Connell

Chapter Twenty Six

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I move away from them, slowly crawling and then inching myself back until I'm sitting up against a tree. It's rough against my bare back, yet I try to relax and lean all of my weight against its calloused wood.

My head falls back without my permission, and it makes my gaze stray up to the canopy of the trees, sunlight peaking through the pines. That's when I decide to let my eyes rest. They feel too heavy for me to keep open anymore.

I listen to the two of them speaking, Kota's words still muffled by Connell's embrace.

"I won't ever do it again," I hear him cry.

Connell is quiet, and I can hear him try to sit up with a grunt, Kota still in his hold.

"I promise I won't," Kota sobs.

I listen to him cry against Connell's chest, and it breaks me. In a way, I feel like doing exactly the same; to have his embrace ease me. Every part of me aches, feels so heavy. My lip quivers at how scary the feeling is. I feel my face scrunch up from the pain, feeling the blood draining from from my face.

"I just wanted to be like you. I didn't mean to do it," Kota cries. "I—I didn't mean to hurt you."

My wolf is absent. But I know it's not her fault. I don't blame her for hiding this time.

"You didn't hurt me, pup," Connell says gently.

I hear him move Kota, as if to fully look at him.

"But I'm not happy with you."

This makes Kota cry harder. "I know, I'm sorry. I am. I—I don't want to see you like that again."

"I know. And you shouldn't have to."

Kota's words start to be hard to hear through the tears. It's like there's a deep ringing in my ears. "There was so much—blood," he hiccups. "And it was so—so scary."

I try to open my eyes to see, but the pain pierces through my skull. I imagine Connell rocking Kota back and forth.

"It's all over now. It's okay, Kota."

They are both quiet for a small moment, and it makes the pounding in my ears so much louder, more real. I try to take deep breaths, but it gets caught. Tears escape my closed eyelids.

"It hurt me. It hurt you. It—," Kota tries to breathe, but struggles to control himself. I hear Connell soothe him. "I thought you were dead."

It truly does become silent after that. I hear no movement except from Kota's harsh intakes of air, and I can imagine his little body is shaking.

Kota whimpers and hiccups once more. "But ma made it better," he says quietly. "Ma made it go away. She saved us. She always does."

I don't hear anything after that, and I start to think it's my hearing giving out, creating a fuzziness that completely drowns out the world. I feel a pressure in my head, and it makes my nose run.

I feel clammy, almost slippery in a way. It's a weird sensation. I try to move my fingertips together to feel the perspiration roll off of them, to focus on anything but the pain. The dried blood becomes wet on my hands yet again.

"Althea?"

It feels like a shock goes through my entire body when he touches me. My eyes open, and he's there, kneeling in sight. It's as if he was never hurt to begin with.

I relax a little bit at that, but his worried expression doesn't fade. He cups my face in his hands, gently, but with meaning.

Silence passes between us. I take in his face; dirty, but healed. He still has blood caked on his body, in his hair, face and ears.