King's Jewels

Four- Recovering

KADE|||
   My lungs still hadn't fully recovered from the wolfsbane, which wasn't a surprise at all. I could hardly breathe. Still, I was discharged from the hospital and sent home on strict orders to rest up. Almost immediately, I knew that my parents would make sure that I did rest up. They had been keen to follow doctor's orders since I got here, and I knew they had Rafael in on it too. He'd gotten a lot closer to the both of them since I got to the hospital. It was nice to see. Before this, he had been pretty reluctant to go anywhere near them.
  "Ready?" my Dad asked. I just nodded, reaching to grab the crutches I'd been put on. He stood with me, helping me get stable on my feet. He had stayed here in the hospital with me every night. Sleeping on the chair next to my bed, complaining the next morning about having a stiff neck. "Your Paps is in the car with Rafe. Do you need to do anything before we leave?"
  "I'm fine to go, just take it slow." He didn't say much after that, just smiling at me. I had missed seeing my parents smile whilst I was here. Things between them seemed odd, and I hated that I knew that I'd been the cause. "Why are you mad at him?"
  "I'm not mad at him, Kade." That was a lie, it was clear as day. He was never good at lying.
  "Yes you are, anyone can see it. The kids will see it. So why are you mad at Dad?" he shrugged, avoiding the topic. "Dad."
  "He should have stopped you."
  "It's not his fault I got like this. I did it myself. I provoked them when they went to back off. I ignored Dad. He got in front of me to stop the whole thing but I basically shoved him," I coughed, trying to catch my breath. "Stop being mad over something that's not his fault."
  "You wouldn't understand it, Kade—"
  "Dad I'm eighteen. What really makes you think that he's going to be able to control me forever? Youre my parents and I respect that, but i'm my own man and I choose to do what I do. I know it's scary, but you can't blame him for what I choose to do. I had the urge to fight him when he tried stopping me, he's not going to be able to stop me forever." he stopped, going quiet.  "Giving him the cold shoulder over something I chose to do is pointless. It only hurts you two right now, but when the kids start to notice it'll hurt them."
  He didn't say anything, just stood there for a moment. Then he turned to face me.
  "You're my son, Kade. I told you, and I told your Dad. Look how that works out."
  "Dad loves you! He tried! He can only do so much to prove it to you, and you're only pushing him away!" he shakes his head. "He tried to stop me. He stood in front of me and tried, but I didn't let him. You can't push him away."
  "I'm not."
  "Yeah and I'm straight." I coughed again, trying to get further on my crutches. He stopped me. "I can do it myself."
  "I'll talk to him. Just let me help you." I shook my head, and I could already sense my Father coming. "Kade."
  "You're arguing over me! Me! Do you know how fucked that is?" my heart rate began to pick up, and I could feel a shift coming along. "I'm fine!"
  "Yes, you are. You're fine. You're right, Kade. It's not his fault. It's not anyone's fault. I've been so stressed over all of this and I forgot that you're growing up. You're your own person, and we need to remember that." I nodded, though my anger spiked again as my Father got closer, watching my behaviour like I was going to hurt my Dad. He thought I would hurt him. "Klaus, leave him. He's just frustrated that I was blaming you. We're talking about it."
  "I'm just worried about his lungs. He sounds wheezy." I nodded, calming down and catching my breath. My Dad grabbed my crutch, pushing it up my arm so it rested properly. "Why don't I bring the car closer? You can talk some more and It's easier on you, Kade."
  "Okay."
  "You need to calm down before Rafe hears you. He's settling in now, you can't scare him."
  "I won't," I whispered, sitting on the nearest bench. My Dad sat next to me as my other one moved. I huffed, trying and failing to rub my face. "This is frustrating."
  "I know, sweet. I know." he pulled me closer, and I rested my head against him, wanting to cry at how frustrated I was. I couldn't even walk to the car on my own, couldn't breathe properly, couldn't do anything. My own Father thought I was angry enough to hit my Dad. I hated it. I felt useless. "You might be growing up, but you're still our boy. It doesn't matter how old you get, we're still here and you're still Kade."
  "Feels useless being like this. I hate it." he nodded, and I felt tears at the back of my eyes. I didn't want Rafael to see me crying over something so silly. I tried to stop myself.
  "Come here, hey, come here. I've got you." he stood up in the end, standing right in front of me as I cried on his shirt. Crying made me breathless, but once I'd started I couldn't stop myself as easily. "I'm here, always. Can you take a breath for me? That's it. Deep breaths. We'll go home soon, be able to relax and talk instead of being stuck in the hospital room, yeah? Probably messed with you, even more, being stuck in there."
  "I don't want you to be mad at him because of me." he sighed, hand under my chin so I looked at him.
  "It's not your fault I got angry. I haven't thought straight and I should talk to your Dad about it. It's not your fault, I know it runs through King's blood to be stubborn." I choked out a laugh at that. "Kings Alphas, even worse."
  "I'm not stubborn," my Father grinned, poking my Dads sides. He reached over and wiped the tears off of my face. "You're stubborn."
  "S'pose our kids were destined to be stubborn, then." they both laughed, and I managed to calm myself down as the air got lighter.
  "Y'alright?" I nodded, ready to stand on my crutches. My knees felt a bit weak at first, but I was okay. "I didn't think you were going to hurt him. I know you wouldn't. You were getting stressed out and I wanted to see what was happening."
  "I just want to go home," I whispered, it being an effort to get to the car with the crutches. In the end, I stopped trying to use them, and I limped faster. I'd be glad when in less than a week, I'd be back to normal. Mostly. With the wolfsbane mostly out of my system I could heal a lot better. "My foot feels better."
  "You still need rest. I remember what the doctors said." I rolled my eyes. "Don't roll your eyes at me. If you need to rest then you need to rest."
  "I'll be fine in, like, a week."
  "You had a punctured, poisoned lung. It looked like a raisin. Tell me you'll be fine again and I'll start pulling out the x-rays and tests saying things could go wrong."
  "You worry too much."
  "Yeah, well, I'd rather worry too much than—" my Father stopped the conversation before it got out of hand. There was no need for another argument. I knew it wasn't over, though.

  We stood in silence for just a moment, before Paps finally spoke up and made his own point. There would definitely be another argument.
  "Your Dad's right," he started, calmer than anyone else. "If the doctors here say that you need rest, then you have to rest. I do understand how frustrating it is to be told what to do when you just feel fine, but you have to understand that we just don't want to risk things. We don't want to argue over things we can no longer control."
  Dad walked off for a moment, clearly taking a moment to himself and visibly upset. Then he turned back around and looked at my Paps.
  "No. No, you know what? I do want to argue over this. He nearly died! Our son was dying in there and his only response is that he's miraculously fine? You don't just nearly die, wake up after nine days in some sort of coma, and just be fine," He took a breath, but gave no room for anyone to say anything. "It's in no way fair that I'm the one that has to calm down when we just nearly watched our son die. That is one thing you won't ask from me. I can't calm down after nearly losing my child. Again!"
  "Preston," Paps said nothing else, and my Dad faced me as I went to say something. I stayed quiet.
  "And you, you do not get to ask me to just leave it or forget that you need to rest, because you can't even breathe and all you've done is walk from the bench halfway to the car. You don't get to tell me that I am not being fair, because I think I'm being more than," I was sure he was going to start crying, but said nothing about it as he paused to breathe. He seemed more breathless than I was at this point. "I've watched you go through everything. I've watched your teeth fall out and grow back, I've watched you fall and cry when you scraped your knee, I've watched first boyfriends, first heartbreaks, first everything. No parent should have to go through their children dying before them, and yet I've seen one die and watched one nearly die. That is twice more than any parent should go through, so excuse me if I refuse to leave it be when I nearly had to watch you die too."
  "Am I being scolded for landing myself in the hospital?" I asked, not having the energy to fight back. He was upset, and I could at least understand his point about watching his children die.
  "Yes, you are. It terrified us, Kade. I can understand that you're frustrated about this, believe me, we all are, but you have to understand that you're my son and I've watched you die once before. I can't do it again." I nodded, reaching to hug him before opening the car door to let my parents talk. It was hard to see how upset my Dad had gotten, but knew that Paps would help him.
  Rafael sat in the backseat, stunned. He looked different now, calmer and slightly less scared. It was a relief to see.
  "Do you feel better?" he whispered, holding my crutches as I sat down.
  "I feel better than I have been. I think I annoyed my Dad, though." he nodded, resting his head on my shoulder. My parents eventually got into the car, one seeming a lot better than the other.
  "Suppose we better get going, huh?" we made a noise of agreement. But I was still exhausted. "You alright back there?"
  "I'm fine," I grumbled, shaking my head.
  "Klaus, he's scratched his stomach again." I just closed my eyes, letting my hand wander to the sore spot on my stomach, and scratch. It annoyed my Dad, and I'd made myself bleed, but I didn't care. "Kade c'mon. Stop scratching it."
  "No, it's itchy."
  "I know but you're hurting yourself scratching it." I shrugged, until Rafael held my wrist. Then I stopped.
  "Scratching can give infections. You should leave it alone." I despised that he knew exactly what he was talking about. I wanted to find his Alpha and tear him to pieces. It was the least he deserved. He deserved to suffer like Rafael and his friends did. I blinked, feeling time slow down a little.
  "Stop," I said, to no one in particular. "I need to get out." I could already feel hairs at the side of my face, and my bones beginning to shift out of place. The car wasn't slowing down. "Dad! I need to get out. Now."
  "Alright. We're stopping. Stopping." As soon as the car came to a halt, I rushed out of the car.

   |||Rafael|||
  I didn't get to see his wolf form for very long before he was wandering off somewhere. I'd never seen an Alpha's wolf form, never been allowed to. His was gorgeous, black fur gracing his body aside for the white on his paws and the end of his tail. He moved fast and was probably a lot larger than mine.
  "He wants to run," Preston said, trying to hide his smile. "Can you shift?" I nodded slowly, wondering where this was going. "Normally I would go to him, since omegas can't drive, but he might want you to go with him instead. You're his mate, after all."
  Running, with my mate. It was all I had to hear for everything inside of me to go crazy. To freely roam and run with the one person who was there to love me, it had only ever been a dream. Now it could happen.
  "Go, and don't be afraid to let him know if he gets rough. He's bigger than me and likes to play rough when he's like this. Just tell him and he'll calm down." I nodded, getting out of the car. "When you're ready, we'll be at home and he'll make sure you get home with him."
   I found him behind the trees, sniffing the dirt below his feet. Gross. He looked up after a moment, a look in his eye I couldn't decipher. Compared to him, I must have looked like a scrawny little thing. I'm tiny and my fur is most often matted. I could just never get it presentable. He didn't look at me any different, though.
  You're beautiful. He linked me, rubbing his body against mine. It nearly knocked me over, but the touch sent sparks through my body. Before I knew it, I was knocked onto the side, with his tongue cleaning through my fur. Some sort of noise rumbled through my body, the feeling sending all sorts of feelings through me. I want to keep you as my mate, no matter what.
  What would you do if we had another mate? I wanted to know. If he would treat me any different, I needed to know. I wanted to know what I was getting myself into. He licked rougher, pinning my front legs down a little. He was getting too rough, maybe even for play or affection. Too rough.
  He backed down. I grinned, biting his front legs playfully. When he didn't react to my teeth, I tested the waters and pawed at his front. He seemed to laugh, and I tried again, giving a playful growl as he rolled onto his back. I had never seen an Alpha be so willingly submissive to anyone below them, let alone an omega. Being in this position made me feel better.
  I would never treat you any different. You'd both be my mate, and I'd be both of yours.
I nearly believed what he said completely, but I could never truly believe him unless it happened. Especially not with the possibility that he could get somebody who wasn't an omega. There were endless possibilities of what could happen to me if he ever found another mate.
  I don't believe you.
  You don't have to.
  His words eased my mind, knowing that he did not expect trust or belief. He just let me be with it. It was good. He was good.
Yes, or no? He started to roll onto me, and I could have struggled to answer him. He didn't fully move, only enough for his breath to fan over my cheek.
  Yes. He had started asking whenever he noticed that I would flinch away from the slightest touch, to let me know that he wanted to be touched. If I said yes, I was prepared and knew what was coming. If I said no to him, he wouldn't touch me. Not until it was yes. He let his body fall onto mine, though I knew it wasn't his whole body weight when I could still easily move. He was far bigger, and his whole body weight could hurt me if we weren't careful. We hadn't run much, but part of me didn't care, because we were in the grass together.
  You're really small. He told me, which was true. He was over double my size. Being an Alpha probably helped his growth, though.
  Didn't get much chance to grow.
He didn't say anything to that, only nudging me to my feet and urging me to start moving. I followed him. We were on the outskirts of the forests when we finally stopped, and the sun was clearly affecting his lungs, but he kept moving.
  Why did we move? I asked, panting. He didn't answer, and I huffed, catching his attention. I'd only ever really agreed to what he told me, and somehow the slight show of defiance made him smile.
  Something didn't feel right. We were talking and something shifted. I don't know what but I couldn't risk it.
I looked back and watched the bushes move, and a bushy tail appeared through the leaves. Something made me want to risk it. I got closer.