Omega's Tarnished Heart [MxM] (Moon Cave Book 2)

Chapter 37 - Strength of a Luna

MIKA • POV

My body had eventually given out, crumbling under the stress, fear and the pain lancing through my lower stomach and radiating throughout the rest of my body.

One moment I was barely standing, staring helplessly across the shadowed forest at Toren, begging him with my eyes and every emotion I could force through our weakening bond not to proposition his father with a fight to the death. The next, the blurry ground was travelling up to meet my face and everything was fading to black.

I wanted to panic, wanted to fight. I wanted to run towards Toren and drag him away, back into the pack house where I knew he'd be safe. The thought of him fighting his father in the dark without the support of the pack, the thought of possibly losing him to the hands of his tyrant father, hurt worse than the piercing wounds throughout my body.

Imagining a future without my fated mate was just too terrifying to comprehend and my mind felt like it was falling apart under the stress of it all. Breathing was a chore, my windpipe squeezed tightly shut with a fist of anxiety that left me gasping for oxygen, each short, desperate inhale sending sharp, shooting pains through my stomach.

"Mika? Mika, baby, wake up, open your eyes."

The pleading voice sounded far away, like I was sinking under water and someone was calling to me from the shore. I pushed to reach it, to open my eyes just like they asked, recognising the voice to be Papa's. He sounded so gutted, so terribly sad that it was alarming, yet all I wanted was to feel his protective, paternal embrace and have him reassure me that everything would be okay again.

"Give him a little bit of time. He lost a lot of blood. I've stitched up what I can, but it's up to his body to do the rest of the healing. He's going to be feeling the pain for a while before his accelerated healing kicks in. He's too weak right now," a low murmuring voice spoke close by as well.

Uncle Eugene. Was I in the infirmary? I couldn't tell.

"Should we... Should we tell him?" Papa choked out, and I could imagine him crying, his tawny brown skin flushed red with sorrow, tears glistening along his lower lashes, illuminating the colour of his pretty hazel eyes.

"No. There's no point in adding to his trauma. It'll only stunt the healing process. We'll tell him once this damned mess is over," Eugene denied and I desperately wanted to open my eyes, to ask what on earth he was talking about hiding from me. I wanted to know everything...

But my tongue was thick, my body refusing to cooperate. My eyelids felt weighed down and I was in too much pain to fight my uncooperative body. I could already feel the minimal consciousness I'd gained withering away, black fading in around me until I was smothered in the darkness once more, thoughts of Toren the last to flash across my mind.

The next time I awoke, I was much more alert and able to pry my eyelids open. It took a while to adjust to the lights of the room I was in, the lamps on either side of the bed I was lying on, lighting my iris' on fire. I managed it with much effort until I was blinking rapidly and peering around, searching for another beating heart besides my own. Toren. But he wasn't there.

Instead, I found Papa sitting in a comfortable leather armchair to the left of me. He looked weary, dishevelled and covered in scratches and bite marks. Most were already healing, although dried blood still crusted across the surface of his smooth, brown skin.

He wasn't alone where he was curled up. There was a small baby in his lap. Pale and petite, with fluffy black hair and cheeks rosy enough to bite like apples. Papa was holding an ice pack to the sleeping child's jaw where purple and blue bruises painted his pale skin like blueberry tattoos.