Part B: Chapter 26

***Two Days Later***

"Just how much did you give him?” Carter asked, shooting me a look.

“I don’t know, all of it?”

“All of it, what the hell is wrong with you? How can you give him all of it?”

“I don’t know, I panicked and you didn’t tell me what I was supposed to do so I improvised.” I was now panicking because Aidan still hadn’t woken up and the doctor had advised we take him to the hospital so he could get proper treatment but Carter was against it since that meant taking him out of here and others would see and ask questions. They were already asking questions about his whereabouts. “I’m sorry, I didn’t mean for any of this to happen.”

Sighing, Carter stopped pacing the room and finally gave him his full attention. “It’s not your fault, I should have instructed you on what you should have done,” he said, running his fingers through his hair. There were black circles and he looked tired and much older than he actually was. His smooth features looked rough around the edges. I knew he was worried about Aidan and what it meant for the pack if he couldn’t wake up because I was just as worried. “I guess we just have to wait.”

I meekly nodded my head, I was exhausted from the lack of sleep. All I did was spend every second of every minute by Aidan’s bedside in the hopes that he would wake up. “I’m really sorry, for everything and not just this. I’m sorry about what I did before. I need you to know that I never meant to hurt him like that.” I looked at Aidan lying on the bed unmoving except for the slow moving of his chest showing that he was still alive.

Carter nodded his head towards the outside of the room and I followed after him. Once we were in the living room, he walked over to the mini bar and poured him a glass of whiskey while I sat down on the couch. He joined me on the couch holding two glasses and handed one to me. I’d never taken alcohol before but then there was a first for everything so I took it.

“Thanks.”

“No problem,” he replied, slouching the liquid in the glass as he stared at it. “Honestly, I don’t blame you, sometimes he can be a little too much and most times I’d like to punch him for being stupid.” Then he took a large gulp of the contents. “I told him to talk to you before we left but he didn’t and I know you were angry with him I was too.”

I looked at the contents inside the glass, remembering that day as if it just happened but knowing that that had been ages ago. I bit my bottom lip, took a deep breath and gulped down the contents. The whiskey burned as it went down but then it felt a little better.

“I’ve known him for a long time, he’s not just my best friend but also a brother and I would give my life for him which ironically I’m obligated to do as he’s my Alpha,” he took another gulp of the contents and finished them. “Need some more?”

I passed him my empty glass and he went back to the mini bar where he came back with the bottle instead, leaving the glasses. He sat back down, uncapped the lid before taking a swig from the bottle then handed it over. I held it in my hand and took a swig from it as well, letting the contents burn there as they went down then handed it back to him.

“I miss the days when he would just talk to me instead of keeping things buried inside,” Carter went on, he seemed lost in his thoughts, that nostalgic look on his face. It was enough evidence of how much he cared for Aidan and a small part of me felt sad because I didn’t know if I once had someone like that in my life. “I mean, it’s not like he told me everything, that took time to achieve but when he did he wouldn’t shut up and I missed when he didn’t talk much. Honestly, it’s always a struggle with that guy.”

The bottle kept moving from him to me and it was now half. I didn’t say anything, just listened.

“That’s nice, at least you guys have each other. I don’t even know if I had anyone or if anyone misses me,” I took a swig from the bottle, hoping to numb the sadness I began to feel.

Carter placed a hand on my leg, pulling me from the thoughts I didn’t know I had. “Now you have us and we will always be there for you, even when you make the dumbest choices,” he said and then added, “just look at how Aidan is, that takes a lot of willpower not to smash his head in for being such a dumbarse.”

I smiled but I wasn’t sure if it came out as one. “Thanks, I needed that.”

“Any time kid, you’ll have me. I know sometimes I can seem like a real arse but Gerald didn’t raise us to be weak or show niceness.”

He took the bottle and finished the remaining contents. By now, I was feeling a buzzing sensation which felt...nice?

“I don’t know anything about my life, just how pathetic does one have to be to not know who they are or where they come from?” I wasn’t sure if it was the alcohol talking but I suddenly felt myself become too chatty. “I mean, Aidan found me alone in the woods, any other person would have left me but then again sometimes I feel like the only reason he wanted me to come back with him was because he felt obligated to do so because I’d helped him when he was wounded.”

“He was wounded? What exactly happened in those woods?” Carter asked, as he got up and came back with another bottle of bourbon this time.

I immediately took the bottle and downed a good amount of the contents. I liked the feeling that alcohol made me feel. I’d never felt like this and now I knew what I had been missing on, it helped numb everything I always felt burning a hole inside me.

“I don’t really know, I just found him wounded and then took him back to my house where he made love to me and told me all about lycans,” the thought made me blush but whatever. “But he also passed out when he got there, whatever had attacked him aimed to kill him on the spot because I saw these weirdly shaped bite marks on his stomach and now that I think about it, it took him longer to recover or even transform.”

“Interesting,” Carter said, but I was too buzzed to understand what he was on to. “I’ll have a look into it, thanks for telling me.” He stood up and made his way to the door. “Get some rest, you’re drunk and I’m sure you won’t remember half of what you said after that first bottle. I liked talking to you, you offered some insight.”