Inside one of the guest rooms in Tristan's way too big house, in a bed, lays Jeremy. Above his wound, there's an enchanted bandage being soaked in blue healing potion every few minutes, on its own, pressuring onto the deep bite marks. I don't have to put my body weight on it this time, as Petra has already done some magic to help it stay there, and heal him. Hopefully.
I'm sitting in a chair brought up from the living room, with the blanket Gail made for us draped around me, just staring at my mate. I've been staring at him for hours. Some time during the night, I fell asleep, but when I woke up I continued to just look at him.
My whole body feels like a shell around emptiness that can never be filled back up.
Before Tristan and Tyler carried him inside, he lost consciousness. The small blink he did at me before I attacked his brother seemed to not matter anymore, because he hasn't shown any other sign of life since. Other than breathing, and having a slow pulse.
My eyes are constantly staring at his chest to see if it stops rising.
Suddenly a hand touches my shoulder, and I jump, feeling my heart start to race, and I quickly glance up to see Michael standing next to me with a cup of my favorite tea in his hand. He hands it to me, and moves a chair that he brought with him up next to me, to sit down on.
I didn't even hear him come in, much less put the chair down before touching my shoulder. I didn't hear him come up the stairs or anything, my ears are solely focused on the slow beating of Jeremy's heart, and the sound of his even, shallow breaths.
"Any changes?" he asks, and I appreciate that he doesn't tell me to do something else, or tell me he's going to be fine, because that's not what I need right now. I just need support, or preferably, him.
I shake my head, and lift the steaming mug up to my lips, never taking my eyes off Jeremy.
"Nathan's still here," he mutters.
I choke a little on my hot tea, and cough a few times, before letting out a restrained laugh.
"Whatever he does next isn't going to be right," I say back. "If he leaves, he's a stupid asshole for leaving his brother, if he stays, he's a stupid asshole for doing this in the first place and I'm going to break his bones if Jeremy doesn't wake up soon."
"With that threat I don't see how he can possibly consider staying," he chuckles.
I want so badly to roll my eyes at him, but I can't take my eyes off of Jeremy. I need to know he's still breathing, in order to keep sane.
We're not even fully mated, but our bond makes me go crazy at the thought of him dying. Maybe it's because deep down I know we both want to be together, to mate, to live together in our new house, decorate and furnish it together.. Inside the broken pieces of my heart that are still hanging onto my ribcage, I know I want that, and I feel stupid for not realizing it fully sooner.
I've been naive and dumb, thinking I needed to be strong by myself, and that I didn't need love, or a soulmate, but I do. I so do. He's everything that I never knew I wanted in a future other half, and everything I hoped I'd see in someone some day. I've even grown to love his mood swings.
The glass bottle on the bedside table rises by itself, floats over towards Jeremy and his bandage that's covering half his torso and his whole neck, and soaks it in the blue, sparkling water again. It hasn't been that long since it did before, but it calms me just a little to see that the magic is at least working on this side of the white cloth. It makes it that much easier to believe that his deep wounds are actually healing on the other side.
"Just a warning, um," Michael says, and pauses a little to scratch the back of his head, "Tristan is trying to cook you dinner, but Tyler and I can go into town and grab some take away if you want. He's kind of freaking out about all this too, and he might need the trip."
I stare at my mate's chest, it's moving slowly, but evenly.
"Thanks," I whisper, before clearing my throat, "but I'm not really that hungry. You should go either way, though. He can come up here and sit with us if he wants to."
"He said he might do that later tonight."
I nod carefully, and take another sip of the tea.
We sit together in silence for a little while, before I reach out to grab Michael's hand. I might need it more than I thought, because when he starts rubbing his thumb across the back of my hand, I start crying again. My eyes flood with tears, and they rush down my cheeks quicker than before, but I don't say anything. He doesn't either, but I know he knows, because his grip on my hand just tightened.
I take another sip of warm tea and swallow it, before I start sobbing.
"Shh," Michael coo's me, and lets go of my hand. He gets up from his chair, takes my mug away and puts it down on the bedside table. He pulls me up from the chair, and sits down himself, before pulling me down onto his lap. He holds me tightly. "It's okay, Elle, I'm watching him. He's breathing, I promise."
His words makes it easier to close my eyes and cry into his shoulder. The blue blanket is covering both of us now, and he holds me tightly while keeping an eye on Jeremy's chest, and running his hands up and down my back soothingly.
I slowly calm down again, while listening to Jeremy's heartbeat, knowing Michael is watching his breathing. I'm still crying, but I'm gaining back control of it now, and I sniffle, before laying my cheek down on my best friend's shoulder.
"It's okay," he repeats, his hands still rubbing my back. "He's still here."
I nod carefully, and I don't even have words to describe how much I appreciate the subtle "he's still here", instead of "he's going to be okay", because no one knows for sure. The damage was really bad, and he lost so much blood. His body is healing, we know that, because Petra cut the back of his hand with a small knife to check after she finished with the witchcraft. It's still there, but it doesn't bleed, so his body knows how to heal, it just takes time.
I'm hopeful, but my heart is broken, and my mind is prepared to get lost if he doesn't wake up.
"Hi, guys," Petra's chipper voice says as she skips into the room, and rounds the bed.
I lift my head to watch what she's doing, but I don't say anything. I'm too focused on listening to his heart, and trying my best not to sob.
She sends me a smile, before wiggling her fingers above the bandage, until it lifts, and she bends down to look. She grimaces a little, and mutters some words, before wiggling her fingers again and the bandage lowers.
"I'll be back, I'm just gonna get some more potions," she says, and skips around the bed again, ruffling my hair with one hand as she skips past us and exits the room just as quickly and quietly as she entered.
I sniffle again, and get up from Michael's lap. He lets me go, but holds onto my hand and gets up too, putting the blue blanket into the chair before it falls down to the floor. He doesn't let go of my hand. I can tell he's reluctant, but I feel like I have to get closer.. I sit down on the side of the bed, and reach for Jeremy's hand with my free one, lacing our fingers together, and holding it tightly, while fighting the tears that are once again threatening to run down my cheeks.
"Elle, I know you want to hold his hand, but Petra said..."
"I know what she said," I whisper, biting my lip as I squeeze both their hands.
Petra said he needed space to heal, which is why they brought up one of the comfy chairs from the living room for me, and why I had the blanket on, to stop myself from going over there to touch him, or mess up anything, but I've been waiting for ages. I have to. And she's coming back very soon, and can fix it if I fuck it up.
"Hey, Danielle, I'm..."
My whole body tenses at the sound of that voice, but I'm relieved that he stops talking when the door creeks open yet again. I stare at Jeremy to keep myself from growling too loudly, or do something even more stupid.
"What the fuck are you doing?!" Nathan growls, and rushes into the room. "The witch specifically said not to do that!"
"The witch also said no screaming!" Petra says in a chipper voice, but we all know she's being serious, as she walks back into the room with three bottles of potion in her arms, and sets them all down on the dresser. "Elle, thank you for not doing this before you knew I was going to come back shortly, but please step away from the wounded wolf. Michael, thank you for holding her hand so she wouldn't lay on top of him. Nathan... ugh."
She shakes her head and turns away from the three of us after voicing her disgust for her patient's brother. Michael pulls me back into his arms as I reluctantly release Jeremy's hand and holds me tightly, possibly because he knows how badly I want to rip Nathan's face off, because he knows I can stay at a safe distance from Jeremy.
I concentrate on watching Petra pour different colored potions onto a new bandage, and into Jeremy's mouth, instead of acknowledging Nathan's presence. The blue, soaked bandage is being lifted off of my mate's chest, revealing a bloody mess underneath it, as his body is slightly tilted towards us. Two huge wounds are just below his collarbone, with more teethmarks towards his shoulder and neck, with his neck looking like it's been ran over by a lawn mower. Although, slightly less bloody than before. I put a hand over my mouth as I look at it, and imagine the same has happened to his back.
Petra hums, as she smears a thick, slimy substance all over where he's hurt, and I can see his facial expression change ever so slightly, as if it hurts.
"Fuck this," I mutter, and turn inside Michael's embrace to look at Nathan, holding my index finger up at him. "You really are an abomination. You might have killed your only brother, after scaring your wife and kids away! You shouldn't even be allowed to be in here, but we're not heartless, coldblooded and ruthless like you, we're letting you stay until we know what's going to happen because you showed regret, not because we care about you, but because we care about him! So you shouldn't be here, judging my decision to hold my dying mate's hand, knowing Petra was right around the corner!"
"Shhhh!"
My whisper-yelling is brought to an end, when Petra shushes me from the other side of the bed, and I turn from looking at Nathan's shocked face, to gazing at Jeremy's moving body. His eyebrows are furrowing, his mouth is slightly moving, and he whimpers, as his arm reaches out towards us. I look up at Petra, who is smiling and nodding at me, and Michael carefully nudges me forward.
I kneel by the bed, and hold onto Jeremy's hand with both of mine, and look at his oh-so handsome face, even when he looks like he's in pain.
"I was gonna say I'm sorry," Nathan says, and walks to the foot of the bed. He sighs heavily, and sounds like he's stifling a laugh. "I don't even know what's been going on since mom died, but I'm sorry. I wish I didn't do this, for all of your sakes. I'm just staying until I know he'll be okay, then I'm gonna go find Kate, Cade and Cara."
"I hope they make you suffer for a bit," I say through my gritted teeth, without looking away from Jeremy at all.
"Honestly, so do I," Nathan answers, before I hear him leaving the room.
I sigh, and let a few new, warm tears run down my cheeks, and keep staring at my mate. I don't care how creepy or stupid it looks, I just want him to know how much I love him, and will fight for him to pull through this, and I want him to know I'm his.
We're mates.