My mate and my gift

Chapter twenty-one: Mira

We had been running for hours; I was following the pull I felt towards Matthew. When we could see the Shadow village up ahead, I stopped and called for Vic and Roxy to do the same. So far, we had not met any wolves from the Shadow pack.

“Follow me” I said. I sat back on my hind legs and jumped as high as I could. Mid-air, I shifted back to a human and grabbed a low hanging branch from a tree. I hoisted myself up and climbed. “Mira!” I heard Roxy call, “What are you doing?!”

“Getting off the ground and out of sight” I explained.

“Wolves don’t climb!” Vic stated.

“Then what am I, a monkey?” I hissed. There was no time to argue. “Just get up here!”

It took several attempts, but they finally managed to get up on the branch. They were both shaking nervously. “Wait here.” I said and climbed higher up the tree, until I could see the entire Shadow village. It was surrounded by a wooden fence, all the houses were single stories except for one big house in the middle, and at the far end I could see what looked like a big gate. I climbed back down.

“We won’t have to climb far. Just follow me” I said and climbed carefully from tree to tree, until we were close enough that I could jump over the fence. I closed my eyes and mentally tugged on the bond between me and Matthew. “Mira” I heard Matthews voice in my head. There! “Matthew” I called back, but there was no answer.

I opened my eyes and saw two men come out of the building I now knew Matthew was in. One of them had blood up his arms and for a moment I thought I might throw up. In the distance I heard a familiar howl. Our pack had come to help. I thanked the Goddess for some much-needed distraction. “Wait for my signal!” I said to Vic and Roxy. They nodded. I pushed off from the branch I was sitting on, jumping over the fence, landing next to the door I had seen the two men come out of. I tried to open it, but it was locked. I had no choice. I took a few steps back, shifted and crashed through the door. Inside the smell of iron hit me like a slap in the face. On the other end of the room was Matthew, lying bloody and beaten on the floor. I whined and walked up to Matthew. He was barely breathing.

I felt a sharp pain and whirled around. A boy was standing with a gun in his hand. I turned my head to see a dart sticking out of my leg. I grabbed it between my teeth and pulled it out, dropping it on the floor. The boy looked terrified and shot me again, this time in the shoulder. I felt a sting as the liquid poured through my body. I snarled at the boy and stalked towards him. He fumbled with the gun, loading it with a new dart. He took aim and shot me in the right front leg. I shook my leg and the dart fell on the floor. The boy shifted and lunged for me, but I dodged out of the way and bit down on his flank. He yelped. He pulled free and bolted through the broken door. I didn’t have time to follow him, I had to get Matthew out of here.

I walked back to Matthew and licked his face. He winced. My heart felt like it had dropped out of my body. There was not a place on Matthews body that was not bruised or cut. His hands were cuffed behind his back, chained to a metal pole that stretched from the floor to the ceiling. I shifted back to human form and searched for something to break the chains. I was panicking, wasting precious time on this. I found a bloody knife on a table. My heart sank. It was Matthews blood. I used the knife to force the cuffs open.

Matthews arms fell to the floor.

I shifted back into a wolf and tried to get Matthew up on my back, but his body was limp, and I couldn’t get a good grip on him. “Help!” I called out to Vic and Roxy.

I whined and licked Matthew face again, calling for him to open his eyes.

I heard the splintering of wood and knew two big wolves were crashing through the wooden fence.

They ran inside. Roxy stopped when she saw Matthew and yowled. “Vic!” I called out to him, and he came up next to me. He nuzzled me with his nose once. I shifted back to human form and gently helped get Matthew settled on Vic’s back. Roxy was whining and pacing nervously. “Let’s get out of here!” I said before I shifted again, and we headed for the door. Roxy went out first, followed by Vic. I went out last. Roxy was walking next to Vic, licking Matthews hand. As soon as they were on the other side of the fence, I felt another sharp pain in my hind.

I turned around to see the boy from earlier come running with a big, dark-brown wolf.

“Run!” I called to Vic and Roxy. I saw Vic take off, but Roxy ran back through the hole in the fence. She stopped when she was right next to me.

“I told you to run!” I snarled at her.

“Yeah, but you’re not my alpha.” She said in the sassiest way possible.

The boy had shifted into his wolf from again as well, and they were advancing on us.

“What is the plan?” Roxy asked.

“You take the small one, I will deal with the big one” I answered

“I can do that” she said

The brown wolf charged me. I stood my ground and growled, not wanting to give him a clear path to Matthew. He sank his teeth in my neck, and I yelped. I rolled on my back, squashing him between me and the ground. He scratched my back and legs, leaving deep gashes.

We both got back on our feet, and I could feel the blood on my fur. The pain lessened and I knew my wounds were closing. I saw his eyes flash surprise, then anger. He pounced at me, and this time I was ready for him. I grabbed him by the throat and flung him into a wall. Before he could get up, I lunged at him, sinking my teeth deep into his front leg. He cried out in pain, and I bit down harder. I could smell Matthew’s blood on him, and I lost it. I sank my teeth into his hind leg and twisted until I heard the bone break. He cried out in pain and tried to bite me in the chest, but all he managed to get was skin and fur. I released him and he immediately tried to get back on his feet, but his hind leg was dangling, pulled out of its socket. He howled for his pack to come to his aid; my cue to leave. I called out to Roxy, who threw her attacker on the ground. We both made a run for it, through the hole in the fence. Roxy howled to alert our own pack of our retreat.

Back on our own territory, we caught up to Vic who was halfway to the mansion. I licked Matthews face.

Roxy was whining next to me and kept nuzzling me with her nose.

When we got close to the mansion, half a dozen people came rushing to meet us. Two guys offered to take Matthew, to give Vic a break, but both he and I snarled at them.

They followed us back into the mansion, where we took Matthew back up to his room. People rushed in and out of his room, bringing bandages, scissors, disinfectant. They cut off his clothes and got him in the shower, cleaning off the blood. I helped the best I could, but when it was time to put on the disinfectant, I had to stop. Matthews body twitched every time the disinfectant came into contact with one of his wounds.

A couple of hours later, Matthew was in his bed, I was snuggled up next to him. One of the physicians had just come back with the result of his blood test. There was liquid silver in his bloodstream, preventing his healing powers from working. Right now, they were working on finding someone with the same blood type as him. Since his healing powers couldn’t help him, they didn’t want to take any risks with mixing blood types.

“Use mine!” I pleaded. “I’m his mate! It has to work!” She looked at me confused, but then nodded.

A few minutes later an IV drip was connecting my arm to Matthews. A tiny machine was hooked up to the drip, pumping blood out of Matthews body, and forcing my blood to flow into his.

“We can only take about 1 liter of your blood. Any more than that and it might harm your body” the physician told me. I nodded. Hopefully, that would be enough. He had lost a lot of blood.

The IV’s were taken out and we were left alone for now. The physician would come back every couple of hours to check up on us. I emptied a glass of water and ate an apple, as the physician had recommended me to do, and laid down next to Matthew.

Someone knocked on the door. When I didn’t answer, they opened the door and walked in. Sascha and Roxy both stood there, watching me.

“Hi” Sascha said quietly, “How is he doing?”

“They gave him some of my blood.” I said, feeling a sting in my eyes.

“Is he going to be all right?” Roxy said, her own eyes red from crying.

I didn’t answer, just shrugged, feeling helpless.

“We’ll bring you some dinner” Sascha said and took Roxy by the shoulders, leading her out of the room.

I passed the following days in Matthews room. During the night I had snuck back to my own room to grab my laptop and some clothes. I was sitting at the desk with my laptop. I pressed the release button for my new album. I had spent half the night listening to the final track that I had made for him.

Roxy and Sascha had dropped by a couple of times to bring me food and see how Matthew was doing.

His wounds had closed, and the bruises were fading, but he still hadn’t regained consciousness.

There was a knock on the door and I quickly hid my laptop in the drawer. I stood up and walked towards the door when it opened. The physician walked in, smiled at me, and walked over to Matthew. She picked up his wrist and looked at her watch. She took his blood pressure and filled a vial with blood.

“Has he still not woken up at any time?” she asked me. I shook my head in response.

“Well, he seems to be improving. Let’s just give it some more time” she said and headed for the door. Before she closed it, she turned to me and said “Oh, I’ve also been asked to inform you, that once the situation with Matthew gets better, you’re going to stand trial in front of the Council”. She smiled at me and closed the door.

I would be lying if I said I wasn’t a little bit scared of what that might mean, but for now, I didn’t care. All that mattered was that Matthew got better. I had begged the physician to give Matthew more of my blood, but she had told me that the blood was cleared of silver and his own healing abilities were back. The only thing we could do now was wait for him to wake up.

I was starting to get anxious. Two days had passed, and he was still not showing signs of waking up.

It was late and I felt tired; I had barely slept.

I laid down in bed, leaning my head on my hand, my arm resting just above Matthews head. I ran the fingers on my free hand through his hair. I looked at his face. He looked so peaceful. Normally I would think he looked cute, but right now all I wanted was for him to open his eyes. I kissed his forehead.

I hummed the tune from his song, and soon I began singing quietly. For the first time in days he moved.

I sang a little louder, leaning closer to him. He grunted. I didn’t even know what I was singing anymore, I just kept going, until finally, Matthew opened his eyes.