The Half Mutt Mate

Chapter 16: The Injury

Grace's PoV:

I cried out in pain. My eyes watered as I stumbled forwards, forced to put weight on my injured foot. I was bleeding, sticky red blood dripping from the ankle where I'd been bit. It was Thomas who did it, Thomas -- I could recognize his wolf anywhere. I stepped forwards, trying to run.

I shut my eyes as my ankle throbbed. In an instant Ella was there, hooking my arm around her shoulders and taking some of the weight. I shooed her away desperately.

"You have to run, you have to run as fast as you can!" I said. Thomas's wolves were still arriving, we were barely a second away from them -- I couldn't let my friends get hurt. "Just go, Ella! Please, just go!"

Tears streamed down my face. I was hurt and pathetically scared. My heart beat like a rat's against my chest as Ella smiled sadly at me. "We're never going to leave you," she said, even as she saw the wolves get closer.  

Behind us, Thomas was fighting with another wolf, one I'd never seen before but had somehow come to my rescue. Howls echoed out across the highway as though wolves ran to catch and protect their leader. I turned my head to the side and saw another wolf running to join the fight on the side of my rescuer. There were two of them against five -- how could they possibly win?

I looked away. I couldn't watch the inevitable bloodbath, and I didn't have time. If there was even a hope in hell that we could get far enough away from them, that we could escape, then I had to try. Ella kept her arm under me, helping me run along the highway. There was no cover for miles, but I had to hope that the two wolves would provide enough of a distraction that we could find something, anything else, to help us escape.

There was a van parked at the side of the road. I had noticed it earlier, but hadn't paid it much attention. It's funny how your mind focuses on the stupidest of things when you're desperate. I could feel the warm trickle of blood running down my ankle. My foot felt like I'd beaten it with a hammer. There was no way I could get away in this state.

My vision started spotting, everything was getting fuzzy at the edges. My head pounded against my skull and I felt like I was about to puke. I shivered, suddenly cold -- or was I hot? It seemed to be both at the same time. Distantly, I was aware of a third wolf running towards me, something familiar in its eyes. There was no hatred there, just worry -- I wondered for a second, why that might be. 

I panted, my other senses going numb as all my feeling concentrated itself on my foot. It hurt, it hurt so, so much. I couldn't go any further, I had to stop. Just as I was about to fall, just as I was about to give in, the third wolf appeared at my side. I looked up in his eyes, knowing immediately who it was, and then I collapsed.

***

Daylight bled through the fog of my mind, clearing away the haze of sleep. I was cold, so incredibly cold, but there were two thin blankets placed on top of me to keep off the wind. I reached out for the blankets, trying to burrow further into them. Underneath me was nothing but dirt and a twig sticking into my back at an odd angle. I moved away from it and felt my ankle scream in protest as I wiggled. I gasped in pain and opened my eyes.

Ella and Kayden were lying next to me, asleep, and in front of us, with his back to me, was Alex. He was on the phone to someone, but as soon as he heard my startled gasp he turned to me and smiled. He stood for a second, gesturing to me that he would only be a minute, and carried on his conversation. 

I stared in abject shock. Alex, Jamie's older brother, had been badly injured during Thomas's raid on the rogue pack house. I had assumed for the longest time that he, too, was dead -- and yet there he was, standing in front of me. But, if he was alive did that mean...? I banished the thought from my head, there was no point getting my hopes up. I lifted the covers gently to look at the mess that was my ankle.

I heard Alex finish up his phone call, and with that he knelt back down. Slowly, so as not to disturb the others, he lifted my ankle up and examined it. There was a bandage wrapped around it, which was already splotchy with blood, and I could see the corners of scabs and deep gashes poking out from the cloth.

"I'm going to have to redress the bandages," he said softly.

 Alex gently unwrapped the bandages to reveal the true extent of the bite, which had left a series of tears and holes along the skin of my leg. Next to him was a small first aid kit, which I guessed had been left there after the original bandages  were put on. He took a new roll of gauze and some disinfectant from the kit and looked at me. 

"I'm going to need you to be brave, Grace. This is going to hurt," Alex said. 

I nodded and looked away as he applied the disinfectant, gritting my teeth through the sting. When the pain subsided he wrapped my ankle in the gauze and then the bandages, humming as he worked.

"You did very well," he said, "and your injury is healing quite nicely. Of course, you're healing faster because of your wolf blood. If you could just shift then I'm sure it would fix itself even faster."

I didn't respond to his statement, instead looking at him incredulously. 

"I thought you were dead." 

He laughed, though it was a more quiet, bitter sound than I was used to.

"No, no, I got out -- though for a scary moment I thought you were dead, too. I found Jamie a few days after the attack and he didn't know where you were."

I froze, I could barely get the words out. 

"Wait," I said, "you found Jamie?"