Chapter 11
1263 Words
-Bruce-
As planned, Quinn and I went to pick up Ana the next day, parking in front of the old place. I knew it was rundown, but how long had it been since we were here? The place looked like it was barely standing anymore, and when I glanced at Quinn after getting out of the car, he looked worried at me as well, not liking that our mate was living in this place.
Strange coughing came from indoors, and I wondered if Ana had gotten sick from running in the rain. I knew it was possible because of her Omega dynamic, but as we walked up and knocked on the door, it was Ana who greeted us. She looked a bit pale, but she didn’t seem sick. When the coughing began again, I knew it didn’t come from her.
“Who is coughing?” I inquired.
“My mom… Um, Alpha Bruce, what are you two doing here?” she asked, shaking her head in confusion.
“We just wanted to make sure you got home all right and made it to the pack house,” I explained.
“You’re… escorting me?”
“Yes,” I replied.
“W-Why?”
“I just told you why.”
“But it doesn’t make any sense. You have never escorted me before,” she pointed out.
We might never have stuck close to Ana, but that didn’t mean we didn’t watch over her whenever we could. We had kept an eye on her going to work many times.
“Well, let’s start,” I suggested.
“That’s okay. I can’t go. My mom is sick,” she said.
“Well, we should get a doctor to look at her. Shall I call him?” I asked.
“Huh?”
“The pack doctor.”
“Why?”
“Because she is sick,” I pointed out, this conversation turning very perplexing.
“Yes, but he never checks on us.”
“He did yesterday.”
“Because you ordered it. Alpha Bruce, we do fine by ourselves,” she insisted, but it was obvious they didn’t. If her mother was sick, it was important someone took a look at her.
“Just let him help. I will tell him to come.”
“No, it’s okay. I have taken care of her before. I can do so again,” she replied.
“Are you sick too?” Quinn inquired. I took an extra look at Ana and noticed she was slightly sweaty.
“No.”
“Are you sure?” he asked.
“Yes, I’m fine.”
“Then why are you so pale? And sweaty?” he inquired and reached out to feel her temperature, but Ana backed away, not wanting him to touch her.
“I-I… um, maybe a little sick,” she murmured, but there was something about the way she said it that made it an obvious lie.
“Ana, how about you just choose to be honest with us, so we don’t have to force the truth from you?”
“Force?”
“Yes,” I said, seeing worry in her eyes, but we would never hurt her. There were many ways to get the truth out of her. However, I wanted her to understand that we weren’t going to leave today. We had six days left before her birthday, and she had to see that we were going to be a big part of her life from now on.
“It’s nothing,” she assured us.
“Tell us then if it is ‘nothing’,” I prodded.
She sighed, leaning her forehead against the door and appearing utterly exhausted.
“I just hurt myself a little,” she finally admitted.
“Hurt how?” Quinn asked, worry in his tone.
“My mother grew confused yesterday, and when she gets confused, she becomes…”
“Violent?” I finished for her.
“No… yes…”
“Ana!” I scolded, but really it was on me and Quinn for not noticing.
“It’s nothing. I can handle it.”
“And how long have you been handling it?” Quinn inquired.
“Well, since my dad died.”
That we should have guessed ourselves, but I could feel his worry flow into me, knowing Ana was hurt. Neither of us enjoyed hearing it, and I waved for Ana to come outside. She hesitated, glancing over her shoulder at her mother in the living room before she finally stepped out, keeping the door open.
“Show us,” I demanded.
“What?”
“Show us where you’re hurt.”
“Um… I would have to take off my blouse,” she said and pulled on the garment.
“Go on,” I urged.
“Here?”
“Yes, right now,” I insisted.
“I-I can’t strip out there and not in front of you two.”
“I want to see the wound, Ana.”
“Why?”
“To understand how serious it is,” I said.
“Isn’t it enough I say it’s not so bad?”
“No, because that’s what you told Quinn when your hand was literally bleeding and needed proper care,” I reminded her.
“But can you trust that I can take care of it myself?” she questioned.
“No, because you minimize everything to make yourself seem more insignificant,” I stated.
She let out a tiny gasp, shocked I would call her out like that, but this was very serious. If her mother became violent, it was not safe for Ana to stay here. We had to move her to the house.
“Let me see.”
“I really don’t—” she began.
“Ana, I am going to count to five, and if you don’t show us, we rip the blouse off you.”
“What?” she exclaimed, taking a step back. “You wouldn’t!”
“Ana, tell me, do you have any antibiotics here?”
“Um?”
“Do you have enough clean bandages?”
“I…”
“Your mother is sick. You could easily forget about yourself,” I pointed out. “We are trying to help, and I don’t want to spend this morning arguing about whether you deserve that help or not, so take it when it is offered.”
She blinked rapidly, but I wasn’t playing around here. Our mate being hurt was a serious thing, and while I may seem pushy, I felt like I had to be because Ana could be very stubborn. She needed to see we were only trying to be there for her.
“Fine,” she conceded, but instead of taking the blouse off all the way, she found a way to only slip her arm through and then lifted the blouse enough for us to see the bloody bandage. It was already soaked with her own blood.
“Ana,” I sighed.
“What? It will heal.”
“Slowly,” I reminded her.
“I have a first aid kit in the car,” Quinn said.
“Go grab it. I will call for the pack doctor for your mother,” I informed her.
“It’s really not—” I didn’t want to hear her protesting anymore, so I grabbed her good arm and placed her on a rotten bench on the porch, but it could support her weight. “Okay…” she whispered, accepting she couldn’t do anything to stop this.
- Writer
