Chapter Five

An honest mistake.

I head to the kitchen and grab some pain relief. Being werewolves our medicine is of a stronger dosage and it cannot be easily purchased from human retail shops. It has to come directly from our pack’s doctors and most houses have it in their possessions for training injuries.

“Er mind my cabinets!” Kath places her hands on her hips and tuts at me.

I storm upstairs into my bedroom and slam the door behind me. I take two pain relief tablets before heading into my en-suite to start the shower. While the water heats up, I lay out some fresh loose fitting clothes on my bed. I had opened my window before I left this morning but the noise of the pack members training is enough to make me feel sick. I close it all the way and shut my curtains to block out the rising morning sun.

I head into the en-suite and strip off. I place my dirty clothes into the laundry basket and open the shower door to step in. My body recoils from the water pressure as my muscles go into spasm from the relaxing hot water. My shoulder sears in pain but at last it starts to slowly relax under the heat and steam of the shower.

I can’t do a lot.

My body aches when I move to wash it and I know I have no chance at washing my hair, so I keep it tied up and only rinse my neck downwards.

With bed calling me I turn off the shower and step outside. I wrap a warm fluffy towel around me and gently pat myself dry. I very painfully and awkwardly, put the clothes on that I had already laid out on my bed. I then climb into bed and place my headphones in my ears and listen to music on my phone. I grab for my water bottle and take two pain relief tablets to numb the pain that will wear off soon from the shower. It doesn’t take me long to find a comfy spot in bed and choose a playlist to listen to. I slowly drift off wanting to forget last night and this morning ever happened.

I am woken up by a cracking noise close to my ear and a piercing pain shooting through my shoulder. My eyes flash open to find one of the pack doctors holding my shoulder down.

“Aida, you’re awake!” The doctor smiles at me.

“What the hell?” I shout at him as I touch my shoulder. He slowly pulls away from me and stands up from off my bed. I follow his movement until I see the gazes of quite a few people looking at me. The doctor, Andrei, Father, William and Caleb. I look to the door to find Saskia rolling her eyes at me and Henri leaning up against the doorway with his arms crossed.

Caleb sits on my bed and places my hand in his.

“Aida, you weren’t responding….” Caleb says with concern edged on his face.

“I was asleep!”

“You’ve been asleep all day. Nobody could reach you on the pack link. Then Andrei said your shoulder was dislocated. I checked our usual haunts and then checked here.” Caleb said.

“I’ve reset your shoulder but it will need some rest. No training for a week. How many of those did you take?” The doctor interrupts while making a note on a piece of paper.

“How many of what?”

“The pain relief? I’d say more than two based on how Caleb here found you. He raised the alarm!”

“I don’t understand!” My head felt foggy and I wanted to go back to sleep.

“Aida, you’ve been missing since you left training. It is now 3.45pm. I couldn’t wake you!” Caleb says as he squeezes my hand tighter.

“I’m sorry!” He says through the mind-link.

“I shouldn’t have said what I did last night. I was a prick.”

“I don’t know, I thought only two. But I couldn’t get back to sleep last night so I’ve been tired and may have forgot.” I answer the doctor.

“Back to sleep? What woke you up?” Father looked at me. I know if I say the nightmares then I’ll be tested again and placed under observation. So I lied.

“Just stuff on my mind. School things.”

“Well you need some more rest. Stay in bed and I’ll come back to check on you tomorrow.” Doctor nods at me before he and everyone else starts to leave.

“I’ll stay with her!” Caleb says to my father.

“Actually I’m fine, I’d like to be alone.”

“Really?” Henri scoffs.

“Yes!” I glare at him. Both he and Saskia leave, as does my father, but I don’t miss the comments Saskia makes about me to Henri.

“You’re mad at me?” Caleb pouts, regaining my attention.

Yes I was, I was mad at him, mad at Andrei for pushing me too far, more than he pushed any other trainee. Mad at the conversation I heard last night, mad at myself for taking too many stupid pills. But I was angry to the pit of my stomach for being treated as the lost and troubled teenager once again. I wanted Caleb to stay but I was a proud being and wanted him to feel the slightest of hurt I felt last night.

“I just want to be alone.” I said as I shuffled along the bed to reach for the TV controller with my good arm.

“Here let me help!” He reached over me and grabbed the controller before I could get there. He placed the TV on and started to load a streaming service.

“Please don’t push me away. I’m sorry for what I said. I didn’t mean it.” He says concentrating on the TV.

Sure he did! I’ve found in life that if someone says something in the heat of an argument or during a temper tantrum, they mean it. They just couldn’t express it before.

I sadly smile at him as he lays back on the bed next to me.

“Did you mean to overdose?” He softly asks me continuing to look at the TV.

“No!” I quickly replied before he could speculate anymore. But thinking about it, the extra pain relief completely knocked me out. I didn’t even dream let alone have another nightmare. Maybe a zonked out brain can’t even weave webs of destruction in your sleep.

“Please don’t be mad at me. I don’t like it when you are angry at me!” He turns his face to look directly at me. He leans in and places a kiss on my lips. His hand cups my cheek as he deepens the kiss before pulling away.

“Are you hungry?” He asks.

Am I hungry? I take a second to feel my stomach, it felt empty and I could certainly do with a juice. I go to sit up but he places a hand on my shoulder which I flinch at, it is still swollen.

“Sorry…I’ll grab some food.”

“And some orange juice please?”

“Sure. Pick something, I won’t be long.”

As I wait for Caleb to return my eyelids start to grow heavy and I start to drift off.

“Don’t sleep yet, you won’t sleep tonight then.” Caleb whispers into my ear.

I moan at him for waking me up and push his lips away from my ear, earning a chuckle from him.

“Come on, you’ve got to stay awake, just for a little bit longer.” He demands as he lifts me gently up and repositions me in between his legs so that my back is resting on his chest. Our cheek touching each others.

“Come on, eat something.” He kisses the side of my cheek. At his order I pick up the orange juice and take a large sip. Looking at the food options, I didn’t actually fancy any of it. What my body craved was soup but I didn’t want to bother him after he had already provided me with all of this and I certainly didn’t have the energy to go downstairs myself. I snacked on some of the sandwich and grapes but couldn’t stomach a lot.

Every time I tried to nod off Caleb would jolt me back awake and remind me I needed to stay up just a little bit longer.

I was drifting again when I heard a slight knock on the door. Her scent hit my nose but I was too tired to respond.

“Is she asleep?” She walks into my bedroom asking Caleb.

“She’s been trying all afternoon. She should sleep through now Luna.”

“Did you manage to find out if she meant to take all four tablets?”

“No Luna she didn’t, it was an honest mistake. She was tired and upset.”

“Upset about what?” She pushed.

“I said something in the heat of the moment that I didn’t mean.”

“Maybe that pushed her to want to take all four?”

Is she being serious? I really needed to start watching my back after what she said last night. She was clearly gunning for me and intimidated by my position here within the wolf pack.

“No Luna, it was clearly a mistake.” Caleb confirms. She doesn’t respond further and I can hear Saskia’s high heels move further away back towards the stairs.

“Wasn’t it Aida?” Caleb whispers to me.

“Yes!” I whisper back.

I would never do anything to be parted from him.