Royal Pains

Bad Intentions

***Terra's P.O.V.***

I open my bedroom door, feeling sweat trickle down the side of my face. My cousin really worked me this morning, but it felt nice to stretch my muscles a little. I'll need to shift soon or my my wolf will become more uneasy than she already is, but everything went nicely this morning given my last minute trip into town.

I had to get up around six this morning to pick up a few members from the Russian pack, here since my parents cut their meeting short on their land when I was brought home. It wasn't too bad, and I got to practice my Russian with them. Thankfully I remember most of it. How embarrassing would it be to be talking and say the wrong thing to the foreign alphas we have such a close relationship with.

I shake my head, smiling slightly at the thought and toss my sweat towel on the floor where I'll pick it up later. Looking around for my mate, I don't see anything other than his breakfast dishes laying around.

I walk into my bedroom, expecting to see him asleep on the bed, but am shocked to find something completely different.

"Aaron!" I rush to his side as he pukes into the toilet bowl. I lightly rub his back before wiping the sweat from the back of his neck with one of the bathroom towels. "Are you alright?" He takes a deep breath and sits back on his heels. His face has a thin sheen of sweat on it and there are dark bags under his eyes that weren't there this morning. His skin is pale compared to his usual complexion. This worries me, especially since I've never seen him sick before.

"I'm f-" He doesn't finish his sentence as all the color in his face leaves, leaving him white as a sheet. He quickly lunges forward to the toilet. I sigh and walk quickly back into the bedroom. I grab his pillow and a spare blanket from the end of the bed before hurrying back to my mate. I spread the blanket out on the bathroom floor and lay the pillow down on top of it.

I ate a light snack before coming back here to shower, but I don't think that's going to happen. My mate needs me more than I need a shower. I lift my tank top to my face and take a quick sniff. Scrunching my nose in disgust, I rethink skipping the shower after all. I don't smell too good.

I sit down next to my mate and continue to rub his back. After a few more minutes, he falls backwards and lands on his rear end. He runs a hand through his hair, making it stick up in a bunch of funny angles, and looks at me.

"How long have you been like this?" I ask, staring at him worriedly.

"About an hour now." I shake my head and kneel down by his side once more.

"Why didn't you tell me? I would have come back right away." I lift my hand to lay it on his forehead. "You're burning up!" He weakly removes my hand from his face and settles for holding it in between his own cold one.

"I could say quite the opposite about you and tell you you're freezing." I frown, and he instantly moves to smooth out the place between my eyebrows with his thumb. His hand then lightly traces down the side of my face with an expression telling me not to worry.

"You're really sick Aaron. I wouldn't have cared if you interrupted my small trip. You come first." He sighs and moves his free hand to clutch his stomach.

"You had more important things to do."

"Aaron..." I say, getting frustrated with his rare, stubborn streak. It doesn't rear its head often, but when it does, it's a pain in the ass. He never actually listens to what I'm saying. "I wasn't doing anything more important than your health."

"Look, I know I should have said something to you, but I was too busy puking my guts out. When I had moment where I wasn't throwing up, I felt like I was going to. I'm sorry, but my mind was elsewhere." I sigh, understanding where he's coming from, and point to the small area on the bathroom floor I set up for him to lay on.