I sat next to Percy in his bed. He was sitting up now and leaning against my shoulder watching the small TV that hung on the opposite wall. I reach over to the tray on Percy's to grab the remote to mute the TV.
"Are we going to talk?" I turn myself to him and he takes a deep breath.
"What do you want to know?" He takes a moment to brush his hair out of his face.
"The truth, I'm family Percy. You can tell me anything.". I held his hand.
"I…" he takes Shaky breath, "everything hurts, and I tried to be good and do as I was told but I…" he paused and used his arm to wipe the tears. "I just wanted to be numb and not feel anything. It was supposed to be a date and he…he started touching and I was into it at first."
He pressed the back of his hand to his mouth to stop the hiccups but failed horribly. "I even asked him to keep going!" He began to sob uncontrollably.
Out of instinct, I grabbed his hands and he began to take deep breaths and nodded to me still sobbing.
"He wanted to go all the way and I w-was nervous but he just kept saying that "it was fine" and that "I was fine". I-it hurt so bad Lance...I was in so much pain and I felt like I couldn't breathe. Once he... finished, I got out as fast as I could and I changed…" He looked up at me with these doe eyes, hands shaking like a leaf.
"Changed? Like without a full moon?" I rub his arms to try and calm him as he gives a sad nod. " You never, and I mean NEVER, have to go through that again. Do you understand, I'll protect not only you but our family and vice versa. You are everything to me and our family. You're the glue that keeps us together. Never feel like you are alone in this world. I don't view you differently in any way, you are so strong to be able to go on like this."
I pulled his body to me and he sobbed in my arms for a while. I didn't mind, it wasn't till I realized he fell asleep again that I moved.
Before I left, I peeked at his leg. He was healed, what I had said might have given him the will to not punish himself anymore...
I didn't stay for long, I had bigger things to handle. I walked out and quickly made my way to Elliot's room.
As soon as I walked out one of the other nurses pointed to the room three doors down. I stomp my way to the door and don't bother to knock. Elliot shot from his bed and quickly scrambled away as I marched my way to him
"King! Mercy, please mercy." He holds his hands up looking down at my feet in submission.
"Why should I? Where was your mercy that night? Or today even?" I grabbed him by the shoulder to lift him. "Why'd you do it"
"I didn't know, I was in a rut. Please, tell him I'm sorry. I didn't want to hurt him, please my king" he practically sobbing on me, snot running down his nose. He reminded me of how Percy used to cry as a kid, whaling and throwing himself about, Tony was the only person in the world that could calm him down.
I let go and he fell to his knees, he grabbed onto my leg In Desperation.
"Disgusting." I shake him off my leg and grab him by the back of his neck. "You got one shot Elliot, you fuck up and you won't have to worry about your rank anymore. When I say jump you say "how high" you got it? One toe outta line, one bitter glance and I'll cut you down like cedar."
"Thank you, thank you. I'll do whatever you want, please my king." He reaches his hands out but I smack them away.
"First, stop crying. Gross, ew. Second, I'll help but it doesn't mean Percy will let you in, I'll do as much as I can."
Elliot shakes his head yes and begins to rub his eyes, breathing harsh and heavy. The sound of my phone going off in my pocket was a great distraction from the mess on the floor. I read the text message in complete confidence that Marylin might be asking me on a date.
I walk out of the room still looking down at my phone as Wayne exits Percy's door.
"Kid is sound asleep…. What are you looking at?" He reaches to snatch my phone "Hey Lance, I'll be off work at 9. Wanna hang? From Marilyn! And you even put a heart next to her name, how adorable!" He smirks
"Shut up, it's probably not as serious as I think it is." I rub the back of my neck and wave goodbye to the nurse.
"It's a date. But not just any date, and night date. You know what that means" he wiggles his eyebrows and leans closer to me. "When's your next rut again?"
"Alright, alright let's not do that please. She's not...I...I don't wanna think about ruts right now." I walk faster, leaving Wayne behind.
After school ended, I went home and showered, stole Wayne's keys and left for Poppy's. I had been sitting in the car for 15 mins kinda watching her do her thing.
I had gotten out of the car and made sure I looked good enough to walk in. I wore my black jeans, an undershirt and my leather jacket. Tony had basically baptized me in his cologne which smelled horrible. I walked into the diner silently praying she wouldn't get too close to me.
"Hey!" Marylin practically jumps in my arms and pulls me to a booth and sits me down. "Um...you smell good, hey! Order the loaded Pop fries, please. I just gotta finish this table." She runs off barely giving me time to say hello. I did as I was told and ordered two baskets of fries for us. I see her run around some more before she finally sits down.
"God I'm hungry. How was your day?" She unravels the fork and begins to stab into her fries.
"It was okay I guess…." I stop at mid-sentence as I watch her fill her face with fries. "...you have a big...um appetite."
She stops mid-bite and blushes. "Is that a bad thing?" She sinks into herself and leans back into the booth.
"NO! of course not! A girl gotta eat!" I smile and begin to dig into my basket, she laughs and continues to eat again. The whole time we laughed and asked each other random stupid questions. She had no fear when it came to questions about the type of girl I was Into.
"Are you an ass guy or a Boob guy…or are you into thighs?" She leaned forward and right before I was about to answer I felt eyes burning on me.
"He's a Boob guy." I turned back to see Hazel Foster, a high ranked omega. The absolute worst person in existence...who happens to be my cousin. "Gwen could vouch for that."
"Gwen?" Marylin looks at me in confusion.
Hazel and I are the same age, she was short but toned. She had the habit of rolling Rs for words that didn't have to be rolled. Her eyebrows were sharp and had slits, eyes were a terrorizing Amber that could throw knives at you. She had long thick brown hair that was always in a high ponytail. Her white tank top was tucked into her high waisted black jeans while her combat boots tapped in impatience. Her leather jacket was tied around her waist and her nails were freshly done.
"Hola primo. You've been hiding from me or some shit?" She flipped her hair and looked at her nails chewing harshly on her gum. "Whateva, who's this? Your girlfriend? Cute I guess."
I quickly looked at Marylin who was smiling. " Hi, it's nice to meet you."
"Pleasure is all mine." Hazel holds at her hands but Marylin makes no attempt to reach out.
"I know it is." Marylin looks at her dead in the eyes and smiles again. Hazel's face drops to disgust and looks at me with "you gonna let her talk to me like that face?". I smiled at her too and reached for Marilyn's hand.
"Hazel? What's taking you so long?"
Three girls walk up behind Hazel. "My lady, I didn't realize she came here to talk to you."
"She didn't, apparently she's Sir Lancelot's cousin. No need to worry Prudence." Marylin speaks to the girls behind Hazel
I leaned to see Prudence Nurse, Lilith and Valerie Parker. All three are high ranked witches. Prudence had Vitiligo and wore a tight-fitting Black dress. Lilith and Valerie were white twins for one wore pastel colors and the other one wore black and that was their only identifier, often when they wore the uniform you couldn't tell the difference between the two.
"Whateva, I'm outta here." Hazel walked away followed by Lilith and Valerie.
"I'm sorry again My lady, she is often not like this." Prudence does a small curtsy and walks away. "Hazel is a different breed. She doesn't follow rules. She kinda defies a wolf nature. Her pack is whoever she chooses...and I'm not in that." I rub my thumb on her hand and she looks at me finally after watching Hazel leave the diner and smile.
"Who's Gwen?" She continues to watch Hazel with bitterness in her eyes.
"She's someone... I once loved a long time ago." I said looking down trying to avoid her gaze
"Well, what happened to her?" Marilyn asked as she leaned forward on the edge of her seat
"She died." I said looking dead into her eyes with complete solemn seriousness
"I'm so sorry hun, how did she pass?" Marilyn said not breaking eye contact.
"To put it lightly...she was killed but I'd rather not go into further detail for personal reasons if that's okay with you?" I said then clearing my throat so I didn't start to tear up
"It's fine. Soooooo, what are you wearing to the ball?" She spoke
"I'm sorry what?