Ariadne: Almost an Alpha | ✓

Chapter 39 - Quietly Supportive

Chapter 39 - Quietly Supportive 

"Alright, I need to get up and moving," I announce after finishing my dinner. "I can't sit here all night and then just wake up for the tournament tomorrow and be ready to go."

"Let me see if they'll let you leave," Dylan says.

"I'll go see myself."

Dylan rolls his eyes.

I carefully get out out of the bed, resting my weight on the uninjured leg first before gradually evening it out between both legs. I sigh. There's a slight ache in my hip but nothing some pain meds couldn't fix.

"Feels as good as new," I tell Dylan.

Dylan follows me out to the main area of the medical facility. There's quite a few people in the building, likely all here for injured tournament contestants.

I go up to a nurse I recognize from earlier. Her eyes widen at the sight of me. Every werewolf heals at a different pace, but I tend to heal a lot faster than most women.

"Well, I guess we don't need to send in our physical therapy guy," she says.

"Nope, all is well," I respond. "I'd like to leave now, please. Can I get some low strength pain meds to go? Nothing that will make me too groggy."

She blinks at my forwardness. "Ok, yeah, just wait here, I'll get some."

I turn to Dylan and give him a smug smile.

We leave the facility after I get the pain meds and go back to Vincent's.

My phone buzzes with a text from Mateus.

Where are you staying?

Vincent's, I respond, and then because I don't know if they've officially been introduced yet, I add, the gray-haired man that sat next to Dylan in the arena.

Not the main house?

No.

I stare at my phone for a minute, expecting him to say something else, but he doesn't.

The next morning, I wake up early, so I can go back to the medical center for someone to remove the stitches.

"How are you feeling?" a male nurse asks as he carefully peels off the bandages.

"A bit sore but it's more uncomfortable than painful," I respond.

"That's good. These bites are healed enough that we can remove the sutures and leave them unbandaged, but this one on your side here still needs to be treated carefully. We'd normally leave the stitches in that one, but they need to be removed because you'll be shifting today."

I look down at the wound where Bram did the most damage, and it's still thickly scabbed and purple. The rest are all just thin scabs or are almost completely healed. The unhealed one is not going to be fun when I shift.

The man sets to work on removing the stiches, commenting on the status of each injury as he goes.

"So it'll at least be okay until the fight," he says as he applies some salve to the side wound before bandaging it back up. "It may reopen. You should come back immediately after."

"Ok, thank you."

When I return to Vincent's for breakfast, I open the front door to find Mateus and James sitting on Vincent's couch with Dylan.

"Good morning?"

"I asked Dylan if we could have breakfast here," James says. The morning sun coming through the window makes his blonde hair glow.

"I invited James," Dylan says, "Mateus just came."

I give Dylan the "be nice" look. Now that he thinks I'm too close to Mateus, he's decided to let me know he disapproves.

I understand his concerns, I really do. They are very valid, but I'm failing at pushing Mateus away. He's grown to be everything I didn't know I needed.

We sit down for breakfast, and Vincent, thankfully, is more welcoming to Mateus than Dylan. Mateus' reputation precedes him, apparently, so Vincent leads a lot of the conversation by asking Mateus questions.

I smile at Mateus from across the table, noticing he isn't as closed off now as he was the first time I had breakfast with him.

"How did you all meet?" James asks at some point, as always never withholding his questions.

"We were passing through Colorado at the same time," I answer. "We stayed with his family for a few days."

"You were so young then!" Vincent exclaims. "You were a tiny little thing, but I could see the fire in your eyes even then."

"You couldn't say the same about Dylan," I say, nudging him with my elbow. "He's always been a tall monstrosity."

James starts cracking up on the other side of the table.

Dylan smiles and continues the banter. "At least I wasn't almost legally a midget."

"I was not that short, Dyl."

Even a small smile is on Mateus' lips now.

"You used to have to climb onto the kitchen counters to reach the top cabinet shelf," he retorts.

"Most people have to do that at some point in their lives. I'm sorry I wasn't born a freak of nature like you. No wonder Zia didn't have any more children after having to push you out of her."

"Stop it you two, or you'll go on forever," Vincent intervenes. "We have to get Ariadne to the arena before 9."

"Is everything healed?" Mateus asks me quietly while the others are quickly cleaning and engaged in conversation.

"For the most part. Will Dylan and Vincent be sitting with you again?"

"Yes," Mateus responds, "as the beta of your pack, that's where Dylan belongs anyway."

I beam at him and quickly squeeze his hand. "Thank you."

He smiles back, a real smile, and his dimple appears.

It's more encouragement than I could ever get from a simple "good luck." I like him like this, quietly supportive instead of ordering me around like when we first met. 

~~~~~~~~~~

Mmm love me some supportive mans. This was just a short little like furthering character developments chapter.  

Please vote, follow, and/or comment! 

ヾ｜￣ー￣｜ﾉ