Sleepwalker Wolf

Pain

Travis

My entire leg is on fire. There's blood steadily oozing from the hole in my thigh and the stack of towels my mother has practically glued to the wound are doing little to stop it.

My dad is driving the truck down the winding road to town as fast as he can without killing all of us. Trev sits in the passenger seat, glancing back every other minute. Eli sits on the other side of Mom with a few more towels and stares at my wound like he can will all the blood back into my body.

Nearly my entire family is with me, but all I want is Val.

The reason the hunters managed to get the better of me was because I was distracted. I had shifted and was wandering around the woods, lost in thought. I had told Val I loved her. And in probably the worst, most unromantic way possible. To make it all worse, I hung up on her.

I was debating about what to do when I heard the shot and felt the tearing pain in my hind leg. After running as far as I could, I shifted back into my skin-side and limped to the house. Mom had screamed like it was her that was shot when she saw the blood covering my leg. They had redressed me and then ripped open the leg of my pants. Dad was always ten steps ahead of everything, not wanting questions to be raised as to why my pants had no bullet hole.

Mom had called Val while they were trying to staunch the bleeding before telling her to meet us at the hospital.

Black dots are clouding my vision when Dad finally swerves in front of the ER doors. Him and Trev practically have to drag me out of the truck. There's flashes of the waiting room and shouting. Soft hands grip my face and a wonderful, familiar smell invades my nose.

"Sweetness," I mumble.

A dim, distant voice cries out just as everything goes black.

***

The first thing my mind can register when I begin to wake up is that my leg hurts like a bitch. There's an incessant beeping that makes me groan and wish my hands had the strength to cover my ears. But there's a wonderful smell surrounding me that belongs to my girl. A warm pressure weighs down one of my hands and I squeeze it to see what it is. A hand.

I can start to hear voices behind the beeping. They're growing closer and more urgent. The hand over mine squeezes and I return the gesture. My eyes pinch closed tight before I can blink them open slightly.

"Sweets?"

A soft smile forces its way onto my face when I hear Val's voice. The pet name came from nowhere, but every time she calls me that my head goes a little fuzzy.

"Hi, sweetness," I murmur, closing my eyes again because of the throbbing in my thigh. It's radiating out from the bullet hole to my shins and even my dick hurts.

"Are you hurting? The doctor said you could get more pain meds when you woke up," Mom asks from somewhere on the other side of me.

"Yes, please."

There's footsteps and a door opening and closing. Mom must be hunting down a nurse. I can smell Dad and my siblings have been here, but not for a while. It's just me and Val.

I want to relish in her presence since I missed her so much when she was spending the night away, but a quiet sniffling makes me open my eyes. Val is still holding my hand, a few tears slipping down her flushed cheeks. Her light blond hair is pulled up into a messy knot on top of her head and the skin around her eyes is puffy and red. I can tell this isn't the first time she's been crying and it makes an ache bloom in my chest.

"Aw, sweetness, don't cry. I'm alright." I bring my hand to my lips to press a kiss against her palm.

"Don't scare me like that ever again or I swear to God you'll never see me naked again," Val threatens, though the threat loses credibility with her teary eyes and croaky voice.