RUNT

Normalcy? (part1)

Christian

The beeping is endless. It sounds like it is echoing down a long empty hallway, my ears ringing slightly as I try to drown it out. My shoulders ache, my arms like useless tree trunks strapped to my torso.

What the hell did we do? My wolf demands as I fight to open my eyes.

I squint as the bright white light invades my senses, burning my corneas. As I struggle to dodge the bright I can hear a shuffling sound before a hand presses me back into the uncomfortable bed.

"Whoa man. Relax. You've been out for three days." Gabriel's voice registers after a moment.

"Wha.." My voice cracks and my throat feels like I have been swallowing mouthfuls of sand.

Finally blinking away the bright, my eyes adjust. Gabriel looks disheveled, dark bags under his eyes and messy, greasy hair. His hands still have blood crusted on them as he offers me a glass of water.

He looks terrible. My wolf interrupts suddenly before panic rises in me. I don’t see her. My chest starts to heave with effort as my mind races through all that might have happened.

"She is safe." Gabriel's voice is flat. "She hasn't woke up yet but the doctors have taken care of her injuries and are giving her antibiotics to clear the infection.."

"Infection?" My words come out in a rasp before I gulp down some water. "What?"

"Doc says it is in her kidneys and bladder. They left her in her filth…" Gabriel winces as he helps me sit up better. "Several of her bones were broken and they had silvered her multiple times… Doc is worried it may cause lasting damage to her reproductive system…"

"Fuck." I grit the word out from between clenched teeth as I realize how bad the pain in my muscles is. "Where is she?"

Gabriel gestures to the empty bed against the other wall. "They just took her for another M.R.I. but she should be back soon. Keeping you in the same room made it easier on me…"

"Don't worry about it. You did good." He knows I like to recuperate in private and I have previously demanded that no visitors or roommates be allowed when I am hospitalized. I never wanted to be viewed as weak by anyone, even those close to me.

Silence passes uncomfortably for a few minutes before a knock on the door alerts us to the nurses entering with a transportation bed and a plethora of machines attached to the tiny body laying there.

She is pale.. My wolf whimpers with the knowledge we can do nothing for her now. And bruised.

My eyes scan over her thin arms that are covered in bruises in various states of healing. Her gown had bandages peeking out from the collar and there were wires that disappeared below sheets. The iv in her arm was providing her with both blood and some viscous looking green fluid.

We should have prevented this. More whining. He is right though. This should have never happened, never even been a possibility.

I can't focus on what the nurses are saying to Gabriel, it is just a dull buzzing. My eyes refuse to leave her as they move her back to the room bed. Hands avoid touching her back, her stomach. What kind of damage was done to our little mate? Her chest barely moves as she breathes and her heart beat is unheard through the whirring of machines.

Someone touches me but it barely registers. She looks like she did before, too thin, undernourished. One of her eyes is swollen shut and has an angry looking bruise on the brow, her lips are cracked but you can tell it was worse.