The Mark of a Beta

thirty- nine

If you're reading this, make sure to read chapter 38 before this. This is the second post of the day, so make sure to read that first!!

~

My alarm clock keeps going off.

It's fucking annoying, and all I want to do is sleep. I want to curl up in my bed in the lemon room and sleep in. Larry doesn't need to get to school that early, anyways.

However, the beeping continues steadily, and I don't recognize the noise in my half-asleep state. I just assume that it's Larry's alarm going off, knowing that mine is a different song every week. Last week it was the Avengers theme song, and let me just say that waking up like a superhero every morning was fucking awesome.

"Shut the fuck up," I mumble, more to myself than anyone else. I know that Larry can't hear me from his room, but my throat is dry and in pain, so I physically can't speak much louder than a raspy whisper.

Now that I think about it, my entire body is in pain. It's an achy pain, like I just competed in a triathlon and all of my muscles are sore beyond belief. Except, instead of having just sore muscles, all of my body aches. From the top of my head to the tips of my toes, the achy soreness is extremely uncomfortable.

"Cooper?"

That voice- my mate's voice- calls to me and the attack immediately comes back to me. Me trying to find cell service to call Axel. Brenden's forearm applying pressure to my throat. Our aggressive conversation. And then...

Holy shit, Brenden marked me.

I raise my hand to the juncture between my neck and shoulder and wince at the movement. I feel gauze right where the most intense pain is, realizing that the wound is wrapped.

"Don't touch that."

My mate's commanding yet compelling voice once again reaches out to me and I immediately listen to him. Maybe it's because I'm so tired, or maybe it's because I'm in so much pain, but I follow his order. I don't even sass him.

Honestly, I'm just happy to hear his voice.

I open my eyes, and the lights are bright and the walls are an ugly shade of white that looks more like an actor's overly-whitened teeth. I can't make out any more details than that because I don't have my glasses.

I squint my eyes, and right when my eyes adjust to the light, I feel something drop into my lap. I look down and see the hazy outline of what appear to be my glasses. I wince as I reach for them, but I manage to put them on, and then I see Axel's tired form as well as a doctor that I didn't see before.

"Good evening, Mr. Bradenton," the doctor says to me. "I'm so happy to see you awake. It was touch and go for a little while, but it seems you're just as strong as your mate here." The doctor refers to Axel, and I scrunch my eyebrows in confusion.

Even that action pains me.

"My name is John and you're at the Dark Wood pack infirmary. Can you tell me your first name?"

I'm confused why I'm asked such a basic question. I take fucking AP classes and I want to work as a pack doctor myself, so the questions is easy enough.

"Uh, Cooper. And the square root of pi is 1.77245385091-"

"He's fine," Axel grumbles, more to himself than to Dr. John, who only laughs in response.

"Alright, just making sure your memory is intact and your higher brain functions are working properly," the Doctor says, checking something off on his clipboard. "There are a few more tests that I would like to perform now that you're up, and then I would like to check out the wound on your neck."