Within the Sapphire Forest

Chapter 7

I didn’t let myself dwell in the dark place for too long after the dinner incident. I focused on taking care of the creatures, and going to work. I left no space for slip ups, and before I knew it, a month had passed.

Beltane went by without incident, and I heard through the grapevine that Jasper had stepped down from the role of the god, and a married couple had stepped in. Melissa and I held a bonfire for ourselves and drank the last two bottles of wine we had in my fridge.

Wolfie’s leg healed completely in that month, and he often spent time running around outside. I kept insisting he should leave, go find his pack, but he wouldn’t go. He kept close to the house and always found his way inside at night to sleep next to the bed. 

It all became a welcome routine for me to keep me out of my head.

But it wasn’t all perfect. There were several times I’d wake up in the middle of the night to hear Wolfie whining and growling. I’d lean down to find his eyes closed shut and breathing ragged.

One night I tried to pet him to calm him down but the night terror must have been too awful, because he turned and tried to bite me. I snatched my hand away at the last second. The movement must have been enough to wake him, because he was across the room in a flash, fear and guilt clear in his eyes. I managed to coax him back over and he fell into a deep sleep.

My little bubble of peace had to pop.

I’d had a long day at work, with a lot of unruly customers. Thankfully, they were all human, and I realized I hadn’t seen the four assholes since my trip to Kalarn. I actually hadn’t seen any werewolf other than Wolfie in all that time, and very rarely had I seen any other creature beyond my home. It felt strange, like the universe was holding back just to give me an extra rough dose of whatever they threw at me next.

Then I was on edge. I felt like everyone was watching me, waiting to hurt me, or ruin my day in some severely awful way.

Calm down, I told myself, taking a few deep breaths. You’re just being paranoid.

I forced myself to stop looking at everyone with suspicion and just focus on my job. It was so damn hard though.

I was finally able to clock out and breathed a sigh of relief as I hurried to Melissa’s.

Something slammed into my side, sending me flying down a little alley behind some buildings. I didn’t have time to register what was happening before I was hit again, flying even farther into the alley. I got up quickly to face what was hitting me.

The four werefuckers formed a half circle in front of me, the two bitches closer to me, but their moron guard dogs kept a solid wall between me and the end of the alley. I turned slightly to see the other end wasn’t far away, and tried to decide if it was worth running for it.

I didn't get a chance to try when one of the bitches came at me again. I tried to move out of the way, but her friend slammed into the other side of me, and together they managed to maneuver me against a wall.

“What do you want?” I sneered at them.

“We need a favor,” the cleavage cow stated.

“Why the f**k would I help you?”

“Because,” the short brunette man said, “if you don’t we’ll start breaking bones.”

I shoved one of the bitches and tried to run, but one of them grabbed me and threw me back against the wall. Then one of them punched me in the left shoulder, hard. I felt something snap, and the worst pain of my entire life radiated through my body. I felt sick at how intense the pain was and my vision blacked out for a moment. My arm went completely limp and every time I tried to move it, the pain intensified.

“Now, are you going to cooperate?” I heard someone say, but with my vision out, I couldn’t tell who was talking.

I wanted to make a condescending remark, or just tell them to f**k off, but I couldn’t spit anything out without screaming, and I wouldn’t scream for them. Instead I nodded, hoping it gave me time to recover enough to do something.

“Good, now listen closely cause if I have to repeat myself, I’m going to break another bone. Our alpha is missing, and we’ve been to every witch we can find, but none of them could help us. What we need is someone to tell us if he’s alive or dead. If he’s alive we need to know where he is, so we can go… take care of him.”

The group laughed and someone laid a hand on my unwounded shoulder, as if to convince me it was okay to speak.

The contact triggered something, a vision of sorts, but I’d never had a vision before, and the lack of experience caused it to come in pieces; a dark gray wolf snapping at the haunches of a larger white wolf, a trail of blood leading further into the woods, and white fur hanging off of bush branches.

I was brought back when I felt a sharp pain in my leg that quickly spread up to my stomach and my small composure shattered when the pain caused me to throw up everything.

“Answer me, is he alive or dead?”

“I don’t know,” I coughed, still spitting up the bile in my throat.

“What do you mean you don’t know?” someone yelled.

“That’s not within my abilities. I’m still young, only an elder member would have the ability to find out if a specific person is dead or alive.”

“Where would we find one of these members?” a voice demanded.

“Only in a coven, and you’ll have a hard time getting them to help you,” I said, trying not to cry.

“Are you f*****g kidding me? We go through all this and we’re not going to find out? Man, Nathan is going to kill us.”

I felt the pain begin to turn to fire in my veins, and I tried to hold the rage back as best as I could.

“Let’s just go, if she can’t help us, then I don’t know who can.”

“What do we do if Alpha Caden comes back?”

The question hung in the air for a few seconds. I took the time to wrestle with myself, trying to focus on the pain rather than the anger.

“We do what we have to do to help Nathan rise to Alpha status.”

Silence descended as I’m sure they came to some understanding.

A force connected with my face, and pain exploded in my head. The pain was too much and I finally slipped into the darkness.

I felt like I was gliding through the air. Not flying, that took too much work, but letting the air carry me. I looked down, hoping to see the beautiful scenery of trees and mountains, but all I saw were buildings and parking lots.

Then I saw a heap on the ground, broken and bloody. I feared for it, and decided to check on it.

It was a girl, and she was covered in bruises. Her nose and forehead were bleeding profusely, and her breathing and heartbeat were weak, so weak, she was almost dead. I knew she needed help, but I couldn’t do anything but watch her die. Something inside of me pulled me up and through town. 

I saw a cute little house next to the train tracks and knew that’s where I had to go. I floated in and saw a beautiful girl sitting on her couch. She kept glancing at the clock, waiting for something. I tapped her shoulder, and she jumped. I tried to wave at her, or say anything, but she couldn’t see me, and I couldn’t force any words out.

I laid my hand on her shoulder, which seemed to scare her, but she didn’t flinch away. I tried to tell her about the girl, tried to show her, and the images seemed to flow from me to the girl. Her eyes glazed over as the images reached her. Suddenly, she jumped up and raced out the door. I floated behind her almost lazily, feeling a little guilty for not struggling as she pushed herself to her limits to run. We reached the alley, and if I hadn’t patted her, she would have missed it, the poor little lump that was getting weaker every second.

The girl’s panic slowed her actions as she fought to keep the other alive. She flipped the girl onto her back, and pain shot through my body along with the image of sapphire blue eyes.

What was that? I questioned as pain spread slowly through my skill.

I didn’t really want to know. I was afraid of anymore pain and wanted to leave. I’d gotten the broken girl help, and didn’t see the point of me sticking around. I couldn’t leave, I tried, fighting the pull that kept me bound to the body.

The girl held her hands over the weak body’s chest and I felt warmth spread through me. It made me feel whole again, in a way I didn’t know I needed.

I suddenly began to remember things. The sapphire eyes belonged to a white wolf! And the girl, I knew her! We were friends! Images flashed through my mind of my life, of my home, and my creatures.

I remembered the wolf more clearly, and my heart ached for him.

I felt calmer, even as more pain settled over me, even as my leg throbbed and burned, even as my numb arm painfully twitched in protest, I felt better. I felt alive.

Then, as I settled back into my wretched little body, I wished that I was dead. I couldn’t open my eyes, couldn’t move my body. My chest hurt every time I breathed, and I coughed in protest.

“Oh my Goddess! Evianna!” Melissa shouted. “It’s okay, just keep breathing. I’ll get you home soon, but it’s going to hurt. Goddess, what did those fuckers do to you?” 

I felt something wet on my face, but I couldn’t tell if it was from me, or Melissa.

A soft crackling sound filled the air and my skin felt all tingly at the contact. Then a zap filled the air and I knew my Missy had done her own version of teleportation using lightning instead of astral projection. I felt the soft earth beneath me and smelled clean fresh air and knew I was home.

I heard running and felt that Melissa had gone inside, probably to see if she could find my supplies, then I heard whining and felt a cold nose on my cheek.

"Caden," I coughed, trying to reach my right arm up to him.

He froze. No whining, no moving, I thought he'd even quit breathing, but he slowly licked my cheek and I knew he was just trying to understand what had happened.

"They… they jumped me. They were looking for you. I didn't-'' A cough interrupted my sentence and my chest ached fiercely.

"I didn't tell them where you were, I think they want to kill you for Nathan."

I didn't hear or feel anything after that, and I was worried I'd upset him too much. I forced one of my eyes open and saw a man looking down on me.

He was gorgeous, with short choppy hair so blonde it was almost white, and glowing blue eyes. He looked like he was on the brink of complete destruction.

I brought my hand up to his face and he seemed to calm a little, then we heard someone yelling.

"Who the f**k are you? Get away from her!" Melissa yelled.

Wolfie, as I didn't feel like changing his nickname yet, didn't move from a muscle. I had a feeling if he did, he'd only be in danger of extreme murder.

Melissa walked up, and that was when he looked up to her. She gasped, and stopped yelling. Then, he spoke.

"I can help her, but you have to do everything I say." 

His voice was soft and warm, and deep, crazy deep. It made me feel like I could swim in it, probably just the shock.

"Go back into the house and grab one of the sheets in her closet. There's a stack of bloody ones you can grab, they're all clean. It looks like her shoulder is dislocated, so I'm going to have to pop it back in before we move her. It's not going to be pretty, so if you don't want to see, stay inside."

I heard Melissa take off, then he was gently propping my back against his stomach by grabbing my waist.

I screamed bloody murder. Every movement sent pain shooting through my body. I wanted to pass out, or die. I couldn't breathe, couldn't think about anything but the pain tormenting me.

"I'm so sorry. I need you to breathe. Evianna, breathe!" he demanded.

I took a deep breath in as he pushed on my shoulder.

I blacked out again, losing myself to the pain. It was too much. How were there people in the world who could handle this level of pain.

When I came too again, I was laying back on the ground while Melissa stroked my hair and cried. Her gray eyes were cloudy, and I could see the storm brewing and I knew, once again, that I was the only reason she hadn't lost it yet.

"Hey, honey, how are you feeling?" Her voice cracked at the end.

"I'm okay," I lied.

She shook her head at me, but I could see the little bit of relief in her face.

I glanced down when I heard fabric tear. Caden was ripping my jeans to get a better look at my broken leg. He'd started at the bottom and ripped right up to my crotch. My cheeks burned involuntarily especially because I finally noticed he wasn't wearing anything.

Goddess, please tell me I'm in a s**t ton of shock and not a horny slut, I thought.

I stopped thinking when I looked beyond the hot naked ass to see my bone sticking out of my leg.

I started heaving, and felt my bile rising in my throat. Caden didn't hesitate. He pushed Melissa back, pulled me against him, and turned my head to vomit over my good shoulder. It burned my throat and nose as it exited my body and left my eyes watering so bad I couldn't see anything.

"Melissa, you have to take her, just like this, and cover her eyes," he instructed, moving carefully to switch spots.

Missy took her place and gently covered my eyes for me. I noticed that the hand off caused a lot of pain in my shoulder, but not to the point of wishing to die.

"Talk to me," I whispered, wanting to be distracted from everything going on.

No one said anything. I almost thought they hadn't heard me. 

"My name is Caden Matthews," he announced, just loud enough for me to hear. "I'm twenty-nine, and I have two amazing parents who are both werewolves as well."

He pushed quickly on the bone and took everything in me not to pass out again, but I did scream, scaring Melissa.

"They're great. My mom's name is Danielle and my dad's name is Jacob. He was the alpha of the pack until a few years ago, when his joints started to act up and made it hard for him to phase or exercise. He chose to pass the title onto me before someone could challenge him for it."

He started delicately pressing gauze into the very open wound, soaking everything in the same healing solution I'd used for his wounds.

"I don't think I was ready for it. I spent more time hunting and running than actually leading the pack. I wasn't a good alpha, and a lot of ny pack noticed and started taking advantage of that. The four that attacked me had started with just taking off randomly. When I finally noticed and started asking them about their whereabouts, all they would say was 'we were just scouting' and they'd snicker like f*****g children."

I interrupted before he could continue, murmuring, "They used to go to Cody. They would harass me at work by knocking things over or rearranging shit."

He quietly contemplated before responding, "I'm sorry. I didn't know they were doing that.

"When I found out they were leaving, I tried to make them stop. I tried to give them jobs that would keep them close, but they didn't respect me, no one did. I couldn’t control anyone, and I started losing all faith in myself as a leader.”

He placed two small boards on both sides of my leg and gently wrapped bindings around the boards and my leg to keep my bones in place.

“I expressed to my beta, Justin, that I wanted to step up as an alpha, and he suggested I work with the previous beta, Nathan.”

I flinched at the name, pain flashing through me in memory.

“Nathan was a great beta to my father, together they were able to lead the pack to greatness, expanding our borders, improving our living spaces, our training grounds. We were at our strongest when they worked together.

“Nathan thought he was going to take over after my father stepped down. He decided I was too young and foolish and needed more time to train to be alpha, but my father had different plans.

“When I went to speak to Nathan about improving myself as an alpha, he suggested I start with the problem people, get them rounded up and in order, and others would respect me and fall in line. I did what he said, going to the troublemakers, Brad, Rebecca, Jane, and Marcus. They said they wanted to work on our relationships, so we could be friends. They invited me on a run through the woods, and that’s where they stabbed me in the back.

“I truly thought they wanted to be friends, but the next thing I knew, Brad took a swipe at me, cutting me deep. Then they all were attacking me, biting and scratching. I fought back as best I could, but I wasn’t even training myself, I just assumed it would all come naturally to me. When I realized I couldn’t take them on, I ran, and I prayed to the goddess to help me find some place that I could lick my wounds, and my pride.

“Next thing I knew, I saw a cabin, and I felt safe, that it was somewhere I would be taken care of until I was ready to face them again, if I ever did.”

He finished with my leg, and Melissa dropped her hand, so I could see him. His gaze was stuck on me, and he looked so pained. I figured I looked like a disaster, all bloody and bruised as I was.

“I don’t remember much of the next few hours. I remember immense pain all over my body, but I also remember feeling comfortable at times, like there was an energy that was making the pain go away, and I thought the goddess had taken me from the world, that I had died. But, then there was so much pain, I knew I wasn’t dead, and I just went into survival mode and can’t say I really remember what happened while I was trying not to die.

“The next thing I actually remembered was waking up in a strange new place and being terrified. I heard you in the kitchen and fear took over, but you didn’t seem scared, and you were kind and gentle towards me, even though I was threatening you. You were a witch, and yet you didn’t treat any worse than your other creatures, even though I figured you’d been treated badly by my own kind.”

He’d moved so his face was much closer to mine as he said something that surprised me.

“You’re so incredible, and the last month has been the best of my life. You’ve brought me such strength and courage, and… and I think I love you.”

Melissa gasped, which is what I wanted to do, but I couldn’t even muster the energy to keep my eyes open any more. I raised my hand to him, but only got it so far on my own. He held it gently and grazed my fingers with his lips.

“We need to get her inside,” Melissa whispered softly.

Caden sighed, and slowly laid my hand down.

“I know. We’re going to move you now, and it’ll probably hurt, okay?”

I felt myself drifting off again and barely mustered a nod. Then, they lifted me carefully by the armpits and knees. It hurt, but the shock and exhaustion were just too much to overcome. I fell happily into the darkness to escape my pain.