Chapter 38
-Ignatius-
I shifted ufortably in the bony chair next to Dorothy’s bedside.
It had been almost two weeks with Dorothy still unconscious. I had been whittled down to a shell of a
person in my waiting.
1 had developed a daily ritual that involved waking up and immediately heading to the hospital to sit at
Dorothy’s bed. I would spend all day, every day, waiting at her bedside and asionally working on my
More Tally attacks had been urring, each one more brutal than thest. It seemed they were
sending deranged, dying shifters after us at random. The shifters themselves seemed to be infected by
some kind of sickness we couldn’t understand.
Everyb*dy that we managed to take down had to be burned, the ashes thrown around the edges of our
territory as a warning
Word of the attacks was beginning to spread and Elliot feared we would lose some of our allies in the
process.
The Tally was an untrustworthy and evil bunch but there were many a pack that would kill for the
chance to finally take down the Bielke. Joining with the Tally was their means of getting that wish.
I had attended a few meetings on what exactly we were going to do about the problem at hand. Some
of the elders were ready for war and wanted to stage an outright attack on the Tally Despite how that
method would obviously fail us in the long run. It was what I wanted to.
The Tally was too bold, 100 arrogant. Attacking the Bielke people on their own territory was intentional.
They wanted to send a message. That message was that the Tally did not fear death or consequences,
and no Bielke member would ever be safe from them.
An outright attack would not be possible though. The Tally moved from ce to ce, they had no
single domain – only the outskirts of the South was theirmon turf. To attack them would require
spies and intel on where they were headed next
We would have to be ready to ept the loss of many a good tracker in order to gather that intel. The
trackers themselves would have to ept the possibility of a long and painful death
We were at a loss when it came to dealing with the issues, And while we among the council bickered
and argued and debated, more Bielke people were lost.
I rubbed my temple, groaning internally at theplex situation we had found ourselves in. It seemed
impossible to bot protect our people and take down the Tally at the same time. Any force we threw into
either direction – defense or attac would leave one sile vulnerable.
The heart monitor h ooked up to Dorothy kept up its slow continuous beeping. I looked over at her still
frame. I just wan my mate back. Everything would be easier, more manageable, and less daunting with
her at my side.
“Still here I see.””
I turned to see Angie leaning against the doorframe.
“Wallowing around her all day isn’t going to make her wake up”
“Riching from you.
Angie too had stopped by every day since Dorothy had saved her life.
We had made up in the days following the attack. It seemed being on her deathbed was all it took to
shock both Angie and me to sing our rtionship
She had apologized for all the trouble she had caused and Lapologized for bursting a blood vessel in
her eye after she’d tried to poison my mate
I hadn’t quite forgiven her for that, but she had been honest enough about how all of that came about.
As it turns out, it was Mavis who had sent word to the Bielke about Dorothy’s rejection, the same day
that we had up and left the town.
Angie’s family her grandfather and mother who were prominent members of the council, had first
mentioned the idea, pressuring her into acting on her anger and jealousy.
It wasn’t a justifiable excuse, but then again she had already paid for her crimes with her life only for
Dorothy to bring her right back again..
I knew Angie was harboring her own guilt about Dorothy’satose state. I could see her running
through everything in her head like a hamster on a wheel
Wondering if maybe, somewhere, if she had just done something different, things would have turned
out this way. I understood what she was feeling I was feeling it myself. But it was useless, looking to
the past to rectify the present. It was futile looking back.
“How are your subordinates holding up?”
Both Fae and Gideon had been severely shaken up by the incident. Not only did they witness their
superior dying before their eyes, they watched her b*dy stitch itself back together like a lizard growing
new limbs.
Fae had stayed close to Angie’s side ever since and I couldn’t me her. It was hard to believe that
she was really here at all. walking around like nothing had happened.
Angie smiled and her cheeks flushed slightly. She cared for her shifters as much as they did her.
“They’re doing okay. Finally managed to get Fae off my back for a minute or two so I could slip away.
She’s probably on her way here right now to protect my back. Gideon keeps calling like he needs to
hear my voice to make sure I’m real.”
She swallowed and nced over at Dorothy before sitting down in the empty seat next to me. We both
sat in silence for a while, me picking at my jeans and Angie fiddling with her hands:
Angie’s voice was small and hesitant when she spoke. “Do you.. Do you think she’s going to wake up?”
I couldn’t look up. I refused to lift my eyes from the tear in my jeans. I wouldn’t be able to hold it
together if I did
“I don’t know,” I whispered. “I don’t know. She has to. She just..
I pressed my thumb and forefingers to my eyes, willing myself to keep it together. “She has to”
Angie was quiet beside me. She looked down at her hands. “Ignatius. I’m so sorry.”
I kept my fingers to my face, squeezing my eyes shut. The beeping of the heart monitor was deafening
– a lifeline that was slowly killing me.
“It’s okay. It wasn’t your fault.”
“She was saving me. I’m the reason she’s in this state.”
1 couldn’t argue with that. But I didn’t me Angie. This was something that, ording to Rita, was
bound to happen eventually.
Angie sat with me for a while. We didn’t speak much but we both foundfort in the unified silence.
Dorothy was a motionless entity tying us together.
Eventually, Angie heaved herself to her feet. “I should get going Before Fae tears the town apart trying
to find me
I nodded “Thanks for stopping by. And Angie?”
She paused in the doorway, her eyes couldn’t meet mine.
T
10:46 Fri, Jan 26 GG ·
“I don’t think she regress is-saving you. Don’t me yourself for this. All she ever wanted was to be
your friend.”
Angie left without another word – before her tears could spill over and betray her unraveling emotions.
I got up and stood over my mate. Ever so often a nurse would have toe in and move her limbs
around. If she woke up – when she woke up, she would be all stiff and sore otherwise.
more and more
1 took her hand in mine and pressed a small k*ss to her wrist. I just wanted her to open her eyes. I
grew mo hollow each day.
Tor would barely speak with me anymore. He, too, was mourning. Everyone was grieving like she was
already gone like she was already dead. I hated that. She would wake up. She wouldn’t leave me
without saying goodbye.
She had promised me that, long ago when we’d firstid in bed together after I moved inside of her for
the first time. She made me promise that, should I decide that I was done with whatever it was that we
had, I would at least say goodbye. I made her promise to do the same. She wouldn’t leave me. She
hadn’t yet said goodbye.
I turned to go before my tears wet her face as well as my own. I was halted, however, by the hand, I
had been holding. I was stopped in my tracks by the tiniest twitch of a finger. I looked back at Dorothy.
She was still so still, I thought I’d imagined the whole thing in my desperation for it to be true. But then,
small fingers twitched and slowly started curling around my
OWTL
I stared in disbelief at the hand slowlying to grip mine and knelt down next to the bed.
“Dorothy?”
Her soft breathing grew more rapid. Dorothy opened her eyes.
-Dorothy-
The first thing I saw was my mate. Ignatius was leaning over me, his hand copsed around mine, I
was disorientated, my mind cloudy and slow. I reached up to touch the tube in my nose and the wires
taped to my chest.
“Ignatius? What happened?”
He didn’t answer me at first. His face was a cr ack collision of tears and a grin so wide I wondered if it
hurt.
“Wee back”
I reached up to stroke his face, my fingersing away wet when they brushed over his cheek. All at
once, the memories, came rushing back to me and I bolted upright – groaning at the pain that shot
through my b*dy at the sudden movem
“Be careful. Ignatius steadied me andid me back down with a band under my head. You shouldn’t be
moving arou
yet.”
“Angie” I gripped his shirt, panicking in my attempts to recall the order of events. “What happened to
Angie? There w wolf, blood. There was this white light and then 1 –
“Angie is perfectly fine, he hushed me, parting a gentle cold hand to my foreheul “She’s beening to
visit you every day Everyone’s been waiting for you to wake up
His voice cracked slightly when he continued. “I’ve been waiting I’ve missed you so much. Dorothy”
A vase of sined-out flowers caught my eye. They were standing on the table behind him, dropping
petals as theyy dying. My mind was still racing, thoughts shing in my head like scebergs at the
bottom of the worldi
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“Are these for me?”
Igranus looked puzzled for a momem and then linked behind him. “Oh thone Yeah. We thought your
mould only be out for a few hour. Not two weeks.”
“Twowerks” My voice was bourse and it hurt my threat to shout. I swallowed the pain and held tightly to
Ignatiue’s arm.
Chapore
“What do yosa
1x that how long I’ve been o
added, gently prying my fingers from his
were going to wake up
In his waiting Thought Id lost you”
I pulled him down to my ches
whispered against his skin. Tm always going to be right here”
metored. He pulled hai
deraming
Trying into my tyeck
mate “Trnight
searching my bave like he needed to make sure that
Then his shoulders buckled and be opiod onto my i end 12 the love in the world insa hierar
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