Huntress

Chapter 67

Nothing happened for a while. The word seemed frozen aside from minor movements. Keiko gasped and stumbled backwards. Ajax was there to hold her immediately, an arm around her waist, the other over her chest. Ryder stayed on his knees, just staring. Something in his expression kept me from going to him. He watched me. I watched him. His face was pale with horror and the aftermath of pain. I could feel tears slipping off my jaw.

"It's going to be alright," Keiko whispered, then again, stronger. "You are going to be alright."

"The bond is gone," Ryder repeated.

"We can fix this. We can get through this. We always do," Keiko rambled. There was a certain intensity to her now. Her lips were set into a hard line, gears in her mind grinding. Ajax stroked a hand down her arm. Her lower lip quivered then, a crack.

Claudette, the sweet doctor who had been taken care of me all this time, materialized in the house. Much like Keiko, she had a strong, determined energy. There was no room for franticness or rushed ideas. "What happened?" she demanded.

"The fucking medication you gave—"

Keiko swept in, cutting Ryder off. "The mate bond has been destroyed. Georgia is able to move and talk again, but it came with the loss."

"Ryder, are you feeling ill? Is anything hurting you right now?" Ajax asked.

I watched the man with dark hair straighten a little. His hand settled over his heart, rubbing a vacant spot. He was different now. So different. I felt like I couldn't even be sure that it was Ryder. "No. I don't think I'm sick or anything. Not physically. Whatever happened, whatever was hurting me, has passed I think."

"Then let's start with Georgia," Claudette suggested. "And we can do that by getting you off the floor and somewhere comfortable. Ajax, can you carry her up to her bedroom please? Keiko, I want you to stay here with Ryder. Get him some water, see if he can keep it down. Yell if anything changes, but I'll come and look at him as soon as I'm done with Georgia."

"I can walk myself," I said immediately. To prove my point, I pulled myself onto my knees. One movement at a time. I could do this. I was a werewolf hunter, for god's sake. I could climb trees, hikes for hours, sprint until my lungs gave out. I pushed myself to my feet. I could feel each muscle strain under the pressure, feeling almost gritty from lack of use. There was a slight wobble, but I remained standing. Four sets of eyes watched me closely. "I can do it."

Claudette led the way, striding purposefully. I trickled behind, my teeth clenched hard. My thighs quivered beneath my weight, my calves screaming with every step. This wasn't possible. That was not who I had become. It was not who I was meant to be. My hand grabbed the railing of the stairs that suddenly seemed much longer and much higher than I ever remembered. I took my first step. Then my second. It was on the third step that my legs buckled. My body screamed a thousand reaction protocols at me. my body was too sluggish to respond.

But Ajax was there, just a step behind. His quick reaction saved my knees from the hard wood. Both arms were tight around my body, holding me up for a brief second before he swept me off my feet. I let out a strangled noise of surprise, but otherwise stayed still.

"Thanks for not putting up a fight," he stage-whispered. "It would have hurt my fragile masculinity."

I would have laughed if I could have.

Claudette had me settled on my bed – the bed I was borrowing from Keiko in a house that was not my own – and ran me through a series of tests. She shone a light in my eyes. She listened to my heartrate and guided me through a series of motions. She asked me questions about my memory. I recalled little, which seemed to displease her. she asked me about my pain levels, if I felt dizzy, or nauseous. What had it felt like when the bond was removed? What had Ryder done? Did I feel like there was anything left in me? Was I still fighting to stay alert?

I answered everything as honestly as I could. I wished she was a human doctor. I wanted to be hooked up to machines. I wanted her to see all of the things I couldn't tell her, all the things I didn't know about. I wanted the certainty of modern medicine. Though she was doing her best, I knew that her education and skill had limits when it came my situation. Then again, so would a human doctor.

"Do you think that this could have affected my vision? Like, do werewolves have bad eyesight or something?" I asked.

She paused for a moment. "Wolves are known to have excellent eye sight. Why do you ask?"

"Well, some things look different now. Clearer. Like I've put on glasses."

"Like the details on this lamp?" Claudette asked.

I glanced at the lamp, the painting on the base seemed to be hand painted and traditionally Chinese. I had never noticed it before, but I still shook my head.

"Like you can read the title of those books now, but you couldn't before," she suggested, gesturing to the small shelf of children's books at the far end of the room.

I shook my head again. "It's people. Well, it's a person," I clarified.

"Ah, you're seeing flaws on Ryder."

I wouldn't have called them flaws myself—they were just things that made him human -- but I still nodded.

"That's the mate bond being gone. That red thing that came out of you? That was the magic leaving your body. Even though you aren't a werewolf yourself, the moon goddess put a little bit of magic in you when she bonded you to Ryder. Now that it's gone, you see him like the rest of us do."

"Oh." It felt like a heavy rock had been tied to my heart, pulling it down, down, down, deep below sea level.

I didn't want to see him like everyone else, not when I saw him as a god before.

Claudette sensed that I was done, that my spiraling had begun. "Listen, take some time and do what is best for you. You've been through a lot. Too much. We will all respect any choice you make right now, okay? The only thing I want to advise you on, is that you shouldn't be alone. Your body is weak and tired. Your strength will come back, but it needs time. if you have a fall when you're alone, it could be too much."

I swallowed hard. Right, my body was completely useless. The thing that I had trained into a weapon was now pathetic and flimsy. "I'll make sure I have someone. Listen, Ryder was trying to get some answers out of someone in the shed. I know you aren't a human doctor, but would you mind having a look at him? I think he might be in rough shape. He will probably want to get the hell out of here as soon as he can, but can you tell me he's okay when you're done?"

"Of course, Georgia, anything you need," she assured. "You take some time now and rest up, but I want you to call someone for help. Those stairs won't be so friendly on the way down."

I laid in that bed for hours. A bed that I had laid in hundreds of nights before, but couldn't really remember. A bed that still didn't feel like mine. Ajax had carried me up and down those stairs dozens of times. Keiko had washed my hair and scrubbed my body in all of her luxurious products. I had spent hours in front of a television with their daughter. But none of this felt like mine. None of this was something I wanted to lay claim to.

And then there was Ryder.

At the thought of him, I heard his screams ringing in my ears. I saw him dragging himself towards me. and I saw the sickness that came after when he realized what had happened.

No longer mates. We weren't tied together. No draw between us. Just two people. 

~~~Distraction Section~~~

Hey friends! I know I missed the update yesterday. I have been super sick and my final deadline for tax season was the 31! Anyway, I figured now as a good time to do a little update marathon. I will be posting for four days in a row, woohoo!

I also just wanted to take a second and acknowledge that this book did get any from me a little bit. It ended up being much longer and more complex than I intended. I hear your frustrations, I get it. Unfortunately, I'm still learning as I go so thanks for bearing with me!

Question of the Day: What fictional world would you want to live in?