Chapter 52: Chapter 51 - Cody

Saturday 26 December

~*Cody’s POV*~

Mum and I eventually made it back to the pack house after she had spent a few minutes examining me and making sure I could travel.

Other than a few minor cuts from the glass shards from the exploded window, my neck held the extent of my injuries. I had essentially lost my voice because of the swelling. Mum said my normal voice would return over the next few days once the inflammation went down, but for now, I was stuck with a hoarse croak. For someone who was constantly talking, this was probably the worst thing that could happen.

I was beyond furious.

Mum had sat stony-faced in the driver’s seat on the drive back. Roux had told Kenzie what had happened, so Mum hadn’t needed to ask me too many questions. I knew Takeshi was waiting back at my apartment, so I assumed I’d get to hear what had gone on between Mum, Spence, and Ash when we returned.

I headed straight for my laptop when I walked into my apartment. If I couldn’t talk, my laptop could do the talking for me via a text to speech app. Everyone was still sitting exactly where we had left them, all watching a movie. From the five-second-long clip I saw as I marched into my room, it looked and sounded like Titanic.

I would have laughed at the irony if my voice was working properly.

Once I had my laptop, I kneeled at the coffee table and started downloading something that could get me through the next few days, listening to Mum outlay everything that had happened.

Takeshi leaned forward in the chair, letting his hands rest on the cane that he held in front of him, eager to hear what had transpired. He watched me with curious eyes. I could only imagine what my expression was telling everyone.

“Well, the good news is that you’re not expected at your Christmas dinner tomorrow night, Bells,” Mum began. “The bad news is that you’re not expected back home for the foreseeable future.”

There was a moment’s pause as everyone took that news in, including myself. Everyone in the room turned to look at Bells first, who had gone remarkably still, then they turned their attention on me. I tilted my head to one side and mouthed the word ‘what?’.

“Nothing to add, Cody?” Takeshi asked.

I narrowed my eyes and started typing furiously at my newly installed app. “Incident. Tatum. Strangled.” I glared at Takeshi and pointed to my throat.

“Oh, shit…” Nat’s hands came up and covered her mouth in shock.

I looked at Mum to pick up the conversation and made a ‘go on’ movement with my hand.

“Spence got there before we did,” she said, looking straight at Takeshi. He closed his eyes for a moment before sighing and refocusing on the rest of us. Mum turned to Bells. “He told your Mum that there had been a small brotherly squabble, and that you were the cause. With your mother’s approval, he’s removed you from the Warrior Training selection as punishment.”

Bells leaned forward on the couch and put his head in his hands.

“I argued for your reinstatement, but he said he’d made his mind up.” Mum turned to Takeshi. “You can fix this, can’t you? He’s only acting Alpha until you get back.”

“It depends how long I’m out of action for,” said Takeshi. “Final decision on who makes it in is made on Tuesday night, with the announcement put out first thing Wednesday morning. If I’m not up and back by Tuesday, his decision is final.”

Nat looked at her phone. “It’s just gone midnight, so we’re now into Saturday. That gives us four days to set this right. Is that enough time, Takeshi?”

“I honestly don’t know, Nat.” Takeshi leaned his forehead on his hands that were clasped on his cane. “This has knocked me around more than I had expected.”

“Okay, let’s just work on the assumption that you’ll be able to fix the issue with the Warrior Training selection. Where does that leave Bells in the meantime?” Nat got up from her seat and started pacing, reminding me very much of Mum. “Are there any rooms free Bells can stay in?”

“I can’t be alone right now,” Bells mumbled.

Nat didn’t hesitate at all in her response. “No problem, let’s keep you here, then.” She looked at me as she wore a hole in the rug. “Are you okay with that, Cody?”

I nodded.

“Good,” said Nat, still pacing. “Bells, you’re welcome to stay with us until we’re not in this apartment anymore. I’m sure we’ll have this sorted before we finish camp on Wednesday.” She flicked her eyes to Mum. “Auden, is there anything more that we can do to help Takeshi recover quicker?”

“Honestly? He just needs bedrest and a stress-free environment.” Mum chuckled. “Fat chance of that with all of this going on.”

“Right. Takeshi, you’re on doctor’s orders to sleep this bug of yours off.” Nat kept pacing.

“Do I get a say in any of this?” Takeshi asked, a smile in his voice.

“No.” Both Mum and Nat said at the same time. A slightly delayed “No.” came from the electronic voice of my laptop speaker.

Bells remained silent. I think he was still in shock of potentially losing his chance of becoming a Warrior. It had been all he had wanted to do for years. To be so close and to have it ripped away from him, even for a moment, shattered him almost as much as the beating Tatum had given him earlier in the day. And that his mother had believed Spence? That was just the icing on the already shitty cake.

Nat turned to me but kept pacing. “Cody, talk to me about your throat. What happened?”

I started typing, letting the computer talk for me. “Mum was in the house. Tatum tapped on the window. Taunted me. Zelda was there.”

Nat stopped pacing and everyone, but Mum, froze. “What?”

“Zelda knows what Tatum did to Bells. Said she had encouraged it.”

Nat placed her hands on the back of the sofa and stretched her arms out, leaning down to face the floor. “So, Zelda is helping Tatum.” She sounded almost defeated.

“Yes.”

“Well… Shit.” She raised her head and looked at Bells, who was still sitting on the couch, stunned.

“Tatum broke window. Tried to strangle me. I fought back. Mum saved me.” I looked across the room at Mum and mouthed ‘thank you’ to her. She nodded back at me with a small smile.

“It will take a couple of days for the swelling to go down and for her voice to return to normal,” said Mum. “You’re on a liquid diet until Monday, Cody. Try not to talk unless absolutely necessary.”

I nodded and pointed to the laptop, then made a thumbs-up sign. Using the PC to speak for me seemed to work well so far.

Silence fell over the room for a few minutes while we all contemplated our next move. Mum was the first person to break it. “We should probably get a move on, Takeshi. Let these kids get some sleep. I’m sure Jackie will be wondering where I am, too.”

Takeshi nodded, then slowly rose with the help of his cane. Mum lent him her elbow for him to lean on and they both ambled towards the door.

“Don’t let anyone in here that isn’t either Takeshi or myself,” Mum said back over her shoulder to us. “You’ve all got enough food until Monday, so stay here. If you run into any hassles, call me, otherwise I’ll see you first thing on Monday morning.”

We were all in bed within minutes of Mum and Takeshi shutting the door.

~~~

It was just before noon, before I woke after an incredibly restless night’s sleep. Nightmares of feeling Tatum’s hand around my throat kept waking me up. At one point I startled awake, convinced that I was hearing the tap, tap, tapping of a fingernail on glass, but it turned out it was the faucet in the ensuite dripping. I nearly wrenched it off the sink to get the sound to stop.

As soon as I was fully awake, I felt my throat to find it was still tender, but the swelling seemed to have gone down. I croaked out the word ‘hello’ before I gave up. It looked like I was going to still need my laptop today to help me say anything more than one word at a time.

I lay in bed, thinking about everything that had happened the previous day. It almost felt like I’d lived an entire year in one day, so much had occurred.

I was worried about Mum living with Dad. She had said that she only needed to live with him until I shifted for the first time. That was days away, but it didn’t look like she was making any plans to get away from him. Why? And she was a mystic. What did that mean for her place in the pack if others found out about it?

I was worried about Nat. Her wolf had finally made an appearance, but her memory was still gone. Would she ever get it back? And her wolf could hear other wolves, even when she wasn’t a pack member. How?

I was worried about Bells. Tatum had really done a number on him yesterday, both physically and mentally. The physical scars would fade, but would the mental ones? And for his Mum to kick him out? How could Spence encourage that?

I was worried about Takeshi. He looked far sicker yesterday than anyone I’d ever seen with the flu before. Was there any chance that he would recover before the Warrior Training cut-off and stop Spence from removing Bells entirely?

And Zelda. She said that she had encouraged Tatum to beat Bells. What?!

My mind boggled with all the different ways that my friend’s and family’s lives were basically imploding all around me. And there wasn’t a damn thing I could do to stop any of it. Even Roux remained quiet.

Before I ventured out into the lounge and kitchen, I decided to have a shower. Maybe that could clear the cobwebs of my mind and give me some hints on what to do.

I had almost finished when I was struck by a sudden thought. It was a long shot, but it was worth talking to Takeshi about.

I shot a text message off to him, then went out to have breakfast/lunch.

Nat and Bells were already up and about. Nat was flitting around the kitchen like a madwoman, getting enough food together to feed an army. Bells was sitting in the cushioned chair. He had moved it to the other side of the room to where it normally sat, and angled it so he could see the front door and the rest of the apartment. I had seen this behaviour before from Nat, and it broke my heart that I was seeing it in Bells.

He was terrified.

My phone dinged with an incoming message. “Be there in ten.” I nodded. I started my laptop and as soon as it was up and running, I typed out ‘Takeshi here in ten minutes’ to let the others know that there would be a visitor. Nat nodded and went back to her food prep.

I settled myself on the floor, placing my laptop on the coffee table, ready for Takeshi to sit on the sofa opposite me. There was a comfortable, yet somewhat anxious, silence in the apartment. We were all lost in our own thoughts, wondering about the immediate future.

Just like yesterday, Bells jumped when there was a knock on the door. Nat opened it after checking that it was Takeshi. She let him in, closed the door, then helped him over to the couch. Once he had settled, she returned to the kitchen. I idly wondered if this was a new way for her to cope with stress.

“I hear that you have some questions, Cody,” said Takeshi, raising an eyebrow at me, a slight grin on his face.

I started typing. “Can you please tell me about your Bunyip friend?”

The grin dropped. “Why.” There was no hint of a question about the word. Takeshi seemed almost as reluctant to talk about this woman as Mum did.

I kept typing. “Mum told me about how she helped you both years ago.”

“She did,” Takeshi said, narrowing his eyes. “Where are you going with this, Cody?”

“I need her help.”

“About what exactly?” He shuffled in his seat, nervously looking first at Bells, then Nat. “Tatum and Zelda? We can figure that out without her help.”

I huffed, pressing my lips together in annoyance, then started typing furiously. “Nat? Bells? Can you please leave Takeshi and I alone to talk for a few minutes?” I stared at Takeshi as the words were spoken by my laptop.

Takeshi stared back, not giving anything away.

“Sure, Cody.” Nat wiped her hands on the towel and left it on the kitchen bench. “I’ve got scones cooking. If you can get them out of the oven when the timer goes off, I’ll give you a third of the batch.” She grinned at me as she walked over to help Bells up. As he’d already been sitting down when I entered the lounge, I hadn’t realised how stiff he was. I certainly noticed now as he awkwardly got out of the chair and stumbled to Nat’s room.

Grinning at what Nat had said, I typed away as they went through the door. “Like you weren’t going to give me a third, anyway.” Nat laughed and gave me a wink, closing the door behind her.

I took in a deep breath, then started typing. “Mum told me yesterday that she only needed to stay with Dad until my first shift. You know what her home life is like. I need to know if your friend can help her break the fated mate bond she has with Dad. If she can also help with the Tatum and Zelda thing, that would be a bonus.”

I watched Takeshi closely as the laptop spoke the words I could not. His eyes closed when the words ‘fated mate bond’ came up, almost wincing like he was in pain.

We sat there in silence as he took in what I had asked. Finally, he opened his eyes and looked at me directly. “If your Mum has talked about that, then you would know how she feels about my friend.”

“Yes.”

“Your mother would never agree to you asking about this.”

I thought about how to respond to that before I started typing. “I’m eighteen and days away from my first shift. My choices are my own.”

He nodded as he took in my response. “You know the risks?”

“Mum said there had to be a sacrifice.”

“What you’re asking for is not cheap, Cody. The cost will be significant.”

I chewed my cheek as I thought about what he said before I typed. “Mum said that the cost was non-monetary, and that yours was a simple transaction. How did you pay the cost?”

Takeshi swallowed, then sighed heavily. “My friend trades in energy. For simple transactions, the cost is the energy produced during sex.”

I blinked as he remained quiet, letting that revelation sink in. I opened my mouth to ask a question, then closed it again.

He pointed to himself. “This is the result of a more complex transaction. Two pack members needed some very specific potions. The energy that my friend took in payment will take days to recover from.”

He paused again. “What you’re asking for is much more expensive than what I paid on Thursday.”

I gulped.

“Not all transactions are paid by sex, Cody. Your mother’s trade wasn’t, and I know that she’s still paying it off.” He leaned forward to drive his point home. “You won’t know what the cost is until the down-payment is made. And once the down-payment is made, you can’t back out.”

I frowned as I thought about what he said.

“Cody, you need to be more than one-hundred percent sure that this is something you want to do.”

Takeshi let that sit with me for a few silent minutes, broken only by the sound of the kitchen timer going off. I got up and removed Nat’s scones from the oven, then sat back down at the coffee table. Finally, I let my fingers fly over the laptop again. “Mum said that your friend’s name is the call for her. Would you share that name with me?”

Takeshi sighed, his shoulders slumping in defeat.

I typed away furiously. “I’m not saying that I will call her, just that I want to be prepared if I choose to go ahead.” My eyes found and held Takeshi’s, trying desperately to get him to understand where I stood.

His jaw ticked as he decided. “I need a piece of paper.”

I jumped up, grabbed a notepad and pen for him.

Takeshi shook his head, but scribbled something on a scrap of paper. He folded the page once and handed it to me. “Think long and hard about this, Cody. Once it’s done, it can’t be undone.”

When he struggled to get up from the sofa, I helped him up and to the door. As I opened the door, I mouthed a ‘thank you’ to him.

He reluctantly nodded. “One last thing, Cody. If you call her, make sure you leave your balcony door open, and have some bird seed or something to feed a magpie. She’ll look favourably on you if you do.”

I tipped my head in understanding, then watched him slowly shuffle away, leaning heavily on his cane. Once I shut the door, I leaned my back against the door and opened the scrap of paper that was still in my hand.

There were only four letters.

Nahi.