Diem was quick to reach me and catch the boys before they got away. Not that they could amongst all the people here.
I could tell by his glazed eyes, that he was mindlinking somebody.
Everyone else had stopped fighting. Some people seemed horrified at the sight of me on my knees, unable to either sit or stand, while others seemed amused.
I guess Bayo was right, some of these people here really do hate us Liet members.
Half my face and my right leg were throbbing with pain, and I could feel blood heavily seeping down my leg, as the boy had removed his knife after the stab.
The bloody taste in my mouth made me uneasy. I spit the blood out, not expecting the tooth that flew out with it.
"Nice. A souvenir," said Ima.
I took it in my hands and decided to keep it.
I hadn't allowed weapons for this drill. The only weapons we had used till now were makeshift ones, like wooden sticks, pretending to use them as rods or guns.
These boys clearly went out of their way to hurt me.
...
It was now getting dark and Diem had already dismissed the students for the day.
Bayo and Gamma Fraser didn't take too long to find us.
"What the hell happened?" Bayo asked. He seemed furious.
"Why didn't you call for me?" he asked me privately, looking at my face with concern.
My head felt a little dizzy and I didn't answer him.
"You two, you're coming with me," Gamma Fraser said to the two boys who weren't fazed by his words even a little. In fact, they seemed proud of themselves.
Bayo was already moving towards the boys, surely to hurt them, but I held his arm to stop him.
"It's fine. I'm fine," I said.
"No you're not. I told you-"
"Bayo. Please," I said.
"Rayne, you better have that wound looked at. Diem will take you," Fraser said, to which Diem nodded.
...
I had realized that if Bayo had to leave me here and wasn't able to get me out soon, I wouldn't last very long. Regardless of what anyone said to me, in this pack I would always be considered a theif and a manipulator, and whoever was hot-headed enough could surely have their way and hurt me.
By choosing to train these kids, I really did put myself out there, but what's done is done, and I can't take it back now.
There's still another day to the meeting, and these three days seem much longer than most other days.
A part of me is awaiting my mate, hoping he'd whisk me away from this difficult situation that I've put myself into. Another part of me deemed the very idea questionable.
Nevertheless, as I was lying on the bed in our room, a pack doctor tending to the cut, Bayo restlessly pacing back and forth, and Diem standing guard at the door like a statue, I reached out to him.
I complained to him about my pain, and not just the physical discomfort that I felt at this moment, but the fact that him being away was slowly driving me mad.
"All right can you please stop ranting now?" said Ima in my head.
I sighed. "At least I have you Imadis," I told her, with a hint of sarcasm.
"All right then," the doctor said. "I'm all done. The cut was quite deep, so it will take 2-3 days to fully heal. But I suggest you avoid walking for the next 24 hours, that's how long the stitches will need. You won't be able to lie down on your back though. Just stay on your side like this, no pressure on your thigh."
"The swelling on your face is going down too, but it will still take a few days," she continued.
I just managed a painful smile as she covered me in a blanket.
After a slight nod from Bayo, she and Diem left the room, quietly closing the door behind them.
I could feel Bayo lie down behind me on the bed.
"There's no way I can leave you here," he said, dragging his fingers lazily on my back.
"I hope not," I replied quietly, his action causing my eyes to droop.
"You weren't supposed to get hurt. That was the plan," he said.
"It's not too bad," I told him, hoping to find sleep, and the dizziness to go away.
I could feel his fingers trace my back from the nape of my neck to my lower back.
My body immediately tensed as his fingers accidentally touched the raised scar of my mark.
His gentle movement paused for only a fraction of a second, but I couldn't breathe. He'd seen it, he'd definitely seen it.
He lifted my hair out of the way to get a better look, his finger tracing the mark softly.
Ima was boiling with anger at him for touching something that had now become an intimate part of my body. And there was more anger that I felt, that wasn't my own. I could tell, because all I felt was panic.
His fingers were soft, yet felt as if they were burning through my skin.
"What else are you hiding from me Rayne?"