A Luna's Broken Heart

Chapter 5: Healing

-Rider-

It had already been more than a week, and James still hadn’t shown any signs of waking up any time soon. I feared I might not have gotten to him in time, yet his body seemed to be healing, slowly, but it was healing. Even the redness around his cuts was getting better, yet somehow, he wasn’t waking up. Maybe I really had gotten to him too late, I wondered, as I leaned my shoulder against the doorframe. I was holding a cup of coffee in my hand, as I watched him. It was one thing curing the body, it was another thing curing the mind … If James really woke up, what would happen next? Would we be able to sit down and talk about things, or would he simply refuse to listen to me?

He had had nightmares ever since I brought him here. Sometimes he would wake me up in the middle of the night, screaming, calling, yelling. It was painful every time it happened. The way he seemed to call for his dead mate, was like a knife running directly into my own heart. I hadn’t met my mate, and I didn’t believe I would. Other than my practice, I didn’t see other people. I liked the loneliness. I preferred it after everything that had happened to me and my family. I just simply wasn’t the same. That was why I understood. I knew about the fears and the loss James was experiencing.

Waking up to everything being gone was … I couldn’t even describe it. My mom, my dad, my brother, my sister … for years I even believed Valerio was dead too. Until I heard rumors of a survivor of the royal family trying to claim back his throne. I couldn’t believe my own ears, and I had for a short moment run to the door, thinking I would go find him and we could … what? Hug, say how much we missed each other? How we both believed each other to be dead? What would we say? Where did we go from here? Just because we both had survived didn’t mean we were the same as before. We might share the same blood, the same eyes, the same deaths … but we weren’t the same. Valerio had smiled once, and never sought out a fight he didn’t have to fight. He was smart and he valued peace. That changed. I wasn’t even sure if you asked him how many he had killed, he could give you a number. He turned cold. Distant. He became king. He claimed back what was his, but I knew he found it all to be empty.

I was so surprised when I heard he had become mates with Xavier’s daughter, Octavia, the male that took it all away from us. I hadn’t even known he had a daughter. He had played mind tricks on her and used her against Valerio, but in the end, the two of them worked it out somehow. I didn’t believe it to be right. Anyone who had anything to do with Xavier, my brother, should stay far away from. I had no idea, how on earth, he had found it in his heart to accept Octavia. I couldn’t have. I wouldn’t have … especially not since he had been given Michael’s daughter … what was her name now? I had forgotten, but I knew she came from a good family, and Michael and his family had for many generations always been loyal to our family. Why would he risk losing all of that for a traitor’s daughter? I still didn’t get that. I didn’t think I ever would.

“My lord?”

I heard a faint and hoarse voice coming from the couch, and it brought me out of my thoughts. James’s eyes were directly on me. Their green-blue color searched me in the fever fog that I could see he was still trapped in. I took a step closer, so I was standing in front of him. He looked at me, as if he was seeing a ghost. I understood the shock. I was a ghost. I wasn’t supposed to exist, but here I was … Alive and well … or at least alive.

“It’s not Valerio,” I said.

James narrowed his eyes. I knew with the dark hair and the eyes, I was almost like Valerio’s twin, instead of … It was the dark hair that did it. It made me look exactly like the king.

“I’m Rider. His brother. I found you in the woods,” I told him, but I could see not one of my words got through to him.

“Jane,” he whispered, looking around. “Where is Jane? I’m looking for … I’m supposed to find … Who am I?”

James kept looking around himself, before his eyes landed on his hands, studying them closely, as if he couldn’t understand what it was he was looking at. His behavior didn’t shock me. After living in his wolf form for so long, it was not surprising he didn’t recognize himself or even his hands. The memories and his other half he had tried to block out for so long, were suddenly coming back to him, but slowly. He still needed time to put things together.

“Who am I?” he whispered before his eyes turned to me. “Why are you here? Who are you?”

“I told you. I’m Valerio’s brother. Rider.”

“No,” he just said and shook his head, before trying to sit up.

I was quickly at his side, placing a hand on his shoulder, trying to prevent him from hurting himself. He still needed time to recover, and it was a bad idea if he tried to move around now.

“Lay down,” I said calmly. “You’re not well enough.”

“Don’t touch me!” he said and pushed my hand away.

I took a step back, while James tried to find the strength to get up, but it was like seeing a child trying to walk for the first time. Clumsy, and in the end, he failed right before he suddenly started to cough violently, from becoming so exhausted from trying to sit up.

I quickly grabbed the water I had placed on the coffee table, and helped lift him up a little bit, so he could drink the water. He only took a few sips, before he gave into exhaustment and slowly fell back into a deep sleep.

I shifted my weight backwards and sat down on the little table while placing the glass at my side. I sighed tiredly and rubbed my eyes. This hadn’t been the greatest start, but at least it was a start. It would be a long way to recovery for him, but I would be there to help him through the steps, or at least as many as I could. I just had to get him well enough, so he could return home and continue to help my brother. Valerio, everyone in that house, needed him. If I couldn’t go help my brother myself, I could at least do this for him. Sending his friend back home.