Chapter 4

Chapter 4

"Zoren." I murmur, sounding small and weak like the cry of the ghost. My eyes are drooping closed again, I don't imagine I'll open them again, my mind fading to darkness.

"Aurora, I'm coming in." I guess whoever it is sounds scared and desperate but I don't care. I'm drifting and floating.

There's rattling then a loud bang and I hear someone gasp for breath. "Shit." I can feel my body roll forward slightly as someone sits on the edge of my bed, pulling me closer towards them and peeling the bed sheets off my body.

"Aurora, wake up, f-ck it Aurora, wake up. Wake up, please." Someone begs me. Wake up, am I not already awake. I can't remember. They shake me gently by the shoulders. My eyes flutter open before closing again to see a face hovering over mine though all I can make out is the eyes.

They looked scared, terrified even. Beautiful, chocolate eyes, I love those eyes. I lift my hand up and press it to their face but it flops down weakly. I start choking again and the person rolls me over to let some liquid out my mouth, patting my back gently as though I'm broken china. Everything hurts. They have their hands on my neck, undoing my bandage softly and carefully.

"Shit."

Warm hands press to my neck, trying to stop the blood flow desperately. I can feel their fear. Suddenly I feel someone kiss my forehead, like a guardian angel.

"Please forgive me for this." Their voice is soft and gentle.

Their lips are on my collar bone now. Teeth graze my bite and extend, pressing harder. I think I gasp, my back arching up to them, pressing my body to theirs. They suck some of the blood and their fangs draw in, out of the wound. A tongue licks the cut and I feel the skin heal over it quickly as if there was never a cut in the first place although I know it will leave a bad scar. A lovely war scar to die with. The person sighs in relief.

"We need to give you a blood transfusion. It's almost over Aurora, it's almost over." I hope it is too, I want to say. Hands are placed under my back and an arm under my knees and I'm lifted from the bed my head resting on the person's chest. "Stay with me Aurora. Please." I'm moving quickly in this person's arms, lights flash through my closed eyelids and doors slam behind us until I am placed on something soft.

"Use my blood for the transfusion, it will work better. Just make sure she survives. Please. She's my mate. I can't lose her." I hear someone command. Then there is buzzing, humming, it's fading. More hands swarm my body, I'm not sure what they are doing but I don't care. My hearing has gone, my heart beat slowed.

"Zoren." My last words or thoughts. I don't know which.

***

Breathing in deeply, I sense the other person has stirred from the rise of my chest and I open my eyes.

Zoren.

Breath escapes my lungs quickly and it's replaced by confusion. Despite how nice it feels, I pull my hand out of his grasp and cradle it with my other hand. I sit up, gathering the duvet of the bed around me, shuffling backwards to lean on the backboard of the bed. Before I look at Zoren again, I take a calculated glance at my surroundings.

I'd know the room anywhere. It's Hospital Ward and I know it well since my cousins and I often made trips here when we were younger with broken paws and cuts and grazes, possibly not bad enough to need treatment but we enjoyed looking at the funny equipment in the room. The ignorance of childhood.

The room is made of stone with no plaster on the wall with big, arch, stain-glass windows giving the impression of a converted church. Morning sunlight streams through the windows onto rows of white, freshly made hospital beds. There were no other inhabitants in the room save me and Zoren. I look back at him, catching his eyes.

"What happened?" My voice is throaty and low and I cough, clearing my voice.

"You don't remember?" His voice is full of genuine surprise and his eyes quickly drop down to my arm but back to my eyes. I follow the trail of his gaze and see there is a fresh bandage on it. I stroke it with my other hand, it's soft but I still want to take it off. It's in my nature to hate bandages. Let the air get to it, I always think however I don't think the Matron would be too impressed if I removed it.

"What happened?" I repeat calmly, although inside I'm feeling anything but that.

"There was another attack last night on Saffron Fields." At this, my heart beat jars. "Many were injured and a couple were killed. They called a Wolf Council meeting. I woke up to the notification as I hadn't been able to sleep. My collar bone was throbbing."

Zoren swallows, the pain from the previous night flashed across his face for a fleeting second.

"I knew it was you and your mark but I thought you would have been clever enough to sort something out. I couldn't take it any longer. My wolf was panicking as if he knew something bad was happening to you. I guess I didn't know what I feeling but I knew I had to make sure you got the text about the Council."

My hand touches my collarbone, feeling the bumps of healed blood on the cut. He bites his lip before he continues.

"I went to your room and I knocked and you hardly answered. Inside my wolf was going crazy with worry. I was about to break down the door." His face shows signs of a guilty smile. "But it was already open. When I walked in," he swallows again, "I didn't know what to do." His voice cracks. "I thought you were dead Aurora. I thought you were dead."

"Well, once I realised you were still alive, then I marked you. Properly. It stopped the bleeding so but you were so weak. You'd lost so much blood. Your bedroom looks like someone murdered you. There is blood everywhere. Your sheets were soaking with it. You were dripping blood, all down the hallways. It was a mess. Blood everywhere." Zoren looks at his hands as though they are still covered in a thick layer of my blood with a distant look of horror. "When we got here, you needed a blood transplant so I donated some of mine."

He rolls up one of his shirt sleeves to present me with a bandage, not dissimilar one like mine. He finished and shrugs nervously.

"Thank you." I whisper. "Thank you."

"Well then." Zoren stands up, rolling down his shirt sleeve. "I need to get to the council meeting. I'll see you later." Just like that, the kind sensitive side is replaced by the hard, business man. He nods towards me, not meeting my eyes and strolling out the door.

I call out after him. "Wait, I'm going to the meeting too!"

He swings around, glaring. "You just nearly died from blood loss. You are not coming."

"So? I bet you'd still go."

"That's not the point."

"Yes." I say, shuffling in my bed so I'm more upright. "It's exactly the point. I'm coming."

A low warning growl rips through Zoren's throat. "No. That's an order."

"You can't order me to do anything."

"Yes, I can. You are my mate and you are under my control."

"Since when? What rule is that?" I gesture wildly, exasperated.

"If I can't control you, I'll get others to stop you escaping."

"You can't do that." I gather the blankets around me and start leaning forward to place my bare feet on the cold stone floor, starting to stand, being wobbly at first and controlling the first waves of dizziness.