Night and Day: The Alpha Nomad

Recovery

Day -

I carried Night back to the pack house where Fen was waiting with our healers. She hadn’t shifted, even though she was unconscious, so it was a bit awkward carrying her lanky body. I did my best to carry her without jostling the knife around along the way.

A storm moved in almost as soon as I picked her up so travel became difficult in human form, but there was no other way to carry her back without injuring her further. Thunder rolled overhead as if the Goddess was wailing for Night. It had been a long time since a storm that violent visited the area, so rivulets flooded the woods and streamed around the pack house. I nearly slipped in some mud on my way out of the woods.

Delphie and my mother ran to me when they saw me emerge with this lifeless form in my arms. Even with the downpour I was covered in blood, but was unsure whose it belonged to. Night had been bleeding profusely from her first wound, then covered in the blood of the human she killed, and then bled extensively from her penetrating wound. I was sure she would not survive from the blood loss alone, the knife must have punctured a vital organ.

“Lay her on the kitchen table we prepared it as soon as we heard,” Mother directed.

“I-I don’t think she’s…” I couldn’t finish my sentence without my voice cracking.

“Son, we will do our best for her,” my father laid a heavy hand on my shoulder. “You should get her inside so Galen and Willow can begin. We will talk while they work.”

“I won’t leave her,” I demanded.

“I wouldn’t ask you to,” Father assured me.

Once inside the kitchen I laid her on the table which was dressed with a clean sheet. There were healing tools on the kitchen counter and a bucket of warm water next to the table with rags soaking. Willow was Galen’s mate and as well versed in healing as he was. She began by rinsing the blood from Night’s fur gently with the damp rags while Galen examined her penetrating and most critical wound. His face looked grim, but I never knew him to not have a grimace on his face when he was focused examining a patient.

My mother handed me a mug of tea to sip on and calm my nerves. She dabbed a warm damp washcloth across my face to remove some of the blood. I could feel that she was worried but her face never showed it. She was always composed in stressful situations and always knew what to do to calm me down.

“Why won’t she shift?” I asked my voice shaking.

“Sometimes it happens when the wolf is under extreme duress to protect themselves.This is actually a good sign, young Alpha,” Galen explained. “With a penetrating wound like this one, I wish I had an X-ray. We can only hope that the knife missed the vital organs.”

My father waited until I had finished my first mug of tea before inquiring about Night, “who is this? How do you know her? We’ve never seen her in our territory and doesn’t seem like one of the neighboring wolves.”

“I found her last night when I went on the hunt with Fen and Delphie. She was traveling and camped at Crescent Pond, not knowing it’s significance. I know I should have brought her here to submit to you, Father, but she was terrified,” I explained.

“I see,” Father listened. “How did this happen?”

“I don’t know how it started,” I explained. “But I went back to see her last night, and she opened up to me. We went on a run before the sun came up which is when we came across the buck I brought back this morning. She helped me down the beast.”

I wasn’t going to share the next part with my parents, or the fact that I believe that Night is my mate. I also wasn’t going to share personal details about her previous home life or why she was traveling as a rogue.

“I left her shortly after that and came home. She was fine when I left her, and we never sensed anything else in the woods. I went on this morning’s hunt with Delphie and Fen, and everything was going well. We almost brought a doe down, when I got this foreboding feeling. I followed my senses to the cliffside on the edge of the woods. I smelled blood and gunpowder and tracked it back to Crescent Pond. That’s when I found her surrounded by three men, hunters. They must have tracked her from the cliffside where they shot her. One had looped a rope around her neck, one was pointing a rifle at her and the last one had a knife ready to skin her.” The thought of the two who got away made me growl and stiffen. “We fought them off, but she must have been weakened by the gunshot wound and was stabbed by one of them. Two of them were able to escape, the one with the gun was not so lucky. She finished him off, before she dropped.”

“The hunters found our Pond?” Mother asked in a worried tone.

“Yes, I wanted to lead them away from the pack, but I couldn’t risk one of them killing her,” I explained. “I’m sorry, I should have put the interest in the pack before a stranger.”

“You have no need to apologize, son,” my father consoled me. “I probably would have done the same in your shoes. What’s most important is that you did not lead them directly here and endangered all of the pack.”

“But I compromised our ceremonial pond, we can’t return there as long as those other hunters are alive,” I agonized.

“Based on what you’ve said they won’t likely return any time soon,” father comforted me. “We will still be able to hold our Harvest

Feast and initiate you young wolves. Not like this is your most pressing concern, but Delphie and Fen managed to bring that doe back. Fen was worried when you had not returned and went searching for you. He is going to make a good Beta some day.”

I was glad they were able to secure that deer by themselves. I had no doubt they could handle it by themselves. They are a strong team together, and if my suspicious is correct, a great mate pair. My mind returned to Night, who still remained comatose on the table.

Galen had cleaned the bullet wound and applied gauze bandages to the hole in her shoulder for now. He was reluctant to remove the knife but knew it would need to come out at some point. He made sure to have plenty of gauze and clean cloth available to soak up any hemorrhage that will occur.

“If she continues to bleed like this she will need a transfusion, which I cannot facilitate here without knowing her blood type,” Galen warned. “However, if she had a mate nearby we could use his donation due to the mate bond. Wolves rarely reject their mate’s blood.”

I looked away and blushed. I wouldn’t want to watch her die because of my arrogance and refusal to admit our connection, but this was not how I wanted to introduce my mate to my parents. Would they even understand the mate bond between strangers?

Galen began to remove the knife and as expected she began to bleed excessively. Willow passed gauze pad after gauze pad to Galen and flushed the wound with clean water as needed, but the blood flow continued. Glade swore under his breath as he failed to control the bleeding. Willow informed him that she was becoming pale, and Galen packed her with clean cloth rags until he could find a way to cauterize the bleeding.

Mother turned on one of the gas burners and began to heat up some ancient looking metal instrument that Galen passed along to her. It pained me to even think about how much the cauterizing tool would hurt if she was awake for the procedure. Once the tool was flowing hot, Mother passed the instrument back to Galen carefully. He removed the soaked cloths and inserted the instrument into the wound, Night flinched and whimpered but seemed to be still unconscious. A sickening smell of burnt flesh flooded the kitchen. My mother was forced to leave, as it made her nauseated and my father followed to comfort her.

“This should resolve the bleeding, but she will still need to replace the blood she lost,” Willow observed.

“Yes and without any way to know what blood type she has or who her mate is she may not make it through the night,” Galen sighed.

I walked over to her head and ran my fingers through her sticky fur. They cleaned what they could off but her fur was still a bloody mess. I could feel how cold she was, but the warmth from our bond was still present and gave me hope.

I will save you, I broke my promise to protect you, so I will save you, sweet one, I thought to myself.

“Do you have the necessary items to perform the transfusion?” I asked without looking at Galen.

“Yes, but we need to know what blood to give,” Willow responded.

“Give mine.”

“But-“

“Just do it, whatever will save her, just do it,” I ordered aggressively.

“Yessir, future Alpha,” Galen bowed and collected a brown solution and a gauze pad.

He wiped my arm with the brown solution before piercing my tough skin with a catheter. He connected a line and I could see my bright red blood flow through the tubing. He clamped the tubing before it spilled, and worked on placing a catheter in Night. Once he had it secured he connected my line to hers.

“Despite how bad she looks and how much blood she has lost, it won’t take very much to restore her own blood cells,” Galen explained. “If she had been human I’m not sure I could have saved her. She’s lucky that the knife didn’t pierce her heart, it was quite close and nicked a couple vessels, but had it touched any arteries or major vessels she would not have survived the trip back here. You saved her life, Daemon. Let’s hope she accepts your blood.”

“It will work,” I guaranteed bluntly.

Within minutes she warmed up and her color improved, but she would not wake. My heart sank but I remained by her side, even after Galen removed the transfusion line.

“It didn’t work,” I sighed defeated.

“No, the transfusion did what it needed to, but now she needs to fight. Now it’s up to her,” Willow comforted me with a hand on my shoulder.