The Broken Wolf
Chapter 16

After awkwardly washing my face with one hand and brushing my teeth, I walk back into the bedroom and climb into bed. Seth takes extra care to help me prop my arm onto a pillow and carefully places an ice pack on my finger. “Are you ready to take any medicine?” he asks.

“No. It was just in pain because I tried to bend it. It’s not hurting as badly now.” I tell him, snuggling down into the pillows. Seth lays down beside me on his side, facing me and pulls me close to his bare, muscular chest and wraps his arms around me.

“Is this OK?” He asks me.

“It’s perfect, Seth.” I tell him and snuggle into his firm chest. He k****s the top of my head and squeezes me gently as I quickly drift off to sleep. I dream about a green field, and a woman’s contagious laughter and dark green eyes. It’s a familiar dream that I’ve had since I can remember and, while it still doesn’t make sense, it’s always brought me comfort. This time though, instead of just flashes of dark green eyes, they’re on a small, dark gray wolf with one white paw.

The wolf comes to me and nuzzles its head to my face and leans its head down to lick my injured finger on my hand. It’s hurting, but it helps it feel better. The wolf comes to sit next to me, and we just sit there in companionable silence. I wonder briefly if this is Seth’s wolf, but it’s a small wolf and there’s no way a prince would have a wolf this small. The pain returns to my finger and the wolf moves to lick it again and places its head in my lap as we sit in the field. Eventually, it walks off, leaving me alone and the pain returns.

I abruptly wake with sharp pains in my injured finger. I try to take deep breaths but it’s getting worse and after laying as still as I can in Seth’s arms for what feels like an hour, I decide to get up and see if I have ANY human medicine lying around that could help. I slowly wiggle out of his arms, placing a pillow where I was. He stirs, but squeezes the pillow and seems content.

In the kitchen, I begin my search. I drag a chair from the dining room table over to the cabinet and climb onto it so I can see the top shelf and pull down the bottle I have stashed up there. It’s pretty uncommon for wolves to have human medication on hand, and it’s pretty uncommon for a wolf to even acquire any. A few years ago, Oliver and I were hiking and I lost my footing and fell. Nothing seemed broken, but I had some pretty severe bruising. I attempted to sneak out of the packlands to go replace some human medicine but one of our warriors caught me. When I showed him some of the bruises, he went for me and never told my dad. I’ve used the same bottle for years and it’s been so long since I needed any that I’m not even sure there’s any left. As I pull the bottle down from it’s hiding place, I hear a small rattle.

I open the bottle to replace that there’s 2 left- the proper dose! Breathing a sigh of relief I hold the bottle close and begin to climb down when I’m startled. “What are you doing?” I hear Seth ask behind me, causing me to almost fall. He moves quickly and steadies me, helping me off the chair.

“Umm, I was just looking for something.” I tell him, not sure how he will react to my human medicine and trying to tuck the small bottle away so he won’t notice.

“Why are you acting so weird?” He asks, reaching for the bottle and taking it from my hand. “What’s this?” he adds, inspecting the bottle.

“Umm… It’s just some medicine.” I tell him, unwilling to meet his eyes.

“Molly,” he says sternly, “What’s going on? Just tell me the truth. Why are you being so secretive?”

“It’s, uhh… it’s human medicine.” I whisper, afraid of his potential reaction.

“What does it do?” he asks, slightly more gently but concern still evident in his voice. “Is this something you’re addicted to?”

“No!” I exclaim. “It’s just to help with pain. It doesn’t make me sick like the wolf medicine does.” I tell him quickly, still not sure how this is going.

“Why are you hiding them then?”

“Because we’re not supposed to have them. And I’d have gotten in trouble for getting them.”

“You went to the human world?”

“No. I tried a few years ago when I got hurt, but one of our pack warriors caught me. He snuck out and got it for me.”

“And these help you with pain?”

“Yeah, they do.”

“Here, take these.” He tells me, opening the bottle and giving me the remaining 2 pills and grabbing a bottle of water out of the refrigerator for me. “What is the warrior’s name?”

“It’s fine Seth. It was years ago.”

“What. Is. His. Name?” he growls out. “Do not make me command you to answer me. I don’t ever want to have to do that.”

“Albert.” I tell him, my voice barely a whisper. I feel terrible for ratting on him, but if he commands me there’s no way I can resist telling him anyway. His eyes glass over and I know he’s mind linked someone. Probably my father.

“How badly are you hurting?”

“It’s, uhh, it’s pretty bad. I couldn’t sleep and I tried to ignore it, but it kept getting worse.”

“Why didn’t you wake me up?”

“I didn’t want to bother you. There’s not much you can do to make it stop, other than tell me to take the other medicine that will make me sick.” I tell him as he’s at the freezer getting an ice pack out for me. He comes over and lifts me to sit on the counter and places the ice pack on my finger.

“It’s really swollen” He comments. He’s about to say something else when we’re interrupted by a knock on the door. He crosses the room and opens the door. “Come on in guys.” I hear him and turn to see my brother and Albert.

“Please, Seth.” I plead.

“What do you think I’m going to do?” He asks me, but before I can answer him, my brother asks “What’s going on? What do you need Albert for at 3 in the morning?”

“Albert, did you procure this human medication for my mate?” he asks, handing the bottle to him.

“Mate?” he asks and Seth and I both nod. I see him gulp before he begins “Yes, sir. Your Majesty, I did.” and he seems to know how bad this is.

“He was helping me.” I blurt out. “I was trying to sneak off the packlands to get it myself but he caught me. I was hurt, and the wolf medicine made me so sick, so I was trying to get something that would help. When I told him and showed him some of the bruises he went to the human world to get it for me. To help me.”

“I’m so sorry, Prince Seth. Alpha Robert. I was just trying to help Molly. She doesn’t have a wolf to help her heal and I’d never seen bruises that bad before because we always heal so quickly. Molly isn’t like us, and I figured that the human medicine would probably help her.”

“Do you remember exactly where you got this from?” Seth asks him.

“Yes sir. They sell that medicine at most stores,” he tells Seth.

“Can you show me so I can get her some more? It seems my mate just can’t keep herself out of trouble.” Seth tells him, glancing over at me. “Thank you for helping her. She probably would have just gotten into more trouble if you’d let her go that day.” he says with a smirk.

Albert and I both breathe out a sigh of relief and I realize that even Robert relaxes a bit.

“What does it do?” he asks, slightly more gently but concern still evident in his voice. “Is this something you’re addicted to?”

“We can go in the morning, sir. Places like that aren’t open through the night.” Albert tells Seth.

Seth looks over to me. “Will you be ok until then?”

I nod in response. “I took those and it’ll last a few hours. Besides, it’s not like I have a choice. He said the store is closed”.

“Do you think I wouldn’t go anyway and get what you need?” he asks me and seems offended.

“It’s a little cut. There’s no need to go storming into the human world and risking the safety of the whole pack.” I tell him, surprised that he’d do something so reckless.

“Sir,” Albert interrupts us, “I can go in the morning. You don’t have to leave Molly. I’m more than happy to get them for her, as long as the Alpha approves my leaving the packlands.” he says, looking to Robbie.

“Of course,” Robbie tells him. “Molly is a different kind of wolf. I just wish we’d realized she needs human medicine sooner.”

“Thank you, Albert. If you’ll get them as soon as you can, it would be most appreciated. Thank you both for coming down at this very early hour.” Seth says, dismissing them both, and Albert turns to leave but Robbie walks over to me.

“How bad is it?” he asks me, concern written on his face.

“I think it may be pretty bad this time.” I whisper to him, finally admitting to myself just how bad it truly seems.

“Do you need anything else? Anything you’re not telling Seth?” he whispers to me, even though we both know Seth can hear us.

“No, Robbie. Seth’s taking care of me. I go back tomorrow afternoon for Sofia to look at it, once the swelling has gone down, but I’m not sure it’s going to be down by then.” I tell him, moving the ice pack so we can both see how bad my finger looks.

“Oh Molls, that looks absolutely terrible.” he says and wraps me in a giant hug.

“Yeah, I know. But Seth’s been taking good care of me. I just kept the medicine hidden so no one would get into trouble. I know I’m not supposed to be in the human world.” I tell him.

“You should have told us. Or even just me. I’d have made sure you had what you needed, always.”

“I know, but I didn’t want to be a problem.” I tell him, tears welling up in my eyes. “I didn’t want to have to need something different because I’m broken.” and he squeezes me just a little bit tighter.

“I’d have gotten anything you ever needed, Molly.” he finishes and releases me and walks to the door. “Good night. Will I see either of you at breakfast?”

“We’ll try.” Seth speaks up. “We’ll just have to see how much pain she’s in.”

“Sounds good.” he says and looks back at me. “I told Oliver you were hurt and he’d have to run things for a few days. That looks bad enough that you may need to go talk to him about a long-term plan, especially with replaceing your mate.”

I nod and I can’t keep the tears back any more and they just fall. I bury my face in my right elbow, leaving my left hand in my lap with the ice on top. “I’ve got her. Go back to bed”, I hear Seth say to my brother, followed by the sound of the door closing. Next thing I know, I’m wrapped in Seth’s arm, his scent surrounding me, bringing me a small amount of comfort.

“You OK, Love?” Seth asks, gently rubbing my back.

“No. I don’t think I am.” I tell him honestly.

“Do you want to talk about it?” He asks, kissing the top of my head.

“No. I don’t. Just please don’t let me go.” I tell him and continue to cry into his chest.

“I’ve got you, Love.”