Transgression (Ménage)✔

⊰10⊱

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Acacia/Ciarán - Age 9

I felt sick to my stomach the next morning.

Though the bite mark was no more, I was so dizzy from the blood loss that I fell asleep and didn't dream. It was like an empty pit, and I felt like I was suffocating, unsure of whether or not it was me sleeping.

Ciarán came in to check on me when I saw the clock read nine in the morning. I remember shaking my head and pulling the covers up to my chin, though I was extremely warm. I also remember Ciarán yelling from my room for our parents...

"Acacia?" Daddy kneels down beside my bed while I blink my eyelids open a couple of times. I see mama while Dante stands with Ciarán as he looks distraught at the end of my bed.

I shake my head and try to pull the covers over it. Daddy stops me while I feel mama's cool touch to my forehead. It's only when she says, "She has a fever," that I'm reminded that I'm the only one who gets sick in this family.

"I'll have Niles bring her some medication to bring down the fever," Dante says while Ciarán edges around the other side of the bed.

"Little love, do you need anything?" Daddy asks me, and I shake my head again, chills raking through my body a moment later. Mama and daddy look at each other, and a few seconds after, I feel them sitting on the bed on either side of me.

I glance up and see mama's eyes looking worried down at me. My vision is a little hazy, and I know time has passed by when I open my eyes again, and mama has me cradled in her arms.

She's humming, rocking me gently as I feel something against my lips. When I look, I see a spoon with purple liquid on it, and I shake my head, moving closer to mama.

Niles says, "Come on Acacia, your fever is high."

"Daddy!" I cry and push the spoon away.

"Leave it here, Niles," daddy tells him, and he rubs my back gently. Tears fall down my cheeks, and I fall asleep again to mama's humming.

I wake up again when I hear Ciarán giggling, blinking my eyelids open to see daddy has my chess set he got for me set up on my bed. I see him playing with Ciarán and then going back and forth about something.

Mama's cool fingertips touch beneath my chin, and she brings my eyes to meet with hers. Her irises are golden, and I wonder how long her wolf has been here as she helps bring the spoon to my lips.

I grimace, "It's gross."

"It'll make you better," she smiles down at me, and I finally take all the strength I have left to part my lips for the yucky liquid to slide down my throat. She kisses my forehead and whispers, "I'm so sorry...I love you so much."

Ciarán stops giggling and is staring at me while my cheek falls against mama's tummy. I breathe out and in, my heartbeat very slow as I yawn. Mama rubs my back while Ciarán gets off the bed and comes to the side.

Ciarán's eyes stare into mine and something knots in my stomach, crying out sharply while his eyes widen. He says, "Mama, she's not okay...Acacia is NOT okay!"

Maybe a second later, it feels like my whole body is shaking and my eyes quickly roll back into my head before I don't remember anything else. When I wake up, I'm in the medical wing of the castle, my eyes in slits as I see the room around me, gradually opening my eyelids.

I look down, and an arm is resting and holding me across my chest, the hand grasping my upper arm. When I look closer, Ciarán is laying next to me, holding me as his head rests near my head.