(MxM) Tales Of A Shifter (P1) - The Meeting

Chapter 44 - Open Up

Brandon turned his face up into the warm water as his hands scratched at his scalp. It pooled in the crevices of his eyes and dripped past his ears and down his cheeks like tears. Fresh blood leaked from his sewn up side, the wound inflamed and filled with stitches resembled the maw of an angry deformed demon. The blood swirling down into the drain at his feet made him nauseous to look at so he didn't.

So....Glen says the village is on lock down? And until it's taken off red alert I'm stuck here?

Brandon mused to himself. Glen had appraised him of this information only a few minutes ago, but he was still struggling to come to grips with the fact that he was now a reluctant guest in the Shifters territory...until the threat had been neutralized.

But...what was the threat? IT can't be me. Can it?

But he knew that the lock down seemed to have happened days after he arrived there. And while he was still sleeping. So he was sure that this sudden Lock Down had nothing to do with him. But he was still curious or just bored, so he spent a few more minutes stewing over the events that were keeping him in his savior's home.

What causes a lock down in a Shifter Village anyway?"
.
Brandon asked himself. He knew so little about them, or how they operated that he found himself trying to imagine all kinds of things.

A flood? A fire? Perhaps it's just a storm coming and they are locking down because it's going to be bad. In that case I'll be glad to sit still for a while and let it pass.

Unfortunately Glen hadn't elaborated on what had caused the shift into lock down. He secretly had his own fears about what it was....or who it was that had arrived, but he kept those fears locked down tight. He knew that he had gotten far away from that person. Far away from his enemies. For now...he had to believe that.

He forced himself to stop thinking about what it was that was going on outside of that room. Outside of his own life. Brandon realized that whatever was going on in that Village....he was getting on with his journey. He wasn't going to stay there for long. He didn't need to stay there.

With those thoughts replacing all others, he began to take stock of how his body felt or ached as he continued to wash.

The wound smarted painfully as Brandon dropped his arms to his sides and let the water do all the work. Letting the soap that he had barely managed to reach up into his scalp and apply leak away down his back and thighs. It was only once his legs began to shake and the ache in his side became too sharp that Brandon dropped his head out of the water.

Shaking the water from his face as he reached out and slammed the knob to shower down. The warm stream stopped instantly and Brandon let the droplets from his hair run down his neck as he pulled the white towel down from the shower curtain and pressed it into his face. After a moment more to pull the last of his waning strength together he dried off his chest and arms before he pushed the white shower curtain aside and stepped into the spacious bathroom.

As he stepped out on to the ivy green bath mat at his feet he looked himself over in the mirror a few feet across from him. The steam in the room blurred his face and obscured his image. Which Brandon was thankful for. He really didn't want to look at his haggard body, the weight he had lost over the last few months had left him little more than skin and bones. He could still see his ribs in his mind poking out like he was some kind of emaciated dog. It disturbed him.

Brandon took the time to dry his legs and back before wrapping the now damp towel around his narrow waist. Then Brandon walked to the bathroom door and just before he pushed it open a voice called to him.