Cade by Mason Sabre Page A

fluttering open with difficulty.
    He blinked—once, twice, three times—until his vision began to clear and the faces of Stephen and Gemma came into view. Stephen was bent over him, his face a mask of concern as he stared at him. “I guess that answers that then,” he muttered.
    Confused, Cade frowned. “What?”
    “Whether someone can be bound to a half-breed, like you can to anyone else.”
    Cade’s throat was dry as he tried to talk. He could still taste the blood in his mouth and feel the flesh in his throat. He touched his fingertips to his lips, but they came away dry and clean.
    “Nothing there,” Stephen said, frowning at him.
    “I … I was ... ”
    “Eating?” asked Gemma.
    “Yeah,” Cade croaked, trying to nod his head and instantly regretting it. The world spun around him. “Someone put something in my mouth.”
    Stephen stood, his eyes intent on his best friend. He pushed the door open a crack so that Cade could peer in. The boy lay sleeping, curled up on the floor—the wolf was no longer there. Blood marred his face and his hands, his naked form shivering on the cold, hard floor.
    “He shifted back?”
    Gemma nodded. “Stephen gave him the rabbits, but you …” She paused and swallowed down tears. “You started … eating.”
    “The rabbits?”
    “Nope, your own fucking arm,” Stephen said wryly. “Now that was some weird shit.”
    Cade stared down at his arm and there it was—it looked like somebody had tried to take a chunk out of his arm. He had broken the skin, but there was no real damage luckily. He looked up at Stephen again, needing to make sure he had heard him right. Had he really just tried to chew his own fucking arm off?
    Stephen nodded, reading his mind. “Yep. Like a genius you were. Had to prise your arm away before you did yourself some real damage.”
    “It was only when he started to shift back that you stopped,” added Gemma gently. “Maybe you're bound to him more than you thought.”
    “No,” he said vehemently. “I can't be. Maybe it’s just that I’ve not eaten.” He tried to get up, but his legs didn’t seem to want to work. He tried to focus but his mind kept trying to float the hell away. What was wrong with him? Everything about him felt as though he were made from jelly.
    “If the hunger had taken his life …” Gemma broke off.
    “Don’t,” Cade rasped. Even in this state, the need to protect her from any pain was deep. “It’s not that bad,” he assured her.
    Stephen snorted. “Have you looked at yourself?” 
    “The link doesn’t go two ways. I’m just tired. It’s been a shit long day. I have shifted twice and not hunted.”
    “I'm afraid it does, and it did.” Stephen was not letting him get away that easily. “Congratulations, my friend. I think you are officially a father. You are well and truly stuck.”
    Cade sagged against the wall and sighed. Did it matter? He tried to ask himself that, tried to see reason, but did it honestly matter if he and the boy were linked? If the Humans found the boy here, Cade would be executed anyway. Nothing mattered, he decided. Not a single fucking thing.

Chapter Eleven
     
    Although Gemma hadn't seen the boy’s face at the onset, she could see that it had healed considerably since she had laid eyes on him for the first time in the car. A scar ran through his left eyebrow and a bruise still shadowed his eye, but other than that, it was clear. His head lolled to one side of the bathtub in which he lay, his breathing slow but steady. His eyes were nothing more than small slits, and she suspected that he was far from conscious. She soaked the washcloth in the water and brought it back up again, squeezing out the excess water onto his hair, his face and his chest.
    It had been Stephen who had lifted him into the tub. Cade sat on the chair in the corner of the bathroom, leaning back, too exhausted to hold up his own head. He had refused to go lie down, wanting to stay near the boy. His body had