Broken but not lost

Chapter 6, BRIAR

I feel something cold on my forehead before I open my eyes. My hands ache, my fingers are throbbing. I just want to go back to sleep but the sounds I hear around me are not what I'm used to.

It's quiet.

No fighting voices, no crumbling stone, no shouting or birds cawing.

Just quiet.

I finally force my eyes open. My eyelids are heavy but I somehow manage to keep them open.

I'm not outside. I'm not in a broken, collapsing building. It's a... bedroom?

The floors are clean, black stone, the walls are a pretty grey with bits of shine. Nothing is broken or falling apart like what I've been living in.

A damp rag falls off my head as I manage to sit up, groaning as I realize how bad my side hurts. I untuck my shirt and lift to see it. My ribs are bruised, not bad enough for anything to be broken, but just enough to hurt like a bitch.

Did he really have to kick me that hard?

I pull my shirt back down and brush my hair out of my face. It fell out of my braids while we were fighting. Or while I slept? I don't know. I begin to look around.

Windows.

Giant windows running all the way across the wall. I slowly stand up, wincing at the cold contact my feet have with the floor. Someone took my shoes off.

I hold my injured left hand to my bruised side and inch my way to the windows.

I reach them and press my hand against the glass. It looks like I'm on the second floor of a building, maybe the third.

Shit.

The sun is up, my group was leaving at first light. I slam my fist against the glass in anger and quickly turn.

Too quickly, apparently, because I practically run into a tall, muscular figure.

"Flynn." I say before looking up into his green eyes.

"You're awake." He responds.

"Yes. I'm awake. And I'd like to know where I am and how to get back to my tribe." I try and shove past him but he stops me with a large hand to my waist.

I look at him and then his hand, then back to him.

"Would you like to move your hand before I move it for you?" I say sweetly.

He scoffs. "You're injured in more ways than one. You could try but you won't be able to, love."

"I'm only injured because of you in some cases."

"The burn is your fault, the bruised knuckles are your fault, the broken fingers are your fault. I don't actually think I did anything to injure you." He says with an annoying amount of smugness.

"Oh, really?" I raise a brow.

I lift my shirt back up and show him the bruise he gave me. "You kicked me. Bruised me. Not to mention the ache I have in my neck from you pinning me."

He winces at the sight of my side. He hums.

"If I tell you to sit, will you actually listen or will we have to revisit our fight last night?" He asks while he gently brushes a cold hand against the bare skin I'm showing on my side. I inhale sharply with the contact.

"Did that hurt?" He asks in a way that almost sounds concerned.

I clear my throat and side-step his grasp and go to sit on the bed I got up from. "No, it didn't hurt. You- your hands are just cold."

I sit on the bed and pull my hair up into an awful bun on the top of my head. Flynn walks around the bed to the cabinets behind it. He rustles through some things and pulls out a large white bandage.

"Take off your shirt." He says, not even looking at me.

I seethe. I don't like being told what to do. Especially by him.

He sighs, annoyed. "Oh, would you stop it? Just take off your shirt so I can wrap your side. The bandage will help take some of the pressure off from walking."

I roll my eyes and lift my shirt over my head. I throw it to the side on the floor, taking my secret blade with it, leaving me almost bare in front of him.

I've never shown anyone this much of me. Not voluntarily. Only Freya, but that was because she gave me a shirt and extra pants to change into after... losing mine.

But Freya isn't a man.

A very annoying, attractive man.

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