Bailey Bradford - Southwestern Shifters 07 - Revolution Read Online Free PDF

We’re travellers who are lost. We were hiking…” He trailed off, thinking if there was a hell he was surely going there for lying, but what else could he say?
“Very well then. Let us help you carry him. What is your name?” Father Norbert asked.
Jameson gave the abbreviated version of his name, James, and left it at that. They could think he was just an idiot but he wasn’t willing to risk using his last name or Luuk’s. “This is Lowell, and he’s been hurt, on his side, and I think he ate something poisonous when we were lost and starving…”
Such a ludicrous story, to Jameson, who knew there wasn’t a fucking thing to eat in those mountains. There was snow and the occasional animal if they could catch it, but not berries and such. Not anything poisonous that he knew of, at least.
But the priests didn’t question him, and later, he helped them clean Luuk’s wound, which was already festering and infected—and it shouldn’t have been, not with their healing abilities.
“Is the poison from here”—Father Piotr touched one small patch of inflamed tissue— “or did he ingest something?” He pinned Jameson with a non-judgemental look, and Jameson wanted to trust the man so bad, wanted to be able to share the concerns and fears for just a while. Could he take such a risk?
Father Norbert grunted and scratched his neck as he averted his gaze. “We have promised to help you. You have told us you are not criminals. Have you lied?”
“No,” Jameson croaked, “I haven’t, we aren’t. But there are those who want us dead, and I can’t tell you why. I’m sorry but I can’t.”
Father Piotr nodded. “We accept that, and so, can you now tell us, did he truly eat anything—?”
“No,” Jameson interrupted, “he hasn’t. Neither of us have had a decent meal in…” Longer than he cared to remember. Jameson ditched the thought. This wasn’t about him. “He was shot, and it should have just been a scrape, really”— healed already —“not…not this. And he should be awake!”
Jameson hadn’t meant to shout that last part, but Luuk’s pulse was growing weaker, and damn it, he was so afraid…
“So poison, maybe on the bullet.” Father Piotr gestured to Father Norbert. They didn’t speak but something passed between them, because Father Norbert stood and left the room. “He shall return with the medicines we hope will work. We have modern medicines, and more…traditional ones. I am believing it is the older ones that might help Lowell. There are things that work better on otherly types.”
Jameson’s stomach crystallised into a ball of ice. Father Piotr knew…and so did Father Norbert, who could even now be calling someone! Jameson leapt up, prepared to do whatever he had to do to keep Luuk safe.
Father Piotr didn’t move, just looked at him all calm and soothing and what the hell was up with that? What is he, some shifter whisperer? Because Jameson was beginning to trust the man, and his instincts were telling him he could.
“How?” was all he asked.
Father Piotr shrugged. “Both Father Norbert and I grew up in a very small town at the base of the mountains you must have come through. We saw things, and perhaps, because of it, we are more open-minded than many other priests. In fact, my sister became a wolf, and I do not think her lacking a soul for it. Her and her husband are not demons by any means, although I would not share any of this with anyone besides Father Norbert, since it was his half-brother she is mated to.”
How did that even happen? Jameson supposed Father Norbert’s mother or father had found a shifter mate or been found, whatever, after his birth. Probably way after, because otherwise he doubted the priest would be here instead of with a pack.
“We will not hurt you, and will not question you anymore.”
Jameson nodded, then looked at Father Piotr. “And please, don’t mention us to anyone, not your shifter family members, no one. Please.”
Father Piotr agreed