Book 1: Chapter 86

Cradling my hand, I closed the door quietly behind me. I was exhausted. The painkillers finally kicked in and I was able to get the straps over Charles, in case he tried to toss while he was in the haze. At some point, he grew his canines and they cracked my bone. I was never going to let him live this down. Since he was doing a minor shift, my hand would scar. Weapons or even human scratches healed in moments with no scars but werewolves and other supernatural creatures we would end up scaring.

Shep was sitting in the chair next to Sam. Sam looked like utterly broken, his eyes glassed over as he stared at the ground. Nate had joined them as well, standing next to Meredith leaning against the kitchen counter. Meredith was the first to notice me walk in.

“Alpha.”

I nodded to her as everyone looked up at me. Sam opened his mouth but I glared at him. Nate sighed and shook his head. Shep got up and took my hand.

“Alpha, I’ll wrap this but it may not heal back right. This may cause permanent damage to your hand.”

Sam squeaked but I sighed. “It’s fine. Do what you can.”

He nodded and quickly had me sit down, taking out his tools from his bag. Using six popsicle sticks, he braced my middle, ring and pinky finger before wrapping each finger individually, then my hand. As he finished and tied off the bandage at my wrist, Shep eyed me seriously.

“Don’t use it for at least a week. I want to see you in two days.”

Just as he was packing up, the door slammed open. My eyes widened as Aelia flew through the door. Behind her, right next to my truck and back door lying on the ground, her motorcycle was laid out.

“What the fuck happened?” Her voice was shaking.

Honestly, she didn’t look much better than Charles did. The dark circles were carved under her eyes. She was wearing a tank top that showed just how much weight she had lost over the past week or so. Her arms now showed the bruised purple blotches that her back had.

“You, girl, shouldn’t even be out of bed! Let alone driving a motorcycle!” Shep exclaimed, his bag dropping out of his hand.

“I want answers now!” She completely ignored him.

Nate took a breath. “That’s what I would like to know.”

“Yesterday, Sam went on his first real date.”

Aelia’s face managed to get paler than it already was. “Sam, you didn’t…tell me he didn’t…”

“He did. They marked each other. Last night apparently.”

“Last night! For fucks sake. Samuel!” Aelia angrily glared at him.

Sam was shaking, tears streaming down his face. “I didn’t know. I honestly didn’t know. I knew that humans received some of our strength and stuff but I didn’t know!” He looked up at us, pleading.

“You didn’t know it was basically a human going through a shift?”

He nodded and brought his hands up, sobbing into his hands. “I’m sorry. I’m so sorry, I didn’t know. I never…if I knew I wouldn’t have…”

Running my good hand through my hair, I sighed. “We got extremely lucky this time. I was able to get to Charles before anything serious started.”

“But Alpha, your hand…” Sam cried and I shook my head.

“Don’t worry about it, Sam. This isn’t the first time I’ve been through a human shift. I just wish you had some sense in you to hold off. I know the mate bond is strong but you know there are steps and processes in place for a reason. Most of them are for both of your safety.”

Nate walked over to Aelia who started to lean further into her robotic leg. He slipped his hand around her waist and she held onto his shoulder.

“Sam, not only do we want to start the pain killers before he has to go through that kind of pain, we also need to make sure he is in a safe place. If he was home alone, he could have fallen. More than one human have been confined to a wheelchair for the rest of their life. You could have not only hurt him but you would have ruined his entire carrier as a police officer.”

I sighed. Leave it to Aelia to tell him straight. Sam let out a strangled cry. Meredith came over and rubbed his back.

“It’s even more than that. Sam, Charles could have seriously harmed you as well. When you guys mate while having sex, he will knot. Humans don’t understand what that means but if he had pulled out immediately from when he came…” Aelia looked like she was about to cry. “…he could have severely hurt you. To the point that your body wouldn’t have been able to correctly shift as an Omega and you would become infertile.”

Sam started to sob further, breaking down completely.

I looked over at Aelia. “That’s enough. He gets it.”

She glared at me. “I don’t give a rats ass if he gets it, Sil. This is beyond getting it. He deserves to know what the hell his stupidity could have caused.”

“I know but it didn’t. The both of them were extremely lucky and we can just leave it at that for now.”

Aelia growled but didn’t say anything else about it. Instead, she turned and headed down the hallway.

“Aelia, where are you going?” Nate asked as she left his side and limped away from him.

“Someone needs to sit with him. Medicated or not. It’s still going to hurt like hell.” She disappeared down the hall. I heard the door quietly close after a few minutes.

Pinching the bridge of my nose, I took deep breaths to level out the anger. She was right. None of this should have gone so well and they got extremely lucky. Not to mention I knew Charles had never been with a man. With Sam’s blush when Aelia brought his virginity into question, he was definitely a virgin. They both were incredibly stupid. All of which one little thing could have gone wrong and the two of them could have destroyed each other.

“Alpha…can I…see him…” Sam gasped through sharp breaths.

“No. You can’t. He needs to be restrained and sometimes when a mate is close, they will fight to get to you. Just based on pure instinct. You aren’t allow in that room, that is an order.”

He cried but bared his neck to me. “Yes Alpha.”

“Go to your room, Sam. Get some rest.”

He nodded and fled to his room, slamming the door shut.

“Well fuck.” Nate sat down next to me.

“Yeah, no shit.”

Nate growled. “That was so incredibly stupid. Fuck. What could have happened if you hadn’t gotten to him fast enough or…”

“Yeah. Literally minutes later of leaving the apartment, it could have hit. When he was driving to work or at work. So many things.”

“Your hand hurt?”

I shook my head. “It’s fine. I’m making Sam do all my paperwork though. Since it’s my right hand.”

Nate laughed and nodded. “If you need to head to bed, it’s fine. I’ll take care of it.”

I nodded. “Thanks Nate.”

Getting up, I walked down the hall and slowly opened the door. Aelia was sitting against the headboard of the bed next to Charles. His arm was between her legs and she was running her hands through his hair. It was quiet but she was singing. I caught a few words and I realized it was the lullaby our mother used to sing to us when we were sick. Smiling, I closed the door quietly. I’d have Nate check on them in a few. Just to make sure Aelia was okay.

Heading up to my room, I laid down on my bed.

*‘Well, not how I thought the day would go.’* Eros chuckled and I shook my head.

*‘Don’t you go there.’*

*‘They are safe. Your family is safe. That’s all that matters.’*

I grumbled and closed my eyes.

*‘One day they will laugh about this.’*

*‘Yeah well, that day is not today. Or tomorrow. Maybe a few years down the line.’*

Eros chuckled. *‘You may be right. Aelia though…’*

I swallowed, thinking of how she looked. *‘I honestly don’t know how she managed to get out of bed. Let alone ride her motorcycle here.’* Suddenly I sat up. *‘You don’t think she left without telling them, do you?’*

Eros froze as well. *‘You think they would just let her go and ride her motorcycle in her condition?’*

I groaned and grabbed my phone I placed on the bedside table. Finn was the preferable one to speak to. Noah was going to flip. The phone rang twice and Finn’s chipper voice came over the line.

“What can I do you for, Alpha?”

A lump caught in my throat. He sounded so happy.

Eros growled. *‘Don’t chicken out, Silas. They need to know.’*

There were voices in the background and Noah was asking him a question. Finn answered ‘the grey one’.

“You guys out right now?”

Finn laughed. “Yeah. Solaris was having a better day today. We attached a heart rate monitor on her, it alerts us if it gets below a certain point. But she was sitting up in bed and everything. Noah and I needed to go out to baby shop. We are trying to pick out a crib now.”

I squeezed my eyes shut as I grimace. *‘Fuck. Fuck fuck.’*

*‘Rip off the bandaid, Silas.’*

*‘I know.’* I snapped at Eros.

“So we had a situation up in the territory.”

“Oh? Everything okay?” He was slightly distracted.

I sighed. “Yes. Sam and Charles marked each other last night.”

Something dropped in the background. “Oh Goddess. Are they okay? Did they know?”

“Neither of them knew. Luckily, goddess only knows how, Charles managed to not pull out and hurt Sam. It got a little dicier with Charles. Sam tried to sneak back into the pack house, leaving Charles on his own.”

“That stupid fucking wolf!”

Noah hushed him but Finn growled at him.

“Yeah, well, I managed to get Charles to drive at least part way. He pulled over when the pain started. I drove to pick him up. It started to get bad as we pulled back to the pack house. Still took an hour for the painkillers to kick in. It was…not good but he’s settled now.”

“Holy shit, Alpha. That’s…fuck…”

I chuckled. “You’re telling me. I ripped the door off my truck.”

“So everything is okay?”

I paused. “Sort of.”

“Sort of?”

“Don’t ask me how or when, but Aelia found out about it.”

He chuckled. “She must have fucking flipped her shit. She takes that shit seriously. She’s witnessed first hand what happens when it all goes terribly wrong. So it gets a little sensitive for her. Did she rip Sam a new one?”

“Yeah, she did.”

The phone went quiet and bit my bottom lip.

“Silas?”

“Finn, she rode her motorcycle up here.”

Something definitely broke in the background. “SHE WHAT?!”

I winced and held the phone out. A door slammed and the wind picked up.

“You better be fucking joking with me, Alpha.”

“I wish I was. I don’t know how she did it either but her bike is laying next to my truck on the grass. She came in here and honestly she looked worse than Charles does. Still, she ripped Sam a new one standing in the middle of the kitchen.”

Finn yelled out. “SHE’S TRYING TO FUCKING KILL HERSELF. FUCKING DAMN IT.”

“Finn! Calm the fuck down! You’re causing a scene and this isn’t good for you.” Noah was trying to soothe him but I knew he hadn’t heard.

“Where is she, Silas?” He growled low.

I took a deep breath. “She’s with Charles right now. In bed. She’s comforting him.”

His voice was so low and angry I almost didn’t catch it. “I’m going to murder her myself.”

“Finn, what…?”

“We are going home.”

Noah sounded so confused. “But…why? Did something happen? We still need to pick out…”

“It can wait Noah or I’m going without you.”

“Fuck Finn, fine. Goddess.”

I sighed. “I’m sorry to ruin your day.”

“Oh no, you didn’t. Sol did and when I get my hands on her, she’s gonna wish she died last time.”

The phone clicked and I stared at my Home Screen.

*‘I think we might need to stay awake.’* Eros pipped up.

*‘I think we might need to call for backup.’*