Crescent

Chapter 20

Chapter 20

I squint my eyes against the blinding light from the window beside what looks like a hospital bed. My body aches and I groan. Unsure of how I got here, I look around the room in an attempt to find any kind of clue. It comes in the form of someone asleep, slumped uncomfortably in the slightly oversized chair in the corner.

My throat scratches as I try to speak, so I have to clear it before trying again. "Tom?"

The body jerks awake and up, revealing the boy I used to laugh with. He looks different, though, with bags under his usually bright blue eyes - now duller - and wrinkles all along his clothing. Part of me acknowledges the hollowness of his cheeks, but another part insists he has to have been taking better care of himself than that. Tom takes a hesitant step in my direction with a hand outstretched as if asking for permission. "Mouse?"

I don't kid myself anymore. I remember clearly why and how I came to be here. The depression, the pills, the vomit on the floor, Blake, Alexander. A sob erupts from my tired and worn body. It explodes so violently that the sound coming from my chest couldn't be classified as human. It's guttural, raw, and scrapes my throat upon is departure. The tears seemingly arrive from nowhere and everywhere as they cascade downward.

It's too much.

Tom rushes toward me, into my arms that rise to welcome the person I hope I can still call a friend. Somehow, he maneuvers us both onto the bed so that I am wrapped around him as he comforts me in the tightest embrace. "Sh, Riley. It's okay. You're okay." His words travel to my ears through the awful wailing my mouth has began to make.

My body starts to tremble all over as my sobs quiet, and Tom only holds me closer. "How? How is anything okay? What have I done?" My voice is just a whisper, broken. Like me.

He starts to sway our bodies side to side. "It is okay. I promise. We're all here for you, and we all agree that this is partly our fault. We should have been more upfront about everything. We should have checked in more whether you wanted us to or not. We failed you. I failed you." Tom swivels me around to face him and he grasps my wet cheeks gently. His eyes hold tears of their own. "I should have answered the questions you didn't even know you had. It's my fault and I will do anything to help you, now, if you will let me."

I sniff, which does nothing to help the snot already running out of my nose and on my face. Tom takes his long sleeve in one hand and swipes it across the skin above my lips and carefully wipes away the mixture of mucous and tears. "Eww," I groan with an embarrassed and teary laugh.

He lets out a laugh that mirrors my own as I feel our bond reconnect. It seems stronger, more vibrant, and tangible. I lock eyes with him as something inside of me stirs, just absorbing and feeling.

"Tom?"

I watch as his wonderful blue eyes, now red from crying, widen and he stares at me in shock before holding both of my cheeks again. Tom smiles with his pearly whites as he lets out a disbelieving laugh. "Riley." His eyes are filled with admiration and pride, for me, but his mouth doesn't move as I hear the words.

They're spoken within my mind, which I realize is how I questioned him just moments ago when that strange feeling washed over me. "What is this?" The sensation swirls around somewhere between my mind and my heart, or maybe neither, or both. I can't tell what this foreign sense is or what is causing it, and my chest flutters in fear and excitement.

"It's you," Tom speaks into my mind. "Actually, it's your soul. Your wolf. It's made a decision to create a special connection with me. She's claimed me as her beta and I am at your service for life."