Parker's POV
Time jump to the end of the week....
I groaned as I opened my eyes. Not only was it bright as hell in the bedroom but my entire body was sore. My shoulder was sore from being remarked 9 times throughtout my heat, as well as my body from all the sex. Thankfully, my body finally feeling sore could only mean one thing. My heat is officially OVER! Throughout the past four days I've been suffering having to remodel the room I destroyed, having "Guards" because after threatening to jump off the pack roof and then getting caught doing a back flip off the second story banister I wasn't trusted. I mean the two Ryan has set to guard me are the two who dared me to in the first place.
My first guard is Matty. He is Carter's mate. Carter is the Beta, and Matty was a warrior in his old pack. He had a Beta mark though. And had successfully avoided Carter for three years before he was claimed this year. But, that's only because He agreed to make it a challenge but they both were finally ready to be mates. Then there is Carla. Ryan's sister. A whopping Five feet and four inches tall, 135 pounds, and the number two female warrior in the pack. Wherever she goes Sofia goes, so I did unfortunately have to communicate with the girl who I threatened to kill. She's cool though. I guess you can call us all friends now. I don't really feel as though they are my guards. Ryan put it as they are there to watch me when he can't to keep me from doing stupid shit and hurting myself again.Which if he hadn't have come out of nowhere and distracted me I wouldn't have miscalculated and busted my knee cap in the first place. So really it wasn't a stupid decision.
That brings me to this morning. I woke up alone, again. Knowing Ryan was at the pack house. Which it's not my fault. I'm used to being awake and working out by 6 am, but he literally tires me out, and he has knotted me twice now because I'm stupid and got pissed at him for calling me Princess in front of Carter. So I may have started to tell him I rejected him... Not that it would work now. If I had rejected him before when I was just marked it would have worked. My mark would have disappeared like it was never there but now it wouldn't matter.
I sat up and groaned. I have snooped in the bathroom at both places and have found no tylenol. Not a surprise because Alpha's heal from most things in less than a day. I quickly got dressed and walked down the stairs. Swiping car key's from it's hook. Technically I'm not supposed to drive until I get my license tomorrow but it's literally a two minute drive that my sore ass doesn't want to walk. I pulled his jeep up and parked it making my way into the pack house. Matty, Carla, and Sofia were sitting in the living room waiting for me.
"Hey, P." Sofia smiled at me and waved.
"Hey. Where's Ryan?"
"His office, everything okay?"
I groaned. "That's so farrrr."
"Am I missing something?"
"My heats gone, my body hurts, and I want him to get me tylenol and let me cuddle." I said, I laid down on the floor. It was cold and felt good against my body.
"Did you link him?"
"No. Too hard." I mumbled, closing my eyes.
"Dude, its 1230 and you're already trying to take a nap."
"Carla?"
"What?"
"Slap Sofia for me, tell her bad dog."
"EXCUSE YOU!" She shrieked.
I laughed. "You heard me."
"I'll show you a bad dog."
Next thing I know I was being pelted with throw pillows. I covered my face and let it happen. Once all the pillows stopped I risked looking. "You done?"
"Yes, Asshole." She huffed. Pouting and crossing her arms over her chest.
I grabbed a few pillows, One I placed under my head the other I hugged to my chest. I also placed one in between my knees hoping it would help the dull ache in my hips. The three of them went back to their conversation, me chiming in every once in a while. Until footsteps started down the stairs. I listened intently to the footsteps missing what was said.
"Parker!"
"Huh? What?"
"Do you wanna shift and go for a run with us?"
"No. I don't shift."
They all looked at me weird. A Beta not shifting is unheard of. An Alpha's Mate not shifting is equally unheard of. Most Alpha's will change their human mates into werewolves if needed. I looked up as the footsteps came to a stop in the doorway of the living room.
"Why are you on the floor?"
"Cause it's comfy." I answered, avoiding looking at my mate.
"That is not what you said."
"Shut up, Carla."
"No, please tell me." Ryan said, crossing his arms.
"He came in all huffy wanting you. We told him you were in your office and he whined and threw himself on the floor. He said and I quote " My heat's gone. My body hurts and I want him to get me tylenol and let me cuddle." he said, mind linking you was too hard, and wanted to just nap on the floor." Matty Answered.
Ryan pulled a small packet from his back pocket."Tylenol is here. Water is in the mini fridge table, and we can cuddle while we talk."
Judging from the look on his face he heard me say I don't shift. I let him pull me up from the floor and walked over to the table pressing a button so it opened and I grabbed a water despite wanting a coke that was in there. I quickly took the tylenol and sat down in Ryan's lap, I buried my face in his neck and pulled my hands into my chest. I ignored the aw's and relaxed more when Ryan ran his hand up and down my back.
"Are we going to talk about you saying you can't shift?" He questioned.
I sighed. "I said don't shift. Not that I can't."
"Why don't you shift then?"
I shrugged. "I've spent most of the years after getting my wolf not shifting. I shifted at 14 so for two years I shifted when I wanted. At 16 I was captured and for 2 years I was chained and couldn't shift. Got home and for 9 months was too scared to leave my room besides dashing to the kitchen when everyone was asleep. So I didn't shift then. My 19th birthday I was forced to go to the party and shift for the run and I was challenged as Beta. And everyone knows when challenged in wolf form you have to fight in wolf form. If challenged in human form you have to fight in human form. My last training session in wolf form was before I was kidnapped. I almost died. He wouldn't submit until I crushed his trachea. I was in a coma for two weeks due to the damage, he's still alive but they had to do surgery and his neck is covered in scars. I don't like shifting and haven't since. It's done and over with. No big deal."
"Baby, you didn't do anything wrong. You're making your wolf suffer by not shifting."
"No I'm not. He's fine. I can't control his anger when I am fully shifted. It wasn't my decision. Percy was going for the kill and I couldn't control him. Now he can bleed through my human side and that's as close as he gets. It's better for everyone, and he is completely fine with it."
"No I'm Not. Wanna run with Mate."
"Then you shouldn't have tried to kill someone."
"No, he's not. I can see it. He's fighting you right now."
"No."
"Let him out. I wanna talk to him."
"No." I repeated.
Ryan growled and let his eyes change to his wolf's. I knew what he was doing. He and his wolf, Ryker, called out to Percy. I growled a little, squeezing my eyes shut and trying to fight him back. I was shaking in the effort, but all of that went through the window when I was shoved aside and Percy came into view.
"Mate." He said.
"God, can you make me sound more submissive and tiny? Jeeze."
"Are you happy with not shifting?"
"No. Wanna run with Mate. Need to stretch legs." He whined.
"Okay, bring Parker back and I will get him to shift."
Percy nodded.
Once I felt him release control and I returned to having full control over my body, I tried to stand up and get away from Ryan. He didn't let go of me though. Instead he stood up and all of us went outside into the yard. I was placed on the ground in front of him and everyone formed a circle like they did when I had my first shift.
"You are hurting yourself and your wolf. Shift. Now."
"No." The tears started burning my eyes.
"Now, Parker."
"NO!"
"God Damn it, Paisley, SHIFT."
I collapsed on the ground, crying. Fighting an Alpha's command is painful.
"Please, don't make me." I cried. I grabbed my head with my hands as I fought his command to shift.
"I'm sorry, but I will make you shift all the time if I have to. This is why I caught you so easy. You have to shift. Please just do it."
"I can't control him."
"Percy won't hurt us. Paisley, please stop fighting my command. You're hurting yourself."
I sucked in a breath of air as the first of my bones started breaking and shifting. At my age shifting should be a quick 5-10 second thing with virtually no pain. Not shifting for so long and only shifting due to an Alphas command made my shift last 20 very long pain-filled minutes. Once fully shifted into my large dark brown wolf, I collapsed. I panted trying to get my breath back.
I felt sparks as a warm wet snout nudged mine. I opened my eyes to see Ryan's massive black wolf laying down in front of me. He gently licked my snout and when I didn't lash out at him he got up and moved to lay on me and lick at my face. I laid there adjusting to being back into wolf form.
"You okay?"
"Hurt."
"I'm sorry. I don't like using my Alpha Command on you."
"No. Shift hurt."
"It'll get better. When you shift back it won't hurt as much."
"Mean."
"I know. I'm sorry. You left me with no choice."
"Run?"
"We can run, if you feel up to it."
"Yeah."
He got off me and the group of us took off. We ran for a good hour around the territory before returning to the pack house. Everyone else shifted and put their clothes back on. Sofia and Carla ran inside to grab me new clothes. Matty and Carter sat down and started talking with Ryan, who sat down and placed my head in his lap. I closed my eyes, both Percy and I enjoying him petting us.
"Here, we just grabbed shorts, underwear and a shirt. You can change into what you want later." Sofia said, handing Ryan the clothes.
I shifted and quickly pulled the new clothes on. Grimacing when you could see all the scars on my arms and my leg.
"Woah. What are those from?"
"Carla! You don't just ask about people's scars like that."
"It's fine. The one on my leg is from breaking it when I jumped off the roof. The ones on the outside of my wrists are from silver cuffs. And the ones on the inside are from me." I shrugged.
"What do you mean from you?"
I looked up at everyone, they were all looking at me with caution and concern. "I had a hard time when I first got back. I tried to kill myself. Derek found me. I lived. End of story." I was trying to just brush it off. It wasn't nothing. I took a silver knife and slit my wrists.
"Baby, that's not just something to brush off."
"I'm fine. I had a difficult time adjusting back into pack life. I wasn't sleeping more than two hours at a time, and I couldn't stop thinking about what happened. I felt used. I don't feel that way anymore. You don't have to hide anything cause I'm not suicidal. That's the only time I've hurt myself. It's all good. It was 4 years ago."
"You may not be suicidal but have you ever thought that's why you jump off of things and hurt yourself? It won't kill you and you know it will heal."
"I don't jump off anything with the intention of hurting myself. Sometimes it just happens that way. Why are my scars such a big deal? I could walk around in shorts and shirtless at my pack and no one would say anything. It's been almost 5 years and I haven't purposefully tried to hurt myself again. Please just drop it."
Ryan must have seen the desperate look in my eyes because he nodded. "Who wants lunch? I was thinking we could go to the diner?"
Everyone agreed, even me. I suppose a short trip is better to test then the 4 hour trip back to my pack. I followed back into the house and just threw my Adidas cloudfoam racer shoes back on. I didn't have to wear socks with them so I wasn't worried about it. I followed everyone outside and mentally groaned when they all climbed into Ryan's large jeep. There was third row seating. If you count the last two as third row. They are attached to the other seats but face the back and it's normally the trunk.
"Ry."
"Yeah, Baby?" He stopped, turning to look at me.
"If.. uh. If I ask you to pull over please just do it."
"Um. Okay?" He looked confused.
"Since being back I have a hard time riding in cars with people. I couldn't ride in a car with Derek until last year when Violet got claimed. Everyone else I've tried I don't make it past the 10 minute mark."
"Oh yeah, thank you for reminding me." He nodded and smiled at me.
I nodded back and climbed into the passenger seat. I buckled. Already feeling slightly anxious. Ryan turned the jeep on and put it in drive. Driving around the little half circle driveway and going onto the road in the direction our house is. I was fine. Trying to focus on the road ahead or what was out the window but five minutes in I could feel my body getting tense. They kept getting loud and talking over each other. In the house it wouldn't have bothered me. In the car it did. Very much so. I felt like I had ants crawling all over me. That is until Ryan slipped his hand in mine and intertwined our fingers. I felt like cold water was thrown on me. I looked down at his hand before looking at his face.
"Does this help?"
"Actually? Yeah. Thank you. I didn't want to ruin anything."
"You wouldn't have ruined anything. I'm your mate, sometimes my touch can calm you. So if you ever feel overwhelmed or like your skin is crawling, just come find me. Whether that's holding my hand, or if you need to crawl in my lap. Whatever you need I'm here."
"Seriously... Thank you."
He smiled over at me before pulling into a parking lot. I unbuckled when he parked before my chin was gently grabbed and I was pulled into a soft kiss. I felt myself melt even more.
"I'm proud of you, Princess." He whispered.
Before I could answer the sound of three people yelling entered my eardrums.
"PRINCESS?"