"Hey," she answered, then paused. "Yeah, I know Gabby's sick. She's got the..." Another long pause. "Fuck. Oh, shit. Are you there with her? Oh my god, how am I supposed to tell her that?"
Those words sounded like every mother's worst nightmare. Visions of my daughter dying in her sleep, infected with some disease that should've been treated in a hospital, flashed through my head. Without even thinking, I grabbed my phone and shoved back my chair. I had to get home. I had to make sure she was ok. She hadn't been that sick when I'd left, had she?
A list of potential causes ran through my mind. West Nile Virus? No, that was from mosquitoes, and it was too cold for those. Ebola? Corona? I didn't even know, but I was done messing around. I'd just made it to the door when Ashley stepped into the room. I didn't give her the chance to explain.
"I have to check on Gabby."
"Elena," she tried, but I wasn't stopping.
I'd heard the sound of her voice when she answered that call. Whatever had happened was bad. That wasn't the tone used when a kid had puked on the floor. That was the "how do I tell her that her kid is dead," voice. The thought made me break into a jog, my heels clicking on the strip of sidewalk until I made it to the road.
I barely remembered to check for traffic before I found myself running. I didn't aim for the drive to save my heels. I just went straight across the grass, taking the shortest path. Before I even reached the front door, I could hear the screaming. On the upside, that meant she was alive. On the downside, she sounded like she was in pain.
"Elena!" Ashley yelled as she burst out of the office behind me. "Wait!"
Not happening. I burst through the front door and headed for the stairs. Gabby was in her room. That was where the sounds were coming from, but I could also hear other voices. Men's. That made me feel a little better until I rounded the corner and found all five of my guys crowded into my daughter's room, and two of them holding her down.
"What are you doing?" I asked.
Ian just pointed. "Get her out of here."
"That's my daughter," I shot back.
But the sound of my voice only made things worse. Whatever was wrong with Gabby was like nothing I'd seen before. She looked possessed, grunting and shaking her head hard enough to sling spit across the bed. Then I saw her arm break free to slap at Lane. Right there in the middle - in the same place she'd had a bandage earlier in the week - was a dark red wound shaped like a ring of teeth. Animal teeth.
My little girl had rabies, and rabies was fatal.
"We have to call an ambulance," I said, swiping at my phone.
In one step, Ian was before me. He grabbed my phone and tossed it to the side without stopping. Then he caught me around the waist, forcing me out. When I tried to resist, he just lifted and kept walking, straight to the guest room across the hall, where he pushed me inside. Slamming the door behind him, he leaned up against it, trapping me here.
"What are you doing?" I asked.
"You can't be around her right now," he told me. "Elena, she's sick."
"I know that! I was trying to call a doctor before you threw my phone away."
"A doctor can't help her with this."
My hand went to my mouth, and it felt like my heart stopped. "Is she dying?"
He shook his head. "No. No, baby, she's not, but you can't get close to her. If she bit you..."
"What the fuck does she have?" I demanded.
I watched him visibly swallow before he answered. "Lycanthropy."
"Werewolves? Not funny. Ian, I'm serious. She's..." I waved toward the bedroom where she was still screaming. "Can't you hear her?"
"Probably a lot better than you. Elena, I'm not joking." He groaned and shoved a hand through his hair. "Not how this was supposed to go."
"This? What 'this'?"
"Oh, come on," he huffed. "You're a smart woman. Don't tell me you haven't noticed." And he pointed to his eyes. "All of us have it. We don't lease to the rich fucks everyone thinks we do. This place is a sanctuary, Elena. Wolf's Run. It's for wolves!"
And now I was so confused. "The nature trails. I know.