Octavius (WATTYS 2016)

three | slingshots & sass

Kane's nails continue to dig painfully into my arm as we reach a pair of white metal doors, the sign above them displaying "Infirmary" in aggressively red letters. 

I wait for Kane's grip to release, but it only tightens, and I wince sharply. 

"Let go of me, Kane." I growl quietly. 

With a yank, he pulls my face in front of his, and my wide eyes meet his beady ones, squinted in rage. His breath smells of mold and meat, like a dog's. I struggle to pull away from him, but he only holds tighter, breathing harder. 

"Listen to me, you little runt," He hisses, spraying my cheek with a vile stream of saliva. I choke slightly, reeling with nausea. "Back in your pitiful pack, you were no doubt the little princess, getting everything you wanted. But here, in my world, you are only a beetle underneath my shoe. And one day, I might take a wrong step and crunch." Glee fills his eyes, and I wrench myself from his hold sharply, stumbling back a step or two, falling against the doors. 

"How dare-"

He cuts me off with a shove into the infirmary, and I barely catch myself from landing on the polished marble floors. 

"Here you are, brat." Kane grins devilishly, the curve of his lips falsely sweet. "Have fun playing patient, you'll be back in the Tombs before you know it. Ta Ta." And with a wave of his hand, he's gone. 

I turn around, and come face to face with a sea of frozen doctors and nurses, all eyes focused directly on me. I gulp, straightening my ragged hair, clearing my throat. 

Just ignore them. 

I step forward to a desk, and knock slightly on the wood of its surface, causing the dark eyed woman behind it to look up. 

"Alpha Octavius already phoned in. Follow me." She moves away from the desk, and my eyes focus on the round shape of her stomach. Images of my stomach bloated with a beast's baby fill my mind, fear and wonder mingling in my chest like some unbalanced soup.

Never the less, I follow the woman into a white hospital room, and take the generic pants and shirt she hands me. She taps her foot at me impatiently, and I nod, moving behind a screen to change. I slip my shirt over my head, the soft fabric leaving my body with a cold and empty feeling. As if, by discarding my clothes, I am shedding the last visible sign from my life in Moonrise. 

"I have other appointments to get to, please, with haste." The nurse's voice snaps, and I shake my head of thoughts, numbly tying the tie of the slightly too big hospital pants. 

She rolls her eyes once I exit from behind the screen, a spool of gauze bouncing up and down as she tosses it. 

I am conflicted between wringing her neck and slapping her across the face, but before I can decide the mode of my tantrum, she is pushing me towards a creaky hospital bed, and I sigh with exhaustion as my body comes into contact with the odd-feeling fabric. 

The nurse bandages my leg wound quickly, with an aggression that is completely unnecessary. I just bite my tongue, not wanting to anger the woman with access to syringes and scalpels. She finishes, and takes hold of my chin, examining the fading bruises that line my cheek bone. With a shrug, she just tosses me a lopsided ice-pack, which I just lay next to me. 

She steps back, looking me up and down, wobbling slightly due to her large belly. 

"Is that it?" She questions, annoyance dripping from her tone. 

"Yes?" I respond hesitantly, frowning at her confusion. 

"That's all? And the Alpha still requested that you get medical care?"