4. Broken down mate

Miliano’s POV

I smell her long before I see her. My pack and I are out, running in the woods when the smell hits me. My wolf, Ryan, shouts “MATE” inside my head. I react lightning-fast and run as fast as I can. My beta runs next to me and ask:

“What’s wrong, alpha?”

“Mate.”

He immediately understands and uses our mindlink to inform others about why we are running. When we come out of the woods, I see a big house and stop. The idea that my mate lives here give me the greatest happiness I’ve ever felt! I have time to take two steps before the smell hits me-blood; I run towards the house, and what I see when I arrive makes me mad! I know right away when I see her that she have my heart. A man drags her over the asphalt and yells at her that big girls don’t cry. Her body is full of her blood; despite her injuries, she is fighting back with the bit of power she has left.

“What the hell do you think you’re doing?” I scream at him.

“She has to learn to behave,” the alpha screams back.

“An alpha is supposed to protect the pack, not abuse them!” I yell, and his grip around her throat weakens; I can see how she takes the opportunity to bite his arm.

“Ahh! Let me go, you filthy creature!”

He punches her over and over again. I rip him off, and we begin fighting. The only thing I have in my head is that I will protect her right into my last breath. Suddenly, he gets a neck punch that makes me fall back; I can hear him yelling at her to submit, and her response scares me.

“Fuck you, you son of a bitch!”

Oh, no, he’s going to kill her for what she just said. I try to get up, but after I hit my head, I find it hard to do it; I’m guessing a minor concussion. Me and everyone in my pack growl when we see him throw a silver dagger right into her stomach, unfortunately; he gets in a direct hit. The blood is flowing out of her; it shouldn’t be possible to get up after all the injuries she has received; against all odds, she still stands up, and I’m flying at him. I punch his body over and over on his body, but when my beta mind links me to tell me that she ran her for life, I throw him into the ground and run after her towards the forest. She’s completely unaware that she’s running into our territory, and if I don’t catch her before this beautiful angel gets there, she’s going to die. I mindlink the warriors at the border.

If there comes in a bloody young girl in our field, you shouldn’t under any circumstances hurt her. Have I made myself clear?

Yes, alpha.

I keep running but slows down when I see her trying to keep running. She stops when she hears my pack and me. She slowly turns around, and her facial expressions make me devastated. I’m trying to talk to her and ask for her name. She doesn’t seem to understand what I’m saying. Instead, she says;

“Finish it because now I can’t take it anymore...”

Right after that, she falls to the ground and looks almost lifeless. I run up to her and take her in my arms, trying to talk to her without getting any reaction.

“Killian, contact the pack doctor now and tell her to prepare!” I scream to my beta and lift her bridal style before running faster than I’ve done before.

When we get to the pack hospital, I put her down gently on a stretcher. She looks pale, and her breath is weak. The doctor comes in, and she gasps when she sees her.

“What happened!?” she exclaims in horror.

I’m trying to explain everything that’s happened in as much detail as possible. The doctor, whose name is Gina, by the way, carefully listens all the time while covering my mate in bandages. When she finishes, we sit in silence. The silence is calming; the only thing I can hear is the beeping from the ECG machine. My beta is at the door and looks angry; Gina looks ruined, and I’m breaking inside. Then, suddenly, there’s a flat line from the machine; it’s long. Gina flies up and screams at a nurse to hurry up and prepare the defibrillator. Gina’s hands work fast, and she gives my mate a heart massage in the hope of getting her heart to start beating again. My beta holds me back and pulls me out of the room. I growl loudly at him, which he ignores.

“What the hell are you doing!? I have to help her!” I scream and desperately try to get into the room again.

“Hey! Stop it; there’s nothing you can do right now. Let Gina do her job.”

I sit there in silence with tears in my eyes. I can hear Gina screaming order after order to the nurses who have increased in number inside the room. “Clear!” is the last thing I hear before the beeping comes back. It gets even, and the nurses walk out of the room one by one. When Gina finally comes out to us, she says;

“She’s stable. We don’t know how much damage she has now, but we’ve taken care of the damage we have been able to find, which was a lot. She heals quickly, but not as fast as she should. This girl has several broken bones, a damaged spleen, internal bleeding in the leg, and a concussion. However, as for the concussion, we can’t determine how much damage it has done. She has lost much blood, but not enough for it to be life-threatening; we have her werewolf genes to thank for that. The first days will be critical. But we have high hopes that at least she’ll survive! Considering how much she’s healed already.”

I let out a breath I didn’t know I was holding. I feel calm, taking over myself again. But when I look at Gina, I can see that there’s something she’s left out.

“What is it, Gina?” I ask; she looks sad and pulls in a deep breath before she breaks my heart.

“She is stable, and it seems that she will survive, however... The chances that she’ll ever open her eyes again are practically zero.”

“Is she... Is she dead? Or braindead or whatever you call it!?”

“No, her values are good despite the circumstances. She’s not dead; neither is the body nor the brain. However, she is in a deep coma from which she’s not very likely to wake up.”

After hearing this, I walk straight into the room to see my mate; she looks like an angel. The nurses that are still in there are working on wiping away the blood from her body.

“I’ll do it,” I tell them.

They bow with their heads to show submission before hurrying out of the room. My beta enters the room and pulls out a chair each for us. I sit down and begin to wipe her forehead gently. I find myself seeing her eyelids twitch, but when I remove my hand to look at her again, I conclude that it probably just is wishful thinking and my imagination playing me a prank; I sigh out loud and keep cleaning her face.

“Why do you think she was punished?” Killian suddenly asks.

“I don’t know. This angel doesn’t look like she can do much harm. Look at her body, this girl has put up with much pain over the years, and it’s clearly visible. We have to protect her at all costs; if they come here to try and take her back, then you kill them, understand?”

“Of course, she’s our future luna.”

“Spread the word,” I say and wet the towel again.

He leaves the room, and I am alone with my beautiful mate. Even at this stage, she’s gorgeous, despite all the bruises over her face. I start cleaning the wound at her stomach, where the silver dagger had previously been sitting in. Gina has sewn up the injury, and the blade had obviously not been as deep as they first thought. Nevertheless, it will take a long time before it’ll heal completely if it ever will. Suddenly she flies out of bed, screaming. Her bloodshot eyes look at me before she gives me an uppercut I’m not prepared for at all. My beta, Gina, and several nurses hurry into the room. My mate sits in a corner, and her whole body is shaking. When the nurses get too close, she growls at them soundly.

“Everybody, get out of here!” Gina screams at us.

We listen to her words and leave the room. Through the doorway, I can see how my mate allows Gina to approach her when she whispers with her. I can see how she helps my mate up off the floor and leads her towards the bed. Once she lies in bed, Gina is quick as lightning to put a syringe in her arm. My mate looks terrified before her eyes fall shut again, and her head lands on the pillow.

“You can come in now; I know you want to,” Gina says to me.

“What’s wrong with her?” I ask carefully, and she smiles gently at me.

“There is both good and bad news; which do you prefer to hear first?”

“The good.”

“The happy news is that she has obviously woken up despite all the odds and that she won’t slip into the same deep coma again.”

“And the bad news?” I ask, and now she’s not smiling anymore.

“The bad news is that she doesn’t even have peace when she’s in a coma or is anesthetized. So we have to keep her sedated until her injuries have healed; otherwise, there is a risk that her body will shut down because of the panic she gets, which we just got to see and experience.”

“What if we don’t sedate her, and she wakes up like this again. Maybe I can help her, if only...”

“No. If this girl wakes up with this panic again that she just had, she will die.”

Her words are like a blow to the jaw. It hurts me to know that my mate can’t even find peace when she’s sleeping. Then, finally, Gina leaves me alone with my mate. I caress her cheek and start talking to her.

“Hey there, sleeping beauty. My name is Miliano, and I’m your mate. Or yes, I don’t know if I’m yours, but at least you’re mine. I really want you to wake up so I can talk to you. I want to know your name, your favorite flower; I want to know everything about you! I’ve been looking for you for so long... Please don’t leave me!” the last part I cry out. My whole body shakes with tears, and I can hear my wolf whimper.

She has to wake up, he says.

Yes, we can’t lose her; we need her to survive.

I wonder what her wolf looks like.

Can’t you feel her?

Sadly no, I can hear something deep inside her, however. Like she’s there but can’t get out.

Maybe she hasn’t shifted yet.

Yeah, probably, and she never will if she doesn’t wake up.

But the doctor said that she’d wake up.

Yes, but she never said anything about which changes this whole experience could have made.

That makes it crawl in my skin. What if the changes in our mate make her reject us...?