Talons

Chapter 18: The Fear

Rhea's POV

Visitors came in and out of my hospital room; some bought cards, but many of them just wanted to get a good look at me. I wish my mother had left me at the infirmary on our pack territory, but she insisted that I be moved to the hospital that is funded by our alliance because it has better quality equipment and care standards.

My mother is almost always with me. She does not allow the nurses to clean me, which I appreciate, and she has even been using the opportunity to manage my hair. She has arranged it in a way that covers most of my face, so I know I still look terrible, and it suddenly occurs to me that she may have saved my curls for this very purpose.

Because I still cannot move, a nurse is supposed to check in on me every half hour, and I have been timing her to keep my mind occupied. She is nice, but I can tell she is annoyed that she has to flip and rotate me each time she comes in.

I hear footsteps coming toward my room and I am shocked that the woman is early. She is almost always late, but never early. I then notice that her stride is different, and as soon as I see Colton's face, I shut my eyes tightly.

I struggle, but my limbs are still rebelling against me.  I’m horrified by not being able to move, but I’m not sure I would if I could. I am terrified of Colton, and while I’ve been telling myself that I would ruin him the first chance I got, the reality is that I would be too scared to do anything, I can't even look at him.

I hear Colton coming close to me and my heart starts to hammer in my chest. I know I am having a panic attack, and I try screaming, but nothing is coming out; my lips don't even respond. My heart hurts as it thuds, and if I could move, I would be clutching at it right now. 

I start to think that this is how it ends. I will die a month before my fifteenth birthday, in a hospital bed under the cold gaze of Colton, who hasn’t even touched me yet. I feel my heart constrict but before it can burst, I faint.

Colton's POV

It has been two days, and I know from Raven that Brain is in the hospital. No one seems to know what's wrong with her, so I guess she hasn't said anything. 

A rumor has been going around that she was r*pe by a rogue. I don't know how that story got started, but I have actually punched someone in the face for mentioning it around me.

What I had done to that girl was inexcusable, no matter how sexually frustrated my wolf was. I don't even understand why my mind went there. It just happened, and I couldn't turn it off once it was turned on. 

I decide that I need to go visit Brain and apologize directly. It didn't take much for me to figure out where she was staying. Our pack alliance had a hospital built decades before, so that all children could be issued birth certificates and socials without their parents jumping through the hurdles of explaining home births and five-month pregnancies. 

It also gave our packs the appearance of four small towns built within a well forested area, instead of weird people living in the middle of nowhere. We even have a shopping center, which helps us blend in and keeps humans from sniffing around.

After a few sweet words and a quickie in a storage closet, a nurse tells me exactly where I can find Brain. I steal flowers off the reception desk and go to where I was told the girl would be. I was shocked that there were no guards in front of her doors, but I guess her family still doesn't know what happened to her.

Once Brain’s eyes landed on me, she shut them so tightly that it looked like it hurt, and it pulled my attention to the huge bruise on her face. I wasn't gentle with her, but I sure as hell did not do that.

I step closer and see her body tense. She is breathing heavily, but she hasn’t screamed yet, so I take it as a positive. I place the flowers down and see her body relax. She is still breathing heavily, so I want to make things quick. I take her hand into mine and when she doesn't resist me or pull away, I feel a sense of relief.

"Brain, I know that you have no reason to believe me, but I am sorry. I was angry with my father and I took it out on you. I don't want you to forgive me, but I am begging you; please don't say anything. I promise I will never touch you again."

I get no response, but that doesn't surprise me. I reach for her face, wanting to make her look at me, but think better of it. My fingers have been inside of that nurse, and I don't want to risk infecting the small wounds on Brain’s face. She isn’t old enough to have come into her full wolf healing, so she is little more than a human.

I am surprised with how agitated my wolf is about seeing the girl in this state. He keeps reminding me that she was fine when she ran away from us, and we are starting to wonder if the rumors are true. Maybe not a rogue, but maybe a pack member or a guest? 

My thoughts are interrupted by Luna Mavis, who has come with what looks like food for Brain. I smile at the woman as I grab for the bags she is holding. Luna Mavis has always been kind to me, and I feel like a jerk for having hurt her daughter; again.

“Colt? What are you doing here?” The woman has an accent, so when she says my name, it sounds like I have an 'r' in it. The twins used to correct her often, but I never had a problem with it.

"Sorry Luna Mavis. I should have checked in with Lark before stopping by, but I thought there would be guards I could get to link him.” The woman nods. 

“It is not what people have said,” she tells me. “My little scientist just got carried away with an experiment and hurt herself. We still don’t know what is wrong with her though.” My brow furrows, and Luna Mavis explains. “The bruising is from blunt force, so she must have fallen or been knocked back, and the punctures are ant bites.” My eyes snap to the girl in the bed; not just her face, but every visible part of her body is covered in the marks. “When they found her, she was being eaten alive.”

“I am so sorry,” I whisper. I am mostly talking to Brain, but Luna Mavis is the one to respond.

“Colt, my baby girl needs her rest, so if you don’t mind...” the woman gestures for the door, and I am once again reminded that Luna Mavis has two sides to her. The loving caring side, and the no time for the bull side.

“Of course, sorry. I just-” I pause, not sure if I should ask about the premature shift because right now, I am not a suspect. I have a solid alibi in a woman I used for the night. She was so drunk that she couldn’t remember if she scratched me or not, which worked in my favor. “I wanted to make sure she is okay.”

“She will be fine, you know she is not yet sixteen, so her injuries will take longer to heal.” 

“I know,” I say, before taking my leave with a polite smile.

----

Rhea’s POV

It took three days for me to regain mobility and it tortured me because in the time that I was immobile, the only thing I could think about was Sylvia. She has lived in my head for four years, and has never had the opportunity to stretch her legs or use her own voice.

I am too weak to stand, and while slow, I am healing. As soon as I can speak, the first thing I am going to do is tell my parents that the hospital’s doctor needs to go back to school. I overheard him telling my parents that I am suffering from a psychotic break. I am not, I had a premature shift, and it's taking a long time for things to revert to normal. 

He thinks that I am pretending, and I now know why the nurse was irritated while caring for me. My family, of course, believes him, and I have been transferred into my own bedroom, which has been stripped of anything that was deemed dangerous to me.

No one has noticed my overgrown nails, but I can tell that they are slowly going back to normal, and I hope that my voice will return soon. My guess is that when I shifted, some of my internal structures were affected, and my body is struggling to put it back together without the guidance of Sylvia.

I cannot feel her, and she doesn’t speak to me, but I refuse to believe she is gone, so every day that I am stuck in my head, I sing the songs that I remember she enjoyed. It's weird singing in my own head, but my wolf is there, I know she wouldn’t leave me, and I want her to know that will not give up on her. 

I will wait for her to come back to me, even if it takes years; I will wait.