Claiming Treasure
Change

Alpha Carson Nygaard’s POV

Cascade Pack Clinic

“It’s time to start the ice baths,” Doc Olson said. “Her fevers can spike dangerously high, so it’s important we don’t let it get out of hand.”

I sent a mental send to the kitchens; they had been making and storing ice since the attack happened. “Where?”

“Right here,” Frank Grimes said as he pushed the door open. He and Colletta were carrying an old-fashioned clawfoot tub into the room. “Rescued from the construction supply shed.”

“Perfect,” Doc Myers said. “Put it over there.” He pointed to the corner, where a floor drain existed for cleanup. They set it in place, then put a rubber plug in the bottom. I picked Heather up while Doc Myers moved the monitoring equipment on stands, and set her into the tub.

Colletta came back in, this time with a hose and sprayer. She started spraying her down while I grabbed a towel, folding it up and placing it behind her neck and shoulders. Frank rolled a stool over so I could sit behind her. “It’s going to be a long shift,” he said. “You had a chance to explain it all to her?”

“I did, and she agreed to the change. She’s quite upset that the babies will not survive,” I said.

Mom leaned down and hugged me from behind. “You need to save her life first, son. She will get through this with you by her side.”

“I know.” Doc looked at the monitors. “The key is to hold her fever below a hundred and four. If she drops below a hundred, we’ll remove her from the bath.” She was at a hundred and three, so Colletta kept spraying while the Omegas started bringing in bags of ice. Six bags they poured gently over their Luna, then two big coolers were set down with more inside them. “Thanks, ladies.”

They bowed their heads, the bravest speaking. “We are all praying for our Luna,” she said.

“Thank you,” I said.

Doc Olson turned to them. “This could take a long time,” he said to her. “Can you bring some food and drink? None of us want to leave the room.”

“Of course, sir.” The Omegas left, and I went back to massaging Heather’s neck and shoulders.

“That’s enough water,” Doc Myers said, and Colletta shut the spray off and set it aside. He rolled over a portable ultrasound machine. “I plan to check their status periodically,” he explained. “I want to know how much stress the change puts them through.”

“Why is that?”

“We never see the first shift with a pregnant werewolf. Every shift after our first one is almost instantaneous in comparison, and the damage occurs too quickly to see what happens when. If I understand the process, maybe we can replace a way to save the child.” He saw my reaction and showed his neck. “I mean no offense, but if I can learn anything that can save others…”

“I understand. Both of you. This change must be studied and recorded, and you must learn for others. What if Vic accidentally bites Spider Monkey? How many other humans are out there?” I looked around at the others. “Why is Luna doing this?”

“Genetic diversity,” Doc Olson said. “We are all descended from the same fifty original werewolves, most of whom were related to each other. With every generation, the need for fresh genetic material becomes greater.”

“It’s a good theory,” Doc Myers said. “We always believed genetic diversity was one of the reasons Luna chose mates as she did. If you don’t replace mates outside your Pack, inbreeding will result. The finite nature of the original fifty would mean problems at some point.”

“Well, Luna is getting her point across in a rather obvious way,” Colletta said as she sat on the edged of the bed, her hand over her belly. “I’ve talked to a half-dozen Lunas in the last week, all who desperately want a pup. All of them want to know if the blessing is real.”

“What do you tell them,” I asked.

“I tell them to open their eyes to who is getting blessed and who is not. Did you know Sawyer’s pack had two more women announce their pregnancies last week?” I shook my head, no. We had one Omega pair with a successful heat at Cascade. “Coral’s pack had the first successful heat in eight years, right after she found out she was pregnant in successive years. Rori is pregnant, her Beta too. If they want the blessings, they should do what we do. Live among humans. Value babies, no matter the parents. If one parent is human, bring them into Pack life instead of killing them, as mates and not slaves.”

“Packs have tried to use humans as breeders before. The offspring were weak.”

“Why would Luna bless the children of rape with strong wolves?” Colletta shook her head. “Frank is proof that a human can have a strong wolf, but I think he received that wolf because he was the choice mate of a Luna. I think Heather will have a strong wolf, too; not only is she a strong human, but she is the chosen mate of an Alpha. Luna will grant you the mate that you need by your side, Carson.”

Frank pulled his mate closer to him. “When this gets out, humans will be in danger. Some of those Alphas would do anything for power, and creating Alpha and Beta level wolves with humans is too tempting for them to pass up. We can’t let them kidnap and rape women to build their Packs.”

Colletta leaned against him. “I’m sure some Alphas will try, but it won’t work. Their efforts to build an army by enslaving humans will never be successful. Luna will not allow it, and neither will we. When we bring the proposed laws to the Council, they will have to ensure humans are protected. Humans will wipe us out, with good reason, if we are using their women as breeding slaves.”

I was listening while watching Heather. Her temperature had come down, and she began to stir. I kept my head next to hers, holding her left hand. Colletta held her right arm and cast out of the water. Her eyes started to flutter; her temperature was below a hundred and two now. “She’s waking up,” I said.

“She may go in and out as her temperature cycles,” Doc Olson said. “Keep her calm and relaxed.”

I started to massage her neck and scalp as we waited. “Mmmmm,” she finally said. “Carson?”

“Welcome back, baby. You’re fine; you were out for a bit as your temperature spiked.”

“Cold,” she said. I looked over to Doc Olson as he nodded, so I moved around and picked her up in my arms. Colletta helped dry her off before I set her down on the bed. She started to shiver, so I pulled the blankets over her, then undressed and slid in behind her to warm her up again. She snuggled back into me as her body sought the heat, and my wolf and I were happy to provide it.

“Keep her there for a bit, we need to take her cast off,” Doc Myers said. “She will hurt herself if she shifts in it.”

“It’s still broken,” Heather mumbled.

“The blood and the impending change boost your healing rates far beyond what humans can experience,” he replied. He cut away the cast, then used a portable x-ray to check the arm. I removed the lead shielding from her belly and got back in bed with her as soon as he finished. “Looks like it’s nearly healed. That’s good; you’ll have plenty of bones to break in your shift.”

I’d given her an idea, but the Doctor told her what she could expect from a medical standpoint. It was Frank who knew exactly what she was facing, and he didn’t pull any punches. “It’s the most painful thing I’ve ever gone through. I was ready to die to escape the pain, but I couldn’t. This woman here loved me, and it was her love that pulled me through. When it gets bad, hold onto that line. Carson loves you, we all love you, and we’ll be waiting for you when you’ve shifted.”

She looked up at me, and all I could do was kiss her gently. “I wish I could take the pain for you because I would,” he said.

“I know.” She was flushed, and her temperature was beginning to spike again. “Don’t leave me, Carson.”

“She needs to get back in the tub,” Doc said as he watched the monitors.

“Don’t fight the change, my love. Let it surge through you,” I said as I picked her up again. I carried her over, this time sitting with her in the freezing tub. I arranged her between my legs, her head resting on my chest. A few minutes later, she was out again as her temperature climbed.

They dumped more ice on us, and I ignored the discomfort as I held my mate. The shift was starting to come; fur started poking through her skin, and her bones with the breaking and reforming needed to change forms. She would scream in pain, moving as she sought relief and replaceing none. The next break would have her screaming again.

“She’s losing blood,” Doc Olson said. I looked down at the tub, where bright red blood was coming from between her legs. “Let us take her.”

They picked her up and laid her on the floor where Colletta had spread bedsheets down. I got up, taking a towel from Frank and drying off. Doc Myers had his ultrasound probe on her stomach as her body convulsed and shifted. Her legs broke, and her feet and ankles extended, the toes changing to pads, the toenails to claws. Her screams became whines as her head and face lengthened, forming a muzzle. There was a sound like gunshots as her spine realigned, and a tail grew from her lower back.

For a werewolf’s first shift, the whole process took seconds after an hour or two of the fever. For Heather, the first shift stretched on and on. I looked at the sheet under her hips, which were almost done shifting into wolf form now. It was red with her blood, along with the fur on her legs. Doc Myers kept moving the probe around, looking for something and smiling. “What’s going on with the babies,” I asked.

“I don’t believe it,” he said. “Look.” He turned the monitor towards me; turning up the volume, I could hear the fast whooshing of their heartbeats.

Heartbeats. The babies lived? “The bleeding?”

“The shift caused the damage, but the placenta reattached and healed. The twins are healthy and active.”

With a few final bone snaps, Heather’s shift finished. She was a magnificent wolf; she was big, clearly an Alpha, with glossy dark brown fur with white patches on her legs and chest, and sparkling golden eyes. Her eyes looked into mine, and our wolves connected in that instant. “Mine,” she said over the link.

“My mate,” I said. “I love you.”

“Pups?”

“Yes, pups,” I said as I looked back to the ultrasound screen. You could see the little tykes moving around inside their amniotic sacs. “Our pups.”

“Tired,” she said as her eyes rolled back, and her head went back to the floor.

I laid behind her as the two doctors checked her over. “We need to move her to a bed,” Doc Myers said. “We’ll clean her up first. Congratulations, Alpha Carson. Your Luna and her pups are strong and recovering quickly.”

“How?”

“In a normal werewolf shift, it happens so quickly that our healing can’t fix the damage in time. With our Luna, the change occurred over a much longer time. As her organs shifted, her healing was able to fix the damage. The babies were stressed but came through just fine.” While he was talking, Frank and Colletta cleaned the blood from her legs and moved the soiled linens out of the way. Frank picked her up and set her on the bed, where Colletta had already changed the linens. I jumped up behind her, curling around her back as Doc Myers inserted an IV needle into her front left leg. “Sleep will be good for her. Let her rest,” he said.

“When can she shift back?”

Colletta repeated my question to Doc Olson since he wasn’t my Pack. “She can’t shift back without killing the babies,” Doc Olson said. “Her next shift will be normal speed. Her wolf will know this and refuse to shift, but you need to explain it to her.”

“She’s staying in wolf form until the twins are born?”

“Yes. It will make things more interesting, but this has happened before. If necessary, we can deliver by Caesarean section.” Doc Olson smiled at us. “Congratulations, Alpha Carson. Doctor Myers and I will monitor her until Heather recovers.”

Mom and Frank came over to our bedside, Mom kissing us both. “What do you want to tell the Pack, Carson?”

I thought about it. The mole was gone, and it was going to be hard to hide Heather in wolf form. Everyone would smell her, and they already felt her join the Pack bond. “I’ll do it,” I said. Mentally reaching out to the entire Cascade Pack, I got their attention. “The blessings of Luna are truly with us today. Luna Heather has accepted me as her mate and has completed her first shift. The twins survived the change, and are healthy and active. To protect them, Luna Heather must remain in wolf form until the babies are delivered. The details of this are for Cascade Pack only; no one may reveal information about the Luna or her pups outside the Pack without my express permission. If asked, you may only say that Heather Rhodes is still alive. Questions?”

There were a few, most of which centered around when the party would be. “Send out hunting parties. We will feast in our Luna’s honor tomorrow night.”

The celebration was going to be epic. “Mom, this affects us all. I think our allies should be here for the party.”

“If it is safe, I will get them here,” Mom said. “Get some rest, I’ll take care of everything.”