Those In The Forest

Part 74: Iris

I was startled awake by freezing cold water being thrown at my naked body.

          Gasping awake, I panicked, looking for my mates. Ivy, Rose, and Hazel were sitting by my side, gasping for air, looking around just as panicked as me. Our Elders and Alphas were standing above us, snarling and glaring, with empty buckets in their hands.

          We were back at the cabin. Frowning, I stood up, ready to run in. "Reagan!" I rushed to the front door, but Avah stopped me.

          "No!" she growled at me. "You fucking idiots! What is wrong with you all? You go to save her just to fucking kill yourselves?! Really?!" avah continued to growl. Her chest was heaving with anger.

I ignored her, as did my mates, and we tried to go into the cabin. We could smell her. She smelled like herself again.

          Avah and Lennox rushed over and pushed us back.

          "She said no," Karina said lowly. We turned back to her. "Reagan is fine. She's asleep. She's back in her human form." Karina's top lip lifted. "She turned back human right after you four nearly killed yourself," she said bitterly.

          I shrugged. "It worked," I argued.

          "Now let us see her," Ivy huffed. It was dumb, yes, but neither of you came up with any ideas. We knew it would spook her enough to shock her out of her carnal desire to kill Celia. We did what we had to to save her and our Elder," Ivy argued.

          "Bryce is with her now." Lennox started. "We had to drag you five back. All while watching for Gya and Alan," she pinches the bridge of her nose. "Being young and in love doesn't mean you should act stupidly. You couldn't have ruined us. Ruined yourselves."

          They were worried about us, and I know that, but I didn't have the heart to care.

          "She wasn't," Rose started. "She wasn't like us... She was magnificent."

          "How can that be?" Hazel asked in awe.

          Our Elders and Alphas clenched their jaws. "The witch did say Reagan was special. I'm sure she'll have more answers for us. But for now... for now, we need to keep an eye on her." Celia's face fell. She was hurting. "She was put through a lot with them; she'll need some time to recover. Her shift... it was taxing, both mentally and physically." 

          "Please... let us see her," I begged.

          It was all I wanted. Even if I had to sit outside the bedroom door to look at her. I just needed to see that she was actually alive and breathing.

          "No." Karina snarled. "Think of it as punishment for almost killing yourselves." she huffed. "I forget that you all are still young; you don't know any better. I was not the Elder I should have been in this whole thing, and it has almost cost me my pack. I would be nothing without you all. I see you as my own pups. I would never be the same if you had died. I take full responsibility for all of this, but... I must also act like I should have."

          "You would deny us our mate as punishment?!" Hazel snarled. "How... why is that even an option!?"

          "She needs time." Lennox tried to speak softly, but I could tell she was agitated. "You will be permitted to see her soon. Now, let her rest. Bryce and us have it handled."

          I scoffed. "What are we to do until we are 'permitted' to see our mate?"

          Celia gestured her head to our bodies. "Firstly, you'll bathe. Bryce washed Reagan up a little bit ago. You five will go to the bathhouse and wash up the dried blood between your chest."

         Instinctively, I looked down, and she was right. There was a lot of dried-up blood.

          Everything in my body wanted to fight back, argue, and rush to the cabin to check on Reagan, but a very small, extremely small part of me knew they were right. Reagan needed time, and time was what we were going to give her.

          Growling to myself, I pushed past my elders. "Fine," I barked, and my mates followed behind me. 

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"Do you think she will hate us?" Ivy asked as she approached me with a soapy cloth ready to wash me.

          I stood there for a minute in thought. "I don't think it's in her to hate us." I started. "However, I think she will be forever hesitant around us."

          I sighed when Ivy ran the warm, soapy cloth over my back.

          "Things will never be the same with her. We have broken so many vows of trust with her." Rose's bottom lip bobbled. "She was hurting and alone. We promised her her life would never come to that again, and we failed her." 

          Hazel walked behind her, wrapping her arms around Rose's waist. She gently kissed her shoulder.

          "Then we will spend the rest of our lives making it right again," Hazel spoke softly. "Her life... is longer now."

          Closing my eyes, tears threatened to pour down my face. "Bryce... Bryce is still human. Reagan loves her. She will have to watch her best friend grow old and die," I said, almost angrily. This was not the life for her. Our Elders and Alphas were right. We should have stayed away."

          "She would have been going about this world all alone, with no family. All she would have had was Bryce," Ivy argued.

          "That could have been enough for her. She is extremely strong; she would have found a way, and we took that from her. We keep doing that to her, taking away any voice she has. It's demeaning!" I bit out.

          The effects of the past few hours weighing in on me.

          "Is that not what we are doing now with this conversation." Rose offered. Hazel tightened her grip around her. "Even though I am coming up with dozens of negative things about how she will react when she wakes up, I know none of them could happen because we don't really know what she will do. She is unpredictable..." Rose smiled. "That is one of the many reasons we love her. So we wait. We wait for her to make these judgments about us. Even if it hurts us because that's the least we could do."

          Rose was right. We needed to be patient and see what happens.

          Relaxing my body, I listened out for Reagan's heartbeat. It was strong and steady. I could hear Bryce whispering to her; she was crying.

          "What do we do about Bryce?" Hazel asked. "We have to take her into account, too."

          Ivy rinsed my body off before speaking. "We will let Reagan and the Elders and Alphas make that decision. Byrce knows about us, but she is Reagan's best friend. She will want a say in this, and that's what she will give her. And we will back her up without Elders and Alphas if we have to."

          I let out a bitter laugh. "It's Shameful that it took us this long, and it took this tragic event for her to see us as more than our mate. She is her own person, and we failed to show her we saw that."

          "We will do better by her side. That is all we can do now," Hazel said, pulling Rose with her as she walked toward Ivy and me.

          Rose lifted my hand from the water and brought it to her lips. "This was also taxing on us. We must take care of ourselves, too. Beating ourselves up will also only hurt Reagan." she set my hand down and placed her hand on my face, caressing my cheek. I instinctively feel into her tender touch.

          "We will do better by her," I promised quietly to myself and my mates.