Chapter 10: Saturdays, You Said

Catriona's POV

Lorna called the clinic's night line at ten past one on Wednesday morning.

"Catriona, it's Emmett. He's shaking. He's blue around the mouth. Our healer's away at the Eastern pack, and I can't reach Conall. Please."

I was in my coat before she finished.

"Bring him now. The back door."

She was there in six minutes, with the boy in her arms and her hair coming down.

Emmett's eyes had rolled up.

His small body jerked every few seconds.

I took him from her and laid him on the table.

"What did he have?"

"Tea. Only tea. Catriona, I don't know what's happening."

"How much?"

"One cup, with supper."

His lips were the color of slate.

One cup would not do this, not unless it was the tea I had smelled on his breath.

I didn't say so.

I rolled him onto his side and cleared his mouth.

I got the line into his arm on the second try.

I gave him fluids and the charcoal, and I counted his breaths out loud.

Lorna stood against the wall and held her own elbows.

"Is he going to be all right?"

"Get out of my way."

She stepped back.

The vet came down from his apartment over the clinic in his bathrobe.

He took one look and took the other side of the table without a word.

Forty minutes later Emmett's color came back, one slow shade at a time.

He opened his eyes and said, "Aunt Catriona," in a voice like a thread.

"I'm here, buddy. You're okay."

"Is Mama mad?"

"No."

I looked up and found Lorna watching me, her face wet and perfect.

I did not look at her again.

The back door banged.

I knew who it was before I turned.

Keep reading free with an account. Start The Last Time He Called Me Dad from Chapter 1, then sign up free to read the rest of this chapter.