The Tribrid

Bored Games

       
        Mike's POV
        I wake up to the sound of someone moving around in my room. I open my eyes to see the Luna at the desk. Her back is to me. I look around the room and everything is the same as when I went to sleep. I forgot about my wounds and try to move.
        "Ouch." I say. The woman turns around.
        "Finally. I thought you would sleep forever. Let me change your bandages." She says as she moves to my side of the bed. She sits down and peels the bandages away from my skin. I suck in air through my teeth but don't move. She looks over my wounds.
        "How is your wolf? Strong?" She asks.
        "Stronger than me." Her eyes flick to me and back to my wound.
        "Your wounds are healing nicely. They are still pretty raw, but by tomorrow I doubt you will even feel them. Hmm."
        She pauses mid sentence. She looks confused.
        "What?" I say bluntly.
        "You're healing very fast. You must have a pretty strong wolf. Are you.. or rather were you an Alpha?" She asks.
        "Not officially." I say, which is true.
        "What do you mean, not officially?" She asks as she applies clean bandages.
        "My father was the Alpha and my brother was the next Alpha in line, until he went missing. Then I was supposed to take up the Alpha position. But some things happened.. and well now I am here."
        "Mhm. You know, if you plan to stay here, we're going to want the whole story. I mean it's not normal for a future Alpha to become a rogue. But I can respect your process." She lifts my arm gently.
        I wonder whether I can trust her or not.. It would feel good to get some things off my chest.
        "I.. made a mistake. I made a rash decision out of jealously and it spiraled out of control and destroyed my whole life." I say.
        "Well, at least you can admit your mistakes. My son Rain couldn't admit a mistake if he was caught red handed." She laughs.
      "Jealousy is a tricky mistress. She can blind you to the truth and disguise herself as love. Trick, tricky." She gestures for me to roll over. I roll to my side and she takes the bandage off of my back.
        "You seem like a troubled young man."
        "How do you mean?" I say.
        "You have terrible dreams. You fight them in your sleep." She says.
        I take a deep breath remembering what I dreamt last night. "My parents. They.. were killed in front of me." I blurt out. Her hands stop working.
        "Oh my.. The packs certainly have gotten crueler."
        "There is a war going on. They were killed by witches." I say.
        "I am so sorry. You are so young to have experienced such a tragedy." She says and goes back to bandaging me.
        "Thank you." I say. We are quiet after that, she finishes bandaging my back and my side.
    "I brought you some clothes for you to change into." She says and hands me a stack.
    "Thank you."
        "I will go get you some breakfast, and don't worry, it won't be cold soup." She says. I roll back over as she cleans up. I lay back and look over the clothes she gave me. I try to put on the underwear and the shorts. My wounds hurt, but not as much as they did yesterday. The Luna leaves the room. A little while later the girl from the day before, Rue I think was her name, comes back with a tray in her hands. She brings it over to me and places the tray in her lap.
        "Thirsty?" She asks. She looks to be around seventeen or eighteen, it's hard to really tell. I nod my head and she picks up the glass with a straw. I take it with my good hand and lean up a bit. I groan a little from the pain.
        "Here." She gently takes the glass from me. She holds it for me and I turn my head. I take a few sips, it still tastes a bit earthy but the flavor is kind of growing on me.
        "Thanks." I say when I'm done. I look at the plate and see she has a sandwich. I guess she notices my look and offers me to take a bite of the sandwich. I take a bite and chew. I notice she is really staring at me. I clear my throat. She shakes her head.
        "I'm sorry, we just don't have very many newcomers. I know everyone is going to ask me questions about you. So I'm trying to memorize your face." She smiles at me like what she just said was completely normal.
        "How many people live here?" I ask. She looks like she's thinking and mindlessly holds out the sandwich for me to take a bite.
        "I would say like a hundred.. maybe less." She says. I take a bite.
        "I'm sorry, my name is Rue." She smiles.
        "I'm Mike." I reply. Danny walks in to the room.
        "Ah Rue, nursing our visitor back to health?" She smiles and nods.
        "Why don't you go help Gabby in the nursery so I can have a word with Mike here." He says.
        "Sure, but he's not finished with his sandwich." She says.
        "I'll make sure he eats." He says. I try to sit up while Rue leaves the room. Danny takes a seat.
        "So Mike. My Luna tells me you were training to become Alpha." He starts.
        "Yes sir I was." I say. He hands me the other half of my sandwich. I take it with my good hand.
        "Tomorrow I want to take you around the pack, if you're up to it." He says.
        "They say I should be almost healed by tomorrow." I say.
        "Then it's settled. Tomorrow. Rest up. And eat that sandwich. I'm not trying to get yelled at." He gives me a look. I smile and take a bite of my sandwich.
        "Good man." He says and leaves the room. Everyone here has been really nice to me. I'm still not sure if I can really trust them yet though.
        I finish my sandwich quickly, and realize I'm basically bedridden. I'm not tired at all, so what the heck am I going to do for the rest of the day. Suddenly Rue comes back in the room.
        "Good, I'm glad you ate, I can never trust dad to do that stuff." She picks up the tray and stops and looks at me.
        "Oh you must be bored out of your mind. What do you like to do?" She asks. I have no idea how to answer that so I just stare at her.
        "You're one of those 'I work out', guys aren't you. Wait here I'll be right back."
        "I'll just be here." I say. She rushes out of the room. After a short bit of time she comes backs with boxes of stuff. She puts them down on the desk and turns to me.
        "Ok, so are you a puzzle kinda of guy or a strategy kinda guy?" She asks, her eyes are bright and with a hint of excitement.
        "Umm, no puzzles." I say. She smiles big.
        "Perfect, I didn't even bring in puzzles." She turns around and someone brings in a folding table into the room. The person unfolds the table.
        "Mike, this is Gabby my best friend." Rue says. The girl has jet black hair and brown eyes. She smiles at me.
        "Nice to meet you." I say.
        "Is it true you were going to be an Alpha?"
        "Gabby!" Rue says sharply.
        "Sorry." she replies quickly.
        "Let's set up the game. We are going to play Catan. It's fairly simple to learn. It's a good starter game." Rue says. They set up the game and then they help me sit up. They prop me up with some blankets and pillows. Rue and Gabby explain the rules of the game to me and we begin playing.
        We spent the next few hours playing games, and to my surprise I'm actually really enjoying myself. I never really played board games as an adult, I thought they were like a 'kids' thing. But I don't think a kid would be able to handle Catan. I'm still a little overwhelmed by it to be honest. Rue and Gabby have won every game except the 2nd one which I won by a miracle. They stopped going easy on me after that.
          The Luna comes in after we had just finished a round. Gabby won.
        "So this is where you two have gone." She says to the girls.
        "He was completely bored. What I was just suppose to do? Let him die of boredom?" She says dramatically. The Luna giggles.
        "Very well. Just be done by dinner. And don't let Jack see you." She says.
        "Thanks mom." Rue says. The Luna leaves, but ends up coming back in with snacks and drinks just a few minutes later. After our snack break, Rue leaves and comes back in with a game called Scythe. It's a lot more complicated than Catan was.
        Gabby and Rue take turns trying to explain the game to me. After about 7 minutes of straight explanation we decide to just play a practice round so I can get the hang of it. I stumble my way through the first round. After about 45 minutes Rue won.
        "How'd you like it? You wanna play again?" Rue asks me.
        "To be honest I'd rather play Catan again." I answer.
        Rue gasps. It startled me a little bit. Did I say something wrong? Did I hurt her feelings? Oh no.
        "So you liked it?" Rue says with a mischievous grin. I let out a sigh of relief.
        "Yes I did." I admit with a chuckle. Rue and Gabby laugh and then they set up Catan again. We play a few more rounds.
        It was nice to let loose and have some fun. I didn't think about my mom or my dad, or Emily, or Liam even once. Overall it was a really good day.