Intransigent

Intransigent | 6

Chapter 6

Emma's POV

I should've been embarrassed that Rick was washing me, but I wasn't. I'd been naked around him basically since day one and I knew we each thought of each other as siblings. He made sure that I was clean before lifting me back out of the water and laid me down in the grass on the shore.

"Sorry, it's going to sting," he told me, as he reached to grab the alcohol.

I grimaced, but said, "It won't even be considered pain after these past two years."

He growled, his eyes flashing black for a moment before he regained control of his wolf. "This will never happen to you again, Emma, I promise you that."

I smiled up at him. "I know," I said. "We're free and we're going to stay this way."

He smiled back at me and then started cleaning my multitudes of wounds. They'd really done a number on me this morning, so it took him a good half hour before he was satisfied that they were all clean.

"Last part and you'll be good to go," he told me.

I grinned.

He grabbed the bandages and wrapped the worst spots, leaving the less severe injuries without as we didn't have many bandages. Taking my hands, he pulled me gently to my feet. "Can you walk, or should I carry you?" he asked me.

"I'd prefer to walk," I replied, a bit of my old sass coming through in my tone.

Rick smirked at the sound of it. "That's not what I asked, Emma," he scolded me. "I don't care which you prefer, I want to know what you're capable of."

"Then let me try it!" I argued with him.

He sighed, but I could see the happiness in his eyes that I had some attitude left after everything I'd been through. He hovered close by but released my hands. I took a couple tentative steps. The pain was shooting, but nothing was cracking open or bleeding and it felt great to be back on my own two feet.

"I can walk," I decided.

Rick was silent as he watched me take a couple more slow steps. He pursed his lips and wrinkled his nose. "I'm carrying you," he decided, swooping me gently into his arms.

"What? Why?" I asked, pouting in his arms.

"Well, first because I can see the pain in your eyes with every step you take," he told me, looking at me with disapproval clear in his eyes. "And second, we need to find somewhere to sleep for the night and you move entirely too slow."

I stuck my tongue out at him childishly, so happy to be free, and he laughed, leaning down and kissing my forehead. "I promise you can walk tomorrow," he told me. "You might even be able to shift tomorrow," he added with a grin.

I sighed happily at the thought. I missed Mel so much. I couldn't wait to hear her voice in my head again, to feel my body reforming into that of a wolf. Running free through the woods on four paws and listening to the animals around me.

I relaxed in Rick's arms, determined that I was going to regain my strength enough to shift tomorrow. Shifting would increase Mel's energy by leaps and bounds, she just needed enough to actually complete the shift. I would relax and rest from now until tomorrow morning and then we would make a plan and find our packs.

I drifted off in Rick's arms and woke up when he carefully rested me on the ground. "Where are we?" I murmured sleepily.

"Safe, for now," Rick assured me. "Rest, Emma, I'll watch over you." I smiled as he wrapped his arms around me carefully and snuggled into his chest. For the first time in two years, I slept without nightmares.
•
•
•
The next morning, Rick woke me up gently, smiling down at me. "How did you sleep, Em?" he asked, and by the look on his face, I knew that he knew that I had slept soundly.