I woke up slowly. I opened my eyes slightly and battled to keep them open. When I finally did keep them open I moved my head to look at my arms. They were bandaged up but I couldn’t see blood. I slowly sat up and undid one of the bandages. The wounds were healed... wait what? I looked at my watch and the time indicated 2:47PM. I had either been out for about an hour and a half... or... shit... had it really been a whole day? I got up and took the other bandage off... I was lying in a bed, specifically my bed, with no recollection to how the heck I had got here but I guessed someone carried me here. I took the other bandage off and threw them in the bin; they still had small blood stains on them so I guessed this may have been my second or third pair of bandages.
I was dressed in shorts, same ones I had worn when I had the fight and there was a blanket on the floor, it probably covered me until I pushed it off me whilst I was sleeping. I wasn’t wearing a shirt so I guessed I had just been carried and laid on my bed, they wouldn’t have tried to move my arms with my wounds.
I wonder who bandaged me up, and who carried me over? I shook my head before going to take a shower.
After a good twenty minutes I got out and got changed into some black shorts and a black shirt. I slipped on my shoes and stepped outside. It was pretty sunny and warm I guessed. The scars on my arms looked ugly, larger than most of my other ones, and a lot deeper. I checked the back of my arms to see that on each there were two very small scars, which meant Marks claws had gone all the way through... at least four on them (two on each arm).
I looked around and saw no one... main hall?
I walked slowly over to the main hall where the doors were open and I could hear everyone talking.
“What if he doesn’t wake up” Chris said loudly
“He will!” Ashley shouted back
“Guys....” Joe said slowly “We should just calm down, and wait till he wakes up.”
They kept arguing and I stood outside just listening to them.
“He has to pull through” Zoe said quietly “He has to”
“Chris...” Ashley spoke again “Chris, it’s going to be alright”
“He nearly died for me once!” He shouted again “He nearly died for me, he risked his life and saved mine... and I stood there! I stood there when I could have helped; he’s my brother Ashley...”
“I know...” She replied slowly
I decided now may be a good time to enter. I slowly walked into the room to see Ashley sitting in her usual seat on my right next to Joe, Zoe was sat next to Chris holding his hand and Joe was opposite them... simply waiting. Chris was distressed... he looked... well... in pieces.
“You fucking asshole” he shouted at me, he had been the first one to see me and I really hadn’t expected this to be his reaction.
“What have I done?” I said worried
“You scared the fuck out of me!” he shouted as he ran up to me and hugged me “Never... ever, do that to me again ok?”
“I promise” I smiled as I hugged him back.
He smiled and stepped away giving room for the others.
Zoe was next and hugged me “Thank god you’re ok!” She smiled at me
“Thank you Zoe” I smiled back.
Joe stepped up and held out his hand “I’m glad you’re ok” he smiled
“Just hug me you idiot” I laughed as I hugged him; he was still family to me, no matter what his history was nor what rank he was.
“Thanks Tilyer”
“No... Thank you” I said pushing him back a bit “You saved my life when you threw the knife at Mark, if you didn’t he would have thrown me over” I smiled
“Oh, by the way” he smiled “Here’s your knife”
“Thank you Joe” I smiled as I took my knife back and shoved it in my pocket, I could tell Joe had cleaned it and I was surprised.
As Joe stepped away he made way for Ashley. She looked stunning, just amazing, she was smiling and seemed relieved.
“How are you feeling?” she asked as she ran towards me and literally jumped into my arms
“Much better”
“I’m glad you’re ok” she smiled and started crying “Don’t you ever fucking dare to pull anything like that off again Ok? Understand? I want to keep you god damn it” she hugged me and we swung back and forth slightly, like if she was holding a small child and was swaying them side to side to reassure them it was all going to be alright.
“I love you to Ash” I hugged her tightly before kissing her.
When all the excitement had died down we all sat down and sitting down for some reason made me hungry, but it felt good, to sit back in my seat, I had a ton of questions, and I needed answers.
“So, how do you feel?” Chris asked
“You sleep well?” Zoe began
“Do the scars hurt?” Joe interrupted
“I’m hungry...” I said ignoring all of the questions “And I have questions first” I smiled.
Joe stood up and ran to get me pancakes and Nutella as I began to ask my questions.
“So... how long has it been?” I asked slowly
“A day and about, an hour and a half” Ashley said slowly...
“Joe and I carried you back and Ashley dressed your wounds, Zoe cleaned them out, then Joe and I got rid of Mark...” Chris carried on
“By... get rid of?” I asked
“Yeah... we took his body far west and burnt it to ashes, and buried the rest so no one would ever find out.” He looked down and looked uncomfortable, then again who would look fine when telling someone they buried the guy their friend murdered.
Joe came back with the pancakes and Nutella and put the down in front of me, the pancakes were warm which was a nice surprise; I dug straight away whilst they were still warm before continuing to ask my questions.
“How bad were the injuries?” I said stuffing a pancake in my mouth, damn I was hungry, I hadn’t eaten since... well... breakfast the morning of the fight.
“Well...” Zoe looked uneasy “Let’s put it this way... if we hadn’t bandaged up your arms once you fell using our Chris and Joes shirts... you would probably have died due to high blood lose, then again we don’t know if shape shifters can survive things like that or not... so yeah... you could be dead. We think Mark cut a major artery or vein in your arm or something so I guess you’re very lucky to be alive.” She smiled lightly at me
“But you guys are all alright?” I finished my mouthful before preparing another pancake, I may have been hungry but I was still worried about them all
“We’re all Ok” Ashley smiled
“Glad you guys are all ok” I smiled at all them reassured, I would have hated it if they weren’t.
I finished eating breakfast in quite... well, if you could call it that. Once I was done I sat back and looked around at everyone... we had made it through, we had survived and we were still a whole family.
“Anyone talk to Matt?” I asked suddenly curious
“Yeah I did” Chris replied “Told him everything, he said he would call you soon”
“Ok...” I nodded “Well...” I said as I stood up “We won” I smiled as I clapped my hands trying to be a bit more upbeat, this wasn’t the happiest atmosphere ever.
“Yes we did” Chris nodded
“And we all survived” Ashley added
“And we all fought together” Joe said smiling
“As a family” Zoe finished off the sentence for us all.
We all laughed a bit and continued with our afternoon, we mainly just sat around and discussed what we would do next, what activities we could do together and we even decided to make up some wolf sports, like wrestling, and it gave us training for any further fights we may have. We had agreed on training extremely quickly because none of us were really prepared for when Mark had struck and we realised if we could fight better as wolves we would survive longer.
At the end of the day we were a family and this was our victory, we had defeated the one person who posed a threat to us and for the time being, no one could stand in our way.