Raven

Chapter 10

Jax and Maria did indeed visit the next day. They came over in the morning around eight, and they stayed until seven. When they left I teared up when I hugged Maria, but the tears flowed hard down my face when I hugged Jax tightly. He gripped me just as tightly, and I hate that they're leaving, and the only comfort I have at the moment is knowing that they're coming back with their kids in two weeks. I'm freaking excited to have the five here in town, even if it's for a couple of days. I will admit that when they left the I bawled like a fucking baby.

They left two days ago, and I'm actually feeling better physically. I'm getting up early tomorrow morning to help around here. Even if I wasn't feeling better today, I'd still be getting up to help around here the best I can.

"Raven James St. Cloud, what do you think you're doing?" mama demands as I enter the kitchen with everyone else to have breakfast before going out to work.

Frowning at her as I grab a plate filled with biscuits and gravy along with a fork and knife to join everyone else at the table since I'm the last to grab my food; "Eating?"

My head is tilted to the left slightly in confusion at her question, and the full use of my name.

"I know my question was simple," mama states with worry laced in her voice and facial expression. "Why are you up? What do you think you're doing today?"

I'm still confused, so I answer as simply as possible; "I"m feeling better that I was, so I'm gonna help."

Mama frowns at me with an intense stare; "No, you're not. I'm still sure you're sick, so you should still be resting until you're fully recovered."

Pouting at her while cutting up my food into bite-sized pieces; "Mama, I promise, I'm feeling one hundred percent better. I wanna help."

"Fine," she relents finally after staring at me for a silent minute, and I give her a bright smile in thanks. "But, if you start feeling bad, you have to come inside to rest, and then you won't be helping around here until next week."

Slowly nodding in acceptance of her terms, I tuck into my food along with everyone else. When breakfast has finished, everyone but mama, Robert, and Willa head outside to start working. I'm working with Heath and Morgan. We're riding along the fence line of the four-hundred and fifty acres of land to make sure the fence doesn't need to be fixed. If we come along to any section that needs to be fixed, then we're to stop, and fix the section before continuing on until we've reached the horse barn again. This will probably take us all day to do this trek, especially if we need to stop to fix any spots in the fence, and Heath said we'll be back around dinner time.

"Saddle up, Raven," Heath instructs with a gentle smile. "We've got a long day ahead of us. We're gonna be out the entire day, and we're gonna have to stop several times throughout the day to let the horses rest, and have water before we're done."

Nodding at him with a soft smile, I grab a brown leather saddle and halter for Talia, and enter her stall. Getting her saddled, I lead her out of her stall, and out of the barn before mounting her, and joining Morgan and Heath at the trail head.

"Ready?" Heath asks Morgan and me, and we both nod, and we start out.

As we ride past Kyler, Axel, and Jace at the cow barn and corral, Jace and Kyler smile at us as Axel glares at me. Jez, he needs to grow the hell up. I'm riding in between Heath and Morgan, and they're carrying tools to fix the fence on their horses.

Hours later, the three of us are almost back to the main area of the ranch when Heath decides that we should stop for about fifteen minutes to let the horses rest, and drink from the small pond. Wandering near the edge of the pond away from the horses, so I don't disturb them, I decide to step into the water. Sitting down on my ass to untie my shoes, slip these and my socks off to wade into the wade ankle deep.

Tucking my socks into my shoes, I stand up, and wade ankle deep into the water, and enjoy the coolness while staring out into the land. Suddenly, pain rages up through my leg from my ankle of my right leg. Screaming in pain, as I fall backwards onto my ass, gripping my ankle when I notice a water snake swimming away from me.

"Fuck!" I holler, instantly freaking out with wide, fearful eyes toward Heath and Morgan. "Snake bite! Snake bite!"

"Shit!" Heath swears under his breath, rushing over to my side to pull me from the water by his arms wrapped tightly around my waist. "Morgan, you're gonna ride your horse back, and lead Raven's back while he rides back with me on mine."

Whimpering as the pain intensives, and becomes almost unbearable as he hoists me onto the saddle, and he climbs onto the horse behind me. My body begins to shake, and I feel as if my right leg is burning from the inside out. Heath has the horse running at full speed back toward the house.

"I'm tired, but my leg feels like it's on fire," I mumble, feeling as if my lips are numb, along with the rest of my body despite it feeling as if it's on fire.

"I know, bud, we're almost back, and we'll get the anti-venom in you, okay?" Heath promises, and my body becomes lax against his, and I have to fight to keep my eyes open. "Stay awake for me, Raven, you need to stay awake."

Humming at him in response, but it's really hard to stay awake when all I want to do is sleep.

"Sleep sounds good," I slow slur, my head lolly against his shoulder as the horse runs.

"Nope, sleep later, not know, Raven," Heath demands, and I can vaguely feel the horse slowing to a stop.