My Shattered Soul

Chapter 6

Unknown, TN; August Unknown, 2017, Early Morning

They were all seated in a brightly lit hospital room.

She had her third bottle of synthetic wrapped tightly in between her hands.

Comet was laid out on the bed between the windows, a splint around their left leg; they'd had to put some pins in it; another splint across their broken nose, and a thin bandage around their head with gauze over the small cut. The steady beeping of their heart rate monitor filled the silence.

Emma was beside her. She had a bandage wrapped tightly around her knee and had been given a temporary wheelchair. The EMT had been right about it being a meniscal tear in the cartilage in her knee, they'd done an MRI to be sure.

Sophie was standing by the door with a bandage over zir nose, talking in hushed voices with the doctor who had helped treat Comet. He was a tall athletic man with a contrast of hard and gentle features, clear reddish-brown skin, sharp gray eyes, and tight bouncy red curls.

And then Alex looked over at Charles.

He was sitting in the chair directly beside Comet's bed and hadn't spoken a word since they'd gotten to the hospital. He simply sat there, staring sorrowfully down at Comet, one hand wrapped tightly around the pale man's arm.

"Charles..." Alex started to ask, sitting up straight in her seat. "Can I ask you something?"

He looked up at her, his gaze full of concern. "Of course," he answered, his voice a little hollow. "What is it?"

"I...I know I'm not really supposed to ask...but..." Alex started.

Charles sighed, deflating. "Comet hasn't told you anything about my...past, have they?" he asked.

"They...um, mentioned you were in a gang," Alex answered.

He chuckled for a moment before taking a deep breath. "I lost my whole pack before Comet and I met." he sighed.

"Oh my god." Alex gasped.

"My mother died in a fire when I was a child, my father died in an ICU after a car accident." Charles started to explain. "That was back in the nineteen-fifties, then my friend Jo was mauled by a dog." he coughed, his cool green eyes shining with unshed tears. "My half-brother vanished off the face of the fucking planet, my uncle died in a coma," he choked on his next words. "and my brother was literally stabbed in the back by a friend."

"By the gods," Emma gasped.

Alex looked over at her, having forgotten she was in the room with them.

"After that, I joined a street gang and got into...a lot of trouble. Comet was the agent that the Foundation sent to recruit me. We didn't get along at first, I was angry at the world and didn't want some pretty government boy trying to force me to deal with that anger. Eventually, he stopped trying to make me deal with anger and settled for me ignoring it, and we managed to become friends, and I joined the Foundation. But I won't let the bond take, I've been consciously suppressing it."

"But why withhold?" Emma asked. "That's not fair to Comet."

"I know...but the last time I lost a bonded pack member...I became a monster." he sighed. "I can't...I don't want to know what I could become if I had to lose someone else." he croaked, casting his eyes to the ground.

"You're an idiot."

"Thank fuck!" Charles growled, throwing his arms around Comet's neck once they were able to sit up in the bed.