Highland Bear (Book 4)

Chapter 3

Chapter 3

                Groaning at the piercing pain in his head, he gasped sharply as it tugged on his mouth. A throbbing pain trying to compete with that in the back of his head, now came from his face. His hand coming up slowly finding a large egg shaped bump hidden within his hair. Before tentatively coming around and coming across dried and flaky blood smeared on his face, his eyes still squeezed closed, and only went tighter as he made a glancing brush against his nose and lip. He must look a complete mess, and yet all he could wonder was what had happened, who that male that had done this to him was, and where the woman he had yet to puzzle over satisfactorily had disappeared too. Not that he ever thought he could puzzle her out fully. That, he could already tell, would be the joy of it.

                The more pressing matter, however, was the fact he was slumped over in an alley he was not familiar with, and the last time he had looked around it, there had been another unconscious figure laying there. And he had been the one to put them on the ground, his friends having run off…with the ability to come back and find him like this. Mind whirring quickly, he knew he had to move, and quickly if he wished to survive.

                The chill which racked his frame, shook him deeply, and he realised quite how cold it had become, his exposed flesh painful, and finally cracking his eyelids open a slit, showed that darkness had fallen, though it could still be late afternoon. It meant he had been laying here a few hours at least…how many people had simply walked past the alley and not even noticed him, or walked down the alley and relieved him of any valuable items he carried upon his person. He would have to check the latter at another point. Right now he needed to move. Otherwise he may freeze to the spot.

                Pushing up onto his side, and rolling onto his hands, his numb fingers slid in something he would rather not think about in that moment, and pushed to his feet. Staggering a little when he righted himself, and leant against the wall, breathing deeply through his mouth as his nose was a little blocked at that moment. He started to snort in derision at his own thoughts, only for the pain to cause him to pinch the top of his nose and groan in a long, low monotonous sound.

                Blinking slowly once more, he glanced in the direction of the empty space the second male he had knocked out had lain. Obviously, he could admit, he was lucky in the fact his throat had not been slit by the very male he had laid low. Coughing, and spitting out a tiny stream of blood. He cracked his jaw a little, and knew from the feel of the swollen lump on his jawline, and his tongue felt thick in his mouth.

                All he could think about was that he could cope with the physical pain. It was clean pain. Pain that he could get over, and had learnt to breathe through and carry on with whatever he was doing. No, it was the distinct lack of gnawing in his gut, and a peace that had settled over him, which had him rather joyous and buoyant in mood. Even with his face feeling as if he had run head long into a stone wall.