Hugh’s eyebrows rose. Shifter pregnancies were complicated at the best of times. A mother who was a wyvern shifter, her very blood venomous…that had to make it difficult to carry a pregnancy to term. In fact, he would have placed money on it being impossible for a wyvern shifter to give birth to a normal human.
But there was Hope, right before his eyes.
“Chronic poisoning.” Suddenly, her condition made a lot more sense. “How the hell did you survive gestation?”
“Our mother can control her venom,” Ivy said. She tucked her gloved hands under her armpits, shoulders hunching. “Most wyverns can.”
“Once Mom found out she was pregnant, she tamped down her toxicity as much as she could,” Hope said. “She didn’t shift once, the whole time, even though it made her weak and sick. She wanted to give me a chance to survive if I turned out not to be a wyvern shifter.”
“And she wanted to avoid another me,” Ivy said in a low voice. “Just in case it turned out Hope was a wyvern shifter.”
The quiet pain in her tone seared him more than the loudest scream of agony. He clenched his hands at his sides, forcing down the urge to touch her. To hold her and soothe away all her hurts…
“What’s that supposed to mean?” He was having to concentrate so hard on holding himself in check, the words came out harsher than he’d intended.
Ivy didn’t flinch, but her shoulders stiffened. “Forget it. It’s none of your business.”
“If it’s part of your family medical history, then it is my business,” he countered. “If I’m to have a chance of healing your sister, then I need to know everything.”
Actually, he was pretty sure he already knew as much as he needed…at least when it came to Hope. Ivy was another matter, though. He couldn’t ignore that momentary flash of pain. He had to know what had caused it.
Even if he couldn’t do anything about it.
Ivy raised her chin, glaring at him icily. “Our mother shifted a lot when she was pregnant with me. She thought that might be why I’m venomous all the time, even in human form. Why I’m broken.”
“You’re not broken,” Hope said staunchly. “No matter what Mom says.”
A little wyvern girl with big green eyes, told by her own mother that she was broken. A mother who named her younger daughter Hope. It was a good thing he was never likely to meet the woman. It was generally frowned-upon to attempt to turn one’s mother-in-law into a shish-kebab.
Not that she was ever going to be his mother-in-law. Hugh forcibly reined in his vengeful unicorn, tamping down its righteous fury. There was a better way that they could serve their mate.
Hugh touched Hope’s wrist with two fingers, feeling again the old, malign influence of the venom in her blood. Her immune system was like a weary army, ground down by long years of war, nearly ready to break. The poison was slowly eating away at her nerves, paralyzing her body an inch at a time as her defenses failed.
“So.” Ivy’s face was set in an uncaring mask, but a desperate hope shone in her eyes. “Can you heal her or not?”
With all his heart, he wanted to shout Yes, yes! If he could have restored Hope in a single touch of his horn, he would have shifted then and there, and secrecy be damned. He would have done anything to finally see his mate smile.
“I don’t know,” he said reluctantly, hating the way his words snuffed out the light in those emerald eyes. “Maybe. I’d need more time.”
“How much time?” Ivy demanded.
“I haven’t a clue. I’ve never tried to heal anything like this before. I mostly deal with trauma patients.” He spread his hands in Hope’s direction. “Something like this, damage done over years…I don’t know if I can reverse it.”
“What about just stopping it?” Hope asked. “So it doesn’t get any worse? I mean, it would be kinda nice to be able to move my legs, but I’m much more interested in not suffocating to death before my twentieth birthday.”
Hugh rubbed his fingers together, thinking it over. “I’m pretty sure I could at least stop your condition from getting worse. But it could take weeks to purge all the venom from your body.”
Hope’s face fell. “Oh. We don’t have weeks. We have to go today.“
“You’re leaving?” Even though he’d fully intended to never see his mate again, his heart still lurched at the thought.
“Not anymore,” Ivy said firmly. “If this is even a possibility, we’re not going anywhere.”
“I thought we had to.” Hope looked up at her sister, biting her lip. “What about the police? And Gaze?”
“Don’t worry about the police,” Hugh said, before Ivy could respond. “The shifter police would still like to talk to you both, but they know the acid spray was an accident. Griff had a word with his friends on the force and explained the situation to them.”
“I told you he would,” Hope said triumphantly to her sister.