🐺 Seven heat 🐺

"Absolutely not." Kellen sank into the seat behind the large oak desk in his office. He threw his legs up, laced his fingers together behind his head and lean back in the chair.

Barbara, his older, more infuriating cousin, sat across from him bouncing her very agitated daughter on her knees.

"I don't see why not?" She jutted her chin up at him, "The others are having their stupid testosterone fight, the girls can have Seven heat if they want to."

Kellen groaned inwardly, she was a problem he did not need in his life at the moment. Barbara had two years on him, three on her brother Trevor and Kellen didn't remember her without the air of rebellion surrounding her. Barbara always had a fight to start or a heat to stroke and once she had her mind set on something, arguing with her was just a stupid waste of time.

He glared at her,  "You'll sooner get my permission for a knife fight, hell, even a gun fight but no one is having the dance of seven heat."

"Why not?" She maintained adamantly.

Because putting aside whatever was wrong with Vera and the other two men in the hospital, having a bunch of werewolves-mated and unmated- in heat was the last thing he needed on his plate right now. Not when his mate's link has just been revived and he has no idea what it meant. He still needed to find that little girl called Billie, and he has to be prepared for chances of running into his mate. He didn't need some messed up hormones clouding his judgement if he does.

"Where is your mate, anyway?" Kellen asked, just as his niece suddenly burst into tears and Barbara bounced her faster in an attempt to do what exactly, he had no clue. "We all know he is the better parent here. You can't even manage an eight months kid and you're already desperate to go into heat, is Marlow depriving you of sex?"

"I get all the sex I want." Barbara growled, "And last I heard, you had Marlow on a wild goose chase but this isn't about me, the people sent me to talk with you about the dance first. Who knows, it might even bring us a Luna." She added suggestively.

Kellen threw his legs down and got on his feet immediately, "Here, give Bebe to me." He said, reaching for the baby. An obvious attempt to kill that conversation right there, or at the most, redirect it.

"Hey now, brightness," Kellen cajoled in baby voice, resting the little one across his shoulder and gently patting her back. "What's all the fuss about, darling?I'm tired of your mum's bullshit, too, you don't see me crying about it?"

Barbara laughed, her eyes soft as she looked up at the both of them. "I reckon you'll make a decent father someday."

"Yeah, hopefully in a distant, distant future. Isn't that right, Bebe?"He lifted her up to his eye level and bobbed her nose with his, instantly feeling the baby's running temperature. Kellen brought her down and cradled her in one arm to get a better feel of her skin with the back of his other hand.

"By the Moon and all that is good, Barbs, this baby is burning hot!"

"I know," Barbara sighed tiredly. "She's been more irritated than usual since yesterday, I barely got three hours of sleep."

"Have you had Ernie check her up?"

"Pfft," She flicked her wrist. "She's teething, it's normal and she's a werewolf, it'll pass."

Kellen gritted his teeth at Barbara's negligence. "Get your rear off that chair right now and come take this child to the hospital."

She groaned, "Fine, but what about the Seven heat?"

"You'll be lucky if I let you all have a festival at all." Kellen growled, thrusting the baby back into her hands and practically shoving her out of his office. He immediately gave in to Rio's tugging at their mindlink.

'Status?!' He demanded.

'I've got sight on Dr. 190 IQ, he's just pulling into the territory.'

Even through mindlink, Kellen could almost taste Rio's bitterness on bringing his mate's ex boyfriend into the pack. At their situation, Kellen would gladly bring the devil himself if it meant Vera and the others got better.

'Good. I'll meet you at the hospital in thirty.'  Kellen closed his eyes and sighed, 'And Rio?'

'Yeah?'

'Be nice, we need this guy'

Rio scoffed, 'I don't know what you're talking about, Alpha. I'm the fucking ocean of niceness, many fetch from me'

Kellen cut him off and tried tapping into Trevor's mindlink but hit a wall, which meant the beta wasn't anywhere in the territory even though Kellen had called to tell him what was going on the night before.

He picked his phone and dialed Trevor's number instead. "Where the hell are you?" He growled as soon as the line was picked.

"On my way, promise." Trevor quickly said through the phone. "How's Vera?"

"You'll know when you get here."

"Cool," Trevor sighed. "Listen man, I'm bringing a friend with me to stay for couple days, can Jared prepare the guest house?"

"The guest house has been prepared for our guest doctor, which you'd know if you are where you should be for once."

"That's fine," Trevor said, "She can stay with us at the house. You don't mind, do...."

Kellen narrowed his eyes, "She? What, you're in the business of bringing your hoes home now?"

He heard his cousin suck in a breath at the other end of the line and then immediately cleared his throat. "I'm in the car bro, you're on speaker."

"Whatever. If you want this chic knowing where to find you after you inevitably break her fragile, little heart then that's your business."

"What an arse." A female voice chipped in.

"Excuse me?" Kellen growled.

"That's right, excuse you." The voice called back, rising with each word she spoke. "You don't know me Mr. man, you have no right to talk to me in such stupid manner."

"Such stupid manner?" Kellen was flabbergasted.

"See there, we agree!" She yelled.

Kellen scowled, even though she couldn't see him. Bloody hell, was she touched in the head?

"You don't know who you're talking to." He said.

"Oh I think I have you all figured out the moment you opened your lousy mouth, you.."

"That's enough, Gypsy!" Trevor cut in. "Sorry bro, gotta go." He added and the line went dead

Kellen was annoyed, this lady with the sharp tongue must have thought he she was talking to the village's clown!

Something about her voice grated on his nerves.

Letting his phone clatter down on the desk, he swiped up his car keys and strode out of the office. He didn't need to deal with some easy lay Trevor has gotten himself this time, he had a bigger fish to fry.

🍃🍃

"Dr. Rick Snowman, I don't think you've met my boss, Alpha Kellen Keeper." Ernie introduced and Kellen stepped forward to clasp the other man's hand in a firm handshake.

"I haven't had the pleasure." Rick Snowman smiled. Right there Kellen could see exactly why having him around bothered Rio so much. Rick Snowman was a walking heartthrob, and when he smiles, you could almost hear charms chiming somewhere in the distant.

Rick and Ernie would make a picture perfect celebrity couple. Rio, in that picture would be their hulk body guard.

"Thanks for making it here fast with such short notice."

"Of course, Ernie calls, I come running. Always." Rick glanced at her with warmth in his eyes. Rio growled lowly.

'Cool it' Kellen warned through mindlink.

"Shall we get started?" Ernie cleared her throat and turned to the nurse beside her. They both handed out hospital gowns, hair covers, face mask and gloves before leading them into Vera's ward.

Kellen had insisted on being present for Dr. Snowman's evaluation, but now he wanted to get the hell out of there as fast as his legs could carry him. Seeing the woman he'd been with, the woman that felt so alive in his arms just a couple of days ago, now lying lifeless and disfigured, was terribly unnerving.

"It started out as tiny little rashes, now they look like contact burns of some sort of synthetic chemical." Ernie said, mostly to Rick.

Rick who was now bending over Vera, his nose almost buried in the large blotches covering her arm. "They look more like malignant tumors to me."

"Cancer?" Kellen asked, bewildered.

"Sarcomas to be exact," Ernie and Rick said simultaneously, then exchanged a look. An identical fondness on both their faces.

Ernie quickly looked away and glanced briefly at her mate. She cleared her throat, "Except Sarcomas doesn't grow on the skin, they grow beneath. Not to mention a progression this advanced would be consider stage IV, and this is a werewolf that was perfectly fine until she wasn't, for just a few days."

Kellen crossed his arms across his chest. "And unless cancer is now contagious, how do you explain the men in the other room?"

"So much for the 190 IQ." Rio grumbled under his breath. Rick who has done his best to pretend Rio wasn't in the room altogether, raised his head to lock eyes with him for a second and promptly dismissed his existence again as he went back to examining Vera's hand with a dark light penlight.

"Hmm." he hummed thoughtfully.

"Hmm, what?" Rio snapped.

"Could you get a sample of the pus, please?" Rick gently asked the nurse between him and Ernie. He finally stood straight and face Kellen, making it a point to ignore Rio once again.

"May we?" He indicated stepping outside, Kellen was all too willing to comply.

"Alpha Kellen,"

"Can we have this discussion in my office instead?" Ernie interrupted, "With you alone, Alpha."

"Fine by me." Rick shrugged, already walking in the direction of her office.

Kellen looked at Rio beside him, his jaw was tightened and he had a pained look in his eyes as he looked at his mate. Kellen had a distinct feeling there was more going on between the two than just the present of Snowman.

"Ernie," Rio whispered, reaching for her but she spurn around and marched after Rick Snowman.

"What's that about?" Kellen asked.

A flash of annoyance flickered over Rio's face, "Are you asking as my Alpha or as my friend? Because as my Alpha I'll tell you everything but as my friend, why the fuck should I tell you anything about my life?"

Fair enough, Kellen thought. Obviously Rio was still pissed off about what he said yesterday and for refusing to tell him about his cursed mate's link.

He left his friend brooding and went to join Ernie and Rick.

"As I was saying, Alpha Kellen, at this point, my guesses are only as good as Ernie's." Rick thumbed through pages of a chart and then tuck the whole thing under his arm.

"But there's a reason it's called 'practicing medicine' right?" He laughed, "We'll be running more test, every tests in the textbook. I'll be taking some samples back to my lab right away, and if you don't mind I'll like to have a vile of your blood as well."

"Anything you need."

"Excellent. I'm afraid we may already be too late for the poor woman in there but if there's anything we can do for the others, we will find it."

Kellen shook his head once, his eyes wide as if he was in a daze. "I don't follow." Surely Rick couldn't be saying what he was hearing.

Ernie stepped forward, her arms crossed over her chest but more like she was trying to hold herself together. "Vera's organs are shutting down, Alpha. She has 72hours, maybe less. And we still don't know anything yet. I'm sorry."

"Well, you best get to work then." Kellen growled, "No body dies, you got that?" His eyes snapped between the two doctors standing before him.

Ernie ducked her head down and closed her eyes, Kellen could smell her fear and vulnerability and it shook something deep within him.

"Ernie?" He called.

She open her eyes, uncrossed her arms and stare at her fingers. "I'm sorry, Alpha, we may be looking at the start of an unidentifiable epidemic."

"What does that mean?"

"Barbara brought Bebe in today,"

"No," Kellen realize what she was about to say and shook his head in denial. Not his niece too, "No."

"Bebe have the onset of the rashes on her belly and feet."

Kellen could feel the blood draining from his veins and his face solidifying at her words. He heard them, but did not-could not register them. This was not an enemy he could fight with teeth and claws. And he was utterly helpless against the next words that came out of Ernie's mouth.

"The only thing we know about this...this..virus is that the progression is rapid once the rashes appears. Even for werewolves, and Bebe is..." Ernie gulped as if speaking the news was like pulling nails out of her throat.

"Breathe, Ernie." Rick said, stepping closer to her, "We have time and we'll get to the root of this, together."

"What if you can't?" Ernie choked. "These are not just patients, Rick, they are family! And I am just..I fear that the disease will run its course faster with Bebe, she's still human."

Those were the words that sent Alpha Kellen's heart dropping straight to his feet.