Mated to a Phoenix

Pneumonia

(Jasper)

My little brother, Joshua and I were out on a run when I caught the most delicious scent of strawberries and chocolate, there was also a hint of blood. We stopped and looked around when a girl burst through the bushes, making my brother and I look at each other. When I looked at the girl, her brown eyes were wide, but there was no fear in them when she saw us.

‘Mate, mate’ Casper, my Lycan howled in my head.

‘What? She’s a child. Like nine maybe ten years old’ I told my Lycan.

‘She’s our mate, and she’s hurt’ My Lycan roared the last part. My brother gets on all fours and slowly stalks towards my mate.

‘What are you doing?’ I asked him.

‘I don't know, for some reason, I feel the need to protect her’ he says.

‘It's probably because she's hurt and a pup at that’ I tell him, not knowing how to tell him she's my mate.

‘Yeah, probably’ he says as my brother stops in front of her and I walk around her and sniff her. I take in how dirty she is. I can also see her bruised body that is slowly healing. I can also see the fresh handprint around her neck and the busted lip. Her bra is ripped and there are scratch marks on her shoulder. When I got to my brother's side, we both saw the scratches between her inner thighs and I both growled again. I could also feel the anger my brother was feeling through the bond.

“I have been through too much in just a year, especially these past couple of days. If you’re going to kill me, go ahead”, my little mate says, and I swear I see relief in her eyes when she tells us to kill her. How much has she been through? I saw her close her eyes as if waiting for the kill. I didn’t see any fear in her eyes. Her words make me growl, but I don’t move. She opens her eyes and looks at us.

“Kill me. KILL ME” she screams, and this time my brother roars, not liking how this young child is screaming at us to kill her. What I didn’t expect was for our mate to take a deep breath and scream at us. Her whole body is shaking and her hands are in a tight fist. She’s screaming as hard as she can, that she’s on her tippy toes. I can see the hurt and anger in her eyes now.

‘She has fire. I like it’ Casper says, making me chuckle. My mate drops to her knees.

“Just kill me” she whispered more to herself, but we heard her. We heard the snap of a twig and this made my mate jump to her feet.

“No, no, he found me” she says, and now I could smell the fear coming from her, but it’s only one of our warriors. My little mate goes to run but stops in her tracks, swaying a little. Her eyes looked unfocused.

“Abuela, ayudame” (Grandma, help me) my little mate says before her eyes roll to the back of her head. Joshua catches her, careful not to hurt her with his claws.

‘She needs a doctor’ he says. I nod, and we rush back to the pack’s hospital. As soon as we got to the pack’s hospital, I shifted to my human form. I put on shorts that were handed to me by one of the nurses. I then took my mate from Joshua, so he could shift back.

“Your highnesses”, Doctor Charles bows his head in respect as he walks towards me.

“We found her in the woods” Joshua said, before I could answer. I narrowed my eyes at my brother.

“Bring her this way” Doctor Charles said. I follow Doctor Charles to a room where I place my mate on the bed. Nurses come in and start to clean the mud off my mate before changing her to a hospital gown. Doctor Charles begins to check her, but when he starts checking her bruises, I can’t help the growl that leaves my lips, taking the doctor by surprise.

“Your highnesses, there are signs of s****l assault. I need to run a test to see if she was-” Joshua and I both growled, cutting off the doctor. I know my little brother feels protective of my mate, and he has no idea why, but i know why we both growled. I take a deep breath to calm myself.

“Go ahead and do your test” I said, knowing that he needed to check her completely. He continues to check her, then does the exam when we step out. After an hour, Doctor Charles came out, and I stood from the chair I was sitting on.

“She wasn’t sexually abused, but there are clear signs that it was close. Someone probably helped her, or somehow she was able to get away”, Doctor Charles says, making my brother and I let out a breath we didn’t know we were holding.

“She has bruises that are healing. They must be about five to seven days old except for the busted lips and the bruise around her neck. She’s dehydrated, malnourished, and she has pneumonia. I also cleaned, put on antibiotics, and wrapped up her feet. One of the nurses is putting an IV on her, and we will give her some antibiotics and fluids”, Doctor Charles said.

“Can I go in and see her?” I asked, but before he could say anything, we heard something fall inside my little mate’s room. I rushed in, and I saw my mate crouched in the corner. She looked like a cornered animal. Her breathing is fast and shallow.

“It’s okay. I won’t hurt you”, Nurse Bianca says.

“It’s okay. I got it” I tell Bianca, who nods and leaves the room.

“No one is going to hurt you, princess” I assured her. She looks at me then at Joshua.

“Where am I?” she asks. Did I mention how much I love her accent? I wonder where she’s from.

“You’re safe. No one here is going to hurt you, Princess” Joshua says. She looked at Joshua then her eyes snapped to me when I took a step closer to her. The door to the room opens, and my little mate shrinks, making me growl at who entered. Doctor Charles stops in his tracks and looks at us, then at my little mate who was already looking at me.

“It’s okay princess. This is Doctor Charles, he’s here to give you some antibiotics and fluid”, Joshua says. I extend my hand to my little mate, and she looks at it before slowly placing her little hand in mine, gasping when she felt the sparks. I looked at her and I swear I saw her eyes change color. I shook my head, thinking it was probably the light playing tricks on me. I pick her up and gently place her on the bed. I realized that she was burning up and shaking.

“I think she has a fever” I said, covering her up, hoping she would stop shaking.

“It’s signs of pneumonia. I have the antibiotics and the fluids”, Doctor Charles says. Doctor Charles hooks the IV to the fluids and the antibiotics, then looks at my little mate.

“Are you having trouble breathing?” Doctor Charles asks, noticing the rapid shallow breaths.

“It hurts” my mate says, placing her hand on her chest. Doctor Charles nods.

“It’s the pneumonia, but I just gave you medicine for it” Doctor Charles says, and places some cables on her chest that are connected to the heart monitor and some oxygen tubes on her nose.

“I will have someone bring you something to eat” Doctor Charles, says.

“I’m not hungry” my little mate says.

“Princess, you have to eat something”, I told her.

“Doctor Charles says you need food in your system, princess, so you have to eat”, Joshua says, then looks at Doctor Charles and nods.

“Why do you both keep calling me princess?” she asks.

“Because we don’t know your name”, I smiled.

“Can you tell us your name, princess?” Joshua asks. She looked at me and then at Joshua.

“Yamilet” she says.

“Yamilet” I tested and watched as she shivered.

“W-what about you?” she asks.

“I’m Jasper and this is my little brother Joshua” I said.

“Jasper and Joshua” she said making my Lycan purr at the way my name sounded coming from her mouth.

“Princess, can you tell us what happened to you?” I asked. I watched as she paled and the smell of fear reached my nose. Not to mention the heart monitor is going crazy.

“Princess?” Joshua calls.

“Princess, you don’t have to tell us. It’s okay”, I assured her.

“You just called me princess again” she blushed.

“I like calling you princess” I smirked when she blushed deeper.

“I… um… I’m tired.” I could tell she was tired, but she was also trying not to tell us what happened. Just then there was a soft knock and Joshua opened the door. He closed it again and when he turned around I saw soup, bread, and a bottle of Gatorade.

“You can rest after you eat” Joshua says. He sits down, grabbing the bowl of soup and hands it to me, so I can begin to feed my little mate. I give her the first spoon full of soup when she makes a face, making me stop.

“What is it princess?” Joshua asked.

“I can feed myself” she says.

“I know, but we want to take care of you” I told her. She looks at me then at Joshua with her big beautiful brown eyes before opening her mouth again, making us chuckle. Halfway through the bowl she groaned, turning her face when I tried to give her another spoon of soup.

“Please, no more” she says, rubbing her chest.

‘I would like her to eat a bit more’ Joshua links me.

‘Me too, but she’s sick. She’s not going to want anything. I’m surprised she ate this much’ I tell him through the link.

“Okay, princess. You can rest”, Joshua said, gathering the stuff on the tray. I stand at the same time to close her curtains, but she quickly sits up placing a hand on my arms.

“No, please don’t leave. I’ll do anything. I’ll eat the nasty soup, just please… don’t leave” she pleads, and it breaks my heart at the fear in her eyes.

‘Mate needs us’ Casper whimpers. He doesn’t like seeing our little mate like this. The heart monitor is going crazy, and I can see it’s getting harder for her to breathe.

‘She needs to calm down’, Joshua says.

“Princess, look at me” Joshua say but it’s not working. Suddenly, I brother begins to purr, and I see her eyes go to me, so I continue to purr. I stay close to her until she calms down and falls asleep. Joshua and I had to take turns staying with her, since every time she fell asleep her dreams were plagued with whatever happened to her. I silently vowed to find out what happened to her and I will make that person pay.

***