The Beta and his Mate

Blaine’s POV

The first thing that I noticed was the noise, the irritating beeping sound right beside my right ear, that confirmed to me where I was... in the hospital.

What happened?

The last thing I remember was... the rogue attack? Maybe? I felt like something big had happened, something that I really should remember, but for the life of me I just couldn’t put my finger on it.

“Blaine?” I heard a voice whisper not to far away from me. I frowned as I tried to open my eyes and see who it was but groaned as soon as the light entered the small slits in between my eyelids, burning my retinas. I cringed and went to lift my arm up and cover my eyes, hoping to shield them from the bright sunlight that was undoubtedly streaming in through the open blinds, but I only got my arm up a short distance before it was tugged backwards with a sharp tug.

I peeked through my eyelids and spoted my arm half elevated but restricted from movement by a tube feeding an IV drip onto my body that was attached to my left hand with a bandage wrapped around it to help prevent the needle from being ripped out. Great, looks like I’ll be on more bed rest.

“Blaine are you awake?” The voice asked again and I looked to my left where I saw Anna sitting on my bed and holding my hand, the one without the needles, tubes and bandages attached.

I frowned at her for a second, my brain still trying to catch up with itself and figure out what she was saying but when it did I gave her a short nod to confirm that I was.

“Oh thank you Goddess” she muttered under her breath as she looked up to the ceiling slightly. “We have all been so worried about you Blaine, no one knew when you were going to wake up, if you were going to wake up, after the amount of head trauma you sustained” she sighed as she reached up and wiped a single tear from her cheek.

“What happened?” I asked her, eager to fill in the blanks in my memory. Something just wasn’t sitting right with me and I just had to find out what it was.

“Umm... I’m not quite sure, Xavier hasn’t spoken much since he found you and we can’t seem to get anything out of him. He’s pretty shook up” Anna explained as she looked down at my hand in hers, looking sad for a whole different reason.

I looked around the room, expecting to see him passed out on the rooms lumpy sofa or something but when I came up empty I frowned. He was never away from me last time I was in the hospital and that was when I was conscious and doing fine, why wasn’t he here now?

As if sensing my confusion at his absence Anna sighed and squeezed my hand in reassurance. “More often than not he’s here, sleeps on the sofa at night just like last time, he just needs to get away every now and then, when it gets to much for him. He’s taken everything pretty hard and goes for a run or patrols the border when he can, it helps him to feel like he’s helping” she shrugs.

I nodded and tried to speak but cringed as my voice came out all scratchy, god my throat felt like I smoked twenty packs a day.

“I’ll go and get you some ice chips to sooth your throat” Anna smiled at me when she noticed me cringe at the weird noise I’d just made.

I smiled up to her in gratitude as she released my hand, silently thanking her for the thought.

“I’ll be back in a second” she informed me before leaving my room and walking down the corridor, leaving my door slightly ajar.

I sat in silence whilst I waited for her to come back, not having a radio or TV to drown out the deafening silence, only broken by the continuous beeping from my heart monitor. I could hear quiet murmurs from other passersby as they walked past my room but barely paid attention to them, that was until I caught the faint voice of Anna talking to another lady just a few doors down from mine.

“It’s going to be okay Sarah, Henry is a strong warrior and an even stronger wolf, if anyone can recover from this it will be him” Anna said as she reassured a fellow pack member.

The person she was talking to, Sarah, sniffed but otherwise didn’t comment.

“We can not lose hope, I haven’t so you shouldn’t” she continued softly.

“The Moon Goddess... has she...?” Sarah muttered weakly, her voice wavering as she struggled to finish her sentence. Anna must’ve understood her question though because she answered in a soft voice.

“She hasn’t said anything to me but please don’t take that as a bad sign, in my opinion no news is good news” she reassured her. I couldn’t see what was going on out there but I could guess, knowing Anna, that she was comforting Sarah with a small hug. “Henry helped me out so much in my early stages here in this pack. First finding me and bringing Jax to me and then escorting me when I went to confront the Leftens and get the photo of my parents back. I am praying for him every second that I have, I just hope that you don’t lose hope whilst we wait for his body to recover”.

I frowned at her odd words but otherwise didn’t question it, maybe this was how Lunas were supposed to react around injured and grieving pack members? Saying that they could hear the Moon Goddess as if she was whispering in her ear. Whether it was to ease Sarah’s concerns or console her in some way it must’ve worked because she just sniffed with a mumble “thank you” before walking back into her room.

A second later my door was pushed open and Anna made her way in with a plastic cup of ice chips in her hand.

“I’ve linked Xavier, he was on patrol but he’s found cover and heading over here now” Anna said with a smile as she handed me the cup of ice. Even though she was smiling I could see her eyes glisten slightly with tears and I frowned at her, not liking seeing the girl that is always so happy and full of life feel sad.

I scooped a few ice chips out of the cup and sucked on them before testing my voice again, no way was I putting myself through that pain again if I could help it.

Once the chips had dissolved I put the cup down on my bed side table and leant over to take her hand, gaining her attention. “What’s the matter?” I asked, cringing at the sound of my voice but relieved that it wasn’t as painful as before.

“Oh... umm it’s just Henry” Anna mumbled as she wiped her hand under her eyes, making sure to catch any tears than may have fallen. “He had helped me out so much when I first came to this pack and it just kills me to think of him fighting for his life in bed a few rooms over from here and there isn’t a single thing I can do to help” she sighed as she looked into the distance, as if she could see through the walls and was checking up on him.

“You weren’t born here?” I questioned, hoping to take her mind off of Henry and onto something else.

Anna re focused on me again and sighed as she ran her hand over her forehead, looking more tired than I had ever seen her. “No, I was born into a pack about twenty or so miles from here” she explained as she settled into her seat. “I don’t go around publicly announcing where I came from because it wasn’t a great situation” she continued. “My parents were kidnapped when I was about five or so years old and I was placed into what I thought was the foster system. Turns out the family I was placed with worked for the very Alpha who had kidnapped my parents in the first place, safe to say I wasn’t treated very well. Anyway long story short I managed to escape and ended up running through the woods until I stumbled upon Jax’s pack, Henry was one of the warriors on patrol that night and informed Jax about what was happening.”

She didn’t continue and I didn’t push it. She had obviously gone through a lot of pain throughout her life and I wasn’t going to make her day worse by asking her loads of questions and having to relive old memories. I knew how painful that could be for someone and I wasn’t about to put someone else through it, when Anna was ready to tell me her full story I would be here to listen.

“I’m sorry” I muttered, unable to get much volume in my voice but wanting to show her that I really was.

She shrugged as she fiddled with her hair, going through a sequence of plaiting and unplaiting the same section of hair over and over again.

We stayed in silence after that, neither of us breaking the silence as we listened to the rhythmic beating of the heart monitor. It wasn’t until we heard frantic footsteps running down the lino coridoor a few minutes later that Anna lightly smiled.

“That would be Xavier” she announced and just like she said, seconds later Xavier slammed the door open and strode over to me.

I smiled at his disheveled look, not being able to hold back the smile as I took in his messy hair pointing in all directions and his t-shirt that was haphazardly thrown on, the label on full display on his side indicating it was on inside out.

“Blaine you’re awake” he huffed, clearly out of breath from the running.

“It would appear so” I croaked as I smiled up at him.

“I’m going to leave you guys to it” Anna announced from across the room and I smiled over at her in thanks before focusing back on Xavier.

He hadn’t even acknowledged she was in the room as his eyes swept over my body, making sure that I was doing okay and that my injuries were healing as they should. Even if he couldn’t see half of them due to the hospital pajamas I was wearing and the blanket that had been draped over my legs it didn’t stop him from trying.

“I’m so glad you’re awake” he sighed as he walked over and sat in the seat Anna was just sitting in. He too looked tired and I wondered how long I had actually been out if everyone looked this tired. He took my hand in his and kissed my bruised knuckles before bringing my hand up to cradle his face. Things must’ve been really bad if he was reacting like this.

“What happened?” I groaned, leaning over with my free hand to fetch the cup off my bed side table so that I could have a few more ice chips. It was tricky due to the leads and bandages but I managed.

“You don’t remember?” He questioned as he looked into my eyes with a frown.

I shrugged but instantly regretted it as my side pulled, I obviously had stitches there then.

“Well I was kind of hoping you’d tell me, fill in the blanks a little. The guy seemed to know you somehow and we were hoping you’d know where to find him so that we could bring him to justice for what he did to you and Henry” he said as he looking into my eyes with a mix of sorrow and regret.

Anna had said that he had been struggling with what had happened and it was only now that I could see the extent of it. He had huge bags under his eyes, indicating he hadn’t slept in days and there was a slight haunted look in his eyes that hadn’t been there last time I looked into them. It was as if a little bit of his light had been stolen from him and he was lost in the dark, retracing his steps to try and find it.

I sighed as I smiled over at him slightly, if justice was what he needed to be able to rest then I was more than happy to help, after all he had saved my life more than once now, the least I could do for him was help identify someone.

“Send over an image of what he looked like over the mate link, maybe I’ll recognise him” I said as I squeezed his hand in mine.

He smiled gratefully at me before sending over a watery image of a larger man with rust brown coloured hair and a full beard covering the lower half of his face. At first I couldn’t quite pinpoint where I had seen him before, feeling the horrible feeling of recognition but not being able to put a name to the face. It wasn’t until I got a good look at his icy blue, almost white, eye that I remembered something.

I definitely hadn’t see him before but he one hundred percent knew who I was, and more horrifyingly he knew where my family were.

“I’ll tell the family you say hi”.

I hope this chapter was worth the wait though :)

Lastly I just wanted to say a big hello to all my silent readers! :D xxx