Under The Alpha's Protection

Chapter 8: The Northern Territory

Blue hadn't needed to lie to Laia about how her terribly the conversation with Head Alpha Lucian—Laia's brother—had gone. Laia took one look at Blue's tense jaw and shoulders, then sighed through her mouth. "Was he an asshole about it?"

It took a great deal of effort to not just say yes. "He's worried about your Pack," Blue said instead.

Laia snorted and closed the door with her foot, both hands carrying a big metal bowl and a thermos flask. "Whenever it's about our Pack, he forgets all common decency. That's the one thing my parents couldn't train Lucian to do—to at least act like he's not such a stickler all the time."

Arlo apparently had to go home because of his mate, so the physician had asked if Laia could keep Blue company until he could check on Blue again. Laia and Blue made light conversation while Blue slowly ate the roasted vegetables, grilled pork, and brown rice Laia had brought her. The alpha deliberately avoided talking about the Southern Pack, the attack, her brother, and Blue's parents—and Blue had been grateful for it, managing to get through her meal without feeling the urge to vomit.

When the wall clock showed it was midnight, Laia had told Blue she'd come back after sunrise, with clothes that Blue could change into. The alpha had given Blue a hairtie earlier so that Blue's greasy strands would be up and away from her face—which, Blue had seen earlier in the bathroom, had red markings from where that werewolf's hand had tightly clamped over her mouth.

Before Laia left, the alpha gave Blue a careful hug.

Maybe it was because of Blue's earlier conversation with Lucian Steele, but she found herself asking, mouth close to Laia's ear, "Is my being here while these injuries heal going to cause trouble for you?"

Laia leaned back, a firm look on her face. "Whatever the others may say, I'll deal with it. I rescued you just in time, and I'm not going to let you leave until you're a hundred percent better." The finality in her words made Blue speechless.

Left alone in the isolation room, Blue stood up. Doctor Arlo had told her not to strain herself as it might cause more damage to her puncture wounds, so Blue padded slowly to where her messenger bag was.

Seeing the zipper still open from when the Head Alpha had rummaged through it made Blue sigh through her nose.

With the hem of her shirt, she wiped away the dried stains of blood—her blood—from the leather of the bag (she was going to burn this shirt after today, most likely). She felt around for her phone. "Surprised he didn't take it," Blue murmured to herself.

She was expected at the clinic every weekday. Oswin Holloway may be Blue's mentor, but because they've worked for four years together, they were more like family at this point—and Oswin constantly worried about Blue's safety. If she didn't show up to work tomorrow without prior notice, Oswin would probably assume the worst and either call Blue non-stop until he got an answer, or go check out her apartment himself.

Obviously, Blue couldn't tell Oswin the real reason why she wouldn't be coming to work tomorrow—or the next few days, probably. It would freak Oswin out to hear that Blue got beat up and nearly killed by werewolves from the Southern Pack, one of them being the Head Alpha. Plus, Blue didn't want to let Oswin know where she really was.

She made up a lie, texting Oswin's personal number how she woke up with chills and wouldn't be coming to the clinic as a precaution in case she got really sick.

If Blue wouldn't be able to leave the Northern Territory until she was better, she'll just tell Oswin and the medical staff that she'd come down with the flu or something.

-----

At six in the morning, Arlo had brought breakfast and pain medications for Blue. It was a relieving sight, because as soon as Blue tried to sit up, she nearly lost her vision for a second because of the intense pain from her abdomen.

Blue ate at a snail's pace, then shortly after taking the medication, she fell back to sleep before Laia could even make an appearance. The pain medication was strong enough to knock Blue out for hours at a time, being woken up only to eat lunch and dinner, which were both brought in by Laia—who also had with her a duffel bag with some of the clothes she'd grown out of.

On the first day, Blue had put rest over everything.

On the second day inside the isolation room, the first thought that popped into her head was: I'm in desperate need of a shower.

After Arlo had given her the okay to bathe, warning her not to get soap or shampoo in her puncture wounds, he asked Blue if she thought she'd need assistance so he could go get Laia. Blue declined the offer, simply asking if Arlo could put the things she'd need to reach up for on a lower surface.

The bottles of soap and shampoo plus the towel had been placed on top of the closed toilet lid. Arlo said he'll be outside the isolation room if Blue needed anything.

Blue hadn't stared at her bruises and the dried puncture wounds for too long on the mirror's reflection. She prodded at her abdomen as if she were examining another patient, then stepped into the shower, where she felt her muscles relax underneath the warm water.

The clothes Laia had brought were all function-forward and fit Blue almost perfectly. These must've been from before Laia got her growth spurt, because the drawstring pants were the right length on Blue's short legs.

"I knew they'd fit you perfectly!" Laia had exclaimed in delight upon seeing Blue in her clothes. She got closer to Blue, tugging the shirt's lining until it was centered on Blue's shoulder. "Although not once in my life did I have big t**s like you."

Blue threw a pillow at Laia for that.

Arlo had other patients to see throughout the day, and so Blue was mostly on her own until night, when Arlo came by to check on her again and to give her more pain medication. Blue asked about the physician's mate while he carefully took off the bandage from Blue's sides. It was heartwarming to watch the was Arlo's eyes shined while he talked about Shae Daggersap—his omega mate. He spoke with that same gentleness, but his smile held a fondness that made Blue want to coo.

Arlo was a forty-five year old beta. He confessed he had never expected someone like Shae to fall in love with him, and that he still couldn't believe they've been in love for twenty-one years now. They did not have any children, which made a lot of the people in the Pack worried because Shae was an omega. As it turned out, Shae never once envisioned having kids. And Arlo would never force his mate into something she didn't want.

Blue decided she trusted Arlo a lot more after that.

Currently, on her third day of healing, Blue was feeling the best she'd been since the attack.

Today, those events seemed far away, like they didn't actually happen (even though she had the evidence on her stomach and sides). While the meds helped lessen the pain, Blue was beginning to feel a little cooped up inside the isolation room, especially with no one to talk to.

When Laia had popped her head in, carrying breakfast and offering to show Blue a bit of the Territory, Blue couldn't help but exhale in relief. "Yes, please? I'm sorry, I'm not used to being in one place for days a time anymore."

Laia set Blue's food down on the rolling table and chuckled. "I understand. Finish this up and I'll take you to the forest."

While Blue ate her meal eagerly, Laia sat on the bed next to her and began listing off the landmarks within their Territory. "Pretty much as soon as you go outside, y0u'll see that the Northern Territory is built next to a hill. The side of the hill, our ancestors had made into terraces that provide additional space for crop cultivation. The hillside is also great for training our stamina. For now, I'm taking you into the Setting Forest. It's the only way to Lone Bane River, part of that river belongs to the Eastern Pack." Laia gestured to Blue's legs with a wave. "The river's a bit far, so we'll only walk in the forest for a maximum of thirty minutes. Arlo's orders."

With food still in her mouth, Blue said, "I'll take what I can get."

Laia wasn't kidding. As soon Blue stepped out of the isolation room, after her eyes adjusted to the sunlight and all the green surrounding them, the thing that immediately caught her attention was the hill, with dozens and dozens of houses at its foot.

Blue and Laia were on slightly higher ground, a bit far from majority of the housings—it's called isolation room for a reason. Their raised position gave Blue an ever better view of the Northern Teritory, and she gasped at the grandiosity of it.

"I've never seen anything like that," Blue murmured to Laia, pertaining specifically to the steps built along the slope of the hill, like one giant staircase where each step was filled with water and growing crops.

"It's a feat of genius, really," Laia agreed. "When it rains, the terraces decrease chances of soil erosion and water loss. We also have space to grow rice, maize, and even potatoes all year-round."

Blue ogled, greedily taking in the sight. She wished she'd brought her phone out to capture the scene. "Your home is really beautiful. Like, wow." Along the space where the ends of the terraces didn't reach were figures who were making their way upwards at a fast pace. "Those are your Pack members running up the hill?"

"Yup. Part of our training. A good jog up and down that hill will get your heart rate up like no other," Laia chuckled.

"Given how great your legs look in skinny jeans, I don't doubt it." That earned her a more boisterous laugh from Laia.

From their distance, the zenith of the hill didn't look too far from the ground. But Blue was sure, having only done simple workouts at home, that a trek up that hill—even at a leisurely pace, or without all her injuries—would probably make her keel over very quickly.

"Thanks, Blue-Pixie." The alpha jabbed her thumb to the right, away from where the terraces were. "You up for that walk now?"

-----

While Blue had known the chances of them bumping into Laia's Pack members were high since the werewolves all lived here, She hadn't been ready to actually run into any of them.

The morning sun and the breeze against her face, plus the general smell of nature, were just so lulling and calming that Blue hadn't been prepared to suddenly come face-to-face with a group of four men emerging from the forest. They had woven baskets hanging from their arms and backs, the wind carrying the smell of fish towards Blue and Laia before they were even close enough to make out the facial features of these men.

Laia hadn't seemed bothered, even raising her arm to wave at them. "Early finish today, boys?" She hollered out.

"Early to rise, early back to bed," One of the men answered back, grinning at Laia in what Blue could describe as fond familiarity.

"Narra, that's not how the saying goes, you lazy bastard!" Laia laughed.

As soon as they were only a few feet away, the men eyed Blue with confusion, recognizing instantly that she was not part of their Pack.

The four of them were all dripping with sweat, skin gleaming underneath the sun. Their clothes were rolled up in different places, revealing strong muscles that flexed as they brought baskets of seafood from the river.

"Who's your friend, Laia?" One of the men asked, this one shorter than the lot.

Before Laia or Blue could answer, they heard another man take a deep sniff. "Wait. She's a human?"

That wasn't surprising. Blue's had that happen to her several times in the clinic; werewolves would be wary whenever they'd find out a human was helping treat them, but Blue would usually get them to warm-up to her before the end of their appointment.

"She's a friend," Laia said, and the way she said it might be mistaken for casualness, but Blue had heard that slight emphasis on the word friend, and the way her eyes flashed at the four men in front of them, like she was warning them in a way.

There's a bit of a tense silence, in which Blue belatedly realized that Laia was looking at her expectantly, giving Blue the opportunity to introduce herself.

The man who responded to Laia's enthusiastic greeting moments ago stepped forward, flashing an effortless pearly smile at Blue despite the sweat on his face. "Hey. I'd offer my hand, but it smells like dead fish. Which is worse than just the smell of regular fish." In lieu of a handshake, he nodded his head instead. "I'm Narra, like the tree."

The sight of this tall, smiley man made Blue blink. He was handsome, too. Narra's hair was cut close to his head in a buzzcut, and his chocolate orbs looked so deep one could probably fall into them.

Blue gave a nod of her own, smiling just barely. "I'm Blue, like the color."

Narra's eyes twinkled. With two baskets still hanging from his shoulders via rope strings, cloth covering the contents, arm muscles flexing at the weight of them, that amused smile on his face looked even more charming. "I like this kid."

"Blue's not a kid. She's twenty-two," Laia rolled her eyes. She settled her hand on Blue's shoulder, the other gesturing at the remaining three werewolves. "Blue, this is Talumac, or Tuck for short. That's his fraternal twin, Ishaan. The one with the beard is Calvin."

Calvin, the one with the beard, was the shortest yet his muscles looked absolutely huge. He stared at Blue with a brow raised, then said to Laia, "You never mentioned you had a friend who was a human."

"I'll send you a list of all my friends next time." Laia patted the spot where her hand was still resting on Blue. "If you'll excuse me, gentlemen. We're on a bit of a time limit. Also, you need to get those to the kitchens before Yvonne starts panicking about what to cook us for lunch."

The men all grumbled but followed, their eyes lingering on Blue as if they still couldn't wrap their heads around her being there.

Narra stayed behind, only so he could tell Blue, "It was nice meeting you, Blue-like-the-color. I hope I get to see you again, maybe when I look and smell less gross."

Laia was pulling Blue away with a loud sigh. "We're leaving, Narra. Try hitting on a rock next time."

Blue winced at the implication that a decent interaction was actually flirting on Narra's part, but she still smiled sheepishly at him and waved goodbye. The man nodded again, then shook his head at Laia's retreating form with a smile still etched on his damp face.

As soon as they passed the tree line into the Setting Forest, Laia huffed and dropped her hold on Blue, letting Blue walk on her own pace. "Great. Narra knows now, which means the whole village will also know before the sun sets."

Just a few steps into the forest and already Blue got enamored by the plethora of flowering bushes beginning to shed theirs blossoms as autumn was fast approaching, the trees that reached so high Blue had to crane her neck a lot to be able to see their leaves, the birds she could hear flying above them, and the sounds of different animals keeping their distance.

The Setting Forest was almost enough to distract her from asking Laia, "Will you get into a lot of trouble because you brought a human into your Pack?"

"No. Other humans visit sometimes, thought not frequently." Laia was deliberately slowing the speed of her long legs to match Blue's footsteps. "Our Pack is happy to get visitors, but only when the Head Alpha demonstrates how welcoming the rest of us should act."

Blue hummed, eyes glued forwards. "Ah. So, your brother–"

"Yeah. Given how well your conversation with each other went..." The alpha next to Blue released a sigh. Instead of continuing her sentence, Laia switched the topic. "How are your injuries feeling?"

"I took pain meds this morning, so we're good so far." Blue could feel a bit of a pull on her abdomen every time she had to raise her knees a bit to walk over the different obstructions on the forest floor, but besides that, she was feeling great. "Thank you, again. For... you know, saving my life. And for more or less defying your Pack's safety protocols about bringing injured strangers here. I don't know how I'll ever repay you." Blue hadn't meant for that to suddenly sound so solemn. Though she meant every word of it.

Laia gently nudged her. "You can repay me by getting better." A silence. Then, more lightly, "Ooh, also, I got these cookies for my friend Florence—she's pregnant right now and has been going through cravings like crazy. Anyway, she loves these cookies they sell in a bakery at Bracket Town. I had some myself and–"

Blue giggled at the giddiness at which Laia was suddenly speaking. "I'll get them for you every time you and I meet in Bracket Town once I get back."

The alpha rolled her eyes. The smile on her face softened the effect. "You don't have to get it every time. Just whenever you feel like I deserved it, or when you missed me."

Blue hummed. "That would mean if you and I were to meet-up again and I didn't get you those cookies–"

"You'd be bringing down the mood from the get-go and essentially ruining our friendship, yes."

Laughing loudly pulled at Blue's still healing muscles, but it was well worth it.