The Broken Wolf

(7) Dominic

My wolf runs a few miles as the night grows its all I can do to keep from heading back to the house.

By the time he clambers to the healers quarters that anxious feeling still hasn’t disappeared.

“You’re here early.” Kara stands at her door leaning against the frame with a steaming cup of tea, chamomile, in one hand. Her green eyes follow me as I swipe some clothes left in the bin at top of her porch steps.

“I think I’m losing my mind.” I tell her marching past her into her warm cottage.

“Alpha!” The squealing voice stops me dead in my tracks. Dawn Farrow sits on the couch nursing her own cup her bad leg stretched out in front of her. The pup gives me a toothy grin.

“Dawn.” I can’t stop the smile I give her. She is one of the many pups we rescued from somewhere or other her story not that much different than anyone else’s. And yet her infectious joy in uniquely hers. No amount of heartbreak has taken that from her, not even her bad legs keeps her from enjoying every second of every day. “Shouldn’t you be in bed?”

“Ms. Kara said I could drink some hot coco before.” She grins.

“We were doing some training for her leg. So, she’s resting now before bed.” Kara clarifies stepping past me to go to her kitchen. Nimble hands work quickly and soon she’s thrusting a cup in my direction. I sniff the liquid cautiously. “Its good for you.”

“The last time you said that I slept for three days.” Still I drink her concoction noting its not as bitter as her usual remedies.

“Should I guess why you’re here or will you tell me?” Kara asks ignoring the overly nosy pup sitting on the couch.

“Don’t you already know?”

She hums shooting Dawn a conspiratory grin. The pup giggles quickly muffling the sound with her drink.

“She’s in my cabin.” Kara doesn’t reply her face devoid of reaction. “In my room.”

Then she laughs, softly. Going over to her she ruffles Dawns hair and leans over to pluck the cup from her hand, “Time for bed little one. The Alpha’s business has to be tended to.”

Dawn groans dramatically but obediently stands. Her gait is surer than it once was although the signs of fatigue are there as she limps around me patting my arm. “Its okay Alpha. Ms. Kara says it’ll get better soon.”

The pup then limps down the hallway to one of the back rooms of Kara’s home.

“Sit Damian.” Kara demands. When I sit on her coffee table she crosses her arms and narrows her eyes at the groaning wood. “I told you this was a bad idea. Just this morning I said don’t do it.”

“I’m aware.” I growl my wolf is equally annoyed. More so at me for leaving our mate alone and unprotected.

Shit.

“So, you’re losing your mind.” She taps a finger against her bicep cold green eyes studying me.

“She’s her fathers daughter.” I snap rubbing at my chest ignoring her taunt.

“Cold and cruel with a disregard for all life?” Kara asks tone calling bullshit.

“You haven’t met her.”

She sighs, “What would you like me to do alpha? You brought the girl here even after I told you not to, and now you say you’re losing your mind.” Her eyes flash. “If the wolf and man are not one…”

My growl cuts her short. “Just give me something to numb me to her.”

She pauses, “Numb you?”

“Her scent, her eyes—even her smile. My chest aches when I am around her. My thoughts become an endless stream of uselessness.” My hand runs through my hair restlessness hums under my skin. “Even now my wolf wants to return to the cabin to make sure she didn’t somehow hurt herself with a fork.”

Bright green eyes stare at me for a moment before Kara floods into laughter.

Wiping her eyes she laughs at me, “And it hasn’t even been a day. How will you survive when the pack meets her?”

My wolf threatens to growl and I rub my chest to keep the restless feeling at bay.

How indeed.

Kara sighs expression growing sullen, “There is something I can do for you. Its temporary. It will only last three months.”

“What is it?”

She turns to her workbench reaching up to one of the shelves for a small vial filled with a red substance that seems eerie in the dim lighting of her cabin. Her eyes study its contents before she offers it to me.

“The essence of a spider lily, it’ll send your wolf into a trance like state.” My hand reaches out to grab it but she jerks it back meeting my gaze pointedly. “Your wolf will slow as if though entering a deep slumber. You’ll feel sluggish, unconnected, untethered. If you do this you won’t feel the effects of the mate bond as strongly but it will still be there in the background, blooming.”

My wolf grumbles at the notion of being called slow. The idea of being ‘untethered’ gives me pause. As Alpha I have to be ready for anything at any given point in time. Especially now with everything finally in motion.

“Its temporary?” I ask.

She nods, carefully she places the vial in my hand. “Tread carefully Alpha. Denying your wolf may prove to be even more difficult than you think.”

The wolf and man are one, him growling at the boundary between us as I pop open the lid doesn’t change that fact. Without a second hesitation I drown the liquid feeling the burn through my soul.