What’s Left Of Me

You hurt Me.

Chapter Five: You hurt Me.

POV: Hazel

I’m shocked at the way, Eric has acted. I felt uncomfortable yes. I gave the guy two warnings, on the third I was going to use self-defense. I don’t need a hero, at a point he needs to understand I can take care of myself. I don’t wanna say, ‘it’s because I’ve grown up in New York’ but it’s because I’ve grown up in New York. 

I’m walking around the pack garden to clear my head. I’m worried, not just because I see my mate is aggressive. I’m here and my family is not. I sit down and relax for a moment on a bench. The birds chirping, the cool breeze. It would almost be perfect if my heart wasn’t hurting. 

I hear some ruffling behind me of leaves and I turn to see it’s Elijah. He sits down beside me and bumps my shoulder against his. He gives me the toothiest forced grin and says, “Penny for your thoughts?”

I put my hands over my face then growl. I take my hands away from my face and he now has a genuinely amused smile on his face. I finally say, “ Well, I’ve met my mate, I have a date with my mate, this is an extremely beautiful day.” 

Elijah looks confused now. “Then what’s the problem?” I wipe a stray tear away and lookup. 

Getting the courage, finally, I say, “ The problem is, something is missing. It’s like a whole of hurt in my chest and it won’t go away. It’s like I’m constantly choking on it. Without my family, I feel like I am nobody. They although very hard on me, made me feel like I could do anything, be anything.” 

 Elijah sits up and I look over he is playing with a ring on his fingers. He can’t look at me when he says, “I understand that, I met my mate when I was sixteen. We got engaged three years later, she become my whole world. Eventually, she got pregnant. On her way to work one morning at a human hospital just outside of our territory. She got killed. She was human. Without her, my wolf and I are in constant pain.”

 This makes me sit up, I try to look at his face but he keeps it low. “There are no words I can say to make it any better, not even a I’m sorry. Because that makes it feel worse. I won’t even tell you time heals the loss. I will say, I hope you find peace again. I hope you find, what you have lost in something just as important to you.” 

Elijah finally looks at me. He has this expression on his face I can’t quite read but he whispers, “thank you.” 

I give him a head nod and turn back to looking at the water before me. A beautiful lake surrounded by wildflowers, I feel at home. 

We sit in silence and he finally breaks the ice by saying, “I come here to make you feel better and You end up giving me the therapy session.”

We both laugh. He swallows a bug that flew right into his mouth. This makes me laugh even harder. I’m patting his back while he spits grossed out. I hear a growl out of nowhere. I turn to see my mate right next to me. He picks me up and we head towards the house.

I’m being held bridal style. I’m confused. Why?

My mate sits me down on the couch and passes back and forth in front of me. I am watching him go back, and forth, back and forth. Finally, I clear my throat to get his attention. He looks at me and his face is red.

“May I ask what’s wrong or will you tell me once you have stopped pacing?” I say with concern. 

He huffs and yells, “ YOU SHOULD KNOW……WHAT WERE YOU DOING WITH ELIJAH!?” 

It takes me a minute but I realize that he is acting this way because he has seen me patting his back. I swallow my laugh knowing it would make him even madder and say, “ Elijah, seen me by myself and come to ask if I was okay. Then he ended up swallowing a fly, which nasty. Nearly, made me die crying. It also nearly made him die choking so I started patting his back.” 

It takes a moment for him to register what I am saying. He finally looks down and walks to sit beside me. He doesn’t make eye contact with me just looks forward. He says in a low voice, “ I’m sorry, I’m normally not like this. It’s me seeing you with other men, it makes us go crazy. I know you have other things to worry about.” 

I understand, what he is saying. This morning, this omega was serving breakfast. Touched his hand and it took everything in my power not to growl at her. I wrapped my legs around something and bit my lip. Ended up making the gamma, Timothy fall out of his chair because I broke the leg. 

This made everyone Laugh but their attention come to me when they smelled blood, everyone each checking to see if I was okay. I made my lip bleed biting down so hard anyway, I brushed them off and checked on the gamma. I move closer to him and put my head on his shoulder, “I know, I guess it’s patience on both of our parts.” 

He looks down at me and smiles, kissing me on the top of my head. We both made eye contact and it was like meeting for the first time, properly. I mean in and capture his lips in mine. We pull apart and he says, “ I can’t wait, less move the date to tonight.” 

I smile and we both make our way to get dressed. I step out in a baby pink strapless dress, it is fitted up top but flairs out at the waist. I have white strap gladiator sandals. My mate looking amazing steps out in a white shirt, black jeans, and a leather jacket. He grabs his keys and takes my hand. 

We head straight into our pack's little town, we park, and go in for the movies. After we go to this cute little mom and pop dinner. They had the best homemade food. We sit in a booth, instead of sitting in front of me he sits beside me. We are sharing some of this homemade apple pie. 

My mate told me not to get too full, he wants to take me to a few different shops around the town to try their foods and homemade snacks. We are now walking hand in hand to the park there is a small fair to raise money for the high school. 

My mate looks at the and I turn my head to see him quickly look away. I couldn’t help but giggle at him. He has been the perfect gentleman tonight. “ So what is your favorite food? I ask curiously. 

He looks at me amused and says, “Pizza. Whenever I’m working and I miss dinner I just order pizza.” 

I nod knowing already he is dedicated to working hard for the pack. He continues by saying, “ What about you though? Although I have seen you take down some waffles. Impressed by the way.” 

I couldn’t help but laugh. He pulls me in for a hug and I finally answer, “ Mine is pizza too, you should come to new york with me sometime. We can go around the city and let you try them all.” 

He looks at me with love in his eyes and says, “ I would love to.” 

 We continue into the park and I see many pack members there with their families. Many of them wave to us, I’ve even gotten a hug from this little girl. Tonight I’ve learned many things about many mates. 

Obviously, his favorite food is pizza, his favorite color is green, his favorite snack is strawberry crescents, he Broke his arm when he was 8 because Elijah and Eric fought over who was stronger. There are so many things about him that’s surprising to me apparently, he was in a band in high school, also he played football. 

He has explained to me since he is 26 years old and has waited for me for so long it has made him aggressive. Now that I’m here with him, he is getting better with time.it kinda warms my heart. My wolf on the other hand is just like me we like to keep busy to distract ourselves. 

We are going to get cotton candy then go on the Ferris wheel. Eric asked me to stay by the line while he goes to get some. I think about it, and I haven’t been on my phone in days, I need to check back with my shop in New York. I dig through my bag and can’t find my phone, so I walk and find a table I put my bag on my table. 

I feel a tap on my shoulder, I turn around to see a blonde-headed man starting at me. It’s that man Booker, the one from the gym. I roll my eyes and turn back around. He grabs my waist and turns me around, I smack him across the face and say, “ Never touch me.” 

He puts his hand on his face where I smacked him. He grabs me by the hair and drags me behind  the Ferris wheel. I couldn’t help but scream, it hurt. He slams me up against the fence and tries to lift my dress. 

I scream, “DON’T TOUCH M…” I get cut off by a loud Growl. It sounds menacing and deadly. 

Booker pulls back and we both see my mate stalking towards us. I take the time to kick him between the legs, and then I punch him in the face knocking him out. My mate picks me up and grab my bag. I don’t talk I just put my head between his neck. 

We get back to the car, and Eric calls Elijah, telling him to take Booker to the dungeons. We drive back to the packhouse in silence. When we both get out of the car, he stops me at the door of the packhouse. 

He seems angry, “ I know what I need to do to keep you safe.” 

It sounds like it come from his wolf. “What do you mean?” was all I could get out before his fangs extend and he latches onto my neck, marking me without my permission. I couldn’t help but scream, it hurt so bad. 

This has been like a nightmare, the past few days. All I saw before I blacked was Eric, panicking.