When Robyn gets stranded in the woods one day with none other than her high-school crush, the last thing on her mind is coming face-to-face with who he might be beneath the skin.
***
For two years Robyn Hale successfully managed to hide her inexpli...
Ray had never seen his father in the state he was in that evening. Andrew looked old and withered, his eyes sunken and red. The bright blue irises looking dull, belonging to a man Ray didn't recall his father to be. He had a week's worth of stubble that only amplified his unruly appearance.
Forcing himself out of the initial shock of seeing his father, Ray slid out of the pale blue sheets and stood on shaky legs.
"Son! What are you doing?" Andrew was by his side in a second, wrapping an arm around Ray. "Don't push your body, you've just woken up."
Ray sat down, sensing the room tilt around him. He accepted the glass of water Nick offered, gulping it down at once. Then he took the jug and emptied that too.
"How long was I out for?"
"A week," Nick set the jug and glass on the bedside table, then took a seat on the plush, white and gold armchair opposite Ray.
Ray, suddenly feeling disoriented and confused, rubbed his face with both hands.
"You should rest for tonight, Ray--"
"Sleep more?! I've been sleeping for a week!" His mind was restless, his body feeling heavy from no movement for days. "I need to get some fresh air, it's suffocating being in here."
"I'll open the window," Nick stood before Ray could and slid the floor to ceiling window open. The white safety fence was in stark contrast to the night sky.
Ray felt the strength come back into his muscles as he took in the evening air. After a moment of silence, he asked, "what's going on?"
"What do you mea--"
"Dad, don't act oblivious. I can tell by your look things have happened."
Andrew and Nick exchanged glances.
"I'll tell you everything, son," Andrew pulled open a drawer on the bedside table and produced a first aid box, "before that, we need to change your dressing."
Ray looked down at his body, seeing the bandages wrapped across his torso and shoulder for the first time.
"How do you feel? You must be weak from all the blood you lost," Andrew began unwrapping the bandages layer by layer. The deeper he unravelled, the more bloody the cloth was.
"To be honest, I don't feel that bad."
"You're still alive because of your wolf, you know that, right?" Nick asked. "If it were a different wolf, they'd be gone by now."
"Yes, it will still take some time before all the silver is flushed out of your system," Andrew added, "those bullets caused some serious wounds, even I wasn't expecting them to be so…"
The last of the cloth fell away and slipped out of Andrew's hand. Before him, Ray's skin was taut, and tanned, the way he remembered it to be. Only, where before there were bloody wounds, now was a scar of four thick, tapered scratch marks and two large circles where the bullets had pierced him.
"Your wounds have... healed?!"
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