Chapter 7 - Pains

 AMBER.

 

‘Amber?’ A voice dug into my head, waking me up from my sleep. 

 

‘Hmmm…’ I mumbled, trying to wake my senses up. 

 

‘Where are you?’ Eva asked before she continued talking in one breath. ‘They’re waiting for us at the packhouse for breakfast. I told them you were showering, and we were on the way there. I’ve been trying to wake you up for the last ten minutes.’ 

 

My eyes snapped open, and I stared at the ceiling when I remembered Zach and where I was.

 

‘And I don’t know where Cassidy is. I told Mom you both were here with me. So hurry up! We need to find her.’

 

‘Okay,’ I mumbled my reply, and the mindlink disconnected. 

 

My hands moved and crawled to my sides. The bed was empty, and the sheets were cold. It meant I was alone for a long time. 

 

I sat up and let my eyes roam around the room. There was no more wheelchair or any signs of another presence beside me. 

 

He left. He saw me beside him, and he left. 

 

My eyes watered again as I pushed myself to stand until I realized my shoes were nicely placed just beside the bed and that I had a blanket covering me. 

 

Did Zach do that? I was sure my shoes were left outside the door, and I slept without a blanket as he was lying on it.

 

A smile curled on my lips as I walked out of the bedroom and into the corridor. 

 

A part of Zach might have hated me because of the accident, but certainly, there was still a part of him that cared for me. He knew I would get cold easily—hence the blanket. He also made sure my shoes were within reach. I always complain of cold floors, and this room certainly has cold floors. Doing these little things was a very “Zach thing.”

 

I was still smiling from ear to ear when I made a turn toward the end of the corridor and pushed the fire exit door, only to stop in my tracks because walking down the stairs from a floor up was Cassidy, still in her party dress.

 

Both our eyes were widened as we looked at each other. No one said a word.

 

After a couple of seconds, we simply proceeded and walked together back to our room, where Eva was waiting for us. 

 

☙♥❧☙♥❧☙♥❧

 

BETA ARLO. 

 

A mindlink from Alpha Zach woke me up, and I immediately prepared to pick him up.

 

Last night, before I retired to bed, I checked on him and found him on the fourth floor, sleeping peacefully, hugging Lady Amber. 

 

I left his room with a smile on my face. It seemed they patched up their issues as they were hugging each other. Also, on occasions that I had seen the Alpha sleep in the last year and a half, this was the first time he was sleeping without a frown on his face. 

 

So I was in a positive mood when I walked and ran toward their room at three o’clock in the morning. I didn’t feel anything strange about him waking me up this early because part of the deal he had with his parents was we would leave early today to return to the pack.

 

I thought he just wanted me to push his chair, but I found him still in bed, lying on his back with his eyes closed while Lady Amber’s arm and leg were around his body. 

 

‘Alpha,’ I greeted him through our minds even if I was already inside the room. 

 

I saw him open his eyes and carefully move her body away from leaning on him. 

 

‘Help me up. Don’t make a noise.’

 

Even though I thought it odd that he was asking for assistance, I did as I was told. 

 

A few days after he returned home from the hospital after the accident, he refused any help, and we had to force our way to help him, as he obviously was not capable of supporting himself yet. He always tried first but would never ask for help. Never until now. 

 

I could only assume that the reason he was asking for help today was to make sure he wouldn’t wake up the female sleeping next to him. 

 

As soon as he was seated in his chair, he asked me to cover Amber with a blanket. Once we were out the door, he asked me to pick up her shoes and put them beside the bed. 

 

Again, I didn’t ask anything until I was able to take him down, and we were already sitting in the car. 

 

“So, you and Lady Amber are okay now?” I asked as we drove away from the hotel.

 

“Whatever you saw today, do not tell it to anyone.” He said, cutting me off and ignoring my questions. 

 

“What’s stopping you from…”

 

“Enough, Arlo.”  

 

“It’s been over a year, Zach. Until now, you just kept saying the same thing. Enough. Not now. Some other day. When is that day? When will I get to hear your thoughts?” I was trying my best not to sound hurt this time. 

 

“There’s nothing in my head.” He answered. 

 

My eyes darted to him as I let out a breath of disappointment. And then my eyes fell on his thigh. His pants were ripped, and there was dry blood all over them. 

 

“What the hell happened to your leg?” I asked him.

 

“Don’t mind it. Apollo healed me.”

 

“Are you sure? I can stop, and we can check it. That’s too much blood in there.”

 

“It’s nothing. I pushed a pen into it to see if I’d feel something.”

 

I let out another sigh. A single push of a pen in his thigh would not stain his black pants like that.

 

“But my wolf healed it almost immediately, so no harm was done.” He added.

 

“Tell me, Zach, not as your Beta but as your best friend. If Apollo can heal you that fast, as he has always done in the past from the moment you got him at fourteen, tell me why he didn’t protect you at the time of the accident.”

 

I knew I was being insensitive with my question, but it had been bothering me for a long time. 

 

Zach was a big risk-taker and a dangerous sports enthusiast. I couldn’t count the number of times he had fallen from a tree, rolled down the mountains, or crashed his big bike, but he always came out undamaged. He had always been strong, and his wolf was the same. 

 

I didn’t expect him to come unscratched from his accident, but I couldn’t believe he ended up crippled as if he didn’t have a wolf to protect him or as if Apollo had abandoned him. They had always been in sync. 

 

As expected, he didn’t answer. So I kept my mouth shut. 

 

We were already out of the Black Shadow Pack territory and on the highway when he opened the topic again.

 

“I trust you will not tell anyone.” He broke the silence between us. “I don’t want Amber to feel even more indebted to me, to the point where she feels she needs to sacrifice her life to serve me.”

 

I swallowed. He didn’t answer my last question, but I think he was already confirming what I had always thought happened that night. 

 

“I saw metal everywhere, and I could smell blood. Amber’s blood.” He began. “My wolf was strong but not strong enough for two people. I asked Apollo to let out his full aura and protect her  completely while I took all the blows to my body on my own.”

 

“Do you regret it?” I asked him as my gaze found his. 

 

His eyes watered, but the stoic expression on his face remained. “Never. Not at all. I could have given up my arms too, if needed, just to keep her alive.”