Page 45

I frown and sit down in my usual spot next to the random girl who is always drawing roses. I only half-listen to the lecture because I’m sad that Felix isn’t here to make fun of my moral choices. I really miss arguing about the random situations we get…
The hour goes by slowly, but the teacher finally lets us go and reminds us of our upcoming midterms. I groan inside because I hate taking tests. I know the material, but as soon as I sit down to take a test, my mind goes blank. That’s why I have to study more than others to get good grades. Some people are naturally good at remembering things and don’t need to study as much. I’m not one of those people.
I take my time packing my bag so that I don’t forget anything. The warrior wolf watching me stomps his foot as if he is impatiently waiting for me to hurry up and get my things. I just pack my bags slowly.
I can see that he’s getting angry, but he chooses to stay quiet, which is a good thing.
I finally have everything in my bag and am carrying it over my shoulder.
“I’ll take you to the pack house.” “Alpha Jaxon’s meeting is running a little late, so he can’t pick you up,” says Thing 1.
“Okay, thank you,” I say, trying my best not to show how much I don’t want to spend more time with my stupid bodyguard.
I leave the lecture hall and am about to ask him where he parked his car when suddenly a pair of hands grab my arms and pull me forward. A curtain of blue covers my scream as I fall into the dark.
Thing 1 doesn’t have time to grab me before I fade into a dark blue haze. When I wake up, I’m in a dark, empty room that looks like the inside of a warehouse. The dust on the floor makes the air thicker. I turn in circles, looking for an obvious exit—at least, I think I’m spinning. Actually, I’m just really sick. I try to take a step forward, but I fall down with my first step.
I bend over and gag a few times, but thankfully I don’t throw up my breakfast. When the room finally stops moving, I look around. I see a dark shape on the floor about five feet away from me and quickly move back to assess the situation. When I see that the person has white hair, I breathe a sigh of relief and rush over to them.
Felix looks terrible. He’s sweating a lot, and that’s not even the worst part. He has terrible injuries all over his arms, face, and neck, and that’s just what I can see. His face is red and swollen, and there are more bruises than skin color. His lip is split, his cheekbones are covered in tiny cuts, and he looks like someone just left him bruised and battered on the side of the road.
“What the hell?” Are you okay, Felix?”I search his body frantically for more obvious injuries. When I see the yellowish-green bruises on his face that go with the purple and red ones, I know that these injuries aren’t new but have been there for days.”
He mumbles, “Mm fine,” and then opens his eyes and takes a quick breath, which makes him wince. He tries to sit up but has trouble, so I help him sit up. He is definitely in pain, but he tries to hide it with a fake smile.
“Who did this to you? As I whisper, tears fill my eyes. He leans in to wipe my tears away, but I gently grab his wrist and look at his hand. Two of his fingers look crooked and are probably broken, and the rest of his hand looks bruised.
“What-”
“Shh, don’t worry about it. “That’s not why I brought you here,” he says. If he thinks I’m just going to sit here and not find out who hurt him and beat them up, he has another thing coming. Okay, maybe I’ll make Jaxon beat them up, but it’s the thought that counts.
“I needed to talk to you, but your stupid werewolf boyfriend wouldn’t let me get within five feet of you.” He also blocked my number from your phone after we texted, so none of my new messages were getting through.
When I find out that Jaxon invaded my privacy and took away my freedom without me knowing it, I go from being shocked to being angry. My mind slows down enough to figure out that Felix must have portaled us to this old building so he can talk to me. That explains why he brought me here, but not why he looks like he was hit by a truck. Unless…
“Felix,” I say, my voice getting angry, “Did Jaxon do this to you?”
He smiles a little and says, “I wish.” You might not talk to him again after that. Werewolves are very basic and animalistic. Calla, they’re animals. No, but to answer your question, no. “Your perfect little wolf didn’t touch me.” He groans as he stands up. He stumbles forward, and I grab his shoulders to steady him. I’m usually the one who has trouble with balance, so it feels good to help someone else for a change.
When I realize that Jaxon didn’t do this to him, all the tension leaves my body.
“Who else could have done this if Jaxon didn’t?” He’s acting like he’s going to avoid the answer, so I firmly tell him, “You have to tell me.” At this moment.
He says something under his breath and then looks down at the floor. The little bit of confidence he had left him the moment he answered me.
“It was the coven.”
My eyes widen as I make strange noises of shock. His own people did this to him? What could he have done to deserve it?
Oh my gosh. They hurt him because he saved me. This is all my fault. I can’t stop crying this time. I cover my face with my hands and cry in front of my hurt friend. I take deep breaths between sobs.
“This is all my fault.” I did this, I-
“Hey, hey, hey. You didn’t do anything wrong. I’d do it again in a heartbeat if it meant saving your life.
I hold him tightly, but when I hear him grunt in pain, I let go right away.
I bravely grab the bottom of his shirt and pull it up so I can see the damage. If I asked him if I could, he would say no and say it’s not a big deal.
Thank God I looked, because his stomach is worse than all of his other injuries. There is a deep wound just below his ribs that is definitely infected, and it is disgusting and oozing a yellowish-green fluid. I can’t help but look disgusted.
“Wow. This is sick, Felix. Why haven’t you talked to anyone about this?”I probably sound like my mother when she would scold me as a child for playing in the front yard alone. I’m starting to understand how she felt when people did or didn’t do things they should have done.
“It’s infected?”He looks down at the cut and shudders at how horrible it looks.
“Yes! It looks terrible! “I can see why you’re sweating,” I say as I put my hand on his forehead and shake my head. “You’re burning up, too.” I have to take you to the hospital so they can clean this up and give you some strong medicine.
He is already shaking his head no.
“Why not? If they don’t help you, things are going to get worse.”Why is he such a fool?”
“Just go home and take a shower. You can get me the pills or whatever you need,” he says as he starts to walk away from me, probably heading for the door. I quickly grab my bag and hurry after him. My phone is vibrating, but I can’t pick it up right now because I have to take care of Felix and make him see how dumb he is.
“You need a lot more than a shower and some over-the-counter drugs to fix this. What have you been using to clean this? It looks so dirty and crusty.
I want to slap myself in the face because he looks so confused. Here comes my motherly instinct.
“YOU HAVEN’T CLEANED IT?!”
He winces at how loud and angry I am, and thankfully he stops trying to walk away from me. He blinks a lot before rolling his eyes at me.
“Are you trying to kill yourself?”
“What’s that?” he says, throwing his arms up in frustration. He looks completely confused by my concern, so I speak slowly to try to understand how he could have such bad injuries and not take care of them properly.
“Have you never cleaned a cut before?””
He looks down at the ground and rubs the back of his neck. “No.”
I can’t believe it. I know for a fact that he’s been hurt before. We all get scrapes on our knees or have small accidents where we need to clean our wounds. How could he not know that this was something he had to do? He speaks up before I can finish explaining the situation.
“I’ve never had to do that before.” He says, “I usually just use magic to fix them.” This sounds like a normal thing for him to say, but I’m still amazed that he can do magic whenever he wants. It’s such a strange and unbelievable idea to me. I’m starting to get used to the idea of werewolves, but magical spells and portals are still new to me.
I really want to hit Felix right now, but I can’t because he’s already in so much pain.
“Do that little hand trick of yours and fix yourself! Why didn’t you do it a few days ago?”
He frowns and looks me in the eyes. “My punishment was to feel pain like a person would… Just like you would. They won’t let me.
For the third time in ten minutes, my eyes are filling with tears, but I won’t let them fall and make this about me.
“Why can’t you just go against them? You’re in pain! Get better!”I reach out to touch him, but I pull my hands back before I touch him. I’m afraid I’ll hurt him more.”
“They would know if I used my magic to do it. Witches and warlocks draw on a lot of energy from magic. We all know when one person in the coven uses it. The kind of energy I would need to get better… They would know right away. If I did anything, they would hurt Elise.
I nod my head and grit my teeth in anger. I’m so mad at the people he calls his “coven.” They’re all monsters. How can they let Felix suffer like this when he could be healed in minutes? Beating him to a pulp wasn’t enough, but they wanted him to stay in pain for weeks after. They’re horrible. I don’t want to go on a rant while Felix gets sicker by the minute, so I pull out my phone and order an Uber.
Felix leans over my shoulder and looks at my phone. “What are you up to?”
“I’m getting an Uber to the hospital.” I didn’t think you’d like it if I called an ambulance.
I tell him to be quiet before he can complain.
“You said you had to heal like a person. In your situation, a person would go to the hospital. Let’s go then. When we get there, you can tell me what you want to say.
I don’t give you a chance to argue.