a minute, broken occasionally by Mina’s sobbing. After a while, Mina’s phone dinged, and she said tearfully. "The car’s here."
That was when Doctor Morgan turned and walked over. He had a soft smile on his face as he ca to stand next to .
"I know we’re asking for a lot, and I wouldn’t ask if I had a choice, but you’d have to follow Hansel ho. I would go myself, but I have patients here who need , and the others are super busy, plus there’s honestly not much I can do for him even if I did go. The pack healers are the only ones who can help him now."
I looked down at Hansel, at his face twisted with pain even in unconsciousness, at the way his body kept shaking despite the cold water I’d been using to cool him down.
I thought about the way he’d looked at in my dream, with love and devotion, and it made my chest ache. I thought about how he’d paid my debts and bailed out of jail even after I’d tried to poison him.
And I thought about that voice in my dream calling him "my mate" with fierce possessiveness.
The thought of being near him again scared and confused . I didn’t understand the pull I felt or the sadness curled in my chest at his suffering.
"I’ll go," I heard myself say.
Mina made a sound of protest, but Andrew held up a hand to silence her.
"Are you sure?" he asked , his eyes searching my face like he was trying to determine if I could be trusted. "This isn’t... It’s not going to be easy. His family is complicated. And where you’re going is different from the city."
"I don’t care," I said, and realised I ant it. "If he needs soone to go with him, I’ll do it. He saved when I had no one else. The least I can do is return the favour."
Doctor Morgan nodded. "Good. Then we need to move fast. Help get him ready for transport."
As we worked to prepare Hansel for the journey—wrapping him in blankets despite his fever, making sure the restraints were secure, packing the dication Doctor Morgan said we’d need—I caught Mina staring at with hatred in her eyes.
She’d managed to stop crying, but the redness remained, and her small face was still puffy.
Finally, we ca downstairs, and my mouth dropped when I saw the transport. It was a limited-edition EXD van. They have about 20 of them worldwide.
We settled Hansel into the car, and Doctor Morgan gave one final instruction on how I should take care of Hansel on our trip.
Just as the door wanted to close, Mina held it back, coming to stand in front of . "If you dare as much as hurt a single strand of hair on his head..."
"That’s enough, Mina," Andrew didn’t allow her to finish before dragging her away from .
"I’ll take care of him to the best of my ability," I said quietly to everyone before the van locked for the last ti.
And as I said it, as I made that promise to everyone who loved Hansel, I realised that I’d just committed myself to sothing I didn’t understand.
I was about to follow Hansel Ward into a world I knew nothing about.
To et a family that apparently didn’t welco outsiders.
To help save the life of a man who’d called worthless but whom I couldn’t seem to stop caring about anyway. In my defence, he did help in the end, so that could count for sothing, right?
This was either the bravest thing I’d ever done.
Or the stupidest.
I’d find out soon enough.
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